Author: RI Red

Dunno. What do you want to know? Lawyer, shooter, boater, aviator, etc.

So I went back to the range.

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In the rain. The rifle performed flawlessly. The three shots in yellow were Hornady 140 AMax, followed by the three in blue, which were Sierra Game King 140s. Disregard all the .22 holes – it was raining and the target was down there.

I talked about the issue last night on Ace, with the following as maybes: tight chamber, need a small-base die, hot chamber. But I’ll go with this one: Socks too tight, and the Range was angry that day, my friend.

Still thinking . . .

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This is the case that jammed. It sat in a hot chamber, enough to get scorched. But the bottom of the shoulder is bright, meaning (I think) that it was hard up against the end of the chamber.
I compared it to a just-sized case:

Bad angle – it looks bigger – it ain’t. Both pop in and out of the go-no go headspace/length tool (whatever its name is). Another view shows manual extraction scrapes:

No conclusions yet. Going to rain all day. I guess I’ll get wet at the range.

KatsNotNapping

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Me. *Heads to bathroom* 5 seconds later, Cat 1 pushes door open.

Cat 1: hey! where you go?

Me: Nowhere. I’m right here.

Cat 1: got food?

Me: No.

Cat 1: got scritches?

Me: Yup, c’mon over.

Cat 1: i bat you with tail.

Me: I love you too, Max.

Cat 2: hey! what going on? Got food?

Me: No. Scritches, Thor.

Cat 2: ok. i bat you with tail.

Cat 1: i sniff you butt, Thor.

Cat 2: no way, Zach.

Cats 1 and 2 depart rapidly.

Me. Flush. Go downstairs.

Cats 1 and 2: hey! where been? gots food?

Me: No. Scritches.

Cats 1 and 2: oh, bummer. later?

Me: Yes, later.

Cat 1: i sniff you butt, Thor!

Cat 2: no way, Zach! *races off*

Cat 3: boyz . . . i watch from on high.

Reloading Day

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Yes, I got back to the bench and worked up 3 different .308 Winchester loads – Hornady 168 A-Max, Sierra 165 Game King, and Hornady 178 BTHP Match. Should hold me over while I order some more bullets.

I took a look at the .308 round that FTE’d.

It did not finish going into battery and I had to apply pressure to seat it. Then, because the trigger did not cock, it would not fire. At home, I had to “tap” the charging handle backward to unseat the round.
You can see that the middle of the case is scorched, but that the bullet and powder were fine. I scoped the bore (and was amazed how clean it still was) and found no obstructions or anything out of place.

I pulled the bolt carrier group and noticed that the bolt rotated a bit slowly, so cleaned everything. After reassembly, I locked a magazine and loaded a round, then extracted it easily. The second round needed a bit of effort, as did the third. I’m not in the habit of extracting unfired rounds much, so I’m just not sure if there is an issue.

Only way to check – back to the range.

Out of Pocket

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But I did spend several hours at the Long Range yesterday. Lots of buds there, so I sent the drone down range for shits and giggles. Then, when they left, I shot for a couple of hours. The 6.5 rang steel at 525 on the second shot, but I was not accurate out further. Problem is that the rifle bounces and I lose sight of the target for a second, thereby missing the splash.

I shot the .308, which is a heavier platform, and I can get back on target faster. First hits at 1000, and close misses at 1100. Homing in, then an FTE just as I got the windage down. The FTE needed some banging on the T handle to get out. It looked bulged in the middle. I’ll report tomorrow.

But, I definitely have the AR 10 out past 1 K yards. Need to reload a bunch tomorrow.

April Showers Bring . . .

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Aspirin Shoots! In the rain! 39 degrees! North wind 13 gusting 29! But ya do what ya gotta do.

If you squint real hard, you can just barely see the Know Your Limits steel at 150, just to the right of the yellowish 200 yard target board.

Only 4 brave shooters today, but it does help the odds.

Of taking the W.

And 26 MOA rings steel at 200.
But it is a little embarrassing. Two years ago I took a first with 32 out of 40. Today, a 23. I’ll still take the win and the .50 BMG brass first prize.

Problem resolved . . .

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It (the problem) really is the first thing to check. I’ll fess up at the bottom.
So I went to the range. Got on paper and zeroed at 25 yards. Then went to 100. No. 1 below are the first two, No. 2 is dialed down 4 MOA.

The circle at the lower right is first suppressed shots. I dialed up 2 MOA and shot the orange splatter target on the far left. .432”. I’ll take it. I then locked that in as my zero and did first round hits on the dueling tree paddles at 200 and 300. And went home, where I reinstalled the zero stop shims:

The shims give you a little bit of a fudge factor if you need to dial down your zero on a high DA day. You can see that the actual stop is down about 1.75 MOA.

I just sent thank you notes to Vortex and Ruger. Oh, the problem? Well, wind, temperature, ammo, rifle and scope were perfect. The only remaining variable was the operator. I suspect I started chasing the windage with the dial and got lost. Lesson – do not chase the windage with the dial. Use your scope hash marks to offset. D’oh.

But at least the exercise gave me a positive reality check on the scope and rifle. Life is all about experiencing it, I guess. 🤡