2021 April Early

Maximizing the performance of your Rossi firearm.
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Archer
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2021 April Early

Post by Archer »

Ended up at the range Saturday.
The idea started out as hit the range with a few guns I haven't sighted the scopes in on. Planned to meet up with John who was interested in getting or building a large frame AR and let him shoot a few plus maybe give him some ideas for how he wanted to put his together.
Invited Matt and he wanted to invite a couple new guys.
The deal was Bring your own ammo or be prepared to pay for what you shoot at current going rates.

Something came up and John couldn't show. That left the Matt who just wanted to get to the range and his new coworker who was pretty new to firearms and was thinking about buying his first one and getting a CCW. The other new guy was a complete novice and he bailed on Friday. That changed the focus from sighting in some .308s and a .243 to a survey introduction for a new guy to firearms with a concentration on handguns.

So Matt had some ammo. The new guy was able to pick up some ammo visiting his parents. He claimed the box of 9mm cost him $10 and he managed to get 20 rounds of 5.56. The shop had limited him to two boxes. We had decided to go with .22 LR, 9mm, 5.56 and a couple .45 ACPs. They visited a couple gunshops at lunch Friday and found nothing in the calibers we were going to be shooting. They also found out they'd have been SOL buying anything anyway Matt has the illegal alien driver's license so he'd have needed his passport or his birth cert to prove he's a citizen and the other one had his paper copy DL from when he moved to CA. Also with the second guy IF they accepted his paper DL, since he wasn't in the DROS system the state would charge him an extra $19 on the background check. CA's stupid ammo background check is cluster.

I brought a couple hundred 9mm maybe a hundred .45 ACP a hundred or so .380 ACP, 60-80 .223 and two and a half .22 LR bulk packs because I didn't know what my friend had lying around. As it turned out he had a couple hundred .45 ACPs, more than a box of 9mm, several 30 round boxes of 5.56 and at least half a bulk pack of .22LR. He probably had more ammo but that was what made it to the bench.

We tended to load and shoot 5 rounds at a time through the auto loaders. We loaded the revolvers with a full six and with the rifles we loaded 5 or 10 in the semis and loaded the Henry to the brim.

We started with .22 LR with the revolvers. I had brought the Ruger Single Six with the right cylinder and the older Smith with the 6" pencil barrel. Moved on to the Beretta 92 with the conversion kit and the CZ-75 with the Kadet kit. Then the Ruger Target MKII and the Browning Contour. The Winchester bulk ammo wasn't very good with the Beretta conversion kit and the Federal Auto Match wasn't perfect in the Buckmark. Matt wants a Buckmark pretty bad.

We moved on to the 9mms starting with the Beretta 92G. Nobody particularly liked the trigger on this gun as it has a very light floating take up before you hit the break. Matt did enjoy the slightly bigger grip frame on the gun than most 9mms as he has big hands but he didn't like the trigger at all. By comparison the CZ-75 found favor with the slightly heavier trigger take up and clean break. The trigger action was of course the same on the .22 LR as it was on the 9mms since they are the same lowers. Neither of the other guys had fired a Glock 17 both of them liked it. Then the Springfield XD9. Everyone liked the Springfield EMP and found it easy to shoot. The Ruger LC9 worked fine with the ball ammo. The new guy found it harder to shoot and Matt didn't like the trigger. The Ruger has a longer take up on the trigger than most of my guns as it is part of Ruger's design since they expect it will be a pocket carry gun and are using the long trigger as part of the safety. Both of the other guys really appreciated the Smith & Wesson Shield 9 compared to the LC9. It is slightly bigger than the Ruger and is easier to handle the recoil.

The only real failures among the handguns we had were with the Sig P238. I had picked up a box of 'Monarch Brass Case' ammo at an Academy. Out of 15 rounds we had 3 failures to extract leaving the case in the chamber. Bullets cleared the barrel but it seemed that cases that did eject didn't go very far. Since this is the only ammo I've ever had any failures in this gun and I've shot several hundred Remington, Ammo Valley, Fiocchi, PMC, Sig and others I am putting this down to the ammo. The box claims 94 grains 951 FPS. That should function fine. The brass is headstamped A USA 380 AUTO. The box is black and white and claims 'Made in the Philippines Distributed by Academy'. The extractor on the Sig is good. I've read this headstamp is Armscor typically produced in Nevada now. I've also read that Academy's Monarch house brand is made by PPU. Even with the failures to extract the gun made a good impression on the new guy. Matt had fired it before and liked it a lot, although he finds it almost tiny for his hands.

With the .45 ACPs we ran the Kimber CDP Ultra, then a Kimber 5" then the CZ-97.

Policed up the brass and moved to the rifle range.
Started with a Ruger 10/22. Composite stock. The iron sights aren't the best as the bead tends to cover the target at any range. The gun worked well. Did what it's supposed to do. Then the Henry everyone ran a full tube out of it and had fun. Again the bead iron sight covered quite a bit of the target at any range.

Moved on to the Mini 14. This is the first time I've had it at the range and made it to the firing line. The first brass case got caught in the closing bolt instead of ejecting clear. The next 14 or so went fine. The sights were better than the .22s. I may want to replace the rear peep with one that's adjustable without tools but I'm getting to the age that scopes are a vast improvement on iron sights.
https://www.tech-sights.com/mini-products/

Went to Matt's Delton AR. This is a basic 16" carbine with a Magpul CTR stock, Magpul trigger guard, Juggernaut type 2 mag lock to make it California legal while retaining the adjustable stock, flash hider and pistol grip. The gun worked pretty well but I'm reminded of why I don't like the system. I have the Juggernaut rear pin system on one of my large frame ARs but I have a different mag lock that uses a modified bolt stop. There is no real bolt stop on Matt's rifle as the mag lock from Juggernaut replaces the bolt stop.

Moved on to my White Oak barreled AR with a 1-9X scope on it. At least I can see what I'm shooting at and pretty much call my own hits.

I shot better than Matt. Did well with the handguns. Matt was anticipating the recoil quite a bit with the handguns. The new guy did pretty well. I think I out shot him with the handguns but he did better with the rifles. I put a large part of that down to 22 or 24 year old eyes. I did quite a bit better than Matt on the rifles as well. I wish that was saying much but not this time. The fact that the wind was blowing and the 54 degree temp felt more like 40 or so might have had something to do with it. I was wearing shorts and a T shirt and had forgotten to toss a jacket in the truck. It was ok when I could stand in the sun at the pistol range but at the rifle range it seemed the wind picked up and the firing line was in the shade. The temp remained constant all day long from before 8 AM when I was approaching the range to the afternoon around 3 when we left.

I expect each of us shot around 50 rounds of 9mm, 15 rounds of .45 ACP, 5 rounds of .380, 60+ rounds of .22 LR and 20-30 rounds of .223/5.56.

The range was busy. There were two vehicle that drove in just before the other guys arrived one or two already there when I showed up. There were at least two that showed on the pistol range while we were there. One brass hound cruised through as we were setting up on the rifle range and veered off when I pulled out my brass bags and dropped them on a stool in our area. At least two sets of guys on the rifle range while we were there and at least one more on the shotgun area. We heard several on the pistol range while we were at the rifle range but couldn't exactly see them because of the way the range is constructed. After I left and got gas I though I'd mislaid something and swung by the range again to check. It had been empty when we left but there were at least three or four car loads of folks on it then. I found what I had mislaid hanging on the side of my range bag but I did a run through the empty pistol range and picked up about a third of a brass bag worth of reloadable brass before I bugged out for home.

People are still shooting and they are finding the ammo somewhere. Matt probably hasn't bought ammo in at least a year and six months, maybe longer. I haven't bought any in a year. My friend Dan is putting together .38 SP for another friend Mike because he can't find any. Mike bought a box of Xtreme bullets and provided the brass. Dan is selling him the primers and powder at just a little over pre-panic prices and throwing in the assembly effort on the 550. Mike has been very frustrated as he's got a new Henry steel framed .357/38 that he picked up right before this started but hadn't laid in any ammo.
Reese-Mo
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Re: 2021 April Early

Post by Reese-Mo »

Sounds like a decent day. I've got two AR sbrs that have been function tested in my back yard, but none of the local ranges allow 'em. No idea why. Thinkin on it, an AR .22LR upper, a half dozen handyguns, and two leverguns remain unfired too. I gotta get way out in the boonies one of these days and make a day of it.
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