Goofing Off

[Sailormilan2]

My son and I had to go out to the desert to do a school research project. We(he) had to put a vert post(stick) 12" into the ground and mark on a sheet of paper the position of the shadow at 15-30 min intervals over a 6 hour period. Can you say, "Booorrriiinnnggg"?

So, we took some guns. One of them my 376 Steyr built on a Brno 98/22 action using a home chambered Shaw barrel. I found a piece of 1/2" steel, and decided to test the penetration power of the bullets. I was shooting 300 gr Sierra SpBTs, 61 gr. WC846 powder.

I fired one round and it totally penetrated the steel. Hole in excess of 1/2" in diameter through the metal. In comparison, we fired 3 rounds of FMJ 308s from my Polytech, and they cratered the steel, bulged the backside, but did not penetrate. Distance on all rounds fired was about 25 yds.

The 376 seems to be a very accurate round, and penetrates much better than I expect, especially with soft point ammo. I had previously shot through an 8" oak branch.

In a couple of weeks, I will give an accuracy report. It turns out my loads at a tad hot right now, with sticky bolt lift. I have to get a bullet pulling collet and trimmer pilot, so I can pull apart the over loaded ammo. Plus do some reloading of the once fired brass.

I really like this rifle, more than my 35 Whelen.

[AzRednek]

Might have been boring watching the sun but the time spent alone with your son is something I wish I had done more of when mine were young. Just a bit of a warning about shooting steel up close, possible ricochets. I wasn't there but the gang I used to shoot metal gongs with had a mis-hap shooting a sttel plate at short range with a M-1 Carbine. The mil-surp FMJ bullet came straight back and got the guy standing beside the shooter right in the stomach. It wasn't serious enough to require a visit to the ER but he had a large nasty bruise right above his belly button.

[Horsefly]

AZ knows what he's talking about.A loudmouth that married into the family showed up at one of our family get-to-gathers showing off his new Smith &Wesson and tell all about how bad a 38 special was and what it would do to a man,and to prove it,he shot the trash burn barrel at my Grandparents house.The bullet made a hen egg size demple in the barrel,came back and hit him right on the knee cap,putting him down on the ground hard.It didn't do much but bruise him real bad.We still laugh our butts off when our family gets together and it gets brought up.If it had hit him in the head,it might have glanced off and killed someone else.Jerry

[Racepres]

Yup there is some holes in the siding of our back building from such occurrances, The pistol ctgs are the worst in my experience. .22 rimfires are a bad deal too, so we only shoot them at relatively light steel, moveable targets, In fact, none of our steel targets are immobile, they swing or "dangle". Even at that, we shoot fairly exclusive rounds at given targets. .22's at the lightest, handguns up to 44mag at fairly light swingers that are also angled down only, cast loads from c.f. rifles up to 1800 fps, at fairly heavy 3/8" to 1/2" swingers, and hotter fodder at 3/4" plates suspended by heavy chain, and angled downward. Yea maybe we are anal, but we got no holes in us!!! MV

[Horsefly]

Wouldn't it be great to have your own range set up with metal targets right at your house? There aint nothing like the sound of a target going ker-bong when you hit it.I have room for a 150 yard range,but the city baseball fields are behind me.

Sailormilan2,when you go out into the desert to shoot,do you just go anywhere that looks like a good spot and shoot? That would be far cotton-pickin out to be able to do that.The whole state of Texas is privately owned,almost,and we are forced to go to a range.I'm luckier than most and have family with land I can shoot on, but it's 70 miles away.Jerry

[Racepres]

Wouldn't it be great to have your own range set up with metal targets right at your house? There aint nothing like the sound of a target going ker-bong when you hit it. Jerry

And it makes it easy to share the fun, [and fuel the passion] with friends and visitors. We have actually turned a few non-shooters into powder burnin' monsters!!! Because it is fun! I would love to share the pics of my shootin' buddy's place!! If I get over there I'll get pics if yer interrested, He has a "real" range. Mine is humble, but efficient.. MV

[AzRednek]

Wouldn't it be great to have your own range set up with metal targets right at your house? .Jerry

 

Former co-worker of mine had that exact situation. He did his reloading on his back porch and if he wanted to test a reload he just rolled up the porch's screen and fired. It all came to an end when the City of Phoenix annexed his area putting him in the city limits. After getting a complaint and visit from police he quit shooting but deliberatly left his targets and gongs up. He suspected a real estate salesperson ratted him out after she knocked on his door saying she couldn't sell the adjacent lot with targets set up all over his back lot. He still took an occasional shot and if cops showed he'd claim a pack of coyotes were after his chickens. He also bred some kind of weird looking hairless but valuable cats he could claim he was protecting.