And so, another report from the gun range. I had two things to do today, well… three”

1. Get out and shoot. Smell some gunpowder. Have some “lead therapy”. 🙂
2. Break-in and zero the new hunting rifle.
3. Shoot that borrowed snub-nose and see how it goes.

I went to the local indoor range. I really didn’t want to go there but time is a bit tight, and the goober factor is reduced when you go there on weekday mornings, so no biggie. Plus, I do like zeroing at an indoor range to eliminate factors such as wind. First order of business was tending to the rifle.

The Rifle

Got the guys at the range to give it a bore sight. I need to pick up a bore-sight kit for myself (if anyone has a recommendation on a good kit, please comment on it). Then off to break it in and zero it. Savage Arms has this lengthy break-in procedure. I admit, if I was dealing with some really high-end precision shooter I’d probably do that, but I had zero motivation to go through all of that on this particular rifle. My routine:

1. Fire 1 round, spray Break-Free CLP on the Bore Snake, run the snake through. Repeat 10 times (10 rounds total fired)
2. Fire 2 rounds, CLP and Bore Snake. Repeat 5 times (10 rounds total)
3. Fire 5 rounds, CLP and Bore Snake. Repeat 2 times (10 rounds total)

I did the break in and the zeroing at the same time. So set up at 25 yards, shoot, adjust scope, swab the bore, reload and continue with the process. I worked to get it zeroed at 25 yards, then out to 50 and slight adjustments, then out to 100 yards. My goal was to be 1″ high at 100 yards. I got there. Things seem to be good.

So my impressions of the Savage 11FXP now that I’ve shot 30 rounds through it? I like it. That AccuTrigger is sweet. If the goal of a good trigger is to move as little as possible and have that feeling of “breaking a glass rod”, then I would say that is here. I haven’t tried billions of triggers in my lifetime so maybe there is something sweeter out there, but to my finger this was a very nice trigger. Rifle shouldered well and overall fit fine. Since the rifle only weighs about 6.5 lbs (about half my M1A) and is a bolt-action (i.e. no semi-auto gas system like the M1A), that means there’s less ability for the rifle to soak up the recoil and instead I get to soak it up. I will say the stock recoil pad is really spongey feeling but soaked up the recoil fairly well. I didn’t feel banged up, but certainly after 30 rounds my shoulder was aware that it had been pounded on. I will consider looking for an after-market recoil pad, not just because I’d like to see if I can get something to soak the recoil a bit more but due to the way the material is well… I’m not sure how rugged it is. In fact, I noticed a little tear already; not sure when that happened. Still, for hunting purposes you won’t be throwing 30 rounds in an hour, so the factory pad is certainly decent enough.

The other thing was the scope. The scope that came in the combo package is a Simmons Blazer 3-9x40mm. It’s simple for sure, but it worked fine. In fact, the range isn’t the best for lighting and I felt the scope gathered light quite well. I have no immediate desire to put on a new scope. This should do just fine. We’ll see how it pans out in the field.

Overall, I’m quite happy with the new rifle. It was an accurate shooter (I was shooting Prvi Partizan .308 Win 168 grain match) and I dare say I was shooting some of the best groups I’ve ever shot. Now I can’t wait to take her out on a hunt.

The Snub

My friend lent me his snub-nose revolver. It’s a S&W J-frame, all steel, bodyguard style, .38 Spc +P. He knows I’m considering a snub as a back-up gun (BUG) so he lent me one of his to try. Very kind of him.

I’ve had the gun for a while and have been dry firing it. It has a nice action, but certainly a heavy trigger. So I finally got to try her out today.

I shot a box of Magtech 158 grain .38 Spc LRN. Wasn’t too bad. I tried shooting two-handed and one-handed. I do like the sight setup of the front ramped post (with some neon red paint) and the rear sight just being a U-notch in the frame, but I do have to get used to it… I was shooting high because I wasn’t getting the top of the sights in line with each other. But really, shooting it double-action wasn’t too bad. I did notice I was wanting to pull with the distal joint of my index finger instead of just the pad (more strength/leverage to pull that heavy trigger). And while I wasn’t grouping as accurately, it was all “minute of good enough” to get a job done. Certainly if I bought a snub I’d spend good time practicing with it. But my performance today was acceptable, all things considered.

Really tho, my goal today wasn’t to see how accurate or fast I could be, but more to see how the gun felt. Shooting the regular .38 Spc loads was fine. My friend did give me some of his Federal .38+P hollow points to try, and while manageable they were certainly a bit snappier (as expected). Nothing was unmanageable, and frankly after all those rounds my hand wasn’t bothered a bit (he does have nice grips on there, don’t know what but “rubbery” as opposed to say wood). If anything, my distal joint is a little sore from rubbing on the trigger, but that’d be fixed in time. No big deal.

All in all, not bad, but it does reinforce my desire to go all-steel. I will be trying a “lightweight” snub soon and I’ll see how the compare/contrast goes.

Other Range Observations

When I arrived at the range there was a CHL class underway. It was just the shooting portion of the CHL test. It was nice to see so many people working to get their CHL’s! Nice diverse group of folks as well: male and female, old and young, etc..

In light of my posting yesterday on correcting shooting problems, I found myself looking at their targets as they were shooting. Some folks were drilling out the center of the target. Some folks were all over the paper, good enough to defend themselves but certainly they should seek further training and practice. Plus I saw a lot of common shooting problems, such as “low-left” meaning someone was shooting too fast (the time pressures of the shooting test) and was yanking/jerking the trigger. Wasn’t my class tho so I didn’t stick my nose in.

I did notice the gun running the test was a bit gruff. Maybe that’s just him or he was having a bad morning. I didn’t like how he was talking to his students tho. Some comments felt a bit condescending, but I only heard what came through my earmuffs… I don’t know the context, didn’t see who or how things were being done. But it was a mental reminder for myself to continue to be positive when working with students.

Before I left, a man and a teenage girl walked in. Looked like father and daughter. From the looks of things, dad was teaching daughter how to shoot a handgun. I thought that was pretty cool. And given that daughter was a pretty girl, a smart move on the part of Dad as well. 😉

The range was hot and humid so after my first 10 rounds through the rifle I took a break to let the rifle cool off a bit and let myself cool off in the air-conditioned part of the shop/store. Went looking in the cases to see what snub-nosed revolvers they had, and either they’d be steel with hammers or hammerless but lightweights. Ah well. I did also see a 1911 (forget from whom) that was very pretty… ornate grip panels, scrollwork up and down the slide. Very nice piece, about $1200 nice.

All in all, a good morning at the range.