Month: January 2010

My .223 Remington hunting loads – the ladder test

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Now that the primer investigation is put to rest, I can get back to working up my .223 loads so I can hunt with .223 Remington and a lightweight AR.

I opted to try using the Ladder Test for this next stage of the process.

The load:

Primer — CCI #41

Brass — Remington used (2x fired at this point). 1.750″ trim length, flash holes deburred, primer pockets uniformed

Bullet — Barnes TSX .224″ 62 grain

COAL — 2.250″ (taken from Barnes #4 manual)

Powder — Varget

The big change here is using Varget. I have 30 rounds loaded. There are 10 “steps” of powder, from 23.7 grains up to 25.5 grains in 0.2 grain increments. There are 3 rounds of each charge weight.

I went to the local indoor range to try things out, because 1. it was nearby, 2. I can shoot at 100 yards and not have to worry about wind and other conditions; weather right now isn’t that ideal. Downside is I can’t chronograph things, but I’m not considering that vital at this point. Once I figure where things look accurate enough then I’ll chrono.

Results

I don’t know what to make of the results.

If I look at the pictures from the ladder article, what I should see is the greater the charge weight, thus the more velocity, thus the higher (vertically) the impact should be on the paper; that the holes in the paper should “climb” as I go up in charge weight. That didn’t exactly happen. Shots from the lightest charge weight ended up shooting the highest.

Furthermore, I was unsure about shooting only 3 rounds because inevitably you’ll get 2 good shots and 1 that screws things up, and I certainly got that; two would be close, then one would be off somewhere else. I read that statistically 7 is the best number to use as it best balances giving enough worthwhile statistical data but also keeps the amount of components used to a minimum. I just have to be mindful of my component consumption, plus the ladder test article said to go with 3, so that’s what I did.

If I look at where the shots clustered….

25.5 grains produced a 3-shot 1/2″ vertical group. Note that for this test vertical is what we care about, but even with that the 25.5 grain group was the overall tightest with the 3 shots literally stacked atop each other and touching. I can cover the group with a nickel.

As I read online, I see others shooting similar situations (62 grain TSX, Varget, and even shooting out of 1:9 twist AR’s), that they’ll have good results with 25.0 grains. I’ve also read of good success using 26.4 grains which generated almost 2900 fps from a 16″ barrel, and another using 27.5 grains out of a Bushmaster SS varmint (getting 3400 fps). But note 25.5 grains is the listed max in the Barnes manual and those last 2 greatly exceed that. Of course, they all were shooting out of a 5.56 chambered rifle, so they can handle the additional pressure.

That said, as I look at the vertical window, 25.5 certainly gave me the best overall performance. 25.1 grains looks to also have promise. Anything much below that seems to not provide that great of results. But this appears to be consistent with what I’ve been told, that Varget tends to come into its own when pushed closer to the max. One possible reason? When you get up in charge weight it starts to cause a compressed load, which apparently helps Varget.

What I think I may do at this point is start at 25.1 and load in 0.1 grain increments up to 25.5 (I don’t feel like going past max, if I don’t have to). But this time, I’ll load 5 rounds or maybe 7 depending on my component count. The point being to try to get a bit more statistical spread than what 3 rounds can give me. See how that goes.

In related news, the Varget does feel different from TAC. There’s not a massive difference, but the TAC feels a bit snappier than the Varget. Or it could just be how I was feeling today.

MUC experience – could I have done it better?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

SouthNarc has a concept called Managing Unknown Contacts, or MUC for short.  I’ve written about MUC before, and you can learn some about it in his DVD’s.

As I was leaving the local indoor gun range, I had a MUC situation. Here’s the diagram:

The red block is the range building. The blue block is my car, parked nose in. Brown block is a large pickup truck. Green circle is a tree, and the black lines at the bottom is the edge of the road.

I came out of the range and went to put my stuff in the trunk of my car. I was standing at the X. As I was putting things into the trunk I was going to re-situate a few things in the bag when I caught out of my left eye a guy approaching me. He was still far enough off but it was evident his path of travel was no longer along the road but was branching off to come up to me. Hands were in his coat pocket, but that’s not too out of the question as it’s very cold outside. As soon as I noticed this I stopped caring about fiddling with stuff, slammed the trunk shut then moved along the arrow, towards the driver’s door. My intent was to just get in the car and go…. the guy was far enough off that I could do that.

Or so I thought.

As soon as I slammed the trunk and turned around the guy yelled out to me. I couldn’t make out what he said but it did sound like he was asking for directions. It caused me enough to pause just long enough that he was closer and so all I could do was wheel around. Hands went up into a fence position and I moved so I could get a better view of things. Unfortunately the movement was limited because now I was between the truck and my car. He repeated himself, asking where exactly the post office was. I can understand that as it’s a little non-obvious. But I kept my distance, kept my left hand up in a fence and proceeded to tell him as briefly and concisely as I could where to go (i.e. keep the interaction short). I noticed tho… my right hand went down to my belt. Reason was I had my car keys in my hand and it was my intention to put them back into my pants pocket, but for some reason I didn’t and for some reason my hand stayed at my waist. I did catch the guy noticing that, and that probably wasn’t too bad a thing as it’s evident I’m leaving a gun range and of course I was carrying. He seemed satisfied with directions and left.

I think overall I handled the situation alright, but one thing I did not like was how I moved. I ended up between the truck and my car, which put me into a funnel. If he had a buddy, he could have easily hid on the other side of the truck (it was a huge pickup) and came around the front of the truck and I’d be sandwiched in. Of course, this was a natural path of travel… at the time I was attempting avoidance, plus any other movement would have looked odd. Upon reflection I probably should have just stayed at my trunk or in that vicinity. The car would be at my back and I’d have more movement and visual options.

In the end, I’m just glad the MUC training kicked in. Awareness was the most important thing. Fence went up and so guy kept his distance. I see places to refine and improve, and hopefully you can learn something from my experience as well.

Testing is for testing

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Just returned from the local indoor gun range. The range was busy as they were doing the shooting qualification portion of the CHL test. From what I could see, most people shot well enough to pass. People do need to ignore the X-ring. Many would do well to obtain further instruction.

But what really hit me?

Hearing the range officer running the test providing remedial fundamental gun handling instructions to one of the test takers.

Folks, if you’re going for your CHL you need to already know how to handle a gun. Taking the test should not include you getting instruction on how to operate the slide on your gun.

*sigh*

Head down

/ hsoi

My head will be down for a bit.

I need to convert a library of C++ code into a Mac OS X framework. It’s heavily complicated by the copious inling of functions in the header files (bad thing in a dynamic library situation). Much rewriting and massaging of code must ensue. *sigh*

Head will be down for a while.

But given I’ve been awake since about 3 o’clock this morning and have to stay up and active until late afternoon anyways (Kali class tonight!), I think I’ll take a break from work in a little bit and run to the gun range. Stay tuned….

12 Steps to Raise a Juvenile Delinquent

/ hsoi

Not too long ago, Jay G was lamenting the state of parenting. Chris Byrne was then motivated to write about 5 rules for good behavior.

In that vein, yesterday I read a friend’s Facebook status that linked to this, 12 steps to raise a juvenile delinquent. It’s all in the same vein, just a different approach in the writing. Reprinting:

  1. Begin with infancy to give the child everything he wants. In this way he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.
  2. When he picks up bad words, laugh at him. This will make him think he’s cute.
  3. Never give him any spiritual training. Wait until he is twenty-one and then let “him decide for himself”.
  4. Avoid the use of “wrong”. He may develop a guilt complex. This will condition him to believe later, when he is arrested, that society is against him and he is being persecuted.
  5. Pick up everything he leaves lying around. Do everything for him so that he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on others.
  6. Take his part against neighbors, teachers, and policemen. They are all prejudiced against your child.
  7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your children. In this way they won’t be so shocked when the home is broken up later.
  8. Give the child all the spending money he wants. Never let him earn his own.
  9. Satisfy his every craving for food, drink, and comfort. See that his every sensual desire is gratified.
  10. Let him read any printed material, and listen to any music he can get his hands on. Be careful that the silverware and drinking glasses are sterilized, but let his mind feast on garbage.
  11. When he gets into real trouble, apologize to yourself by saying, “I could never do anything with him.”
  12. Prepare for a life of grief. You will likely have it.

Credit says: “Taken from a pamphlet entitled Twelve Rules for Raising Delinquent Children distributed by the Houston Police Department.”

Remember: you are (supposed to be) the parent; act like it.

There is no begging, no pleading, no bargaining with your kids. Limits are essential. Saying “no” is good for them.

Setting the Stage for 2010

/ hsoi

Wayne LaPierre, EVP and CEO of the NRA, sets the stage for 2010.

Indeed, the right of self-defense is the single most basic human right of all. The ability to defend oneself is a guarantee of the right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” held dear by Americans since the forging of our nation. It is why the Second Amendment, and the individual right of self-defense, was so important to our founding fathers.

For all the screaming about “rights” that a lot of people do, it’s amazing to me how they don’t believe a right to preserve yourself also exists. Your major religions all understand and acknowledge it; the Founding Fathers certainly did. Folks, if you can’t preserve yourself, none of those other rights matter. We’ve become a very insulated society, which is some ways is a sign of progress and improvement, but “out of sight, out of mind” certainly causes us to forget or never understand the historic fundamentals.

When you have gang members saying

“Buy a gun,” a member of a recently busted inner-city gang told The Buffalo News last week when asked what could be done to curtail homicides. “Hey, I’m just being honest. You asked.”

it demonstrates the world does have enough bad apples willing to spoil your day and the rest of you and your family’s lives. (note, don’t just “buy a gun” but “buy a gun and get some solid training in how to use it”).

We shall see what 2010 brings politically, and we shall do what we can to help bring about favorable change. Meantime, see what you can do to help improve things around here.

More Want

/ hsoi

Hot on the heels of my Kel-Tec RFB want, now I’ve Remington ACR want.

Don’t know if the video will remain around. If it’s truly leaked Remington may force it to be removed. Or it could be a good viral stunt ahead of the SHOT show to drum up hype. I hope it’s the latter because man…. this is sweet.

I’ve only loosely been following the development of this firearm, from the Magpul Masada days. It comes off in a lot of ways like any of the other modern fighting rifles (e.g. FN SCAR, Sig 556). But after watching this video and seeing what it’s all about….oo… the want is very strong here.

This is where I could use one of those rainbow-farting unicorns that Obama promised everywhere. The pot of gold that inevitably would be at the end of that rainbow would sure help with my idea of economic stimulus. 🙂

A story of awesome customer service – The Toy Giant

/ hsoi

This is a tale of customer service that I think went above and beyond, thus it is a tale that must be told.

Christmas wish lists.

Children all wanting Nerf blasters from Santa.

I turn to Amazon.com because they’re the only ones that appear to have the particular models in stock.

One model, the Nerf Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 seems to have 3 flavors for sale: the regular version, a version with 100 bonus darts, and a version that comes with a second drum magazine. I think the second magazine is where it’s at, so that’s what I… err… Santa puts in the order for.

UPS man delivers very close to Christmas Eve. When the box arrives we just put it into the closet and don’t look at it until Elf-time late at night on Christmas Eve.

Ugh. They sent me the wrong model. They sent the 100-dart bonus pack, not the extra drum version. I’m bummed, but what can I do? These are from Santa, something must be delivered from The Fat Man® by morning time, so I have to run with what I was given. Ultimately that’s OK as the kids won’t know one way or the other, but there was the principle of it. Furthermore, when I went to the computer to double-check the order and invoice to ensure I didn’t mess it up (because all 3 flavors were in my shopping cart at one point, maybe I removed the wrong ones?), I realized that 1. I did correctly submit the order, 2. the price difference between what I ordered and what I received was $22!! Yikes. If it was a simple product flub that’d be one thing, but that’s a fair chunk of money.

I contacted the seller, The Toy Giant (they were selling via Amazon). I explained the situation, provided copies of the invoices, pictures of everything. In the end, it was their mistake, but I won’t be hard on that. It’s a rushed time of year, I’m sure one of their busiest, and given the similarities in the product ordered vs. delivered I can certainly understand the mistake. No hard feelings, no big deal. All I asked for was for them to refund the $22 difference to my credit card, since that’s about all that could be done given the Christmas circumstances.

Their reply?

First, it was prompt, which was great.

Second, they offered to send me the correct product. I quote from the email:

I don’t mind shipping the version with the extra drum and you can keep both.

I was certainly caught off-guard by that. They admit their mistake, and not only do they correct it but they expect nothing in return.

I don’t know what brought that on, if it’s their normal course of action or was brought on by the Christmas circumstance. But it doesn’t matter. They didn’t have to do what they did, but they did it.

That’s some great customer service. They didn’t just make things right, they went beyond. Or who knows… maybe to their bottom line it’s not beyond, maybe it was cheaper and easier for them to do what they did. Who knows. Doesn’t really matter. The perception to the customer is certainly a great one. I’m left with a very positive impression.

The Toy Giant.

Freedom Group Acquires Barnes Bullets

/ hsoi

The Freedom Group (they own things like Remington, Bushmaster, DPMS Panther Arms, EOTAC, Marlin, etc.) have entered into an agreement to purchase Barnes Bullets.

Press release here.

I love Barnes Bullets. Hopefully the only change here will be good things!

Step back and look at yourself

/ hsoi

I just finished a dry-fire practice session.

I’ve been noticing in my dry-fire lately that I’ll draw to ready then have a tough time finding the front sight. I figured it was something with my grip or presentation not being “just right”. So I tried to work on those, but it never felt natural.

I just slowed down a bit and realized what I was doing.

For some reason I was pressing my right cheek into my right arm/shoulder on the presentation. I don’t know why, but my guess is an unconscious effort to get my right (dominant) eye lined up with my right arm, which lines everything up with the sights and so on. I think it’s from all the rifle shooting I’ve been doing lately.

As soon as I stopped myself, as soon as I kept my head centered, lo, there was the front sight! The little red fiber optic beacon shining brightly at me.

Always good to slow down, step back, and look at yourself once in a while. You may be doing things you don’t realize.