Mid-Summer Range Report
As Usual, User Error Was To Blame...
I went out to the gun range yesterday with my buddy Zibig yesterday, and for once, most everything went as planned!
It was hotter than a $3 pistol, but you're mostly under the shed's roof, so with the assistance of a couple of quarts of chilled water, it was bearable.
I was prepared to expend a couple of hundred rounds of ammo and take however long was necessary to figure out why my Springfield 1911A1 was printing lower than usual, and also why the Vaquero .45 was flinging lead all over the target. Also up for a re-test was the Smith & Wesson .22, which had failed to function at the last Blogshoot.
Much to my delight, all three problems seem to have been solved. The first two solutions can be placed squarely on my avoidance of the "Spray & Pray" method of shooting, and instead concentrating on the front sight, trigger squeeze, and breath control.
I'm not really as bad a marksman as the last sentence makes me sound, but I've learned some habits over the years shooting rifles that don't necessarily translate into pistol shooting, and it's been a struggle to unlearn them. F'rinstance, using my Savage or Marlin .22's, the best way to keep your shots in the bullseye is to "balance" the bullseye of the standard 25 foot target right on top of your front sight. I'd been trying to do that with the .45's, and as a result was printing all my shots 3 or 4 inches below the bull. As it happens, both the Vaquero single-action and the .45 Auto like the top 1/3 of the front sight to be covering where you want the bullet to impact. They're both fixed-sight guns, so I can't just dial the rear sight to adjust impact. You've got to take your time, fire slow strings, and walk your rounds into the target until you figure out how to eyeball the point-of-aim.
I also brought along $20 worth of the "Shoot-N-See" targets, that make a big splatter around the bullethole in a contrasting color so you can instantly see where your shots went. Those helped a whole lot, not just with me, but with Zibig, too. He blew through about 250 rounds of .22LR through his S&W 422, and the ability to instantly adjust his aim really helped to improve his grouping.
By the end of the session, I was placing all 8 rounds in the mag within a 5" circle every time from the 10 yard line. I may not be winning any marksmanship awards with that performance, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to put a round in some goblin's noggin if they're inside my house.
The Vaquero is going to take a little more work to get things completely ironed out. I finally had the entire cylinder-full going pretty much where I want them, but there's still too many unexplained 'flyers' for my comfort. I really need to bring a sandbag and do a benchrest to figure out where the point-of-aim is without my errors compounding the trouble.
It's kind of funny, really. For a cowboy sixgun replica, the Vaquero seemed to respond favorably to a little gangsta treatment! I found that If I canted the gun over a few degrees (not completely sideways! Just somewhere between 80 & 90 degrees!) the shots seemed to go nearer the point of aim. This might be a remedy for me tugging the trigger when holding it completely vertical, but I dunno. I've been working hard on proper trigger pull, so maybe the gun just likes to lean a bit!
As for the Smith & Wesson 2214 .22 auto, it seems to function perfectly when given a good cleaning and when using decent ammo. We tried it with CCI Stingers and a new box of Winchester Wildcat .22 fodder, and had not a problem at all. On a whim, I fed it some of the old Federal rounds, and it went right back to having eject and feed failures. So, we're using the new fast stuff!
It's still inaccurate as hell, but given that it's got a 2" barrel, that's not too surprising. It'll do what it's intended to do, which is finish off a deer, or swat a pesky alligator that's gnawing on your leg. It certainly won't do for plinking outside of 30 feet or so.
That's all for now, kiddies. More range reports as soon as I can afford some more ammo!
I went out to the gun range yesterday with my buddy Zibig yesterday, and for once, most everything went as planned!
It was hotter than a $3 pistol, but you're mostly under the shed's roof, so with the assistance of a couple of quarts of chilled water, it was bearable.
I was prepared to expend a couple of hundred rounds of ammo and take however long was necessary to figure out why my Springfield 1911A1 was printing lower than usual, and also why the Vaquero .45 was flinging lead all over the target. Also up for a re-test was the Smith & Wesson .22, which had failed to function at the last Blogshoot.
Much to my delight, all three problems seem to have been solved. The first two solutions can be placed squarely on my avoidance of the "Spray & Pray" method of shooting, and instead concentrating on the front sight, trigger squeeze, and breath control.
I'm not really as bad a marksman as the last sentence makes me sound, but I've learned some habits over the years shooting rifles that don't necessarily translate into pistol shooting, and it's been a struggle to unlearn them. F'rinstance, using my Savage or Marlin .22's, the best way to keep your shots in the bullseye is to "balance" the bullseye of the standard 25 foot target right on top of your front sight. I'd been trying to do that with the .45's, and as a result was printing all my shots 3 or 4 inches below the bull. As it happens, both the Vaquero single-action and the .45 Auto like the top 1/3 of the front sight to be covering where you want the bullet to impact. They're both fixed-sight guns, so I can't just dial the rear sight to adjust impact. You've got to take your time, fire slow strings, and walk your rounds into the target until you figure out how to eyeball the point-of-aim.
I also brought along $20 worth of the "Shoot-N-See" targets, that make a big splatter around the bullethole in a contrasting color so you can instantly see where your shots went. Those helped a whole lot, not just with me, but with Zibig, too. He blew through about 250 rounds of .22LR through his S&W 422, and the ability to instantly adjust his aim really helped to improve his grouping.
By the end of the session, I was placing all 8 rounds in the mag within a 5" circle every time from the 10 yard line. I may not be winning any marksmanship awards with that performance, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to put a round in some goblin's noggin if they're inside my house.
The Vaquero is going to take a little more work to get things completely ironed out. I finally had the entire cylinder-full going pretty much where I want them, but there's still too many unexplained 'flyers' for my comfort. I really need to bring a sandbag and do a benchrest to figure out where the point-of-aim is without my errors compounding the trouble.
It's kind of funny, really. For a cowboy sixgun replica, the Vaquero seemed to respond favorably to a little gangsta treatment! I found that If I canted the gun over a few degrees (not completely sideways! Just somewhere between 80 & 90 degrees!) the shots seemed to go nearer the point of aim. This might be a remedy for me tugging the trigger when holding it completely vertical, but I dunno. I've been working hard on proper trigger pull, so maybe the gun just likes to lean a bit!
As for the Smith & Wesson 2214 .22 auto, it seems to function perfectly when given a good cleaning and when using decent ammo. We tried it with CCI Stingers and a new box of Winchester Wildcat .22 fodder, and had not a problem at all. On a whim, I fed it some of the old Federal rounds, and it went right back to having eject and feed failures. So, we're using the new fast stuff!
It's still inaccurate as hell, but given that it's got a 2" barrel, that's not too surprising. It'll do what it's intended to do, which is finish off a deer, or swat a pesky alligator that's gnawing on your leg. It certainly won't do for plinking outside of 30 feet or so.
That's all for now, kiddies. More range reports as soon as I can afford some more ammo!
posted by El Capitan | 12:59 PM
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