TIL - Proposition H (Derp to the MAX)

Soooooo, today I learned (TIL for those who don't know) that back in 2005, the derpizens (new word) of San Fransisco voted on and passed a ballot box measure to ban the civilian possession of handguns within the city's borders. It would also prevent the "manufacture, distribution, sale and transfer of firearms and ammunition within the city." Basically, they didn't want folks to have access to guns and/or ammo. Here's the funny thing; it got shut down almost immediately. Here's the sad thing; that wasn't the first time they tried this. The first one was back in 1982, which also passed and got slapped down. I guess to be fair, Heller 2008 wasn't a thing yet. Still, pretty amazing.

Check it out here on Wikipedia

Just an FYI. I went out the other day but it was not a good day at the range. The RAR shot way right. So much so that I ended up destroying part of my target stand. I was able to re-zero but I pretty much gave up as the wind really sucked and I was feeling a little dis-heartened and I didn't want to waste the last 40 rounds of CCI 0030. When I got home, however, I decided to fix the scope because when I had mounted it it was just a wee bit rotated clockwise. The reticule should now be closer to level (I don't have the proper tools to measure so I have to do it by eye). I found more CCI 0030 and ordered 200 rounds so I should be good for the rest of October through November.

Range Day - Preferred Ammo

I finally had a chance to get out yesterday and put the Ruger American Rimfire to use this month. As a result, it appears that I have found my preferred ammo for this gun; CCI Mini Mags HV 40 grain part# 0030.

 

The last time I had shot the RAR was a few weeks ago and at that time I was trying to get the gun zeroed for the CCI 0030's. After getting all set up, yesterday, I tried something a bit different. Instead of running 10 rounds of junk ammo at a warm-up target, I went straight into shooting 5 shot test groups. The first group of the day has 2 sub-groups with three 3 rounds close in one and 2 close shots in the other. The larger hole you see to the left of the large group is from a a previous shoot that I had covered up with a sticker. The sticker got knocked off removing the black material with it. I had opted to re-use the 12 inch target since I didn't have extras with me. I was happy with that group.

After shooting that first group on the 12 inch, I ended up shooting the rest of the 6 inch targets. By the time I had gotten to the last target, I had made a few adjustments to the scope to bring it in a little tighter.

You can see that those last groups are pretty decent. The middle target I had reset with black dots to test out an Axis XP with Remington Core-lok 180 grain. I'm not impressed with the rifle but to give it a fair test I will try out different ammo.

All in all, I feel that the RAR is running good with the CCI 0030's. I will see about making that my preferred ammunition with this rifle after a few more runs with it. Midway USA had it in stock this week but I missed the opportunity to buy any. It goes very quick.

Long Range Range Day - Ammo Testing

Today's shoot was actually pretty fruitful. I was able to acquire a 100 round box of CCI Mini Mag 40 grain CPRN to test earlier in the week and finally got a chance to try them out. I would have to say they seem to be just as consistent as the Eley Club Xtra I shot a few weeks back. Every group I shot today ended up in around 2.5 inches exactly. It's kind of freaky. 

Several of those groups have three rounds right next to or touching each other (one group has 2 rounds through the same hole) with 1 of the other 2 rounds being a flier and the last being closer to the main group. However, one of the groups seemed to be complete BS. Half the shots weren't even on the 6 inch target... IDK what happened there because the next group had the shots through the same hole. Go figure.

I had another box of this ammo I had bought a few years ago so I have a little over 100 more rounds to test with. I will see if the groups stay the same. If they do that means I can use these as backup ammo to the Eley Club Xtra. The Club Xtra seem to produce groups around 1.8 inches from my rifle but it's expensive at around $13 for 50 rounds. These CCI 0030 seem to be around $20 for 100 rounds and it appears to be easier to find. 

I also took the Air Hawk out for zeroing. It didn't go as well as I was hoping. The scope will need to be replaced as none of the adjustments had predictable outcomes. I found a spot that was close but the gun shot high left. Any adjustments would bring one round close to zero but the second shot would go right back to were I started from. The rings are also junk. I will need to get some rings specific for 11mm dovetail mounts and not these 11mm to 13 or 14mm multi-use rings the gun came with.

I really like the stock on the Air Hawk, BTW. It is SOO much better than the stock on the American Rimfire. I will DEFINITELY be replacing the stock on my American. I will add pics later.

Update: I chose one of the targets for my record book. A rough measure of the group shows the first 3 shots I took produced a group of approximately 5/8 inch. The next shot totally ruined the awesomeness, giving me a total size of approximately 2.5 inches from a distance of 100 yards. The fifth round land about half an inch from the small group between the small group and flier. I tell you, I wanted to stop SOOOO bad after shooting those first 3 rounds. If I had though, that would have been cheating and I can't accept that.

A Short Day at the Range - Ruger Air Hawk

I pulled out my Ruger Air Hawk yesterday and took it out to the range. It's an older gun but I like it. It has good weight and a nice solid plain wood stock that seems to fit me. The single shot, break-barrel system is pretty easy to use but for a weaker person, one might have trouble opening the action. Unfortunately, the rear sights are skewed. While adjustable, the gun left the factory with the rear sight pegged all the way to the right and the gun still shoots way off to the right. The person at the factory knew this thing was off and shipped it out anyway. No amount adjustments seem to help and the front sight doesn't want to adjust either. Ruger's with messed up open sights? This seems to be a trend...

I had to re-familiarize myself with the air gun but that didn't take long at all. That said, I wish I had a better scope. The original scope rings suck. I will have to take the gun back out and zero it in again. To be fair, this gun wasn't made by Ruger. It was made by Umarex. Still, I can't help but feel like newer Ruger guns have bad QC when it comes to open sights. My American Rimfire's sights are TOTALLY messed up and I had to adjust my MKIII 22/45's rear sight almost all the way over to get it in the bullseye. Before you begin to blame me (which I'm not saying isn't an option) I've had several people look over American's sights and they ALL see the same thing I see. The screw hole for the front sight was drilled off axis several degrees clock-wise and had severe burring; enough that it raised the front sight off the barrel completely. While the burrs can be fixed, the off axis cut can't be without major repairs. The rear sights are also rotated clock-wise the same way but the dovetail cut wasn't cut perfectly perpendicular to the barrel. Thankfully, the bore seems to have been cut correctly since the gun seems to shoot pretty straight. Note that I always shoot from a bench rest when adjusting my sights so I don't think it's entirely me.

The groups from the Air Hawk were pretty good when I figured out where to aim. I will need to put the scope back on and see how the gun truly does.

Bleh - Not the best day at the range

Today was not the best day I've had. I took the Mosin out which was nice, but damn, 20 rounds in and I already had a headache. I finished off a total of 40 rounds with the Mosin but what really sucked was the poor level of groups I had with the American today. BTW, I switched back to 100 yards with the Ruger American Rimfire. I think that gun will be solely for 100 yards at this point.

I ended up having exactly 25 rounds left of the Armscor Precision 40 grain standard velocity from the previous shoot. None of the groups were any better than 3 inches after zeroing the scope back in for 100 yards. Some of the shots were pretty good, some shots were even touching, but I think I'm going to stay away from the Armscor stuff. I think I may splurge and try to buy some of that Eley that Midway has. It's like 18.99 for 50 rounds but if my gun likes it then maybe I can start getting more consistent 1.5 inch groups. I think 1.5 inch groups at 100 yards are my target goal with this gun.

Here's hoping my next trip to the range isn't as bleh. 

Long Range Shooting Update - Look at what I did!

WOOT!!!! I plugged the image into OnTarget PC to calculate the group size. It came out as Max Spread = .838 inches or .801 MOA. That's a SUB MOA group! That said, I think I got a little lucky with it.

Here's a picture of the software's calculations.

And here's the rest of today's shoot.

The first 10 shots I took were at the 12 inch target in the middle firing the Remington Golden Bullet. The group wasn't very good but it was only for a warm up of the gun. After the warm up, I switched to Eley Club Xtra for the next 10 groups of 5 shots each. Each 5 shot group was put onto one of the 10 different 6 inch Shoot-N-C's. The second group (top left) started to look tight but after 5 shots it wasn't that good. The Third group was the SUB MOA group you see on the left middle. After each shoot, I've started pulling the target with the best group for documentation. After running through the groups I decided to put down about 20 more rounds of the Remington crap, all on the 12 inch target. I had made an adjustment to the scope which put the Eley's closer to the middle but put the Remington's high and to the right. Calculations show that I'm shooting around 2.5 inch groups on average.

I think I will take this image and run it through the calculator to see how I'm doing on average.

I now have a new issue. Eley Club Xtra isn't cheap or easy to get.... And I only have one box left.

Long Range Shooting Phase 1 - Week 1

Today I got a chance to go check out to AGC's range, try out my Ruger American Rimfire setup and meet new folks. Everything went really well. We got the rifle sighted in for 100 yards and I even ended up participating in the club's match. Even though I only shot a 28 out of 50, I'm happy with everything so far; gun, gear, range and people. Yesterday, I completed the safety orientation which was very detailed. While I don't have a range badge just yet (I'll pick it up tomorrow) AGC will be very good for many of my future projects.

I'm sun-burnt and tired but it's so worth it. I'll update this post later on with the details but know this; the Ruger American Rimfire ended up shooting very well at 100 yards with CCI Mini-Mags. The gun shoots better than I do. I'll just have to get better and try different ammo to tighten up the groups but it looks like it can shoot around 1.5 to 2 inch groups at 100 yards as is.

The Update

This post will end up being more about Day 1 through 4 instead of just Day 1. After joining up with the club last Saturday (Day 1), I spent several hours each day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the range. I ended up taking Wednesday to rest up. I picked up my range badge on Monday but I was able to shoot with the club on Sunday as a guest of one of the members.

Sunday was spent getting up early and getting prepared for the day by figuring out what I wanted to take, buying a box of CCI Mini Mags from Basspro and Shoot and See targets from Walmart. After getting my ammo I headed out to the range early. My club was to have a rimfire match around 12:30 but I got to the range early so I could watch a match at the 200 yard range and try to pick up pointers and suggestions; it wasn't a very fruitful endeavor. After the 200 yard match was over I went looking for my club's members so I could link up with them and introduce myself. I'm very appreciative of the club members as they were all nice and very helpful. One of the members was willing to assist me with sighting in the Ruger American Rimfire. While we were sighting in the rifle for 100 yards, the others were setting up for their club match; Small Caliber only. Sighting in my rifle basically proved what I already assumed; that I need to work on consistency. After watching me test the rifle, the guy assisting me took a turn on the rifle. He was able to shoot a 3 shot group that measured about 1 to 1.5 inch with the CCI Mini Mags (36gr) I had acquired. I didn't remember to take a picture or even measure the group so I apologize for lack of good data. I'm glad he was a decent spotter as it made sighting in the rifle much easier.

After prepping the rifle, I was invited to compete in the club's match. Everyone else was running rimfire rifles as well; mostly Savage Mark IIs and Ruger 10/22s. One team even had a Ruger American Rimfire (RAR) just like mine. The husband and wife team did mention they were disappointed with their RAR but I hadn't had much chance to ask why.

The match consisted of 3 stages where you had to shoot 5 rounds at each of the 10 steel targets from 100 yards. Each stage was shot from a different position (standing, sitting or prone) with the targets being smaller or larger based on the position. Smaller for prone and larger for standing (off-hand). The smallest target was the size of a golf ball; I only hit that one once. I ended up shooting pretty well in the sitting position but not well for the prone (those targets were pretty small). I scored a 28 out of a possible 50; my partner shot a 32/50. I have no idea how the other shooters did. After the match was over, we all sat around talking and eating sandwiches until people were ready to leave. After cleaning up everyone left.

Monday I purchased my range badge along with one of the ACG's rimfire steel targets. The picture below is of the target stand that came with the steel target I bought but I replaced the hanging steel target with a 12 inch Shoot and See target so I could practice with the RAR. These shots were the first 30 shots of the day. I had a decent group with the first 10 shots with an exception of the one shot you see on the far right. That was my only flier for the first 10; otherwise I managed to put in about a 2.5 inch group. You can clearly see that the first 30 shots had some fliers. I will need to work on my consistency to fix those.

In addition to the RAR, I took out my S&W M&P 15-22. I took a few shots with it to see if it was any good at longer ranges. Seeing as it only has iron sights which had to be dialed in, I was able to place a few shots at 100 yards that weren't very tight. I think the issue was more with me than the gun. Someday, I might see about a scope for the M&P to see how well it shoots. After several hours on Monday, I left for home for rest and food. While deciding if I even wanted to go out again on Tuesday, I thought about making a larger target stand since the short one I bought isn't suitable for distances less than 100 yards.

Tuesday, I got up early again and worked out how to improve my target stand. I ended up running to Walmart and the local hardware store for parts and ideas. I ended up piecing together some PVC for the feet and 3 foot wooden rods that are attached to the back that telescope up. The stand needs to break down so it fits in my car. The feet are easily detachable and even break down into individual pieces for easy transport and storage. The rods telescope up so I can attach a large piece of cardboard which I stick the targets to. I decided to start using the 6 inch targets for practice which lets me put 9 targets up but there is plenty of space between the targets to put smaller targets in. Towards the end of Tuesday's shoot, I started putting the little black dots from the target you see in the image above in between the targets. I had moved the target to around 25 yards so I could sight in my Ruger MKIII 22/45. The black dots make perfect little targets at that distance. It required me to compensate for the new elevation. The image below shows the first 60 shots I took for Tuesday. All these shots are from 100 yards. Working from left, down then moving to right, down you can see the different 10 shot groups.

The first group isn't that great. I'm not sure if it was me or just getting the rifle up to temp or something, but 2 of the shots were off to the right of the target. The second group was better. The third and fourth groups I feel were pretty good but you can see me stringing the shots with the third group. The fifth group had something weird going on where half the shots were way right. I'm not sure if I've uncovered some issue with the rifle or the scope setup after making lots of shots or if I just really sucked then. The sixth group was me trying to figure out what was wrong with the fifth group. I did make an adjustment to the scope but I un-did that later as it didn't seem to help. I'm hoping it was just me.

I covered over the holes in the targets with the dots and tried again but the groups were about the same. I did make an attempt at a 10 shot aimed rapid fire which resulted in an okay group. As a said earlier I had moved the stand to about 25 yards so I could shoot the 22/45. While the stand was at 25 yards I put those black dot stickers between the lower targets. After shooting the 22/45 I picked up the RAR and started shooting for the black dots (the dots are about 1 inch in diameter). Most of the time I was able to get a hit on the first shot with 3 shot groups being around 1 inch. I'll blame the lack of tighter groups on the fact that I had to compensate for the elevation change which means I had to aim the cross hairs lower. Again, after several hours at the range, I left for home to rest, get food and clean the guns. I also shot groups using different ammo including Eley Club Xtra but I'm not sure if it's that much better because I'm not shooting well enough.

All in all, I had a nice break from work and had a good time at the range. While I spent 3 days in a row there, I'll likely be making my visits to the range about one day a week maybe every week. I need a better rest and I may need to make some adjustments to the stock on the RAR. Hopefully, I will be able to tighten those groups up enough. On a side note, I may make an attempt with the RAR on the 200 yard range just to be funny.

Update 2

I changed the title to Week 1 because I went back today (Saturday). This time I only took out some Remington .22 Golden Bullets. I'm not exactly pleased with the majority of my groups but I did produce a single 5 shot group from 100 yards that measures around 1.3 inches. All my other groups were pretty much crap as the Remington's didn't seem to be consistent.

I will put this here and in my RAR reveiw. I do NOT recommend Remington .22 Golden Bullets for the Ruger American Rimfire. The only reason is because I kept getting gas in my face. Around 1 in 8 shots would eject gas back in my face. I was not getting this with the CCI's or the Eley's that I've been shooting this week. However, I would still use the Remington's in my autoloaders because the autoloaders have enclosed actions where the RAR is open top. I wear glasses but you should remember to wear eye protection.