Thursday, September 07, 2006

I love it when an idea actually works

the way it was supposed to. Also, an ammo report.

Note: no pictures, as my daughter has borrowed my camera for the next week or so. I'll either update this or do a new post with pics when possible.

In this case, the homemade scout mount for the M1 Carbine. I took it to the range today to try out. Indoor range, so it's only 30 yards, but enough for a trial. And it worked nicely. I'd wondered if the handguard would be stable enough for a solid mount, but over about fifty rounds nothing shifted. Started off way high & right(no surprise) and a little trial & adjust put it on point of aim, after which tried for accuracy. I was using- in effect- three different loads. Main was some GI-spec I bought from GI Brass, the rest some reloads I put together using Lake City brass and 110-grain FMJ bullets. First group of five with the GI stuff produced one long hole less than 3/4" long and about one bullet-width wide; not what I expected from this little rifle. The reloads were made up of

(DISCLAIMER: These are loads I got from the Lyman manual. They worked in MY rifle; that's no guarantee they'll work in yours or with your reloading style. As with any loads, START at the minimum and work up from there. What you do with load info and the results you get are NOT under my control.)

Lake City brass and bullets, Winchester small rifle primers and 2400 powder. There are several recommended for this cartridge, 2400 being one of them, and since I already use it I started with it. The minimum load functioned with no problems, but the next step up I used both functioned perfectly and gave accuracy equal to the GI stuff. I'll need to try both the GI and handloads at 50 and 100 from a solid bench, I think both will give good accuracy.

So far, the only problem with the mount is what I mentioned before, that the scope sits higher than I like. I could either find/make a lace-on cheekpad, or find the lowest-rise scope rings I can and put those on. I think the low rings would make a big difference. This setup would also work very well with a red-dot sight, and a good one would make the not-so-good cheek weld less of a factor if it sits a bit high.

As to ammo, a while back I bought one of the cans of .30 Carbine from GI Brass; it's made with Lake City components, and of the two hundred or so I've fired there have been zero problems and- as noted above- good accuracy. And as I fire it it gives me good-quality reloadable brass. I used some of their bullets for the reloads, and they are of fine quality and worked beautifully.

The other ammo was with the Benelli, some Federal Tactical Low Recoil slugs I picked up at the gun show. They throw a 1oz. slug, no velocity listed on the box. I fired five rounds at 30 yards, just resting my left hand on the bench. Four produced one big hole a little less than 1.75" long and a little under 1" wide, measuring center-to-center; one called flyer landed an inch or so left of the bottom of the group and a little low. Recoil was noticeably less than the S&B 00 buck I fired before this. I want to try this stuff off a bench at 50 and 100, too; if this is any indication this Federal stuff is a winner.

Now, about the light. I tried a suggestion; painted the inside of the mounting clamp with contact cement, let it dry thoroughly and then clamped the light in. This is why I started the shotgun with the S&B buck, to try this out, and the idea didn't work. After five rounds the light had shifted a long ways forward, so on to the next idea. I'm thinking take a Dremel and cutoff wheel(got to get a new Dremel, mine died) and cut some grooves in the inside of the mount, then put something like a piece of bicycle inner tube between mount & light; that might grab on both enough to hold it in place. For home defense this shouldn't be a real big factor, but I don't like having a setup that I don't KNOW will hold steady however many rounds I fire. The light itself, by the way, still works perfectly.

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