Range day

Though it promised to be hot, I went. Glad I did, too; after all this 30%, it's gonna be bloody awful humidity tomorrow if it does hit the upper 80's.

I discovered a while back that the Hornady Leverevolution .30-30 ammo won't work very well in my Model 94; with the rear sight as low as it goes the stuff still hits almost 8" high at 50 yards. I did have a chance to try it in a Savage 340 with a scope; the stuff seems quite accurate. I'm wondering what the trajectory is like at 150 and 200 yards(I need to find a place with longer range).

Every time I shoot that S&W Target Masterpiece I'm more glad I bought it; even I can shoot fairly well with it.

If I haven't said it before, I heartily endorse a .22 conversion kit for your 1911. Or Glock. Or Hi-Power, or whatever else you can find one for. Mine's a Ceiner, and so far the only problem I've had is when it gets dirty, and can't really fault it for that. Seems to work with all ammo I've tried in it; definitely more authority and the brass flies further with something like Golden Bullet, but even with Centurion or Federal Champion it ticks right along.

I found some Lake City .223 brass someone left, and saved it; of all the brands I've tried, this stuff seems the easiest to form for the Nagant revolver. Otherwise, I think I found three or four .30-06 cases and two .308 on the rifle side; just about everything else reloadable had been cleaned up already. Lots of 9mm, .40S&W and .45acp on the pistol side, though not as much as before. I did find about twenty-five or so .380 cases, especially nice right now.

Remember that sucky Pentax red-dot sight I wrote about a year or so ago? Ran across it and decided to try it one more time, on a .22. New battery, everything clean, and it worked. For about 50 rounds. Then it started wandering all over the damn place; try to adjust elevation and it would change the windage, too, on top of that. I repeat:
Pentax Red-Dot Sights Suck!

I don't know why, but a lot of cast-bullet loads are very consistent in hitting a few inches to the right of where jacketed bullets hit. In something with windage adjustments, no big deal; just crank it over a click or two. In everything else, unless you plan to use cast loads only, you just get used to the POI being a little off.

Guy was trying out a .17HMR Savage rifle he'd just acquired. Seemed very accurate. He hung up a coconut at 50 yards and shot it; little bitty hole up front, BIG hole in back. I do believe that'll leave a mark on varmints.

Just a general day at the range, which ended as a storm was blowing in.

Except for not going to a workplace, doesn't seem like much less work to do so far in retirement; just different stuff. All kinds of little stuff I never had time to get to. Like trimming the holly trees out front, which I realized didn't just need trimming but almost needed to be beaten into submission, they'd grown out so much. So spent a couple of hours cutting them back, and gathering the trimmings into the trash can. I need to look up holly and see if there's a male and female plant; the leaves on one are pointy, but the leaves on the other will flat stab you. I do like the things; green and pretty, red berries in winter and in spring lots of little blossoms that attract honeybees. But trimming them will bleed you if you're not careful. And there's more to do, but it was too hot to continue the other day, so in a day or two out with the ladder and get the stuff overhanging the carport and house.