Saturday, August 15, 2009

Just a quickie range trip report

from three days ago, I'm so far behind. Some general practice, trying out some cast loads, and I had a chance to shoot one of these,
a Remington Model 24. It's made on the (You DO know who designed that, don't you?)[/Tam] Browning patent, and if you've never seen one, see that teardrop-shaped hole in the stock? You unlock and withdraw the magazine plunger tube from the butt, which opens the hole, and you drop the cartridges in there(11 long rifles), return the plunger to place, then cycle the bolt from the bottom of the receiver and begin firing; empties eject straight down.

It was the first time I'd ever fired one of these, and it's a damn nice little rifle. Light, handy, and very accurate; resting elbows on the bench I was getting about 1.5" groups at 50 yards, and that's with a tiny rear 'U' notch and a small front bead; with a scope or better irons I could have shrunk that. Clean, light trigger, too. I want one.

Did I mention that it breaks down? There's a latch at the rear of the barrel at the bottom; push it forward, retract the bolt a bit, rotate the barrel 1/4 turn and it comes out of the receiver. Reverse that, and it's back together. Damn nice piece of work.

The other piece I got to try was an old Iver Johnson 5-shot revolver in .38S&W(couldn't find a good picture right now). These were basic revolvers primarily made for self-defense, not at all fancy. Top-break, the barrel pivots to raise the cylinder to load and eject empties. Not as strong as design as the Webley; if you shoot one of these, make sure the thing is mechanically sound first. This one was fired with some light handloads, and proved to have a clean, slightly heavy single-action pull, and a somewhat heavy double-action; not helped by a small grip. These were pocket pistols, and as was common at the time has a thin, tall front blade and a tiny rear notch. This one shot a bit above point of aim at ten feet, either due to my hold or maybe the loads were actually a touch hotter than what it was regulated with. In either case, it grouped nicely.

That's it for now; more on the cast-bullet loads when I've got time and spare consciousness.

3 comments:

Keith said...

those little browning .22s are lovely.

Did you see Xavier's posts about them around 18 months ago?

Firehand said...

If I did, I don't remember it. I'll have to hit there later and look it up

Anonymous said...

Mention the breakdown.
I wonder if that's the same basis for my old Model 50 shotgun (Remington? Winchester?)? It breaks down very nicely. Unthread a large screw from the front of the grip. Remove front grip. Twist barrel 1/4 turn & remove from action.

Oh, and did I also mention that it's recoil semi auto. And no need for a plug for hunting, it only holds three rounds.

B Woodman
III