Greybeards Gripes

Haven’t been out fishing,  but I do have my eye on a new (used as in 1988) fishing boat.  It’s a 24 ft Thompson,  with a custom enclosed cabin.  Very clean and very well thought out.  Possible just slightly underpowered with a 4.3 liter Chevy V-6 connected to an OMC outdrive,  but they say it moves pretty well.  I’ll be giving this one some hard thought and maybe a test ride.

I have, been shooting.  I took the DPMS out again last Friday.  This time using PPU.priv partizan Match ammo.  The same stuff the eastern Europeans use in the Olympics (supposedly).  I also took along a box of Black Hills Match ammo.  The PPU Match,  was fairly accurate,  shooting almost one hole at 50 yards,  and about 1 inch low.  But I did, get a couple of more failures to chamber. 

When I moved over to the 200 yard range,  I fired 3 PPU’s (one failure to chamber) and two set’s of 3 rounds of the Black Hills Match. (no failures to chamber)  These 9 rounds patterned at about 2.5 inches and 2 inches low.  Somewhat disappointing,  but it’s not broken in yet.

We had some friends show up,  so I didn’t do any more shooting,  but I did bring the cross hairs up 5 clicks.  Hopefully next time out,  that will get the pattern up an inch or so.

When I got back home, I miked the PPU rounds,  and the Black Hills rounds.  NOTE:  Black Hills does a much better job of meeting tolerances.  The PPU match rounds varied as much as .008 in.  in overall length,  and about the same in case length.  The Black Hills match rounds,  always spec’d to within, .002 in. of each other.  Then as a rough comparison,  I miked some Federal Powershock .270 ammo I had sitting nearby.  With the Federal (not match ammo) we were back to about .008 in. of variation. 

I gave it a thorough cleaning and lube,  and we’re ready for the next trip to the 200 yard range.  Hopefully to tighten that group considerably, and bring it up a little, with an eye toward that future 600 yard shoot.

P.S. I was shooting from a Cadwell steady rest,  and the sight picture was extremely stable,  so I’m going to have to blame most the the variation on the ammo, the gun,  and a very slight crosswind.

The other shooting we did involved our carry guns and a S&W  6 inch K-22 I’m considering using in our up coming Turkey Shoot.  The carry guns,  my Glock-36 and the wife’s .44 Bulldog,  shot as good as ever.   My 20 yard groups measured about 5 inches,  and the better half’s about 7 inches.   Not pro quality,  but 5 or six hot .45 hollow points in a pie plate,  should be good enough for civilian work.

The K-22 was a little different story,  free standing at 50 yards, using Rem. target ammo,  I was able to shoot a better score than I did last year,  using a 4x scoped .22 semi-auto rifle.  Maybe with just a bit more tuneup,  I will shoot the little S&W against my co-hort’s rifles in Sept.’s Turkey shoot.  For some reason,  it just seems easier to hold the handgun on target,  from that free standing position?

P.S. again,  That custom cabin on the Thompson boat, has a nice little cubby hole corner,  just big enough to hold a rack for the boat gun.  :-)  Hmmmmm,,,

I went out after Walleye yesterday with a trio of old Pro’s.  We knew they Walleye weren’t hot,  but these guy’s knew every trick in the book.  Bottom line,  we hauled in three keepers.  Not a great catch,  but it was a great day,  sunny but not to hot, and a cooling breeze all day.  I was a learning experience for me,  and I believe I learned a lot.

The day before that,  I took my DPMS LR-308B out the the club to finish sighting it in at 200 yards..   This didn’t work out as well as planned,  it was similar to the time last year when I took Dad’s custom build .270 out to test the sight in.  The .270 jammed up on the first round,  due to a overly long reloaded round and I had to bring it home to unjam it.

With the DPMS,  I actually got to fire 2 fouling rounds before trouble arose.  I fired two at 50 yards to foul it a bit,  then loaded three match grade rounds to do the initial 200 yard shoots.  The very first round,  failed to fully chamber and jammed the bolt.  Again,  I couldn’t clear it at the club,  so home it came, with only two rounds fired.

After I got it home, and it cooled and everything equalized,  I was able to eject the partially chambered unfired round.  I mic’d the round, and all the other rounds from the box of Black Hills .308 Match.  Everything looked good.  I emailed DPMS and they said that this type of thing isn’t uncommon with a brand new unbroken in DPMS rifle due to their tight chambers.

Oh well,  both it and Dad’s .270 are all cleaned up, and double inspected, ready for the next trip to the range.

Happy fishing and shooting, 

GB

This was caught somewhere on the Detroit river.  The big Pike was never hooked,  he bit the 36 incher as it was hooked,  and wouldn’t let go.  It could be a new record, 56 lbs.!!!

It’s been HOT in AuGres.  The Pirate Festival went pretty well yesterday.  (They even had a pretty good Jack Sparrow look-a-like running around)

Today the weather has cooled a bit and there’s a slight threat of much needed rain.

The word on fishing is;  Walleye are still biting about 8 miles south of the river,  and the Perch are spotty.   I’ve also been told that Catfish are in the river,  but haven’t tested that comment.

Later,

GB