Functional chronography at last?

The replacement chronograph arrived from Battenfeld Technologies, and today I got to set it up and try it out.  By which I mean "conduct a very rudimentary test";  this was no sort of dedicated session.

However, I'm encouraged at the results.  I had the deck stacked up for it to fail.  To wit:

• Today is the winter solstice, at just about 60 degrees north latitude.  It wasn't fully overcast, but certainly cloudy.  I shot at 3pm, one hour before sunset.  This is not what you'd call "ideal light".  (Temp was 27F and humidity was 64%, for my own documentation.)
• I had the standard screen shades on the unit.  (When they sent me the replacement, they actually sent me the "deluxe" kit, which includes a pair of infrared skyscreen shades intended to improve performance in diffuse light.  I now have that option, but I tried it without first.)
• I tested with the tiniest projectile I will ever shoot over the screens--an 8-grain .177" diabolo pellet.  (Even Airsoft BBs are bigger than this.)

The test string was 18 shots (the capacity of my "pellet pen" loader/seater).  I did record two errors on shots 4 and 5, but suddenly I had an odd hunch that maybe I should cause the pellet to pass lower, closer to the screens.  I tried this and the error, and the "fix", seems to be repeatable.  Interesting.  I'll be curious to see if I get the same effect when I pass a 31-grain .25" diabolo pellet over the unit, or if maybe that tiny little 8-grain pill is just that much harder to pick up that you have to "help" it a bit with proximity.  Or, maybe this is where the IR lights start to become valuable.  More testing, of course!

Still...every time I put a pellet low over the screens (call it the bottom 1/4 of the presented trapezoid, rather than the middle half), even in minimal, flat light and using the standard screens, I got a read.  And the simple interface and export options (this chrony is notable for interfacing with a smartphone) seem quite promising.

All of which makes me pretty happy.  Here soon I'll try to wring it out more thoroughly at the house (using .177" pellets in the Bronco, Airsoft BBs in the gas 1911, and .25" pellets in the AirForce TalonP), both to learn more about those guns themselves, and also to get ready for range testing when the now-completed 03 Springfield arrives. 

I'll keep fingers crossed that this is going to work out the way I'm envisioning it.  And in that vein, today was a much better start than the first time!  :-)

Dude, more squee.

Wasn't expecting this so soon, but today a gift from my folks arrived, a Caldwell "Ballistic Precision" chronograph. 

Well then, excellent!  With a little luck I'll both get zeroed and be able to do a preliminary test on both chrono and TalonP, this weekend.

UPDATE:  Grr.   I couldn't get anything at all to record today;  the unit kept failing consistently on the stop screen.  I may have to do an exchange.

UPDATE 2 (12/1):  Well, credit Battenfeld Technologies for a positive customer service experience.  It seems that I may have acquired an earlier edition of this model, wherein this problem is not unknown.  A later-edition replacement has been promised as soon as they can get it out the door.  Stay tuned!

Sometimes I forget how much of a geek I am.

And leave it to Tam to furnish the latest illustration.  After losing considerable coffee over this, I thought I'd share it with a couple of gunnie friends.

Once Upon a Time...

...in a gun shop long ago and far away, there was a bunch of that Indian surplus .303 for sale. Tamara and A Gunsmith Who Shall Remain Nameless were standing behind the counter when a man came in and began looking over the merchandise.

The man saw the Indian ammunition and shook his head and said "You know, this stuff ain't even got gunpowder in it. It's all full of this stuff that looks like spaghetti. I took some apart with a genetic bullet puller." And then he left.

"He needed a genetic bullet puller," said Gunsmith Name Redacted To Protect The Innocent.

"Too late," said Tamara, "There was a kid in the car."

The End.

I wound up explaining the jokes and it was, of course, a whole lot less funny that way.  (On linking back, I now notice that Tam provides explanatory links, inline.)

Okay, I'm a geek.  And I admit, I'm torn between wistfulness that fewer and fewer people get the references, and a purely prurient wish that I could have been there to see that.  :-)

Notes from the fun shop.

Just documenting a couple of things for future reference.  (There will probably be more on most of this at some point.)  Some erranding with the girls today in Soldotna yielded some useful intel.

To wit:

• Holy freakin' cow.  It's here.  (Browning's 1911-22 in modern trim.)
• I actually found five boxes of 16 gauge buckshot on the shelf today.  Which means that I bought five boxes of 16 gauge buckshot today.
• .22 availability is still stupid.  Stoopid.  (Are regular people even buying .22s any more, with no way to feed them?)
• Availability of other ammo and components actually seems to be improving.  It's ridiculously expensive, sure, but it's there.
• Got a chance to meet an XD-S 4", in person.  This one had a distinctly sweeter trigger than the one I met the other day (another data point), and more importantly I got to look at the extension magazine.  In short:  I was impressed.  I'll keep looking every time I see one, but the "new Commander" appellation seems to be very appropriate for the Springfield.

More later, of course.  Deadlining in other areas, and playing Mr. Mom for a week, I do have to put off the fun of writing this all up properly.  (Maybe it'll be after neighbor C. and I get some range time together.  Another find today was a stash of Buffalo Bore ammo for his 460 Rowland 1911...I can be an enabler sometimes...  :-)

Milestone.

It has taken very nearly five years--astonishing what two quite marvelous little girls can do to one's sense of schedule--but the reloading operation is now officially up. 

The re-christening is a new load for .308, pushing 165s with 4064 over WLR in once-fired PMP cases.  Five rounds to confirm the consistency of the starting charge, and get the seating depth correct.  Five more rounds at the starting charge.  Headspace gauge is happy;  tomorrow will chamber-check to confirm, and then load up in fives to the target charge. 

Can't say enough good about the press.  Five years, five moves, and the first charge it threw was within half a grain of where I'd left it set at back in Colorado.  Consistency testing got boring quickly.  Everything's tightened back up and lubed appropriately, and we're back!

As soon as possible then:  fresh batteries in chronograph and active muffs;  bring out the grouping targets.  Find a good range day.  Company if possible.  Measure, record, analyze.  And go from there.

Here's looking forward to a productive winter.  :-)

And then there is the .460 Rowland.

Even before yesterday's renewed examination of .45 wheelguns for big critters, I got to talking with my neighbor a bit about his .460 Rowland, which is what he intends for bruin repellent.  

I remember running across reports of this cartridge a while back, and I kinda wrote them off;  at the time, my thinking was that guns tend to work best with the cartridges they were designed around, especially auto pistols, and at any rate I was figuring that I'd invest in the Rolls-Royce of big wheelguns, a Bowen Arms Nimrod, for all things bear, and be done with it.

This was before moving to Alaska, however, and now I'm thinking about the Rowland idea again.

In a nutshell, the Rowland is an elongated .45ACP case that operates at 40,000psi, as opposed to 21,000psi.  Jim Clark makes a drop-in kit for 1911s that is simply a compensated barrel, bushing, guide rod, 20 and 24 pound Wolff recoil springs, and instructions, and it sounds like the expansion port compensator and heavy recoil springs are enough to keep slide velocity low enough that it doesn't batter the gun.  It's been around long enough now that we can say that it works.

And the power level seems to be mid-level .44 Magnum performance.  Buffalo Bore claims, out of one of the Clark kits, 230 grains at 1350fps, and 255 at 1300.  Consider that when most people considered the .44 the "most powerful handgun in the world", the load it had made its name on was a 240 grain bullet at a listed 1500fps.  (Well, from 8" and longer test barrels, that is.  In the 4" and 6" barrels of most people's working guns, actual velocities were probably closer to Elmer Keith's original development envelope of 1,200fps.)  And of course now, we know that the .44 can be loaded to much greater performance levels...but still, 255 grains at 1300, especially with a good bullet design, is pretty impressive...and that performance from what's effectively a 6" 1911? 

Wow, that really is something.  At the penalty of requiring either a new holster or an existing one with open muzzle...that's the gun you already know, the one you might already wear on a regular basis, luxuriously slim and comfortable, with eight or nine full-house .44 Mag loads on tap, and a slim reload faster than any rimmed-round wheelgun.  This is an idea which may be worth revisiting.

My neighbor bought his already converted;  it's a Dan Wesson base gun with the Clark kit installed, and probably fitted by someone--the lockup seems pretty tight.  The only thing I'd change is the sights, but that's a personal preference--I get distracted by all the white on a Millett-style rear sight, and for a field gun I want the front sight to be plain black, either with serrations or an undercut.

He seems amenable to some joint testing at the range, so I'll see if I can score a box of Buffalo Bore's 255s for him (not cheap, but a worthy experiment) and bring chronograph and some penetration testing materials;  maybe we can see how they perform next to BB's 325-grain .45 Colt.

Fun times ahead.  :-)
  

Got a little gunshop time today...

...very little, actually, but I'll take it:  I can store a lot of mental updates in a pretty short time.  A couple things seemed worth documenting, if only for me.

Made note again that Savage has entered what I might call "the Chipmunk market" for kids' starter rifles, with an inexpensive, nifty little scaled-down single-shot turnbolt .22 that features real aperture sights and the "Accu-Trigger" that I've heard so many good things about.  This one appears to be called the "Rascal".

Also I got to meet Baikal's coach gun, which fairly impressed me with its nice basic design and a nifty tang safety that has just the sort of crisp, positive snap! that is music to a 1911 guy's ears.  Mounts were quick and the stock felt shorter than it really was, which always makes me happy (most people still insist on long stocks, for reasons I've heard for years but understand less and less over time).

I'd probably further go against convention by putting something more visible than a bead on the sight rib, but other than that and a buttstock ammo carrier, this unit is ready to go.

Also, I finally got to meet a SIG 938, which I have been contemplating for a while as a potential platform for a kid-sized .22 pistol...and I'll admit the impression was mixed.

The gripframe is simply not as compelling as it should be.  It feels "long" high on the frame, enough so to stick out immediately.  I'd have to see it in a kid's hand, and also under fire, to comment further, but by comparison I was much more impressed by the reduced 1911-22 from Browning.  The SIG's safety was positive enough;  I'll always prefer the 1911 style slide-locking safety, but this isn't a deal-breaker.  The 938's trigger was surprisingly heavy;  a nice, short, and positive reset, but as a single-action trigger it felt...stiff.  Now, I'll be the first to admit that what I'm after here is something deliberately sweet so that it can represent a serious training .22 sized for a kid's hand, but even on a combat pistol, a single-action trigger doesn't have to be quite that lawyer-proof.  In the SIG's distinct favor were the sights (excellent), and the slide manipulation is notably easier on the hands than many tiny guns...  In the end:  I dunno.  It may be that with the addition of a few common accoutrements (read:  better sights, ducktail grip safety and appropriate hammer, and tastefully extended safety lever) and good leather, the 1911-22 will be the way to go for a training and development pistol.  We'll see.

Saw an LCR in .22 rimfire, and it surprised me by being a six-shooter instead of eight or nine.  I wonder what the story is on that?

It appears that Springfield Armory is now making the XD-S in 9mm as well as in .45;  as a 9 it's a 7+1 gun instead of a 5+1, but otherwise it doesn't appear dimensionally different at all.  Call me old-fashioned, but in the same size package I'll take six .45s, thanks.  (Where the 9 makes sense to me is in the luxuriously light 6+1 DB9, at 0.8" thick, eleven ounces empty and with a surprisingly friendly trigger mechanism.)  However, in comparing the two I was again reminded of how amazing a piece that XD-S in .45 is:  how the gun really can be that tiny and yet still fit all your fingers on its gripframe I do not understand, but combine that with a nice short-reset trigger, great sights and excellent ergonomics, and you've got a real winner there.  If I were starting over with a general battery of pistols, I'd probably replace the .40 Kahr with the .45 XD-S to fit the "smaller than a 1911 but still carried on the belt" niche, and be happy with it.

Ammo still seems stoopid, and reloading components stoopider still.  I know it's been a while since I've been a shotshell reloader, but a 25# bag of lead shot for over fifty bucks just nearly causes hyperventilation.  Not only am I carefully designing a plan for skills maintenance with airguns, I'm strongly considering getting set up to cast my own pellets.

Anyway, a few thoughts to set down so I don't forget them.  Would love to go through a more comprehensive review of the state of the industry, but with two small kids in the house even the above whirlwind is appreciated time.

Data points.  Duly noted.

A more satisfying day.

Actually got a chance to do something constructive today;  took a bunch of brass that's been in storage for a serious long time and fired up the case tumbler.  This brass was given to me by some folks right before we left Colorado and I'll always take brass.  :-)

Ran three loads today (one more and that segment should be done) and I'm pumped to say that I've got well over a thousand pieces of .45ACP that passed visual inspection.  (Shit ain't cheap, so this makes me happy!)  Also in that group were lesser quantities of .40S&W, 9x19, and .38 Special, a couple hundred .223, and maybe fifty-odd .308.

It's long past time for me to dust off the reloading gear that's been in storage, calibrate it up, and start cranking out some workhorse loads.  Clean brass always puts me in the mood for that, so I'm hopeful to get some momentum up.

Here's to a constructive week.

Reloading gear, inside.

Amazing, what you can get done once that ridiculous high fever breaks and you begin to inhabit your own body again.  (And oy, but enough of that shit already.)

I went and got, out of storage, what I think is the whole quantity of reloading gear that I've got with me thus far in Alaska.  It's been packed up since the move back in '08, and languishing in storage during the times when I couldn't afford to do anything anyway.  (I've still got some quantities of components in a box at my folks' house in Montana, which I didn't just stick on the barge out of some loopy attempt to "be a good citizen" and play by the rules.  I assure you the move experience, and trying to find a way to get said items up here by some "legally acceptable means", has completely cured me of that rainbow-shittin'-unicorn fantasy.  If I had it to do over again, all my components and loaded ammo would have just made it here, eff you very much.)

Anyway, talk about a sensation like Christmas.  It was really nice to see the supplies of rifle bullets and remind myself of what volumes of which cases I have in supply.  Now I have to figure out what to load for first, and how to acquire primers and powder in the most intelligent way to get the most ammo on the shelves in the quickest possible time.  This means a little pencil work, some reference reading, and finally the delightful calibration and test-batch production process.

Some work, is not work at all.

I'm partly looking forward to the process because of what it might mean for my three-year-old.  She is "our little scientist", and I suspect that she might be quite interested in certain aspects of the overall loading task.  I'll start her with sorting and case tumbling, and if she's interested beyond that, maybe we can look at things like primer-tube loading;  she's got just enough of a fixation on doing things right that if I engage her with some of the more foolproof or monitorable tasks, she might wind up being a real, honest help.

I'm looking forward to a lot of this, but I admit I've got a soft spot for trying out a few loads in particular:

• The Kerflättenboömer load:  Beartooth Bullets' LBT-design behemoth 525-grain WLN-GC for the Marlin .45-70.  These things have apparently shot through both buffalo and elephant, and are just the bullets I want to be standing behind if a brownie decides to get belligerent.  The big thing for me will be making sure they feed reliably--damn that's a wide meplat, which is all to the good once it's airborne, but if it won't cycle through the Marlin every time I'll go "back" to the less-aggressive meplat on the LFN design and "settle" for the 450-grain slug.  We don't mess with reliability here.  :-)
• The Kerflättenboömer-light load:  Once again it's Beartooth Bullets' design;  this time both a 310- and 340-grain pill for the .45 Blackhawk.  I'll run the increments up and we'll see how the Blackhawk likes them.  With any luck, that much extra bullet (over, say, the standard 250-grain cowboy load) should keep the velocities from getting so high that the low-point-of-impact becomes a real problem.  Theoretically, this should be a good way of backing up the .45-70 with a belt gun, and although I'm not trying to make the unmodified Blackhawk into a true .45 Linebaugh (that is the topic of another post, fersure), it should be capable of a goodly improvement over .44 Mag without bending anything.
• 168-grain loads for both Scout and M1A.  I've got my "vanilla" load for the Scout figured out for a 180-grain bullet, but I'd like to actually put 150s and 168s through it and see what she's capable of--and optimizing for Alaska is bound to be a little different, with ambient temperatures, humidities and altitudes very different than what I cut my teeth on in Colorado.

Much work to be done;  I intend to enjoy the summer's "work".  And it begins with the unboxing, the acquisition of components, and then the laying on of hands.

To it, then!  :-)

Reloading - powder notes

A housekeeping post here; as I contemplate getting the reloading operation up and running here in Alaska, on the new sharply limited income, I am interested anew in powders that are maximally versatile across cartridges and loadings. If anyone is truly inspired by this post, I salute your geekitude! :-)


Possible powders for 308:

• IMR 4064
• IMR 4320
• IMR 4831
• IMR 4350
• IMR 3031
• IMR 4895
• H 335
• WW 748

Possible powders for 45/70:

• H 322
• IMR 3031
• IMR 4064
• WW 748

Possible powders for 30/06:

• IMR 4064
• IMR 4320
• IMR 4831
• IMR 4350
• IMR 4895
• H 380
• H 414
• H 4350
• H 4831

Possible powders for 223:

• WW 748
• H 335
• IMR 4895
• IMR 4064
• IMR 3031
• IMR 4198