Box Elder Wildlife Federation

[chuckshoun]

Well, it's been awhile since I updated the Blog. Martha has had me busy carting her from dentists and doctors so much I haven't been able to get to the Blog. Sorry about that.

Since I haven't been able to shoot my high power rifle in competition, I've been concentrating on shooting the 45 ACP just for recreation. I figure 78 years old isn't the time to get into pistol competition, although my 50 feet groups are good (slow-fire one hand), about 5 1/2 inches most of the time. If I get a lot of practice time, I can get 4 inch groups OK, with a some "X"'s.

Which brings up my subjict for the day -- practice. For you folks who hand load this applies, as well as the wealthy members of the BEWF, who buy their ammo. If you can, get in both the dry firing and live firing as often as you can, each day, if possible -- but at least a couple of times a week. However don't go to live practice to see how many rounds you can shoot in an hour. Keep in mind that combining the basic techniques of sight alignment, sight picture, trigger activation and grip in the pistol (these also hold true for rifle -- you'd be surprised how important a good tight grip is for accurare rifle shooting). Slowly develop the combining of the basics, remembering a good natural point of aim, too, until you get to the speed you want to shoot at. To start out banging away without the beginning "stretches" is judt wasting ammo.

If you hunt, practice in the positions that you shoot during hunting season -- few of us carry a bench around, eh? It's OK to see if there has been a zero shift during the winter, but once the bench shooting says there has, get the new zero in the hunting firing positions, and use the same ammo you plan to use when hunting. It's useless to shoot Wolf elcheapo all summer, and then Federal hollowpoints for hunting, unless the ammo you plan to use is Wolf elcheapo. I've seen many shooters at the range get so frustrated because of their trying to integrate "Group" with "Zero". Believe me, most firearms shoot different ammo into different groups. I've only seen one shooter's results of combining them, and that was a National Champion at Camp Perry who put 10 shots in a 2-inch circle in 60 second in the sitting position. Just one time, out of 12 years at Perry. And he didn't win the match. It was also the first time he'd ever shot 10 shot (bolt gun) in the "X" ring, out of,I'd say 15 years of competitive shooting.

So, start slowly, and work up to your best. Every shot is the last one you'll shoot, and all the ones before that one don't count any more, except to become part of the group your firearm will shoot with that brand or lot of ammo.

I had an interesting experience last week at Impact Guns. I shot the first 10 shots (two mags of 5 rounds each), 200 grain Laser Cast lead semi-wadcutters in a 4-inch group, 6 were in the same hole "X"'s. I changed magazines (this is with my 45ACP Kimger Gold Match II) and the next five shots didn't even hit the black. I changed targets, unloaded all (I only load 5 rounds per mag) of the brand of mag that gave the rotten group, and reloaded the "good" mags. Shot another 4-inch group. The reason I write this is that there can be some things happen that you have to be concious of while you are shooting, and so you must keep that reasoning brain busy all the time.

I'm willing to bet that those "bad" mags just might work OK with 230 grain Laser Cast round nose bullets. The next time I go shooting, the mission will be to find the "bad" mags for those 230 grain bullets. Then, mark the mags as to what to shoot in them.

Practice shooting, with combining the basics, and watching where every shot goes, finding out the group size that you want (changind ammo load or brand if need be) should be the objective during the summer, not keeping the progressive loader busy as a bird dog.