Can I say "Crappy" Range Day?

[GANJIRO]

My next two weekends are shot so took the day off so that I can get in some range time before The Great Levergunner's Texas Safari. Range was open for 4 hours 12 to 4pm), and found out 4 hours not enough. Also winds were blowing 15 to 20 knots and not consistently. First put 3 rounds into "Dad's" Marlin 36D 30/30 magazine and as per self-fulfilling prophecy I pull the trigger and no bang, the firing pin was broken. Next I brought out "Smelly Nelly" for her first outing along with 7 different loads. With gust of wing strong enough to even move the muzzle of rifle the best load could only do 3" at 50 yards. This load was 42 grains of 3031 behind a cast 405 grain plain base bullet and I was fresh out of 3031... ARGH. BUT found a new (to me) gun shop just 5 minutes away from range and they had 3031 in stock ($29.00 a pound ). I will load up rounds for safari and hopefully can rezero when I get there. I also tried out "Shorty" and with wind gusts the best I could do again was 3" at 50 yards with 158 grain JSPs. With limited time I just got a few rounds thru my 357 trapper but not enough to begin to be confident. My son Isaac came along and had a blast shooting his 1916 Spaniola Mauser in .308 his Grampa Nels gave along with Grampa's medium power handloads equaling the original 7mm loads in pressure. Even with the intense wind he was getting decent groups though not close to point of aim (have to get him a receiver peep). SO looks like "Smelly Nelly" and "Shorty " are the winners going to Texas, just have to make time to reload proper rounds for them. If their's a beater 30/30 there I can borrow that would be great but nothing nice, hate to ding a nice gun.

[claybob86]

Ya know what they say,"a bad day shooting is better than a good day at work!" I know how it is with the wind, though. We get plenty of that out here on the plains.

[Bigahh]

Ji,

It only seemed like a bad day at the range. You could have done a bit worse at my range yesterday. The actual temperature there was 15 below zero with a wind chill of almost 50 below. The snow was drifting so bad that you could not see the roads to even get there. I plow snow during storms, and I saw 100's of cars in the ditch! I used the snow blower on my range last weekend, but it drifted completely shut yesterday. It is now up to my knees again. Don't fret there will be better days ahead!

[jengel]

Ji, if you swing north a couple of states, I have a Marlin 336 30-30 and a Winchester 45 Colt you could pick from . If you're really nice, I might be talked out of my Guide Gun with Leupold Scout Scope, maybe.....

[Pete44ru]

Sometimes, ya feel like just throwing the cartridge at 'em, and do better !

[Hillbilly]

3 inches at 50 yards in the wind is pretty good. I'd say that should make a little confidence making a 'real world' shot on a windy day.

Not a waste of time at all...wind blows afeild. I know you were trying to benchmark some loads but I'd write it off to practice under feild conditions.

the only question is would any or all in the group be a kill shot on game sized critters?
~Hill

[J Miller]

Ji,

If someone on this forum doesn't send you a firing pin, I would if I had one, get hold of Marlin, tell them about the hunt and how little time you have and I'll bet they fire one off to you in hurry.

Joe

[dsmith512]

Better practice some more in that wind. Today here in Texas the wind is blowing about 40 mph. There's so much dirt in the air it's like a dust bowl.

[crs]

+1 on the wind in Texas today.

Ji - why not try Brownells to see if they can ship you a firing pin?
Search for the pin on the web also - you may get lucky.

[RKrodle]

I let my dog out in the back yard and had to tie her to tree to keep from blowing away

[crs]

Ricky;
I was at the farm today and it was blowing the Corgis around, but not BleuBelle or the horses.

Driving the Yukon back into Dallas in the wind was a white knuckler.

Gi - if you can say Crappie while fishing, surely you can say Crappy while shooting? Or, maybe you do not have crappie in paradise.

[LeverBar]

Ganjiro,

Just sent you another PM about the straight, beautiful shooter. I'm SERIOUS!

[AJMD429]

I know how it is with the wind, though. We get plenty of that out here on the plains.

A friend who lived in a semi-urban area (those long narrow lots maybe 3-5 acres in size) rented a backhoe, dug a trench maybe 4' deep and 3' wide straight out from his basement by the little sunken-window there, 100 yards long. He buried sections of large plastic pipe, and filled over with pea gravel, then sod. He also ran wires to the far end for lights, and had a thing looked like a dog-house there, which housed a target holder he made that used a 'roll' of paper so if he hit a button the motor went on and rolled a new target. He had fans at each end, because he said that even with smokeless powder, visibility was poor if he shot very fast.

Anyway, he could shoot out of his basement then. I'd heard of other people doing this, but his is the only one I ever got a glimpse of. It sure looked cool. His reasons were he didn't have a backstop, and he wanted not to irritate the neighbors with the noise.

My concerns though would be:

100 yards of pipe is expensive if it is at all large (he used big corrugated stuff)

The pipes didn't look exactly straight, although you could easily see the 18" wide targets, but I wonder how much time before unequal settling would move things too much (suppose you could fix it easily enough though).

With slower bullets (he shot varmint stuff) you might need a bit of 'arch' in your tube to accomodate the trajectory (even MORE expensive pipe).

I think you could address those things though:

Use marine plywood or plastic 4x8 PVC shower liner sheets on a frame to make a long triangular tunnel about 50 sheets should do the job I think?

Anyone ever try that? Would be nice in the winter/rain/wind/nosy neighbor areas, of if you had no backstop hills.