Range Trip Report 4-16-08
I left the house about 10:30 and figured I’d be at the range within an hour. I set the cruise control on 60 and just tooled along listening to a Kylie Minogue tape. The winds were horrible, well over 20 mph and were pushing me along. That was great for gas mileage, but almost got me wrecked too.
The roads are typical IL farm roads. Crooked as anything with lots of dips for washes ….. ‘er creeks, and then there are the 90° turns that come out of nowhere. That is what almost got me. Tooling along at 60 with the cruise set and all of a sudden here’s a turn. It’s not a 60mph turn, or even a 55mph turn ( the posted limit) but it could be been done, except for the wind. As I made the left turn I realized I was going to fast and hit the breaks just as my heavy tail wind became a broadside wind. It got interesting for a few moments. But I kept it on the road ……….. barely.
I got to the range a bit after 11:30 and was met by the owner. He had some orders to put in, then he came out and we got the paperwork finished so I could shoot.
The range is the Law Outdoor Range near Chandlerville, IL. Here’s their web site:
http://lawguns.net/ . There are pictures of the range in there to look at; I didn’t get many of my own.
I talked with the owner for quite a while, while I looked around his shop. He had a couple Marlin lever guns on the wall. One was a 336 the other an 1894. I didn’t get the prices or calibers. They looked a bit out of place with all the military rifles around them. This shop specializes in EBRs and EBPs. They have parts and pieces to make most any variation of AR and have machine guns to rent.
The wind at the range was atrocious. Some of the gusts were so bad they would almost knock you over. But I came to shoot, and a little wind wasn’t going to stop me. So I set up to shoot at the 25 yd line.
My bench at the 25 yd line
It was difficult to get set up, the wind wanted to rip everything out of your hands. It kept slapping the lid on my pistol case open and shut.
I had to reassemble the target frame, it had come undone. I used one of the bowling pins lying around as a hammer, worked pretty well too.
Looking behind us at the 100 yard benches
The way the range is set up, the targets remain stationary and the shooters move. I wish it was the other way; I sure would have liked to be under that covered area with a much more stable platform to shoot from.
I hadn’t shot too much when I looked around and saw JD’s Subaru parked beside my Pathfinder.
Our steeds
Once JD got the paperwork finished he came out and we said hello. Shook hands and got started getting him set up. We had plans to set up his chronograph and clock a bunch of our loads. But because of the wind we never got to it.
JD, had brought much more stuff than I had. As he made many trips to carry it to the firing line I brought the rest of my stuff out too.
Had we possessed one spark of intelligence we would have turned out vehicles around and backed up close to the rails, unloaded our stuff there, then walked around and carried the stuff from the rails to the firing line. But no, we took the long way around many trips worth.
As JD was setting up he got hit by so many wind gusts his stuff just kept blowing away. We couldn’t leave anything lying that could be moved. Safety glasses, targets, boxes, foam padding from our gun cases, all of that stuff got blown away at least once. The wind even blew a couple of my rifle cases away.
JD45 setting up
Some of JD45s toys
After getting set up we did a little shooting. JD had brought several lever guns witch I had to refrain from drooling on. I got to shoot his Marlin 336 in 35 Remington. Nice rifle. It was an older one; I forget when he said it was made.
I also got to shoot the 92 copy he brought and that gorgeous 1873 copy, both chambered for the .45 Colt. I had a bit of difficulty with the tang sight. I had to try to hold the rifle steady in the wind, not easy, while gripping the stock around the sight and holding the lever up to release the trigger block. He has a globe type front sight on it and a tiny aperture on the tang sight. I found it real easy to get a sight picture, but impossible to hold it with the wind blowing the long barrel around. I’d like to spend some time shooting that rifle from the bench on a calm day.
We were discussing a few handguns he’d brought when a big gust of wind hit us and took his rifle case with his Marlin on top of it right off the bench. The poor rifle hit the ground hard. His newly refinished stock got banged up, and the muzzle took a header into the ground. After getting things picked up we checked it out and were afraid the muzzle might be damaged. There was a new dent right to the side of the rifling. But when he shot it again the bullets were centered right where he aimed. So it looks like we lucked out.
I brought my Win 94AE Trapper .45 Colt, Win 94 30-30 (my pre 64 ), and my Marlin Cowboy .45.
I shot the Pre 64 first. It sure is a nice feeling rifle. Shot the Marlin .45 a bit too.
JD shot all of them too. I think he liked the little Trapper .45.
The only good group I got was with the Marlin 1894. I made a makeshift chair out of one the cat litter buckets I had my ammo in and using the pistol case as a rest I shot this group:
The sights are still on. This was pleasantly surprising because I replaced the rear sight insert and elevator some time back, and put on a new front sight. So I don’t need to worry about the sights for now. I just need to get some practice and shoot it at longer ranges.
As we were shooting the 30-30 I noticed that the case necks were splitting. At first I wasn’t too concerned. The ammo was loaded 20 years ago in 4x used brass. I figured it was just a case of brass fatigue. But, every single case I fired split in the same way, at the same place.
Split Winchester cases
Closer view
Not shown in these pics is that the splits appear to be at the same point in relation to where the firing pin had hit the primer. In other words; the firing pin hits off center so if you line all the cases up with the firing pin dent in the same place, the splits would match up too.
I put the Winchester reloads away and loaded up some fresh Remington factory loads.
Of the six I fired two of them split.
Split R-P cases
Closer view
I also noticed that there are marks on the cleaner R-P cases that look like the shoulder was blown forward and expanded at the neck. I don’t know if I’m imagining things or not, but it just doesn’t look right. Another project I did not need.
So now I’m thinking I have a chamber problem. JD and I gave it a good think and agreed about that. NUTS!!!
So my nice pre-64 might have a problem we asked the gun range owner to look at the split cases and he agreed with us, chamber problems. Double NUTS!!!
By this time we’d been shooting, b.s.’ing and fighting the wind for about three hours and had taken about all of it we could. The wind was coming from the south, right into our faces. It was very hard to shoot that way.
We loaded our stuff up and decided we needed to get together again sometime in the near future, when the wind is CALM.
For my part I enjoyed the trip, I enjoyed JD45’s company, and I really enjoyed the day shooting out doors. Even with the wind curtailing much of our plans.
JD, I look forward to the next time we can get together.
Joe
e
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And here I am, sitting in construction backup, drivin' around in circles, playin' local delery guy in St. Louis and environs! 
