Friday, June 20, 2014

Social Shotguns, from Cousin Wallace.



First, I'm not enamored with shotguns (except double-barreled ones for dove huntin') but yesterday We evaluated some new 00 Buck anti-personnel rounds from Federal ATK.
After years of shooting regular 9 pellet loads of 00 Buck I had formed a pretty low opinion of it except for inside about 20 yards.
We shoot a man-sized silhoette @ 25 yds max and usually 3 or 4 of the 9 pellets hit outside the scoring area....in other words, dispersion is awful.
A man-sized target could possibly be missed completely @ 50 yards by normal 00 buck loads.
Nay-not-so with this new Federal round! This stuff is amazing! It uses a "flight control" wad....very thick/tough plastic one piece wad. The 9 pellets are inside a shot cup but it isn't split into 4 fingers like a normal birdshot wad. The shot cup doesn't "peel back"...the air resistance eventually slows down the wad from drag and the pellets are then free to go on their merry way.
The old "rule of thumb" for normal buck is about 1" spread for every yard of range...(example 20" spread at 20 yards) although I think it's somewhat more than that counting flyers.
We shot this Federal Tactical load yesterday & @ 25 yards the spread was about 12"....at 15 yards virtually all the pellets would stay in a head size target!
We moved back to 50 yards and got a spread of about 24" to 28"....just about half of what we have been experiencing w/regular buckshot.
We deemed 35 yards as the range where you could expect maximum spread & still have a bunch of hits on a man size target. 
We were using Rem 870 riot guns w/cylinder bore (no choke).
This load is rated at 1325fps.
I'm thinking it oughta work pretty good for any critter within 35 yards (jumping wild boar out of creek bottoms?)...beware though, up close it shoots so tight that you could manage to miss!
I'll bet if they would load this with harder pellets to resist deformation, it would really hammer at longer ranges.
Anyhow, if you are looking for some better than ever before buckshot loads, this stuff aint bad.

Wallace

Monday, June 2, 2014

Texas State Rifle Association Service Rifle Championship.

  The TSRA....the same folks who brought us all the CHL licenses and firearms laws we currently enjoy...ALSO conduct the state firearm championships in all disciplines.

  Three matches over three days.  Four-man teams on Friday.  The State Service Rifle Championship on Saturday.  A CMP/LEG Match on Sunday giving four LEGS.

  Thanks to the guys who made it all possible:  Ken Gaby, Rick Tanner, Paul Leberge and Charlie Wallis in the pits and Dave Wilson calling the line.  Keith Stephens crunched the numbers and handled the stats.

Team Day gets rolling.

Swag.

Southside BBQ

Epic Beard Man.

View across the no-name creek.



Junior shooters.

Keith Stephens on Team day.


Kyle gets his game face on.

A confident Robert Davis with an epic beard.

Zeke Emezulu enjoying being the Most Interesting Man In the World.

Clayton Rogers making an appearance for his fans.

If Obama and I owned a rifle it would look like this: Skinny, black and made up of parts from unknown places.

David Keys driving the bus on team day.  His team won.

Justin Utley.

The swashbuckling John Ilzhoefer.

Ben Brooks played the Star Spangled Banner every morning for us.

Disitnguished Rifle, Lauren LeCren.

John Jababy.

Col Ron Leraas, Distinguished Rifle.

John Jababy sweating through his hat over a sitting rapid string.

Another boring photo of Lauren firing.

David Guthrie and grandson Jake.  

Samantha Holt.  Or maybe Madison Butler.  Teenage blondes with assault rifles all look the same after a while.

Ben Brooks during the LEG match.


Another weaponized blonde teenager.

Another child with an assault rifle.  Oh, the humanity!


The Governors 20.
Randy Schiebel pondering the Absolute.

Dan Ramsay at work.

Winning Junior Team.

State Champion Service Rifle Team.

Top Junior.
John Jababy

Lauren LeCren wins Top Woman.

Don Tryce, Top Senior.

Utley gets the Money.

Garand on the line.

 Justin Utley and the Rick Crawford Trophy for the 6th time.

Col Don Tryce and Keith Stephens enjoy the view.

Clayton Rogers, the most interesting man in the world.  Except for maybe Zeke.

The line.

Men with guns:  Ben Brooks.

Men With Guns: Tim Hesse.

Real Men with guns: Clay Hefner.

David Guthrie on his way to six LEG points.

If you want LEG points, it helps to wear camo or be blonde.


Dave Wilson, in control of the line and the Universe.