Sunday, October 26, 2008

NRA Range Session

This afternoon after work I drove to the NRA range in Fairfax, VA to work on a few problems. I try to always have a goal in going to the range. Today I had two goals: 1) to investigate the cause of the many failures-to-feed by the EAA Witness at the bowling pin shoot in Indy last month, and 2) to sight in the little scope on my Marlin 70PSS 22-LR camping rifle.

Last week I cleaned the 10mm Witness and applied Brownell's "Action Magic II" to the feed ramp. This is a two-step process which involves heating the part (just warm to the touch) and applying a liquid from a bottle with a needle-applicator. The first application will be fully "cured" in 2 hours, then the second part is applied. This appears to be dry graphite powder. Oddly, the first step is called "Part B" and the second is "Part A". Today I fired 50 rounds of Double Tap and Remington ammo and had only one FTF. I think part of the problem is "limp-wristing" the gun, so I will concentrate on that in the future. At the bowling pin shoot last month I had half a dozen FTFs in a row, several times, so this is definitely an improvement.

The little scope is made by Leapers and it isn't much but it does have a mil-dot reticle. I would like to use this to play around with range-estimating, bullet-drop-compensation, etc. at short ranges appropriate to 22-LR. Way-cheap fun, compared to doing the same thing with .308 or .30-06. So I sighted it in at 25 feet, then 50, then 75. Maybe I can use this gun to shoot "pin-heads" at the next bowling pin shoot. This gun is also called the Marlin Papoose; it uses 10-rd magazines and disassembles into a cloth zip-up bag about 18" long.

After shooting I phoned-in my regrets to the Indy Gun Blogger Fest at the Broad Ripple Brewpub. Roberta X reports sixteen attendees, including so many of my favorites: Brigid, Tam, Red, Shermlock, RobD, Ahab, Old Grouch, Baby Troll Blog, James, Breda and Mike, and, of course Roberta herself. Damn, I wish I could have been there this weekend: bowling pins, gun show and blogfest! One damned fine weekend in Broad Ripple! Ah, well. Maybe next time.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Truk, you were missed and we hope you can make the next one.

    WV: ension (what you have left of your pension after the current market conditions have scared the 'p' out of it).

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