Suppressed Hunter (and Primary Arms scope)

Seems like I am only apologizing for the neglect of this blog these days.

But no more!  I finally had a few minutes to whip out the camera and take some pics of my suppressed hunting rig.  This started out life as a used NEF Buffalo Classic in the discontinued .45Colt chambering that That Wife  bought me for my birthday about 5 years ago.  The previous owner had goofed up the sights (cut the front dovetail crooked),  and had scratched and dinged it a little.   I was never really happy with it, since the sight height would not work with the peep sight I wanted to put on there, then when I installed a fiber-optic front sight or the right height, I was looking at it crooked.

I got frustrated, and put an old scope I had laying around.  I never shot it much after that.

Then… Texas changed it's hunting laws and allowed suppressors for white-tail deer.  I thought about buying a new can, but the 9 month to a YEAR waiting period that is the new normal put a kibosh on that.  So I started thinking of ways to use my existing .45ACP can to hunt.  I thought about buying a .44Mag lever action, threading it, and using .44Specials… then I thought of threading my .357 Marlin or Rossi Ranch Hand… YHM said the suppressor would work with .357, but would not be really quiet.   Then I thought of a .45Colt lever gun, and it struck me- use the NEF!

I had my new 'smith thread it, mounted up the can, and sighted it in.  I had all sorts of fun shooting it till the first day of hunting season, and the ancient Wetherby scope took a dump.  Just up and died on me- started hitting a foot low, and would not adjust.

So, for Christmas, I got a new Primary Arms 1-4x24 illuminated dot rifle scope that immediately went on top.  It works real well on this rig and matches up well for being an anachronism.

I have not been able to take a deer or hog with it yet, just because by the time I got the rig ready to go, hunting season was pretty much over.  But I am ready for next year!

If you can find the non-sequitor in the photos, leave a comment!

No, it's not the two types of ammo

You can see the suppressor when the scope is at 1x power

The Primary Arms scope exceeded all of my expectations for a $120 scope.  Bright, crisp, clear, and sighted it very quick and easy.  The illuminated dot is perfect for close range hunting.  I am actually happier with this scope than I am the Burris Timberline on my CZ-527 Carbine.  It loses in a low-light comparison with my Leupolds, but that is the only ding I have against the scope.

Quick range report- Kahr CW9

Finally had the time and spare rounds to take That Wife's new carry gun to the range for a quick function test.  No surprises... well, no surprises from the gun.  I have my own Kahr (MK9), and knew what to expect.

with a nice High Noon holster

 I spared 100 rounds out of my stockpil... uh, INVENTORY, ran a target out to 7 yards, and ran it every way I could to see if it would fail.  Fast, slow, two handed, on hand, weak hand, limp wristed... it just ran like a top.  No stoppages of any kind.

 The test is not done.  Next will be the wife running it to make sure it works for HER.  Also, running it with whatever kind of hollow point ammo I can find.

 I did do a slowfire group at 7 yards, offhand.  It is an accurate pistol.  Threw the first 2 rounds low, but that could have been the nut behind the trigger.

And here is the one surprise-

That there is a Federal American Eagle 115 grain Full Metal Fuckup

It's either excited or cold.  Not sure which.

Range Report: Eye-Talian SAA Clone

I still have all my fingers and eyeballs.  That's always a worry when you are playing with an inexpensive  Magnum-class handgun.  After teddybearing this around the house for a couple of days, I had some initial impressions:

Trigger was nice, not up to a tuned S&W, but serviceable. 
Lockup was solid
Sights were better than I expected, after seeing original Colt-style sights on some guns.
The fit and finish... well, that's where you save money on this gun.  The matte finish is- well, a finish.  The grips stood proud of the metal in several places, and the brass grip frame needs attention.
Handling of the SAA style gun is very nice.  My only other single action was a .44Mag Ruger Super Blackhawk, and that thing handled like a brick.  This thing is graceful.

Not to jump too far ahead, but I want to let you know this-  It shoots a lot better than you would expect for a sub-$400 thumbbuster.

I did a quick run to the range during lunch today, and ran a few cylinder loads of mixed bag .38 Spl and .357 Mag through the gun.  No failures, except ones cause by my own ineptness with the platform- more on that in the narrative.

$600 used versus $350 new

 First six shots in .38 Spl fired at 5 yards offhand, just to make sure it works.

It's an absolute puff ball to shoot with .38Spl

 Now a cylinder full of Magnums to see if that will work

Same POI at close range.

Now we have my human error induced failure.  On the 3rd .357 Mag shot, the hammer and cylinder locked up when I tried to draw to full cock.  All sorts of dirty words were floating about in my head as I inspected the gun and noticed the problem.  The base pin of the cylinder had come loose in recoil.  It took some fidgeting, but I realized the problem was pilot error pretty quick.  If you look closely at the pic, you will see two notches in the base pin.  Those need to be clocked to face the 6-o'clock position.  That got it to lock in place, and no more failures!

Should'a read them 'structions.

So, I ran a few more loads though the hogleg, and it was accurate and easy to shoot.  I understand now all the talk of the 'pointability' of the SAA, and why the design has been so timeless.  It's classy.  It points like it knows what to do.  It is a pain in the ass to reload.  Wait, that's not a plus....

Anyway, I need to take it back to the range and file the front sight down to make it hit somewhere in the vicinity of where I'm aiming.  This last picture is of the last 6 round group I fired offhand at 15 yards.  It's hitting well over a foot low and just a hair to the left. 

If I was aiming COM, I'd hit the right nut

To recap- Should you buy one of these?  If you need a single action in your collection and don't have the money for a Cimarron, get yourself to the nearest Cabelas and pick one up.  They are on sale right now, and a heck of a deal for a good little plinker.  Is it a faithful and artistic rendition of Sam Colt's masterpiece?  No.  The finish is wrong, and it has some safety crap added to get by the asinine ATF import regulations.  Is it a low-cost shooter that will introduce you to the world of single actions without requiring a second mortgage?  Yep.  I like it so far.  Look forward to shooting it more and really getting to learn the platform.

By the way, I am thinking of antiquing the finish like Boge Quinn did over on Gunblast.com.  That just looks cool

ARP at the Range

Took the new AR Pistol to the range at lunch.

My freaking camera died while I was there.  No real pics or video of it running.  All I can say is that it shot well, did not fail in any way, and was pretty fun for blasting.

The range was crowded, with a wait list to get in (I hate shooting indoors), so I barely had 20 min to get the red dot on paper, then fine tune it at 50 yards.  Did not get the MBUIS dialed in, but I figure I can do that at home nos that the FastFire is dialed in.

Need to lose the A2 grip and plug the gap at the back of the trigger guard.  I think this is going to be a REAL fun plinker.  I was really expecting more muzzle flash, but I guess the KX3 Pig really works as advertised. 

DPMS 'Oracle' .308Win/ 7.62NATO- Gun Porn

I got my Father's Day gift early this year.  I had been planning on getting an AR-10 of some stripe as my next gun, and when my family and I where in Cabela's last Saturday, they had this one for a great price.  That Wife told me to just go ahead and get it, since I would be getting it soon anyway.  This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for- DPMS 'Oracle' in bone stock configuration.  When I got it home, I was going through my Box-o-scopes-and-mounts trying to get a good combo.  That Wife suprised me again by just telling me to order a new scope and mount.  Before she could change her mind, I was on Opticsplanet.com and ordered the new Redfield Revolution 3-9x40 with the Ballistic-Plex reticule thingie.

I also ordered a Mako bottom rail for the hand guards, mostly for an easy way to mount a forward sling swivel- maybe to mount my Harris Bipod.  It's inexpensive, solid, and most of all- unobtrusive.  

I took a selection of ammo to the range with 45er while he was here last week, and on the second ammo choice, I got the required 1 MOA (off of a crappy rest, with no rear bag, and the stock trigger is... sub-optimal):

That'll work

So I dialed it in at 100 yards (all the indoor range has to offer), and will stretch it's legs out at long range soon.  I really want to see if the holdovers on the scope reticule really will work to any known ranges with the .308.

As for the scope, I am very impresed with it so far.  Clear, bright, no obvious distortion in the FOV, and it was very easy to use.  The turrets are finger click adjustable, and the magnification ring is very easy to move, and only has to move a 1/4 turn to go from 3x-9x.  It appears to be as bright and clear as my old Leupold Vari-X II that I have on my NEF.  The finish perfectly matched the DPMS as well.

Also, the Burris PEPR mount is rock solid and mounted up super easy.  I can definitely recomend all three of these pieces of hardware- the rife, scope and mount all work just like I wanted them to.

The ammo that gave me MOA accuracy was Hornady's 155gr A-Max that I noticed, after I was done shooting, said "Not for Semi Automatic firearms" on the box.  Any one know WHY it would say that?  Is it soft primers?

New shooty thing

Details to follow. For now, here is a pic of 45er shooting it.

AAR- KR Training Defensive Pistol 1

This past weekend, I attended the Defensive Pistol Skills 1 class from KR Training.  The class was great, and I am going to start off by skipping to the end- I recommend KR Training and this class.  Now that we have the suspense out of the way, lets get down to the nitty-gritty.

There were several reasons for taking this class-
First: this was a birthday gift to my father-in-law.  My FIL is a retired federal agent, and recently got his Texas CHL and is getting very serious about carrying for protection.  I wanted to support that by getting him training that was not just shooting at paper on an indoor range
Second: Refresher for me.  I have taken this equivalent class before from another VERY good trainer, but I knew I had not been training/ practicing enough.
Third: Evaluate KR Training.  A bunch of us gun nuts (including 45er) had gotten into the habit of going for yearly classes with Steve Moses at Bluff Dale Firearms Academy.  Bluff Dale is a long damn drive from here, and while it was 1.5 hours to get to KR, it was still much shorter.  I was wanting to see if KR would be a good option for the group.

Bonus- The drive from Austin took us right through Elgin, TX and past the world famous Southside Market and BBQ

Urp...

KR is a great operation.  A private range, private classroom, and very dedicated instructors.  The class started out with an equipment and skills evaluation- Reactive targets that you had 3 seconds to knock down, moved into classroom instruction, and then went hot on the range.  And when I say hot, I mean every bit of it.  It felt like August- we were all dripping sweat in 30 minutes.

The range part of the class started on the fundamentals and built upward in a logical progression.  We went from base trigger work, through drawing, moving on the draw, threat scanning, multiple targets, and drawing from concealment.

One of the pluses for this class was the amount of instructors.  There were 14 students, and SIX instructors.  Everyone had one on one instruction on parts that were needed.  This was also the one possible detraction from the class- there were a couple of times I noticed conflicting instruction.  But it was minor and seriously only happened twice.  

The students in this class was an eye opener.  We were everything from a college aged young woman through a retired law enforcement officer in his 70's, five women total.  Equipment was heavily slanted towards Glocks from the student side, S&W M&Ps on the Instructors and a smattering of everything else.  There were two 1911s (including my STI), one S&W 910s (my FIL- who will be selling it and buying a Glock ASAP), one CZ (yay!), one S&W Shield, and one what I think was a SCCY CPX 9mm- which surprised the heck out of me.  While I hear a lot of people extol the virtues of Glocks, M&Ps, and the other plastic fantastics- at the only people to knock down both of the reactive targets at the end of class evaluation were the people with 1911s.  Not saying that 1911s are better, and I am known to carry Glocks a lot, but that is what happened.

I had 2 equipment failures.  Both of the STI supplied mags I had failed in one way or another during the class, but the two Wilson Combat mags ran flawlessly.  Time to buy two more Wilson mags and use the others as targets.

All in all- I learned a lot at the class, even though it was a refresher.  My FIL learned a whole lot and is talking about taking it again with me when he buys a Glock.

As I said before, I recommend KR Training and I plan on taking more classes as soon as I can.

Good time at the range

Back from the range.  It was good to have a GOOD time at the range, instead of the frustration I have been having with finding a load for the CZ-527 Carbine.

Last hunting season I finally ran out of my chosen load for my "old faithful" hunting rifle, an NEF 'Survivor' in .308.  This is an inexpensive, durable, and accurate gun.  It was sighted in for the Winchester Ballistic Silvertips that are now cost like a buck fifty a shot.  That was not going to fly anymore- So I took some ammo that I had on hand and went shootin'

That's close range!

The ammo choices were S&B 150grain "Soft Point Cutted Edge" that works so well in my Ruger M77 Frontier and Ishapore Enfield, Federal '150 grain 'Vital Shock', and the cheap Remington 150  CoreLokt yellow and green boxed stuff.  So I settled in to get shooting.

Results at 100 yards:
1- S&B SPCE.  Pretty crappy group, and had sticky extraction- which on a single shot is a deal breaker.
2- Remington CoreLokt.  The low shot is a called flyer when some guy in the lane next to me touched off his AR-10 right in the middle of my trigger squeeze
3- Federal Vital Shock. Crappy performance from this gun.  One extra shot in this group from some FMJ to see it's POI
4- Dialed in the scope for the CoreLokt.  That'll work :)

I also tested the new Williams peep sight on my Marlin .357 Lever.  It's close, but it needed more time than I had in a lunch hour to dial it in. But it's close enough to roll a bunny at 50 yards.  That'll work for me.

As I mentioned earlier, MI2Tall was there shooting his AR-10.  One of the ejected casings bounced off the divider between the shooting lanes, and hit him in the face.  It was a steel casing, and hit perfect case-mouth straight on and burned a perfect circle on his cheek.  This is why we wear shooting glasses- 1.5 inches another way, and it would have taken an eye.  FYI- ALWAYS wear protective gear.

Now, the question is....

Does the rifle have an issue, or is it just a 2 MOA gun?

Rifle is a CZ-527 Carbine in 7.62x39 with a Burris 2-7x32 Timberline compact scope.  Ammo is Hornady 123Gr ZMAX .  (pics of the setup coming soon)

So I have run EVERY soft point 'hunting' ammo that I could find, and this is the best I could get.  From a solid rest, with the set trigger, I could put 2 rounds close, and the 3rd shot would open it up to right at 2 inches.  And it was always the 3rd shot that opened the group.

So, do I just call it good?  The problem is, sometimes, there is that long shot...  Do I put on my Captain Ahab hat and start chasing 1MOA?


Options-
1) Call it good.  Keep it for short range hunting.
2) The 2 close shots, with one spread out makes me think it could be barrel bedding.  As the barrel gets a bit of heat, it opens the group.  Float the barrel and see what happens.
3) See if a smith can crown the muzzle a hair and calm the groups down.
4) Rebarrel to .50 Beowulf :D

Post a suggestion or comment!

One last try on the 7.62x39 hunting ammo

ZombieMax!

Range Report- So THAT'S what a high end gun gets you.

Back in the country for just a shade over 24 hours, and I get myself to a shooting range.  THAT is a 'Projectile Enthusiast' for you!

I took my new STI to the range for lunch and blew a hundred rounds through it.  Just starting the initial break in.

Every bench on the range has bullet strikes on it.  Scary.

So I load up the only mag I have, run the target out to 7ish yards and start banging away.

Not bad.  Hitting a little low.

I try a mag of headshots

You can see what having a defined aiming point does for you.

I let the range guy run a few rounds through it (he aims at the logo to the side), then I run the rest of the box center of mass.

That is a full fifty rounds, off hand using a two hand hold- in the middle is a 37 round one hole group.  I am an OK pistol shot, but this was just unreal.  Recoil is negligible, it points like a laser, operates like silk on glass, and is scary accurate.

I like it.

Edit- Let me expand here.

It is 2011.  I needed to be a good little gun nut, and buy a 1911.  It's not like we need a reason to get a new gun- but that was an actual reason!  After an exhaustive search of options, I decided to go with STI.  For several reasons including reputation, service, quality, and that little Texas on the side of the slide tipped it over the edge.  I went with 9mm to keep ammo costs down, and... well, I did not have a 9mm 1911.  I have a MilSpec 1911, and a custom carry 1911, now I have a 9mm.


The build quality on this is simply superb.  The slide runs on it's rails like nothing I have ever felt.  Sights are crisp and clean, and the controls all work the way you want them to- except one thing.  There is not a crisp 'click!' that I am used to when engaging the safety.  It locks in place, but I'm just used to a click.


STI, and the Ranger II, get a big thumbs up from me.  Granted, I only have 100 rounds through it so far.  However, I am giving this a big thumbs up.

Stage 1 testing CZ P-07 Duty

On my way out the door this morning, I grabbed the freshly repaired P-07 Duty, just in case I could run to the range at lunch. I was in a hurry, and grabbed nothing but the gun and spare mag.

I was able to run to the local indoor range for 20 minutes. Bought 100 rounds of S&B 9mm, borrowed eyes and ears at the range and started loading mags.

This is the last time it will be clean for a while.

I went to work on double taps, working on form and trigger reset. As before, this gun is very accurate, but really needs a sight upgrade. Think that's on my Christmas list for this year.

No jams, no malfunctions. One instance of the slide slamming forward as a fresh mag was inserted, and one time of the slide not locking back- but my offhand thumb might have interfered with the lockback.

Empty brass. A MUCH better way to enjoy lunch.

The testing continues. I will not carry this again until I get at least 400 trouble free rounds through it. I do believe that this gun is worth the work. 16 rounds of hyper accurate 9mm carried C&L in a package roughly the same size as a Glock 19, yet handles better than a Glock to me. Not that I dislike Glocks, but I like this gun better- and it's controls match the 1911 and CZ-75 which is where all my training lies.