range report 3/26/12

So I'm thinking that I'm kind of in a slump right now. My last several sessions I've failed to break 800 or 810, and my 45 shooting is slipping as well. It seems like I can't get into 'the zone'. The dot is moving around more than I would like, and the izzy trigger feels sloppy, while the Spartan trigger feels kind of unpredictable. Sometimes the Spartan has a nice smooth release and other times it seems to just bind and not want to shoot. I *feel* like I'm getting better with the 45, my confidence is going up with it and the recoil doesn't bother me like it used to. But I'm still getting a fair number of misses because of jerking the trigger, which is no good. As for the izzy, well the reset of the trigger was feeling weird yesterday, like it didn't want to reset as fast as usual, so I was having trouble 'riding' the reset like I normally do in sustained-fire.

The Spartan slide goes off today to Massechuttes where a guy has graciously agreed to drill and tap the slide and mount a rail to it so I can get rid of the Aimtech mount that is giving me FTE's on occasion.

I need to find that way to get back into 'the zone' on a consistent basis. Even my airgun shooting has been going down lately, so there's a clear slump. But that's ok, I know I need to shoot through it and just keep focused.

range report 3/22/12

Got out to my usual range yesterday, had to pick up my new iron, a S&W 5906 which will be used for defensive purposes. While the range did the FFL transfer, they let me get a lane and shoot while they finished the paperwork.

My shooting with the izzy felt pretty good, but the scores were a little lower than my last session. Didn't bother shooting the Spartan yesterday, didn't feel like beating myself up mentally and physically. Good thing was that across four slowfire and eight rapid fire targets, I had zero malfunctions with the izzy.

Took the 5906 out and gave it a hundred rounds of winchester white box after I finished my bullseye practice. The first few rounds had a tiny bit of trouble going into battery, but a light push on the rear of the slide fixed that. After a mag or two, this seemed to subside. Probably just needs a good lube, but I also have a spare recoil spring I am going to change out since I have no idea how old the one in there is.

This gun is very accurate at least at the short distances (5 and 9 yards) that I tested it at. Ten-shot groups fired quickly with two-hands were well under 6" and a ten-shot group fired a moderate pace at 5 yards was well under 2". I was shooting small groups and the trigger is pretty darn good. The double action is very smooth with no binding or 'stacking'. The single action break is crisp and repeatable after taking up the trigger. It will be interesting to see how it performs at longer distances in my next range session.

I've mounted a streamlight TLR-1 on the rail and added a Hogue sleeve to the grip with some finger grooves.

range report 3/21

So I got out to the range after work yesterday. Same one I went to last week, its called TOP GUN. They even rent full-auto guns there, which I am going to have to try for sure some time. I know that will be ammo-expensive, but it looks like a ton of fun. Anyway, it is kind of distracting when the guy two lanes down from you is slinging full-auto lead down-range. Still its a nice range, 15 lanes and 51 feet of distance, which is exactly enough.

My wobble was bigger than normal, and it seems that my wobble troubles are coming in the vertical direction as opposed to horizontal or just all over. I did some adjustments to the izzy trigger last time I had it apart and well, it feels like crap. I am going to need to re-adjust it and see if I can get some magic back into that trigger. Right now it has a fairly heavy but short take-up and a fuzzy-feeling break point. Its hard to stage the trigger. Still I managed to shoot a decent match even though at the time I felt like I was really struggling what with the wobble and all.

With the Spartan, I definitely didn't shoot as good as I have before with the 45. Still having issues throwing shots low-left, which I KNOW is jerking the trigger. I experimented with some different finger positions on the trigger and am finding that a pad position might actually be best for me. I'm also still experimenting with how I grip the gun; how much of my hand goes around the grip to the right. Kind of variations on the 'Zins' grip.

What's kind of exciting, and kind of nerve-racking and pressuring at the same time, is that assuming our match isn't flooded out this month, if I can manage the same kind of performance that I did in the last match (815) or in this last practice session (810), I *think* that in two matches, I could make Expert. Now that would be HUGE for me. I shot my first match in May of last year, scoring a 711 with a Ruger MKII and iron sights. I would really be proud if I can do it. Really I would be happy if I could make expert by the end of this year.

Oh and get this: after my modifications to the firing pin, the izzy ran FLAWLESSLY. No light strikes, no stove-pipes, no high-feeds. I'm hoping to get out to the range again after work today to pick up my S&W wonder-nine and shoot that a little bit, but also try to shoot a 900 with the izzy.

range report 3/17

So I received a package from EAA on Friday containing my firing
pin and the pin that holds the firing pin in (just in case I bent it),
plus some spare grip screws. I managed to get the firing pin out FROM
THE BOTTOM of the slide (using a very small punch and more force and I
was comfortable with...ended up bending one of my punches in the
process). The assembly diagram shows that pin going IN from the
bottom, but it does not. It goes in and out from the top side of the
slide. Anyway, got the pin out, got the old firing pin out.
Compared with the new one. The nub on my firing pin that protrudes is
basically completely gone. Replaced the new firing pin into the
slide, put the retraining pin in and figured I was good to go to the
range.

Well I get to the range and the izzy won't chamber the first round.
On close inspection, the nub of the firing pin is preventing the case
rim from riding up high enough against the slide to get the proper
angle to be inserted into the chamber. I did some pushing on the
firing pin and realized it was seized up in the slide. Oh
well....ended up switching to the Ruger and shooting a session with
that and the Spartan. Not my best session but at least it was some
practice.

Got home and took the firing pin out and dremeled the notch on the
side of the firing pin a little bigger. Very quick work, put the pin
back in and now its sliding back and forth in the slide with very
little effort so I think I have it fixed. This week I plan to get out
at least twice in advance of the match this Sunday and verify the Izzy
is working well. I think I still have enough of the non-waxy CCI std.
vel to do some practice

benchrest practice 3/17/12

Went out yesterday for benchrest practice with the 40X while my wife shot silhouettes with the Savage 93R17 17HMR. Got to try out the new front rest from Sinclair along with my new rear bag. The front and rear bags both have Cordura nylon ears on them so the stock slides very smoothly on the bags. Also good: my wife had a great time shooting the 17 knocking down sheep and rams at 50 yards.

Shot a 225-3x and a 219-3x with winds from the south at about 11mph.

range report 3/13

I went to a new range yesterday called Top Gun. Indoor range with 15 lanes, electronic target carriers, pretty nice. They even rent full-auto guns! Had a pretty big rental selection, not that I really rent guns very often. The range was 17 yards max, which turns out to be 51 feet so that was just right for my targets.

So I got NERVOUS! The guy went over the range rules with me and I was looking at all his monitors that had views of each lane. Once I got to my lane, all I could think of was that the guy was watching me on camera and that he would probably come running out when I started shooting one-handed.

I get lined up for my first slow-fire and I'm shaking all over the place. I'm like 'wtf?' The first target doesn't go so well, plus my first round is a light-strike. Was using CCI standard velocity. The CCI seems to be a little better than Wolf or Eley in terms of the light-strikes issue. I only had that one light strike in the whole session, so that was positive.

Anyway, I definitely didn't shoot my best. The lighting was kind of messing with my eyes and I didn't feel entirely comfortable on the unfamiliar range. Excuses, excuses, I know. I actually shot ok with the Spartan, which interestingly only jammed like twice; failure to eject caused by interference of the empty between the slide and the scope mount. But I ended up shooting ok with the 45, so that was good. Still had a few misses with the 45, but I'm getting better. And I had a freakin' miss in RF with the izzy! Damn!

range report 3/7 - izzy versus ruger

Wasn't feeling very good yesterday, lots of stress at work catching up with me, so I took the day off. Went out to the range. Instead of shooting the izzy and the Spartan, I decided to shoot the izzy and the ruger, alternating every two targets. The rationale was two-fold; 1) I will probably have to have the izzy in the shop soon so I wanted to see my proficiency with the Ruger, and 2) the Spartan scope mount was feeling a little loose given that the upper grip screw has sheared off, leaving it with only 3 of the 4 mounting screws. So I didn't want to cause any more damage to that mount.

Shooting went pretty good, actually I should say really good. I was able to push things out of my mind and keep clear focus. I shot nearly equal with each gun, so that tells me that my fundamentals are fairly sound and my technique consistent between guns. That was nice.

I used Eley Sport in the Ruger and some older CCI standard velocity in the izzy just to see if it would cure the light-strike issue. I had less light-strikes with CCI std.vel than Eley Sport or Wolf, but still had some. I also notice that CCI is harder to load in the magazines, tends to hang up around the nose of the bullet. It also feels to me like CCI has a little more recoil than Eley Sport. I had to change my zero for CCI which was a little interesting; it was low left POI. I wonder why at 50 feet CCI shows such a difference from Wolf and Eley which have the same POI.

I had I think two light strikes with CCI on the izzy, and I had two failures to extract on the Ruger. One of the failures to extract was just a complete failure to cycle the bolt; when I retracted it manually, it cycled fine, ejecting the empty and loading the next round. The other failure was a stove-pipe.

The really good part of the session was that I cleaned a target with the izzy!!! And I came pretty close to cleaning a second target, but threw an 8.

Overall it was good to see that I was shooting equally well with both guns and that inspires confidence going into the next match if I need to use the Ruger.

range report 3/4

Went out to the range yesterday with the izzy and the Spartan, Les Baer is still in the shop getting the scope mount fixed. With the izzy, I, didn't shoot as well as I would have liked, although I shot some tight groups that were just a bit off. Not exactly sure why; tended to be low, but not low-left like I was jerking the trigger. Everything was tight on the gun, optic mount, etc.

Speaking of the optic mount, last time I put the gun together, I dremeled off the back of the optic mount to give clearance such that the upper shroud could be removed without having to remove the optic and rail. Well I could not get the upper shroud off to clean the gun. It would depress at the rear, but not enough for it to slide backwards and unhook from the gun. I ended up taking the optic off, then the rail. Checked the trigger weight adjustment screw to see if it backed out. No; that wasn't it. Turns out it was the optic rail rear screw. When using the stock screws, the optic rail rear screw will protrude far enough through the upper shroud to prevent its removal. I quickly fixed this problem with a dremel cutoff wheel.

Problems were mostly in the slow-fire, with weak scores there, as opposed to touching 90 like I was a little while ago. Not sure what the difference was, I didn't feel like anything changed with my technique.

Reliability was poor, with 4 light strikes coming on three rounds of Wolf MT and one of Eley Sport, along with a low-feed hang-up with a round of Eley sport. Not sure what to do about this besides send the gun back to EAA. I've thought about a couple ghetto fixes like maybe putting a dab of JB weld on the back of the firing pin, but I figure that would only make the guys at EAA mad when I have to send it back.

With the Spartan, things actually went pretty good. I only had a few failures to eject, always an issue of the empty getting caught between the slide and the optic mount. Not sure exactly how I am going to fix this. I tried dremeling some material off of the bottom of the mount but the metal it is made out of is very tough. I thought about cutting off the rear part of the mount and mounting the optic a little farther forward, sacrificing some balance for reliability.

But the good news was that I switched the left grip panel from the Herrett National grip which is a little thicker and has a thumb rest, to a stock 1911 grip panel, which is definitely thinner. I used my best impersonation of the 'Zins' grip, and I used even more trigger finger than usual, putting the crook of my finger on the LEFT edge of the trigger. This type of grip seems to give me the most leverage over the fairly heavy Spartan trigger pull and makes it feel to have less creep.

Rapid fire actually went pretty well with the Spartan, which is usually where I have trouble. Shots tended to still be a little left of center, so I will try adjusting my zero, although I know its my tendency to throw them that way. Need to get the gun on a proper rest.

The longer term plan with the Spartan I think is to get a trigger job and a slide-mount scope mount for it.

new grips for the IZH-46M

Got some new grips for the IZH-46M that have added rake. Used the dremel on them today and got them fit to my hand.