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Post your MAY scores here..

Ok... lets get this party started !!!

Tue, May 4th. 50' Indoor Bullseye League

95 slow fire
92-5x timed fire
95-7x rapid fire
282-12x NMC total



Smith & Wesson Model 41, UltraDot MatchDot sight. CCI SV ammo

Your groups are looking pretty good.

R,
Bullseye

Hmmm, that's an auspicious start!

Range only had 30 ft hangers today, so no targets for me...

Kind of in the doldrums this week....

87 Slow Fire
93-5x Timed Fire
95-5x Rapid Fire

275-10x NMC

50' Indoors
Smith & Wesson Model 41
UltraDot MatchDot sight
CCI SV ammo

Took my S&W Model 52 out to the range this morning to get a few "bonus points". Actually I had 3 different loads that I wanted to try out so couldn't think of a better way than to fire a NMC with each load.

So.......

3.1 W-231 with a bevel base wadcutter loaded backwards
91-1x slow fire, 174-2x timed and rapid fire combined.... 265-3x NMC

2.8 Bullseye with a bevel base wadcutter loaded backwards
79 slow fire, 175 timed and rapid fire combined.... 254 NMC

2.8 Bullseye with hollow base wadcutter
75 slow fire, 167-3x timed and rapid fire combined.... 242 NMC

Everything fired at 25 yards using B-16 and B-8 targets.
Smith & Wesson Model 52, 38 Special, iron sights.

Hmm.... going to take a little while to get used to this pistol me thinks.

Added May 13th

Today wasn't any improvement.

3.1 W-231 with bevel base wadcutter loaded backwards
85-1x slow fire, 161-1x timed and rapid fire combined.... 246 NMC

2.8 Bullseye with bevel base wadcutter loaded backwards
79-1x slow fire, 171-2x timed and rapid fire combined.... 250 NMC

I am liking the 3.1 W-231 load a lot better than the Bullseye. Nice 9 ring groups off the bench... just need to steady-up offhand.

hmmm, just a thought, maybe try the wadcutter loaded forwards???

Actually I started that way. It's a wadcutter with a rather pronounced button nose (Lyman #358495) that requires it to be loaded well below flush with the case mouth when loading it with the button forward.



When doing my initial load testing I tried Bullseye, W-231 and WST with the bullet loaded both forward and backwards. With all 3 powders I actually got smaller groups by loading the bullet backwards !!!

Haven't found a decent 4 cavity steel block mold for a double ended wadcutter yet, when I do I will probably buy it and see if it is any improvement.

Naturally hollow base wadcutters produce better groups at both 25 and 50 yards, especially when loaded with 3.1gr W-231. They cost quite a bit more than my home cast bevel base wadcutters though so I tend not to use them as much. I mostly use the bevel base wadcutters at 25 yards and switch to the hollow base ones for 50 yards. Granted, that doesn't exactly help my score... it's more of a "Senior Citizen on a Fixed Income" sort of thing.

Part of my difficulty is getting used to using iron sights again. With my S&W Model 41 it is just a matter of putting the little red dot where I want the bullet to go. As you well know, it's an entirely different game when using iron sights. I truly believe that a red dot sight will add 6 to 12 points to most any score.

ok, gotcha...

Tue, May 18th..... Had an absolutely horrible night. Could have gotten better groups with a shotgun !!!

84, 87 and 79 slow fire
87-1x and 88 for timed and rapid.
254-1x NMC

I was not impressed. Fortunately this league only allows a 3 point "average" drop any given week. Much better than dropping 12 points compared to last weeks score.

Over on the Rimfire Central board JAT mentioned that Bullseye-L has an even more informal shoot going than here. It is 50 yd BE slow fire target, 50 shots, 50 mins. Scored by keeping track of how many get chunked OUT of the black. So, a score of zero would be max, and 50 would be the pits.

Now that sounds to me like it could be a whole lot of fun... maybe an optional match for June?

Just for fun I decided to shoot the Indoor 50' league tonight with iron sights rather than my usual UltraDot MatchDot. Wow... was that ever fun !!! Think that I am going to have to do it again next week.

At least I didn't totally embarrass myself like I did last week.

87, 81 and 90 Slow Fire
89-2x Timed Fire
89 Rapid Fire
268-2x NMC total.

Smith & Wesson Model 41, 7" barrel, iron sights
Dick Horton grips
CCI SV ammo

Shooting the dot really helps your iron sight shooting too. That's because you get to see what you're doing to the pistol prior to detonation and correct it. When you're not shooting a dot sight, you're still using those corrections because you better understand the mechanics of your shooting position. Nice work!

R,
Bullseye

One thing I noticed was that I knew if it was a "10" or not when the shot broke... could just feel it !!! Might be a while before I put the dot back on.

You're getting in the "zone" when you can do that. When you can mentally call the shot, you're focusing on the technique and not shot placement. When everything's right you just know it. This is a difficult concept to describe to people. It's almost zen like, but once they've experienced it, they know what you mean.

R,
Bullseye