What did you do today?

[Bugman]

A mate of mine shoots 38spl with 148 HBWC and 2.0 of trailboss, with very good results in 25m centrefire match.

[wanneroo]

Never seen anyone load 38 Special that low. I thought 650 FPS was slow.

Cowboy Power Factor is only 60 but they have a minimum of 400fps
PF60 is a 150gn bullet making 400fps, or a 100gn bullet at 600fps.
I would think they only have a PF to try to minimise squibbed bullets slowing competitions down.

The lowest reading I've had that I know is genuine is 275fps in .303, but I've also seen 145fps that I think is genuine with one of my light .38's. I get occasional readings in double-digits when I'm shooting only a foot from the chrono but I'm sure those are reading particulate rather than the bullet, stuff that small is not going to be doing 150fps a couple meters downrange.

I just want it to be as cheap as possible so I can do _a lot_ of practice. I plan to cast bullets around 100gn and run them on about 2gn of powder. Pretty much shooting for the cost of the primers, which I bought for about eight-cents apiece years ago. Each case of .22LR gives me 13kg of free soft lead, once I recover it from the rubber backstop. But I also have a few hundred kg of pure lead and lead shot that cost me about $3/kg. Even with commercial bullets these loads are costing me about 33c each.

Good, I am guessing then you are shooting pretty close then for any sort of accuracy?

I wasn't aware people shot stuff loaded that low. It was all news to me. I'd be worried about squibs.

[Maxjon]

Never seen anyone load 38 Special that low. I thought 650 FPS was slow.

Cowboy Power Factor is only 60 but they have a minimum of 400fps
PF60 is a 150gn bullet making 400fps, or a 100gn bullet at 600fps.
I would think they only have a PF to try to minimise squibbed bullets slowing competitions down.

The lowest reading I've had that I know is genuine is 275fps in .303, but I've also seen 145fps that I think is genuine with one of my light .38's. I get occasional readings in double-digits when I'm shooting only a foot from the chrono but I'm sure those are reading particulate rather than the bullet, stuff that small is not going to be doing 150fps a couple meters downrange.

I just want it to be as cheap as possible so I can do _a lot_ of practice. I plan to cast bullets around 100gn and run them on about 2gn of powder. Pretty much shooting for the cost of the primers, which I bought for about eight-cents apiece years ago. Each case of .22LR gives me 13kg of free soft lead, once I recover it from the rubber backstop. But I also have a few hundred kg of pure lead and lead shot that cost me about $3/kg. Even with commercial bullets these loads are costing me about 33c each.

Good, I am guessing then you are shooting pretty close then for any sort of accuracy?

I wasn't aware people shot stuff loaded that low. It was all news to me. I'd be worried about squibs.

We once shot 2.5gns of whatever pistol powder in the 38spl K frame revolvers for CF match..with 148gn TWC bullets

[bladeracer]

Good, I am guessing then you are shooting pretty close then for any sort of accuracy?

I wasn't aware people shot stuff loaded that low. It was all news to me. I'd be worried about squibs.

Oh yeah, Cowboy is shot at large steel plates (400mm- or 16"-square) from about 3m to maybe 10m, in "Pat Garrett" they'll put another plate about 25m away but switch to the .45-70 or .30-30 for that one. As it has been explained to me, the target can never be too big or too close in Cowboy I do plan to shoot some groups with these loads on paper though as I do like to know what they're capable of.

I get lots of squibs anyway as I'm always working up reduced loads. But running these revolvers and rifles fast there is definitely a danger of sticking another bullet down the tube before you've recognised a squib, you have to be switched on. Cowboy loads are probably under 10,000psi chamber pressures so I'm not sure such low loads are likely to do much damage anyway, probably just blow out the case I would think.

These guys and gals are running 10rds out of the rifle in three seconds or less. I saw a pair of guys having a race with six rounds in a .22LR semi-auto pistol and a single-six revolver and nobody could say for sure which one dumped them quicker. I've seen two squibbed bullets stuck in rifle bores already, and one that had a primer seated sideways. It fired the primer so it sounded like a squibbed bullet, but when he extracted it the bullet was still in the case so he carried on. And I was chatting with a guy this arvo that has a bullet stuck in a revolver barrel that he hasn't been able to remove, and a semi-auto pistol with a slightly bulged barrel from a squib that he can't disassemble due to the bulge. These stories are why I prefer to load my ammo manually, so I can inspect every round every step of the way. It's slow but I don't have to worry about these issues.

I was doing some hard drive management this morning and found some videos that were fun, so I dumped them to Mediafire for a mate to download.
The first is some footage of a really good Cowboy shooter, the second is about Bob Munden. I can't find either of them on Youtube, but this is a link to the Cowboy shooter's page (the video I have is a 9-minute compilation of shorts), and a link to download the 98-minute 2011 Bob Munden video.
https://www.youtube.com/@SassyTullahassee/shorts
https://www.mediafire.com/file/qgthasxpyuu0cvq/Bob+Munden+-+Outrageous+Shooting.mp4/file

[Oldbloke]

https://www.youtube.com/@SassyTullahassee/shorts

Too fast for me. Lol.

Sooo, why did they restrict semi's, pumps & levers?

[bladeracer]

https://www.youtube.com/@SassyTullahassee/shorts

Too fast for me. Lol.

Sooo, why did they restrict semi's, pumps & levers?

Because of feelings, nothing else.
Same as we have capacity restrictions on detachable mags only, I've just been doing 23rd dumps of .22 Shorts in the Henry lever-action.

Very hot here today but a mate and I just did over 500rds of practice, mostly .22LR, but I think I did 90rds of .38's.

He squibbed a bullet up the bore of the Browning Trombone, but put another in behind it, which blew the case head apart as well as kicking the extractor out. Luckily we had a drop sheet down to collect the brass and the extractor and plunger were right there, the spring is still in the bolt, so hopefully I can fix it. There was only one bullet up the pipe so I think the first one stopped near the muzzle and the second one generated enough pressure to just punch it out before itself stopping about three inches from the muzzle. It pushed out very easily but I am surprised that the rear of the bullet is completely swaged to fill the bore, the usual heel of a .22LR bullet is completely gone. This was Browning ammo.

[Oldbloke]

Wow, lucky.
I was thinking this morning that you need to fix the issue of squibs in those cowboy loads your playing with. You said u were getting a fair few.

[TheNateOutdoors]

I picked up my first firearm today It feels very sureal, 6 months ago I had never held or shot a gun...

Anyways. I picked up the Ruger American .22 Rimfire as my first rifle to get me comfortable handling and shooting firearms.

She is now all cleaned and oiled and sitting in my safe, ready for my first trip to the range... Annnd i may have already started looking at my first centrefire hunting rifle haha... A .243 Howa Sporter 1500 seems like a strong contender. Great rifle/scope hunting packages at The Barn in Toowoomba!

[bladeracer]

Wow, lucky.
I was thinking this morning that you need to fix the issue of squibs in those cowboy loads your playing with. You said u were getting a fair few.

I managed to get the extractor back in and it's running fine. It's had another issue since he bought it in that it doesn't always unlock the slide after firing, so now I'm looking into that. I think the slide is unlocked when the firing pin is struck forward by the hammer but it's hard to tell once it's all hidden in the receiver.

With the rifle powder they were stopping in the bore of the Rossi, in the Uberti they were fine. I loaded nearly 400rds yesterday with 2.3gn of Trailboss making just over 600fps in the Uberti and about 530fps in the Rossi, which I think is high enough to rule out squibs. I'm inclined to go lower but I'll play with these first before deciding. I may still investigate using the rifle powder but now that pistol powders are available again I don't think it's really worth pursuing.

[Wm.Traynor]

I picked up my first firearm today It feels very sureal, 6 months ago I had never held or shot a gun...

Anyways. I picked up the Ruger American .22 Rimfire as my first rifle to get me comfortable handling and shooting firearms.

She is now all cleaned and oiled and sitting in my safe, ready for my first trip to the range... Annnd i may have already started looking at my first centrefire hunting rifle haha... A .243 Howa Sporter 1500 seems like a strong contender. Great rifle/scope hunting packages at The Barn in Toowoomba!

Well Nate; I hope there are many years of fun ahead of you

[TheNateOutdoors]

Well Nate; I hope there are many years of fun ahead of you

Thanks mate!

My dad never really taught me or my brothers how to fish, camp, 4wd or anything like that. Everything has been self taught/online learnt...

My wife and I just started trying to have our first child, hopefully a boy!...
I hope to be able to get them involved, spend time with them together, and pass down my knowledge and skills one day. That's the dream

[Wapiti]

It was a hot day here too, humid as crazy. About to storm again.
I came back from some field welding on fence corner assemblies to be greeted in the workers cottage yard by some of our Red "yard" stags in the dam overflow pond, cooling off. The two in the water are 5 years old and have just budded to 16 points each and have a few months antler growth yet. Can't wait to see them at 7-8 years. These guys are from a mob of about 15 or so that keep the grass down in the yard.
Something different.

[Oldbloke]

Yeh, heaps of reds and fallow in QLD & NSW.
They look pretty good to me.

[Wapiti]

Yeh, heaps of reds and fallow in QLD & NSW.
They look pretty good to me.

You reckon?

[Oldbloke]

M8,
Driving up the coast this winter ee saw:
2 dead deer
2 run across the hwy.

Fresh sign on a beach. Unbelievable.

[bigpete]

Went with my son to keep my sister company on dads deathbed. Amazing little over a year ago he was healthy and strong for his age. Brain injuries and dementia are a terrible thing.

[Flyonline]

Sorry to hear that Pete!

[Oldbloke]

The death of a loved one is always difficult.

But it is a reminder that the living need to live as time is limited.

[Wm.Traynor]

Dementia is very cruel.

[Bugman]

Too hot. Stayed home. Re-arranged my re-loading room. Didn't like the result. Re-arranged it back again. I blame the heat. DOH!

[bigpete]

Spent more time with my dad. Also moved the cattle on his farm and did some work on my greatsword. My son snapped this pic of me

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[bigpete]

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Today my dad passed away. May his travels forthwith be fun and pain free

[Oldbloke]

Condolence and best wishes.

[bigpete]

Condolence and best wishes.

Thank you

[Oldbloke]

Loaded 40 rounds for the 223. Trying to resolve the missfire issue used most of my stock. Hope to go away camping in about a week. Hopefully the foxes will lose this time.

[Wm.Traynor]

Good Hunting, OB

[bladeracer]

My mate came out and we spent three hours shooting. And now I've just finished prepping over 750 .38 cases, and priming 450 of them. Hopefully I can load a stack of them tomorrow. Been listening to Benedict Cumberbatch in Cabin Pressure (again!) to keep the mind alive through the boredom

[Flyonline]

Today my dad passed away. May his travels forthwith be fun and pain free

Yes, condolences and hope you and your boys got to say goodbye.

[Flyonline]

Took the 97k out the other day with a tin of new pellets that many people in the UK recommend as being the ducks nuts (Barracuda FTs in 4.50). They weren't wrong! Just about shot 2 ragged holes while the others that I've shot ok were a bit all over the place They should also be a little better on the rabbits being 1gr heavier also. That's 25m in draughty conditions off quads, so was pretty happy to get a hole that small (even including the 2 'flyers') with a 5 shot group. Shot them out to 40m to check the drop and I suspect I can get it within 1.5" hold over/under if I increase the zero to about 30m (25 at the moment).

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Then picked up some rubbish from some other fecking clown doing the same thing. This was centrefire stuff on a tree in the middle of a public road though, with the road continuing directly behind the tree. Pity the address on the box wasn't the owner of the gun as I could have returned it with a little 'extra' for encouragement

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If that's the best they can do, pity any animal walking in front of them

[wanneroo]

I picked up my first firearm today It feels very sureal, 6 months ago I had never held or shot a gun...

Anyways. I picked up the Ruger American .22 Rimfire as my first rifle to get me comfortable handling and shooting firearms.

She is now all cleaned and oiled and sitting in my safe, ready for my first trip to the range... Annnd i may have already started looking at my first centrefire hunting rifle haha... A .243 Howa Sporter 1500 seems like a strong contender. Great rifle/scope hunting packages at The Barn in Toowoomba!

Welcome to the club so to speak.

22LR is a great way to get started shooting and with it being a light easy cartridge to shoot, it is a great way to start and hone your skills.