TGIF - .50cal smoke at first light !

[roundball]

It'll be 40* at 6:00am...another range session tomorrow to practice shooting offhand...

Question: These past few Saturdays I've been practicing offhand at 25yds, using 3" aimpoint stickers and am now keeping about 99% inside them.
Problem is after a large enough ragged hole appears I'm never quite sure where the ball would have struck, etc.

I have a big roll of tiny 1" stickers I'm going to use in the morning...one shot per sticker so I'll see where I'm printing...wondered what an equivalent distance might be to duplicate 3" stickers at 25yds?

1" stickers at 20 yds?

Lets make smoke in the morning!!

 

[rice1817]

My rough calcs say 3/25 = 1/x x=25/3 x= 8.33 yards.

Sound about right?????

 

[roundball]

My rough calcs say 3/25 = 1/x x=25/3 x= 8.33 yards.

Sound about right?????

Yeah, but we have to remember to factor in the luminosity of the day-glow stickers in the early morning side light...a.k.a....I don't want to make it TOO easy :grin:

 

[arcticap]

How about putting the 3 inch sticker out at 40 or 50 yards?
Our club used to have mini-clay bird shoots at 50 yards.

 

[roundball]

How about putting the 3 inch sticker out at 40 or 50 yards?
Our club used to have mini-clay bird shoots at 50 yards.

I sure wouldn't have to worry about having a big ragged hole in it at 50yds ! :grin:

No, I'm going to try some close work but with the little 1" jobs...9 of them fit on a standard paper plate with a couple inches clearance around them...probably shoot 20 yards and see how I do.

One thing is that I always use a center hold as I would for hunting, not the lollipop sight picture which promotes better consistency but that's not how I hunt of course...so at 20yds I may cover up the dot...just have to see

 

[rice1817]

Looks like nobody was impressed by my fancy cypherin'! Well you can forget about me doin' "timezes" and "gazintas" too!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Roundball: First, Happy Birthday, and my wishes that you have many more. I hardly can remember being 40!

Next, if you want hard targets at close range, how about shooting a .22 rimfire casings at 10 yds? Or splitting a playing card on edge at 5 yards? Both exercises will keep your off-hand shooting skills sharp, for your 25 and 50 yd. ahooting. I do like the idea of moving your targets back, but I would start with those 3 inch targets at 35 yards, first, and after mastering that, then consider a move back another 5 or ten yards, until you are shooting the same 3 inch targets at 50 yards.

The playing cards, and .22 casings give you different problems to solve, along with requiring consistent accuracy. The metal casings will reflect light differently as the day goes on. The card edge has to be invisible to you when you shoot, or you will not cut the card completely. That makes you concentrate on your stance and foot placement, and then focus on your front site, because there is really no " target " visible. If you can see the playing card, you are out of position.

Just an idea for making your weekend shooting session a bit more fun, while not taking away from any of your existing skills.

Again, Best Wishes for a very Happy Birthday. You deserve it.

 

[spudnut]

Gotta consider rotation of the earth and what moons in what sign :youcrazy: :blah:

 

[roundball]

Looks like nobody was impressed by my fancy cypherin'! Well you can forget about me doin' "timezes" and "gazintas" too!

:grin:

 

[PaulN/KS]

Well since I am just startin' a night shift and it looks like flurries and north winds tomorrow there won't be smoke in my back yard in the morning But,Cains got me my order of .600 balls and cushion wads today :thumbsup: so by Sunday I may get to start playing with that smoothbore barrel I got.Have fun Roundball.

 

[roundball]

Well since I am just startin' a night shift and it looks like flurries and north winds tomorrow there won't be smoke in my back yard in the morning But,Cains got me my order of .600 balls and cushion wads today :thumbsup: so by Sunday I may get to start playing with that smoothbore barrel I got.Have fun Roundball.

Let us know how it does...

PS:
I found using Oxyoke wonderwads under PRBs in both my .54 & .62cal smoothbores (like I always use with my rifle hunting loads) caused me to have occasional flyers.

Finally figured it out and never got a flyer without the wad...but as soon as I started trying the wads again I got a flyer out of every 5-6 shots with one.

 

[PaulN/KS]

I read what you posted about those flyers happening with the wads.I was just going to use the cushion wads for shot loads.A buddy at work gave me a bag of 7 1/2 so 25 lbs oughta get me started ok... :grin: Will keep it simple with patch and ball and see how that goes.The balls miked ok and I have a variety of patch thickness to try with them to see what will work best.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you use the cushion wads, use a card wad over the powder first, to seal the gases. I found that the cushion wads won't always seal the bore completely, and that was giving me flyers. With a round ball, I was using an 1/8" thick overpowder card, a cushion wad soaked and squeezed out of moose juice, then the PRB. I want to try using a better lube, using ballistoil, or olive oil, with the cushion wad, as the concoction I made was not lubing the barrel completely.

 

[PaulN/KS]

Good tips,thanks for the info.

 

[Halftail]

Roundball: First, Happy Birthday, and my wishes that you have many more. I hardly can remember being 40!

Hey Paul,
:rotf: I figure Roundball don't know what it's like to be 40 either.... :grin:
Did you actually Read his first post?

 

[RC]

Roundball: First, Happy Birthday, and my wishes that you have many more. I hardly can remember being 40!

Hey Paul,
:rotf: I figure Roundball don't know what it's like to be 40 either.... :grin:
Did you actually Read his first post?

well halftail, paul's actually right! any day roundball gets to the range is just like havin a b'day....but i'm pretty sure it's a few more than 40! (years,not degrees!, that farenhiet or celcius? ) (yup,bad speler!)

 

[roundball]

Yeah...the closet thing I have to 40 will be our 40th anniversary this summer :rotf:

Chilly, breezy, pretty morning but shot very poorly...never settled down into a groove until about the last dozen shots.

And for the record, trying to intentionally hit 1" aim point stickers offhand at 20yds is basically impossible for me...drove me crazy trying to hit those little things...rarely ever hit one...99% of the time was always around the edges and never in the same place twice...could not hold that muzzle still this morning to save my soul!

(but they'd have all been dead deer :winking: )

 

[paulvallandigham]

Sorry Roundball, if I misunderstood your earlier post. I also know the difficulty in hitting those small targets even at close range. Even when I was much younger, and my eyes worked better, I had days when I could not buy a hit for love nor money!

I once was showing a friend how to shoot tin cans at 100 yards with his .22 revolver. He shot up a box of ammo, and was convinced that he had to have hit the can a couple of times, even if it didn't fall over. We went down to look, and he had hit all around that can within an 8 inch circle, but had missed can ! He was depressed. I reminded him that any one of those shots would have been in a man's chest, and he felt much better. He was using cheap discount ammo he had never shot in his gun before, and had not adjusted the sights of the gun for that cartridge. I suggested that he buy some better ammo for the next time we tried this kind of shooting.

 

[RC]

roundball said """'(but they'd have all been dead deer """"""""" hey? do them N.C. deer has orange spots on 'em???? no wonders ya get so many! 40 years married....WOW! (she must really like ya alot?) :rotf: RC :hmm: N.Y. deer has white spots...but is real small targets! :shocked2:

 

[roundball]

roundball said """'(but they'd have all been dead deer """"""""" hey? do them N.C. deer has orange spots on 'em???? no wonders ya get so many! 40 years married....WOW! (she must really like ya alot?) :rotf: RC :hmm: N.Y. deer has white spots...but is real small targets! :shocked2:

Don't know what it was this morning but I just never got it all together til right at the end...thinking about work, not concentrating, etc...one time I even stood the rifle down, decided to check/wipe the bore, then raised the rifle up to shoot and hadn't even loaded it...duh... :shake:

Yeah, we're really lucky we've managed to work through that many years and hang together...have a couple great kids...37 year old Son & 30 year old Daughter (the one who got married last year on opening day of October ML season !!!!!!!)