Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada A Day at the Ranges - Not to be confused with...

A Day at the Races (1937), a film featuring the Marx Bros. Or,
A Day at the Races (1976), an album by those British rockin' holers, Queen.

I have always believed that a bad day at the range, isn't. 'Cause we all know that when things aren't going well at the range, it sure beats being at work (whatever that is)...

Today was a lovely day...if you were a snowman, or a professional icicle maker. It wasn't too cold, minus 4 Celsius (or 25 Foreignheat), but the wind was gusting up to 40 mph, and that made it feel like I was visiting the in laws, north of Sudbury.

The purpose of today's trip was to fireform some cases in my 223 Wylde chamber. I intend to reload them using the various die sets I talked about in another thread. Of the 198 in the box, I only managed to shoot 50 because of the weather. The loads I put together were reminiscent of when I was in the service, shooting the fodder they gave us. There were a few ways we described it.

It's not much good. Just shoot and salute.
Pray and spray. (or vice versa - Spray and pray)
F!!kin sh!!t! F!!kin Sh!!t!
Do they really hate us that much?

The 223 load was a 55 gr. Cam Pro bullet (yuck) over 24.3 gr. of WC735. This is a surplus powder obtained from Higginsons. OAL of 2.26 inches. I have never shot this particular combination before and accuracy was unimportant.Good thing. It was awful. I just needed the fired cases. Here is the box of cartridges, for those that like pix of same.



I shot two 25 shot targets. 5.25 inches was the best I could manage. Some of that might have been the numbing of my fingers, but considering the bullets, it likely didn't make much difference. This is what it looked like.



Because I like to leave the range on a positive note, after finishing with the 223 loads, I shot my 225. Mercifully, I did not use Cam Pro 55s, but rather, Hornady bulk 55s. I shot two 5 shot groups with three powders - Varget (2 in. avg), IMR 4064 (1.73 avg) and IMR 4451 (the winner - 0.93 avg) I mistakenly threw away the 0.85 in target, but have the 1.01 inch target.



The morning was great, despite the snow and the wind. And as I always do, I stopped in at Timmys on the way home. This is my snow and wind in the face look. Or it might have been me mugging for the camera.