Temps were well into the 20s today so decided to hit the range to play with some rifles and chronograph a few loads for my M1 carbine. I was hoping to be the only person but another car was parked in the lot. He was at the 100 yard range which was fine as I wanted to use the 200-400 range.
While unloading the sled I use to haul my stuff, the other shooter stopped to visit on his way out. He noticed the chronograph and stated, not asked, to run his loads over it. I told him he could but only after I had done mine as I have seen 3 chronographs shot and I had enough bad luck getting these loads over the chrono. He was not happy, insisting that I let him shoot right away as he was on a tight schedule. Wasn't going to happen and he left in a huff. He claimed to be a board member so hopefully I will see him at the meeting next Tuesday.
Most everything else went well except I discovered a coyote I shot on Sunday was one unlucky dog. The coyote was lasered at 218 yards and I took it through the head as it walked away. With a solid rest that particular gun and load did about 4" at best for 5 rounds and was 2" right at 200 yards. It did much, much better at 100 yards where I originally sighted it.
I also discovered 308 Win HSM target ammo with the 168 gr bullet is potentially pretty darn accurate in my M1A. I only did two 5 round groups but it shot as well as 168 gr Federal Gold Medal except about 2" above the bullseye. I saved the other 10 for a different day as I probably got lucky as I am not that good of a shot normally.
Discovered the velocity of factory rounds for my M1 Carbine was low which probably explains why it has some of the feeding and ejecting problems. My handloads worked fine which measured near 2000 fps. The closest factory load was 1870 fps and went down another 120 fps. That sucks as I have several hundred rounds on hand.
Dropping temps will make range trips to the rifle range a little less frequent. Hopefully, it keeps guys like the one mentioned away too.
