V day shack nasties

[wreckhog]

It was cold and windy. I chose to wear a fleece jacket. Bad decision. Assembled yet another deer gun out of stuff pieced together from garage sales and GBO.

.243 SL barrel $85
SB-2 action $100
Tamer stock $35
Bushnell 4x (Japan) missing parts of the turrets $10
Weaver rings $5

My wife asked me to throw out the pizza box. Hmmm. I opened the garage door, drove down the driveway, passed my garbage can and drove another 10 minutes to the range. Well, they have a garbage can too....lol

Had a couple boxes of Federal ammo from Walmart. The cheaper the better, right?

First thing. Too cold, way too cold. Went into the club house to sign in and filled my pockets with .223 and 22-250 brass from the brass bucket.

Grabbed the pizza box and hung it from the 50 yard backstop. Did not feel like hiking back and forth to the 100 yard in the snow. Put a couple target dots on it. Too lazy to get the shooting rest from the closet. Threw a couple chunks of firewood on the bench to rest the gun on. Fired 3 shots. Wow, a 243 with a Tamer kicks pretty hard! +Everything ejected smoothly.+ +Scope did not fall apart.+ Always nice when stuff actually functions. Primers pushed out slightly, which is supposed to indicate low pressure. Nice 1"ish group. 6" high, 5" left. Took my wife's pillow off the car headrest to use as a recoil pad. Played with the scope and finished off the box of ammo punching out the other target dot. Too cold for another box of ammo. Tossed the pizza box in the trash and went home. Nice rib dinner waiting. No questions about why it took an hour to throw out a pizza box. Maybe if it warms up, I'll go for the 200 yard next time.

[dpe.ahoy]

Nice when it all comes together.  Congrats.  DP

[trotterlg]

I am always amazed at how hard a .243 kicks.  It must be something about the round, for being so little it has a real nasty bite.  Larry

[dpe.ahoy]

I agree with you Larry.  The numbers don't say so but it always flet like the 243 slapped as hard as the 7mm-08 to me.  But what do I know.   DP

[canon6]

Larry and Dp you are both correct. It hurts  way more than it should.  Paper recoil is one thing actual (perceived) recoil is something else.     Doug

[PowPow]

Hey WH - Next time you take out the trash, pick up some 30-06 brass for me.

[jeepmann1948]

I have had the privilege of sighting in (22) 243 & (21) 222 rifles every year for a youth hunting organization, at the end of the day I don't want to shoot any more ! The 222's are a piece of cake but you really feel the bite from the 243's,  I agree with Doug on the fely recoil on targets versus Hunting recoil The kids do not feel it when shooting from hunting positions

[wreckhog]

Weather was nice today. Dropped the kids off at a riding lesson and had a bit less than an hour to kill before picking them up. Off to the range! This time, a 16.5" 1/2 ejector .223 barrel and zip-loc of Russian steel case ammo. I brought along a cleaning rod to knock out the empties. This worked, because I had no stuck cases.....lol The brass bucket was cleaned out of freebies. Got a choice of the 100 or the 200 yard bench. Went safe. The gun shot like a dream. No FTF, no FTE, no keyholing or weird ammo problems. And the thing was grouping under an inch at 100 yards. Went to dial in the turrets so I could drill the bullseye and I noticed that the forearm was not screwed on. So I screwed it on. So much for good groups. Verticle stringing like mad. Time to pick up the kids. Oh well, another day...... By the way, regardless of good groups, a 16.5" barrel sucks for range work. No weight to keep the muzzle from waving around. Plus the 10x scope just makes it feel like I am trying to give up drinking.