After polishing up the chamber a bit the hornet rounds stick a lot less than before. To make it even easier I can put a small amount of Lee's case lube on the bullets, but I haven't been doing that since I polished it. I still have to pound out the casings with a rod, but is much easier than before.
Here's another small mod I made to the Scout. Since it was shooting high with the 410 barrel and open sights, I clipped off an extra fiber optic that I had and glued it to the top of the front sight post. I took it to the range on Sunday, and was absolutely shocked by how it performed. Its no tack driver by any means, but was easily hitting small steel targets at 25 and 50 yards. And here is the biggest surprise of all... Just for kicks I wanted to see how close I could get to a steel silhouette at about 120 yards. I told my friend to watch and see where it hit the dirt. Well, I missed the dirt and hit the steel! And I was standing, no rest! That was my first shot. After we stopped laughing I asked if he wanted to try it so he did. He hit it too on the first shot! I really couldn't believe it, all this from a 10" insert stuck inside a 410 barrel with a jerry-rigged front sight. So I had some fun with that for a while. I need to do a real paper test and see how we do. I still don't expect great accuracy, but this is already better than I had hoped for. Next I'm going to try the Hornady 35 grain bullets compared to the 45 Remingtons I have been using. I am guessing that I will get a more stable bullet from the lighter weight.
For the next bit of fun, my friend gave me some of the new 22LR CCI Quiet ammo. They are 40 grain and I think 710fps. Scope was still zeroed and I entertained myself by blasting shotgun shells and other small targets on the range. And true to its name, this stuff is QUIET! At first I thought I was having misfires but nope, I just couldn't hear the bang. We had to take of the hearing protection to see how loud it really was. Another guy thought it was even quieter than his air rifle. Its good stuff...
Oh, this is also a different scope from the one I had on earlier. Its a 2.5x32. The glass is very clear and has a huge amount of eye relief, almost too much. But it allows me a more natural shooting stance without having to crank my neck forward. I just have to make due with a "chin weld" instead of a cheek weld. You get used to it.
Enough blabbing, but I'm not sure if I ever had more fun at the range than I did that day.