Range Report 100m

Following Prof. Hale’s instructions, I started testing my ammo at 100m range.  All shots were fired from the bench using the collapsible bipod, holographic sight with 5x magnifier.

Let’s start with the weak stuff first.

MFS (Russia) Zinc-plated FMJ 55gr. $7.39/20:

The Brass Kings (Reloads) “Metal Piercing” FMJ 62gr. $27.95/50:

WPA (Russia – Wolf, I think) HP 62gr. (don’t have the price, but it was probably cheap):

TulAmmo (Russia) FMJ 55gr. (don’t have price, but probably around $.30 per):

I had written previously that the Russian ammo gave solid performance for the price, but I’m not seeing it today.

CBC FMJ 62 gr.  I don’t have the price again, but I think I paid to much, maybe $.45 per:

Barnaul FMJBT 55gr. $6.95/20.  This one is missing a couple off the right side.

Brown Bear (Russia) HP 62 gr. $7.29/20 when I bought it, but it’s less now.  Also missing a couple off the right side.

The others did better.  Here’s a new one:

Silver Bear (Russia) bi-metal HP zinc-plated 62 gr. $6.95/20.

That’s not terrible, but what I really want is to find a not-too-expensive 62 grain hollow-point that shoots a consistent 4-inch group at 100m.  This might be it, but I’ll have to test it again.  This was my next-to-last test of the day, and I was getting tired.

The Brass Kings (Reloads) FMJ 55 gr. $31.95/100:

Considering the price, not too bad a plinker.

Aguila (Mexico) FMJ 55gr. $174.95/500 (pre-Newtown prices). 

Still shooting way off to the left while almost everyone else shoots to the right.  Probably failed the 4-inch test.

Colt FMJ 62 gr. zinc-plated $7.49/20:

Inside a three-inch group!  Too bad it’s not a HP.

PMC Bronze FMJ 55 gr.  Probably paid $.35 per.

That’s not too bad for PMC Bronze.

Here’s another new one.  Hornady Match BTHP 75 gr. $17.95/20:

 

So, well inside a 3-inch group.  I’ve been looking for a match-grade HP to replace the Korean PMC Precision, which is no longer sold in the U.S.  This might be it.  That was my last test of the day, and as I said, I was getting tired.

But the day’s winner is still . . . the DRS FMJBT (Reload) 55gr. at $36.95/100:  match-grade performance at plinker prices!*

Dam, if the internet ever finds out how awesome this ammo is, it’ll bid the price past what I can afford!

Oops, wait . . .

Moving on, my perception is that I have trouble maintaining a consistent "cheek weld" through a group. Now, the alleged benefit of a holographic sight is that it is supposed to be "parallax free" -- in other words, the reticle should at distances 50m or greater consistently line up with the target regardless of what aspect the shooter has on it through the viewfinder. But I'm not sure that's really the case, at least with my $100 Sightmark.

* I've been singing the praises of DRS for a while now, but since writing this post, I opened my second 100 round bag, purchased much later. I may have to add some nuance, so don't run out and buy it just yet.

Range Report: Redundancy

Pretty sorry day at the range.  I arrived late in the day and only had time for the 50m.  On top of which . . .

The Brass Kings 55gr FMJ:	DRS FMJ1F 55gr. (new bag)
Precision Cartridge Range Pack 55gr. FMJ Reload	DRS FMJ1F 55gr. (old bag)
Aguilar (Mexican) FMJ 55gr.	TulAmmo (Russian Steel Case) 55gr. FMJ

PMC Bronze 55gr. FMJ

I don’t know how the hell that happened.  The last trip to the range, I had adjusted the sights for the Brass Kings in an attempt to zero it at 50m.  So I would have expected it to perform similarly today.  The only difference is that, in order to use my brass catcher, I had moved the holographic sight a couple of inches forward on the rail from where it had been.

Either way, the zero was way off, so I cranked in down and to the left:

Brown Bear (Russian bimetal) 62gr. HP:	CBC 62gr. FMJ:
Colt (zinc plated) 62gr. FMJ:	MFS Rem SP (zinc plated steel case) 62gr.
WPA (Russian) Military Classic 62gr. HP:	Barnaul (Russian steel case) FMJ “Boat Tail” 55gr.

I may have miscounted the MOA clicks down.

A couple of new rounds this time:  The Colt and the Barnaul.  Both show promise, at least above average performance for the day.  Overall, though, this was nothing to blog about.  I sucked more than usual.

Civil Carry

In a carefully worded letter, the CEO of Starbucks asked customers to “no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.

The backstory is that Starbucks’ permissive policy – or rather, a lack of a prohibition – on firearms had attracted the attention of advocates of open carry, who were holding “Starbucks appreciation days” where they would, apparently in numbers, patronize Starbucks with their weapons in plain view.  This is, in fact, theoretically legal almost everywhere for everyone; it is only concealed carry that has required a license.  In practice, of course, open carry often attracts law enforcement attention, and usually provokes negative reaction from somebody.

America will be a safer, freer, more manly place when we recover a heritage in which almost all adults go about with arms, and those in plain view.  In the meantime, however, we’re stuck with the culture we have.  I agree with Ace:  a decent respect for the opinions of our fellow citizens ought to lead us to keep our weapons concealed.  At a minimum, it should make us aware that, say, carrying a rifle into Starbucks might be contextually inappropriate, and possibly provocative, even to people who don’t have a preexisting agenda about guns.

Range Report: 100m Edition

A rainy day at the range today.  On a positive note, I had it to myself, and could call a cease fire whenever I wanted!

Aguila (Mexican) 55gr.:

Pretty typical.  It’s grouping wasn’t particularly bad, but for some reason it shoots way to the left of anything else I’ve ever used.

There’s a metaphor in here somewhere . . .

Black Hills Seconds 55gr.:

My goal at 100m is a four-inch group, and this met it.

DRS FMJ1F 55gr. reloads:

Still a top performer.  But DRS only reloads what it can get, and I haven’t seen them offer this again.

MFS (Russian) Rem SP 62gr.

Blech!  Definitely not worth the $.50 per round.

PMC Bronze 55gr.:

Never been more than a plinker.

PMC X-Tac 55gr.:

Wow!  That’s tighter than it did at 50m, suspiciously good for what’s always been one of my weakest performers.  I may have got it confused with something else.  That was the last of my stock, though, and I don’t plan on buying more

Precision Cartridge “Range Pack” 55gr.:

Plinker.

The Brass Kings 55gr.:

Not sure what to make of this.  An excellent 3-shot and two way outliers.  Wish I could make it shoot 1-inch groups every time!

The Brass Kings “Metal Piercing” 62gr.:

Not worth the $.57 per I paid, but I can’t help wonder if I got my ammo confused again.

WPA (Russia) “Military Classic” HP 62gr.:

Mmm . . . You may remember that this shot low at 50m, but it surprises me that it’s shooting low at 100m.  Normally, .223 sighted in at 50m should be still arcing upward at 100m.

All in all, a pretty good day shooting.  Everything did better than it has historically; perhaps I’m making marginal improvement as a rifleman?

Range Report – Leftovers Edition

Another day shooting, another bunch of pictures.  Many of these will look familiar.

Black Hills Seconds 55gr.:

That was a little better than last time, I think.

Dallas Reloading Service (DRS) FMJ1F (a.k.a “Lake City”) 55gr.:

That was not as good as last time, not even close.

PMC Bronze 55gr.

Suspiciously good.  My bet is that this is actually the DRS, plus the missing round from this one:

Precision Cartridge “Range Pack” reloads 55gr.

A good shooting instructor would be able to diagnose a technique problem when the rounds are lined up like that.  Hale?

PMC X-Tac 55gr.

Same kind of top-to-bottom pattern.  I had a few leftover from back when it was really cheap.

Sellier & Bellot (Czech) no 2914, 55gr.

I finally shot the last of that.  It was never a consistent performer.

The Brass Kings reloads 55gr.

This is a new one, picked up at the gun show for $.31 per round.  At that price, it’s hard to complain.  Good plinking ammo.

The Brass Kings “Metal Piercing” reloads 62gr.

Their 62gr ammo is tighter, but at $.51 per, not really worth the extra cost.

WPA (Russia) “Military Classic” HP 62gr.

Wolf’s Russian steel case continues to come in strong.  This variant was only $.38 per, not a bad price for 62gr. hollow-point.

MFS Rem SP (Russia) 62gr.

Assuming the wild shot in the upper right is my fault, the grouping here isn’t bad.  But I paid a premium for this stuff, so I don’t really think it’s worth it.

PMC Precision 75gr.

Slightly worse than usual; maybe I was getting tired at the end of the day.  It’s still my favorite ammo, although the lowest online price I can find is $1 per.  I could get this for $.75 per a year ago.  I suppose I should be grateful I can get it at all.

I think I’m ready to try 100m again.  Note to self:  crank the sights four clicks to the right.

Full Faith and Credit

From Volokh, quoting Blackwell v. Haslam:

This appeal involves the Full Faith and Credit Clause and firearm rights. The petitioner was convicted of felony drug offenses in Georgia. The State of Georgia granted the petitioner a full pardon for his crimes; his Georgia pardon expressly restored his right to possess a firearm.

The petitioner now resides in Tennessee. A Tennessee statute provides that it is a felony for a person who has been convicted of a felony drug offense to possess a firearm, and it does not make an exception for persons who have been pardoned for their crime. The petitioner filed this declaratory judgment action against the State of Tennessee, seeking a declaration that, because he received a pardon for his drug offenses in Georgia, he can purchase or possess a firearm in Tennessee without violating the Tennessee statute.

The trial court held in favor of the petitioner, concluding that the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution requires Tennessee to recognize Georgia’s pardon in full and to permit the petitioner to carry a firearm in Tennessee. The State of Tennessee now appeals.

On appeal, we consider the public-policy exception to the Full Faith and Credit Clause. We hold that Tennessee’s public policy on the restoration of firearm rights for a convicted non-violent drug felon is not entirely inconsistent with Georgia’s public policy, so the public-policy exception to full faith and credit is not applicable in that situation. However, Tennessee public policy proscribes the restoration of firearm rights for a convicted violent drug felon, contrary to Georgia’s public policy allowing the restoration of firearm rights for all felons, violent or not. This Tennessee policy implicates public safety so as to warrant application of the public-policy exception to the Full Faith and Credit Clause under the appropriate circumstances....

As one of Volokh’s commenters pointed out, this case rather directly implicates the recognition in traditional marriage states of gay marriages procured in other states.  I don’t want to seem naive here:  our lawless judiciary will reason on gun control and gay marriage as necessary to get what it wants on gun control and gay marriage.  That said, it’s pretty obvious that traditional marriage states have public policy exceptions to gay marriage, and their option to preserve marriage against other states is specifically granted in what remains of DOMA.

Harassment Geo Markers

From FoxNews:

Gun Geo Marker app tries to locate homes, businesses of gun owners

A new Android app asks users to expose the home addresses of gun owners they deem “potentially unsafe” -- and share that information with the world.

Although I am plenty annoyed with the media sport of publishing list of registered gun or CCW owners, I will concede that at least these lists have the virtue of being verifiable public records.  Publishing our names may be a wonton violation of our privacy and a ham-fisted effort at intimidation , but at least in my case its hardly a secret, and if there has been an actual case of victimization (burgled guns, say) traced to the publication of these lists, I’m not aware of it.

But the Gun Geo Marker app is not only not verified, it is specifically libelous:  they want people to identify “unsafe” gun owners, and neither their app nor the website allows its targets to appeal or contest that designation.

The potential for mischief is significant, but not as large as it could be.  The app doesn’t allow the user to flag a particular address, but only the place where the user happens to be standing at the time.  So I can’t flag someone across town; indeed, the zoom function is limited to the phone’s surrounding area.  I can see all of Φ’s lily-white little burg, but not much else, and I can’t pan around.

Still, the political agenda is specified on their website:

[Y]ou should not be concerned merely because your neighbors are a member of any national gun advocacy organization. The actual threat – just to cite the best known org – that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its kin present to you and your children is political. This can be seen clearly in their consistent opposition to gun safety laws that would, for example, require parents to properly secure their guns, allow prosecutors to bring charges against people who allow kids to play with loaded guns, or when they help pass laws prohibiting doctors from asking children about guns in the home in an epidemiological attempt to help prevent children from shooting other children. In spite of all of this this, you should recall that the NRA also provides high quality safety training as a public service to its members, and that this increases general gun safety. It is safe to say that serious NRA members and their homes should normally be of no concern to you, even as their political radicalism helps makes the gun violence epidemic worse. Even if it is likely – and it is – that an NRA bumper sticker indicates that a gun is stored in the home, you might also notice that such owners have already self-identified to the public, and most certainly have nothing to hide. It may be redundant to place an electronic mark near their property when they are already marking themselves.

Um . . . okay.  So what places should be marked?

Unlocked, loaded, or carelessly stored weapons

Note that while people who keep loaded firearms in their home should not necessarily have their location marked as a gun owner of concern, studies do show conclusively that guns in the home greatly increase the chances of death by gunfire for the owner, family members and visitors. This is especially the case with guns kept unlocked and loaded for “personal safety.” Bear in mind that guns for personal safety can be maintained safely. Also note that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that owning a gun for personal safety is a right protected by the second amendment. Nevertheless, unlocked, loaded or carelessly stored weapons should generally be treated with concern by friends, neighbors and visitors. The locations of such careless owners should probably be marked so that others can make an informed decision.

I’m not sure what to make of a paragraph bracketed by “should not necessarily” and “should probably”.  Too bad the writer doesn’t elaborate on how personal defense weapons are to be “maintained safely” if not unlocked and loaded.

There are a number of cases in which a decision about whether or not to mark the location is much less obvious. People who stockpile large arsenals or numerous assault weapons for reasons other than collecting are likely a concern. Bumper stickers or other public displays supporting gun ownership are not a problem, but when combined with radical anti-government propaganda and/or representations of paranoid political beliefs or support for terrorist organizations, these owners and their locations may well be worth marking. Again, such gun owners may or may not be of concern, and your decision may relate to how “out of place” or unstable the situation feels.

Terrorist?  Because terrorists wear bumper-stickers?  No, the real target here is obviously the TEA Party and conservative-libertarians in general.

Happily, my house hasn’t been marked yet.

UPDATE: On further attempted use, the Harassment Geo Marker is off the air amidst much whining about mean mean gun owners.

Inside the Mind of a Gun Grabber

My mom sent me a link to this Walter Williams piece on gun control.  It quotes Nelson T. Shields III,  the late chairman of Handgun Control, Inc.:

"We're going to have to take this one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily -- given the political realities -- going to be very modest. ... Right now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal -- total control of handguns in the United States -- is going to take time. ... The final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition -- except for the military, police, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs and licensed gun collectors -- totally illegal" (The New Yorker, July 1976).

I hadn’t heard of Nelson T. Shields III, nor of his association with HCI.  But a big of googling turned up an interesting fact about Nelson T. Shields IV:  he was one of the victims in the Zebra Murders.

The "Zebra" murders were a string of racially motivated murders, committed by four African-American men who were later convicted, that took place in San Francisco, California, from October 1973 to April 1974.

During 1973 and 1974, fourteen execution style murders and eight assaults occurred in San Francisco, whose police named the case "Zebra" after the special police radio band they assigned for the investigation. Twenty-two crimes in a six-month spree involved mostly white victims of the three black suspects.

. . . .

On the evening of April 16, 23-year-old Nelson "Nick" T. Shields IV, heir to a wealthy Du Pont executive, accompanied a friend to a house on Vernon Street in the Ingleside district to pick up a rug. Shields had opened the back of the station wagon and was making room in the cargo area for the rug when he was shot repeatedly.

What mental gymnastics did NTSIII, grieving the loss of NTSIV, go through to conclude that taking guns away from law-abiding whites was the correct response to a killing spree by racist blacks?

Range Report: Passing

You may remember that in my last post I guessed that my sling wasn’t actually helping my marksmanship as it was intended to.  The military issues simple slings with the M16 and M4 for carry purposes, but I at least was never trained to use it for stabilizing the rifle.  The Appleseed Project admits that the two don’t seem to go as well together as the sling does with other rifles.

Here are my results without the sling.

Aguilar 55gr.:

Not sure where that 5th bullet went.  My daughter sharing the bench with me using her 22LR, so she probably jostled the bench at the wrong moment.

Lake City 55gr.:

I am really starting to like that Lake City.  It’s performance seems to be holding up, and at less than half the cost of my match grade PMC.

PMC Bronze FMJBT 55gr.:

PMC Bronze was the very first .223 ammo I ever used.  I was disappointed, but my shooting seems to have improved since then.

PMC Precision BTHP 75gr.:

The expensive stuff.  Still getting the job done.

Moving out to 100m:

Lake City:

PMC Precision:

It’s easy to see either of these loads, with the sights properly adjusted, staying inside the black, which is all I really expected out of an AR-15 at 100m.

It’s interesting to observe that the impact points are actually higher on the target at 100m than they are at 50m.  Simple ballistics would predict the opposite, but on reflection I can imagine a geometry where the bullets are still on an upward path at 50m relative to the point of aim, and that this upward path is still continuing at 100m.

Once again, we see the importance of having the sights aligned, not just for the ammo, but for the distance as well.  I wonder at what distance infantrymen sight in, and how they adapt their point of aim to differently ranged targets dynamically.

UPDATE: I took a little closer look at the bag that the "Lake City" ammo came in. Here is what it says:

.223 55gr. FMJ1F
Once Fired Factory Primed Lake City Brass, Tx.
Manufactured by Dallas Reloading Services Dallas

My order form says:

1 x 100rds - .223 DRS 55gr. FMJBT Ammo Once Fired Brass

If I'm reading this correctly, DRS obtained some spent brass originating at the Lake City plant in Independence, Missouri, and reloaded them. (I'm not sure if this means the primers were reinstalled in Lake City as well.) Unfortunately, my usual supplier isn't presently carrying any DRS FMJ reloads, and Federal Lake City doesn't have any loads called either FMJ1F or FMJBT. So it's hard to tell exactly what I was shooting. On the other hand, since they make ammunition for the military, maybe it's all the same?

UPDATE: More optics trouble. Grrr . . . One of the advantages of a holographic sight as opposed to a traditional scope is the ability to keep both eyes open and focused on the target, with one eye behind the sight. The shooter can only do this when not using a magnifier, so it was only last weekend that I discovered that my sight was distorting the view such that it was impossible to focus on the target with both eyes open. In other words, instead of seeing one target in the distance, I saw two. Which is kinda bad, since I will have to think about which target to aim at. I hadn't noticed it at first because I was only using it with the magnifier.