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Paul Leverman

Took a few long guns out for a stroll today. A little breezy early on, but it settled down in the afternoon. Wasn't working on accuracy loads so it really didn't matter.

The .30 cal surprised me. It gave up about 1 gr. less than book value, but it is older, somewhere in the late '70s early '80s. A little too light for me, it's an '06 on a Savage 110 in a Ramline stock. Was loaded with 165gr SST's in front of 58.5 grs. of IMR4831.

The .243 however, ate everything I fed it and wanted more. I finished breaking it in, I hope. Turns out this is going to be a very slow fouler. I put three through it, and cleaned it just in case. Very little copper either showing or on the patch. Carried on with the next 21 rounds and still very little showing. I would have to describe it as trace copper. But I ran a patch through it anyway.

The next ten were for pressure verification, and it took them in stride. Starting at 36.5gr. of IMR4831 up to 41.0gr behind the 105gr A-Max, and not one indicator. The same for the next eight, only these were loaded with 40.7gr - 44.0 gr of RL-19, with the same 105gr. A-Max. Again, no pressure signs.

And still, very little if any copper showing.

So, it was a good day for the .243, I get to reload a bunch more and try to find the high point. And even with the rounds not really built for accuracy, I got about 1.5" for the IMR, and except for a called flyer, got just under an inch with the Reloder.

I put one fouler through the .338WM, and the wind picked up to the point where trying to shoot groups would have been futile. So that was kind of disappointing.

But I did get all three sets of bases aligned. Now they are back where they should be, I can take them all off, re-install them and still be on zero. They are all bore/rough sighted so they hit centre at 100yds, so next time out I don't have to dick around.

The best part of the day though, was during a cease-fire, when one of the other members wandered over and started chatting. All was normal for the first two or three minutes, then he asked what I thought about the "new" magazine restrictions the RCMP just imposed on us, the poor shooting public. On and on he went, about this that and more. About how now the people who enforce the laws are writing them, blah blah blah louder louder blah blah blah. I suppose it was my fault for not mentioning to him, that the truck that just pulled up behind him had a local member of the ERT, and his son. It sure took him a long time to get his gear out, all the while not being able to help but hear the blah blah blah this guy was spouting off. I don't know. Maybe he did know who was behind him. After all, this is Canada, and we all have the right to voice our opinion. But the real kicker came when only the member and myself were left at the range, and I was packing up. The constable wandered over and asked if I knew the aforementioned gentleman. It was right then that all sorts of bells and whistles went off and I knew this was going to be good. No, I did not know him, why would you ask? Well, he says, for a guy that feels the gun laws are a waste of time and money, I'm thinking he may need a refresher on his license. Oh? I say, why's that? Well, says the constable, he left his rifle here.

Ya just gotta laugh.