Took the CZ to the range yesterday along with a few LMI’s to try 1000-yard shooting. It was 8 degrees out and thats pretty cold when youre used to 25-30~ degree weather. On the bright side, heat mirage wasnt much of a concern. Wore the Flectar parka and it was up to the task. Shoulda worn warmer socks though…one of the LMI wore a pair of Mickey Mouse/bunny boots and they apparently served him quite well. Looks like Im going to have to hunt a pair of them down and buy them. I was still getting the feel for the CZ and my 9x scope was no match for the distance of 1000 yards so I just shot 100 yard stuff. The LMI were shooting 7mag and .308. I personally thought the .308 would be pretty spent and thus less accurate by the time it got there, but it acquitted itself nicely. Holdover? Well, the conversation went like this: “Okay, sighted in for 300 yards, so its 25 clicks of elevation for 1000″, “Add two more clicks for the colder temperature”, etc. See, at that range you dont just think to yourself “I’ll hold four feet over the target”…no, you calculate your ballistics on a computer, print a little range card with the various distances noted, and then you mark down the correct number of clicks to adjust your scope. Of course, for this to work you need a very good scope (average cost of the scopes used we $900 each) and your ammo has to be quite consistent. When all that is said and done you head down the range and see a group thats about 6 or 7 inches big and you think “Thats horrible” until you realize thats .7 MOA…the equivalent of shooting a .7″ group at 100 yards…and that those shots all would hit a man sized target at well over half a mile away.
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Took the Mr Heater ‘Buddy’ to the range. It worked adequately enough to warm hands and feet but it really works best in an enclosed space. The brain-numbing cold didnt have much of an effect on it although the Coke I was drinking froze in the three minutes I left it alone to go take a leak. Thats cold.
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Things at the house are a bit chilly too. I was negligent in getting the storm windows up so thats a priority for today. Additionally, I need to make sure theres no under-the-door drafts or anything. Heating bill was outrageous last time.
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Im going to ditch the Remington brass and pick up some Lapua or Hornady Match cases. I may be on the right track with the IMR 4895 but I’d like to try some of the Varget or blc2 loads. Any idiot can hit a playing card at 100 yards…I didnt spend this money for 100 yard shooting. I want the maximum effective and accurate range. Not necessarily 1000 yards but probably 600yards or so at least.

Finaly, finally, finally got the CZ to the range. Took about four shots to get the scope ‘in the neighborhood’ but it wasnt nearly as ammo-consuming as I expected. I’d thrown together some handloads the other night, just something out of the book, and they shot okay enough. What I need to do is pick up a keg of BL(c)-2 ’cause I think thats going to be the way to go. Also some more ballistic tips.

The gun is pretty heavy so felt recoil was ridiculously light. My .30-30 carbine kicks more. The set trigger spoils you for the non-set trigger. As I said, these werent exactly precision loads….they were Remington brass (which I’ll be replacing with either Lapua or Hornady Match), IMR 4895 (I really prefer the ball/spherical powders for this sort of thing) and some Ballistic Tip 165 gr.

Shot for 3-shot groups. At 100 yards out of the 6 groups I shot half were less than 1″ the rest were less than 2″. Not a great start, but I still need to futz around with the ammo and the barrel is still probably just getting broken in. Regardless, it was enjoyable and challenging to shoot in the 20 degree weather when your fingers can barely feel the trigger. Wind was blowing too, but at 100 yards it couldnt have made that much drift.

Anyway, I think the gun has potential and I look forward to playing with it alot more.

RIngs arrived. The Leupold Vari-X II is sitting on the gun as we speak. I’ll load up some ammo over the next day or two and take the thing out Monday. I need to get in touch with one of my target shooting buddies and see if he has a device for checking the scopes ‘level-ness’ once its on the gun. Still gotta go shopping for a bipod though.

The universe provides…

SpaBoy showed up a few minutes before closing and asked if I wanted to buy a rifle. He’s had some money problems since he got divorced and lost his spa dealership. Iasked if the rifle had a acope on it, figuring Id keep the scope if it was any good. He goes back to his car and comes back with a Savage 110 in .300 Win Mag with a Leupold VariX-II 3×9 on it. Okay, not THE scope I want but at least it’ll get me out to the range over the winter while I save my pennies for the scope I really want. Told Him I’d take the gun off his hands.

Dealer on that scope new is $275.

Bought the scope and the gun for $250.

Now i just gotta dump the .300 Win Mag and recoup my money.

And pick up rings tomorrow and maybe, maybe, maybe get to shoot the CZ this weekend after all.

So I took the SKS’ out again last night. Mucho better. I had one failure to fire out of thirty rounds. I believe it was due, not to the firing pin/bolt having coagulated grease, but rather to the trigger group still having gobs of grease enmeshed in the springs that drive the hammer and such. Simple solution – I’ll pull the trigger groups, boil them, then pour the boiling water and some dish soap into a coffee can, shake well, rinse, oil and all should be well.

Someone commented that the SKS seemed trouble prone and that their AR never hiccupped. First of all, this is the only trouble Ive had with the SKS and the only reason Im having it is because the guts of the gun are caked in cosmoline. Take an AR15 and dunk it in a vat of melted cosmoline, let it dry, and then try degreasing it…let me know how it shoots then. Or if it shoots. Once all the grease is out of this thing it should be back to the 110% reliability rate that these things are famous for.
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FAL seems back to normal. I cleaned everything, lightly oiled it and went to the range. I opened up the gas port to the point it would short stroke and then started closing it off until it fired reliably. Fired another 20 rounds through it after that point without a problem, so Im going to leave the gas regulator at that setting. However, Im going to see about swapping the gas regulator ring for one with some numbers on it to make it easier to keep track of what setting it is on. Also order a small spanner for the adjustments…easy enough to order since:
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The 15 FAL mags I ordered from DSA arrived today. They also included, at no charge, extra magazine springs. w00t. More importantly, there was a catalog in there so I can order up the little geegaws I want for the FAL. The mags, by the way, were $5 ea. and seem in good shape. Definitely used. About 1/2 of them look a bit tired but they should work fine…no dents or anything. Worth $5 ea? Oh yeah. I now have 27 mags for the FAL…a few more and I’ll call it good.
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In non-gun news, I went up to CostCo and purchased their MagLite combo pack. 3-cell ‘D’ MagLite, 2-cell ‘AA’ MiniMag and Duracell batteries for each light all in a package for $19.99. (GREAT Christmas gift, by the way) Picked up several and crossed them off my Enormous List O’ Things To Buy. Still need to pick up spare bulbs and filters, though.

Ok, degreased the SKS’ and took them out again last night. Slightly better results. But stil not 100%. Trudged back home and really got serious about things. Am leaving one SKS out overnight to get it nice and cold, the other is in the house at room temperature. Will take both out later today to test for function. In the meantime, gotta tear down the FAL and see whats going on.