On Saturday 24 March the first (sighter) shots were fired, in anticipation of the main event starting on Tuesday.
The new ablution block wasn’t quite finished though… but! We have running water!
Unfortunately work prevents me from shooting this year.
(And yes, it is a _World_ shoot. While USA-nians shoot IHMSA whereas we shoot IMSSU, the rifle rules line up, and we have at least two Americans competing. They have to drive a stick. Schadenfreude!)
Edit: I was mistaken. I met two Americans, but only one of them is shooting, one R Bain. Here’s the squadding.
For a brief time, this was my 100th gun… but I sold a couple since.
I had to go to the range (and quite a number of trips are still required) to get the lights and speaker wiring sorted for the 2012 Silhouette World Championships. The fellow I bought the gun from was also going to be there, and since I don’t have the license yet, I asked him to take the gun so I could play with it (“Gun control”. Hate it or hate it, it’s a pain in the arse. I paid for the gun, it’s mine, but I have to wait six months to a year or whatever before I can legally possess it).
I was shooting a fairly mild 45 Colt load, 255 grain SWC over 10 grains of S221, which is somewhat like HS-6 or HS-7. I think it’s good for around 1100 fps.
Despite the massive front sight, the gun is shooting high. We need to raise the front sight by about four or five millimeters. And it needs a hood to keep the sunlight off.
(Eye protection: yea, I know. I wore glasses for almost forty years, but recently had Lasik, and I still forget I’m not wearing glasses by default. My bad).
Top left, Star BS, next to it my 22 Llama XV that I’ve had for a while, below them a horribly gold-plated Star PD (45 ACP) that actually shoots really well, to the right of that an Astra Constable at the bottom and a Constable II at the top with a Star M30PK between them. Then two 22 target pistols, a Star FR at the bottom and an Astra TS-22 above. North of that an Astra 7000, also in 22 LR. The two revolvers are both 38 Special, a Llama Martial (top) and an Astra Cadix.
These will all at some stage make their way into the Gundex.
The 7mm International Rimmed is a wildcat cartridge developed by Elgin Gates in the seventies. Nothing strange about it, take a 30-30 case, neck it down to 7mm, and there you are. You don’t need to trim the brass or anything.
Before (bottom) and after fireforming.
Compare this to the 7-30 Waters, developed by Ken Waters (also in the seventies) specifically for levergun use. It’s also a 30-30 case necked down to 7mm, but in this case the neck is much shorter, giving more case capacity and of course more velocity.
I’ve been shooting the 7mm TC/U in my 14″ Thompson Contender for a few years. Nothing wrong with the cartridge, shoots great, adequate power and everything… but the 7mm TC/U headspaces on the shoulder, and that means that if you don’t get your resize operation just right, you either can’t close the gun, or your brass stretches and the case head separates after a few shots. I carry a tap in my shooting box, this has saved the day for me and for at least one other shooter caught with half a case stuck in the chamber. A TC ideally needs a rimmed case.
So I had the choice of 7-30 Waters or the much less popular 7mm IntR, and I chose the latter because, as I said, the 7mm TC/U already has enough power for what I need to do, I don’t need power, I just need a rim on the case.
So it came to pass that I was selected to the Western Province (B) team for smallbore handgun. Shot a very decent 35/40 in Production, with my Anschutz Exemplar, and in as good if not better conditions the next day only managed 29 in Unlimited.
Feh.
The main problem is that the ammo I’m using came from the last Swartklip run before they closed the factory, and I think by then they were keeping the machines together with duct tape and funny putty. And I didn’t think to shoot all forty shots from the same box — no, another box of 22LR bearing the same batch number should be the same…
Not the case.
Ah well, live and learn.
My standing continues to suck, bringing my aggregate down to 101/160 for the four events. We still managed to finish fourth, we beat the Eastern Province A team (but in all fairness, they only had two people on their team, not three, so they were destined to lose) and the Free State B team.
I also shot my new (although I still have to licence it) Freedom Arms 454 Casull, it was shooting way high with the Cowboy 45 Colt ammo I got from someone else when I bought a Ruger from him. On rams, I could actually aim at the targets and not at the flowers between me and the target, and I managed 8/10. One always shoots really well with a gun before you actually pay for it.
My shooting partner for the lever action fun event tricked me into shooting after him, and since we were running an hour and a half late, it got somewhat dark, leading to guess-where-the-target-is. I managed 13, he beat me with a 14. Barstard.
Hey, a bad week shooting beats a good week at work. And this was a good week shooting :-)
