P22

On 12/28 my son and shot two 1911's, a Ruger MKII 5.5" bull barrel, MKII 678GC and my Walther P22. We were, as expected, more accurate with the Rugers, but we may have had more .22 fun with the Walther, just trying to shoot it with some accuracy and consistently. My son decided it was not a 25-yard target pistol. At 10-15 yards, we/he were much more accurate. Getting tight groups was a laughing challenge. I'm sure someone can shoot the Walther accurately and consistently, I just haven't met him/her yeat.

PT1911 vs. SA Mil-Spec

Had the opportunity to shoot my son's mil spec and my PT1911. At 25 yards, I did an unexpectedly fine job of centering around the X with the Taurus. My son wasn't doing quite so well with the springfield. Switching handguns, I was a tad better with the Springfield than he was with the Taurus.

The major differences I could pick up is the Taurus has a better trigger. Sights, though different, were a wash. Both were easy to acquire and POA was POI. The Springfield had a bit of a problem with one magazine. it fired the Taurus mags (thought to be a problem with Taurus) well.

We both thought the Taurus was a better out of the box 1911. If (when?) I were to buy another 1911, I'd probably buy a mil-spec, since I already have a Taurus. Both do very well. The Springfield will need some mods (trigger, etc) to catch up with the Taurus.

Walther P22 12/15/07

I fired about 100 rounds, mixed Federal 36gr hp and Xpert22. One of the better days with the P22. Rounds were in about a 3" group, spread laterally across the target. A few low. Correct the left/right thing and the Walther may be a fair shooting pistol.

Reloads 12/15/07

The .45 reloads fired without a hitch. Hard to decide whether the 4.5 grain Unique loads were better than the 3.8 grain bullseye loads. My notes say the 3.8 gr Bullseye loads were better.

9mm reloads worked well, except for about 20 rounds I somehow reloaded without powder. The M&P seemed to work better with the heavier powder. Had problems with rounds going right of target. I believe it was me and the trigger.

Gp-100 12/15/07

I took the GP-100 out for some moderately serious shooting. Fired about 100 rounds, mostly double action. I tended to be a bit low of center, but had most of the rounds grouped just over 2" at 13 yards. Work with the relatively heavy double action trigger helps.

More reloading

No. 1 (and only) son decided my .45 reload problems were based on the crimp. Brought the crimper/bullet seater die down a smidge to increase the crimp. Also used the barrel as a length gauge. Brought the overall length down until the bullet dropped into the barrel like the PMC 230 grain fmj. The lead bullet was shorter than the PMC round.

Loaded 100 rounds of 9mm with Unique. Alliant's recipe callls for 5.5 grains. I loaded 23 with 3.8 grains and 77 with 4.6-4.8 grains.

I'm not sure I like the chain on the Lee powder measure. It's broken twice since I started reloading.

Speer Lead Bullets in .45 ACP Problems?

After yesterday's problems with the 230gr lead bullets not fitting the pistol, I checked them on return. It appeared that the bullets were too long, the pistol would not fire. By mic, the bullets were withing the maximum overall length, but they didn't fit completely. Reset a bullet until one fit in the barrel, then made up a no-primer, no-powder bullet and tested in the 1911. It fit and worked throughout the full cycle. Rest the bullet length in the press for the remainder. About half worked.

Something with the lead bullets versus hard cast?

I made up 50 rounds of 125 gr hard cast for the 9mm yesterday. All fired. I made a hundred today at 4 loads of Bullseye. All fired, but it seemed that all wanted to go low-right. Me, or the loads?

Lee Pro 1000 Review

This is my first foray into reloading. After much dithering, I bought a Lee Pro 100 with dies, carriers and turrets for .45 ACP, 9mm and .38 special/.357 magnum. I've loaded .45 and 9 mm.

Instructions for a first time user are poor. Setting it up is a bunch of playing around to guess how the thing works. Videos on the Lee sight are helpful. I found them more helpful after fiddling with the press a while. Looks like they could take a few days and write better instructions.

Operation: The press, once set up properly operates well. The only problem I've had is getting the empty casing to move without binding the press and stay in the shell plat after sizing/decapping. This is very likely an issue with the way I've mounted it to my bench. Other than that, the press seems to work very nicely after some practice.

I set the press up this morning for first time reloading 9mm. It took about an hour to change out the carrier, set and adjust 9mm dies in the turret and load 50 rounds. Some time was spent attempting to get just under 5.5 grains of Unique to load. First few rounds were removed and the powder weighed.

Powder charging: The powder measure has disks that will deliver volumetric amounts of powder. I've found that the chart results in a lighter load (lower volume) than described. If you want to be close to the recommended load, go one size larger.

Overall: The more I play with the Pro 1000, the more I like it.

.22 shooting 12/8/07

P22 firing CCI 40gr lrn SV: All rounds in about 4" group at 15 yards. One of my better days. Fired about 150 rounds. Front sight focus was excellent.

Buck Mark Standard: ~70 rounds CCI, 50 rounds Xpert 22 and 20 rounds Federal bulk 36 gr hp: Groups were about 2", except with the Federal. Did a fine job of leaving a hole in the target.

MKII GC firing CCI SV: Best day I've had with it. About 2" groups. ~100 rounds.

MKIII w/NC Star sight firing CCI SV: When I got the sights on line, the groups were under an inch. The NC Star sights will not stay on consistently. Time to ditch the sights or send them back to NC Star.

S&W 22A, Bushnell Trophy red dot firing CCI SV: ~100 rounds. When I held the sight on target, the pistol put the rounds on target. Ended up shooting at a 1" shoot'n'see sticker. Groups just over an inch. I may do best with the 22A. Go figure.

M&P 12/8/07

Fired 100 rounds with the M&P, 50 reloads and 50 Wolf 124 gr FMJ. I couldn't see any difference in accuracy between the two types. Most rounds were in the black on the 50' NRA target. I alternated using the laser and open sights. The more I shoot the crimson trace, the more I like it. Best open sight picture is top of the front sight. I may be into a bit of left adjustment of the rear sight.

9mm Reloads

Reloaded 50 rounds of 125 grain cast lead bullets with ~5.3 grains of Unique. The bullet seating die was adjusted as described for the .45. All rounds fired. Accuracy was comparable to the Wolf 124 grain FMJ I've been shooting. Next load will be Bullseye. Also I will back off on the load to see how lighter loads go. Time to set up the press and reload 50 rounds was about 1 hour.

.45 ACP Reloads 12/8/07

The .45 reloads were done according to the video instructions from Lee. It appears that the setup for bullet seating left the round too long for the pistol, by about the width of the rim. Only two rounds would fire. The remainder I tried wouldn't seat enough to release the trigger. Lee's instructions were to use a round that worked, screw in the die until tight against the round and to adjust the seating part until it was tight on top of the round. I did that, but apparently not enough. the 75 rounds I loaded are now a smidge shorter than the PCM round used as a model. This smidge ~0.05".

More Relaoding

I wrote Lee concerning problems that I was having such as getting primers to feed, keeping casings indexed and the like. They wrote back and said the Pro-1000 was one of their harder presses to operate and I should have started with something simpler. Tough, I have it. They did offer some good advice on using it. Followed that advice and 45 rounds of .45 with Unique loaded smoothly. Just took a long time.

Interesting that to deliver ~4.8 grains of Bullseye you use a .51 disk, which should give 5.2 grains. To load ~4.8 grains of Unique, you use the 0.61 disk, which should give about 5.2 grains. I either have a bad scale and some hot loads, or we'll see how erratic and bad my loads are this weekend.

Reloading and the Lee Pro 1000

Decided I need something to do in my spare time, and to "save money" on shooting, I jumped into relaoding. I bought a Lee Pro 1000. Lousy instructions if you don't know what you are doing. After lots of messing around Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I managed to get 30 rounds loaded. Will see how that worked out.

Pt1911 12/1/07

Not bad day with the .45. For some reason I wanted to shoot left. I'd like to blame the pistol. Natural point of aim? It was hard to see the target (bright sunlight and dark in the shooting shed. First target is about 70 rounds.

Moved to another target for the last 30 rounds. Two rounds in the target are another shooter trying out the pistol. Shoots very nicely.