I’ve never been one to fall for fancy newfangled gear (unless it involved fancy walnut), so for most of my life I’ve used cheap Harbor Freight earmuffs when shooting. That’s okay for most shooting, I thought, but I recently noticed that my earmuffs were interfering with getting a good cheek weld on a rifle stock when shooting from the bench. And there was another issue: Good buddy Daniel (one of the rangemasters) always has a good joke or two, and I couldn’t hear him through my earmuffs.
I noticed other guys using electronic earmuffs. You know, the kind that lets you hear normal conversation, but chops out the loud report from a handgun or rifle. They appeared in a recent ad to be slightly narrower than my el cheapo Harbor Freight muffs, too, so I thought maybe they wouldn’t interfere with the rifle’s stock. So I pulled the trigger, figuratively speaking, and ordered a pair of Razor Slim Electronic Earmuffs from Amazon.
They take two AA batteries (which are provided), and they turn on or off via a dial on back of the left earmuff. That dial also controls the volume. Turn them off, and they are like a regular set of earmuffs. Turn them on, and you can hear conversation but rifle and handgun shots are attenuated. You can control the volume, so I imagine they are pretty much like wearing hearing aids. In fact, they work almost too well in that regard. I could hear conversations a dozen benches down on the firing line, and I had to reduce the volume because I found it distracting.
I like these Razor earmuffs. I can carry on a conversation when wearing them, and that makes it nice because those with whom I’ve conversing don’t need to shout (nor do it).
The knob on the left eafmuff controls the volume and is also the on-off switch. If you forget to turn that knob off, it will run down the batteries.
There are three things I don’t like about the Razor earmuffs, but none are showstoppers and they wouldn’t prevent me from buying them. The first is that the original reason I bought them (to eliminate interference with the rifle stock), well, that isn’t what I found. The name notwithstanding (“Razors”), they interfere as much or more than a plain old set of the Harbor Freight earmuffs. The second is that it’s easy to forget to turn down the volume all the way and switch the earmuffs off, with the result being that on the next trip to the range, the batteries are dead. That one’s on me, I guess. The third reason is they are warm. The Razor earmuffs form a better seal around your ears, and on a hot day, that can be a bit of a drag. But like I said above, none of these are showstoppers for me, and they shouldn’t be for you, either.
Today’s story is on two old assault rifles. Not the AR15s and other Rambo stuff that’s in the news all the time, but two really old rifles, with designs reaching back more than a century. I’ve spent many enjoyable days on the range with these rifles, and they are two of my favorites.
The one on the top is a Mosin-Nagant 91/30, which is a Russian rifle originally designed in 1891 and then modified in 1930. These old Mosin Nagant rifles were Russia’s primary infantry weapon in World War II. They were plentiful for a while, and then they all but dried up and the prices have increased significantly.
Before I bought my Mosin, I marveled at all the excitement over what I thought was a junk rifle. I had to find out for myself what these were all about, so I bought one labeled as “excellent” (it was anything but). That old Russian rifle is about as crude as it gets, but boy oh boy, can it shoot! It is very accurate, as you can see in the photo below.
The other rifle in the photo above is an Argentine 1909 Mauser. Here’s another photo of it.
The Mauser uses a cartridge (7.65 x 53 Argentine Mauser) that is just about impossible to find today, so for that one I bought the tools that let me make cartridges from .30 06 brass. Doing so was fun. You run the 30 06 case into a special die that reforms it into the 7.65 Argentine cartridge, you trim the newly-formed case to the correct length, and then you reload the new case using the right dies for that cartridge. The photo below sort of shows the forming steps and the finished ammo…that’s a 30 06 round on top and two of my newly-minted 7.65 Argentine rounds on the bottom…
I was surprised at how well it all turned out, and I was really pleased with how well the old Mauser shot. It shoots 1-inch groups with iron sights, but with the rear sight at the lowest setting it shoots a foot too high. After researching this issue on the Internet, I found out that’s what those old German engineers intended. It’s zeroed for 300 yards at the lowest setting! The theory is that you aim at the center of your target for any distance up to 300 yards and you’ll hit it (as long as your target is about the size of an enemy soldier).
Looking at those two rifles, the Mauser has vastly finer machining, fit, and finish, and the Germans really got carried away serializing things. Even the cleaning rod has a serial number.
That got me to thinking about the Mosin Nagant and how rough it was compared to the Mauser. Even with its crude build quality, though, that old Russian rifle shot just as well as the Mauser.
You know, they say there’s nothing new under the sun, and to a great extent, that’s true. Paul Mauser invented the bolt action rifle, and it’s said he got the idea from a gate latch. The theme became the cover of my book on Unleashing Engineering Creativity, and it became the cover shot (featuring the very same rifle you see here). You can buy Unleashing Engineering Creativity by clicking on the title or the photo below.
I had the Garand out a couple of weeks ago and I had a blast. I was on the range by 7:00 a.m., I had the place to myself, and the sun was at my back. In those early morning sessions with the sun directly behind me and low in the sky, the front sight is sharp and at just the right distance from my aging eyes. I can focus on it, and when you’re shooting any firearm with iron sights, that’s the only place you want to be focused.
The might M1 Garand.
My Garand is nothing fancy; in fact, it’s sort of a mutt. I bought it several years ago from a small shop in Corona, and it’s a kluge of parts. The receiver is from CAI (which is supposed to be one that’s not very good, but my rifle doesn’t know that), the trigger group is from Beretta (they made a Garand-based rifle years ago), and the rest of the parts are a “who knows?” collection. My Garand wouldn’t cycle reliably when I bought it, so I bought a new gas cylinder (new to me; it was a well used part but it met spec) from SARCO in Philadelphia and that fixed the problem.
I ran into another issue, and that was the first shot always going significantly low left (about 10 inches at 100 yards). I couldn’t find what was causing that problem, and then one day I took the rear sight apart when it felt a little loose. I greased everything, adjusted it to where I wanted it to be, and then tightened the elevation adjustment screw to remove any play. That did it: The low left first round issue went away.
Fresh .30 06 reloads for the Garand.
I’ve experimented with a few different loads, and I found what everyone else has found: The secret sauce is 47.0 grains of IMR 4064 and either the Sierra 168-grain jacketed hollowpoint boattail Matchking bullet, or its clone from Speer. My rifle is more accurate with the Sierra bullets, but their price is nearly twice what Speer gets for their bullets. The ammo you see here used the last of my Speer bullets; my next loads will be with Sierra Matchkings.
Reloaded Garand ammo on the bench at the range.
I’m not scaring any National Match competitors, but for an old dude with weak eyesight, I can still do okay. “Okay” is a relative term, I know. Here’s what 20 shots at 100 yards look like from that day on the range.
20 shots at 100 yards. Speer 168 gr FMJBT, 47.0 gr IMR 4064, a cartridge overall length of 3.295 inches, and Winchester primers at 100 yards. Close enough for government work, as our soldiers found out in World War II and Korea. I used mixed brass from PMC and PPU; the group would have been better had I used only one brand.
Here’s the Garmin chronograph data for the above 20 shots:
The Garmin is well worth the money. I am enjoying mine.
I love military rifles, and I love shooting the Garand. I shoot mine regularly. My daughter once got a shot of me on the range and she caught the brass case in midair (it’s the photo you see at the top of this blog). We have other stories on the Garand as well as other military surplus rifles (see our Tales of the Gun page). If you have a Garand (or any military surplus rifle you enjoy shooting), we’d love to hear about it. Please leave a comment below.
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This story is about finding a decent load for my .243 200th Year Ruger No. 1 rifle. The rifle is 48 years old now, but the old girl can still get it on. I didn’t think my Ruger was particularly accurate at first, but wow, it’s a shooter.
Good wood, a good looking 200th Year Ruger No.1A, and a day on the range. Life is good.
I’ve tried a lot of loads in this rifle and I probably would have given up except for what I saw happen with another shooter. He had a .243 No. 1 in the 1B configuration (that’s the one with no iron sights, a 26-inch barrel, and a beavertail forearm), and he didn’t like it at all. To me, not liking a Ruger No. 1 is a crime against nature, but that guy was frustrated with his .243 and he had given up on it. He spent good money (Ruger No. 1 rifles sell for around $2,000 today) and it just seemed like a shame. When I first tried my .243 No. 1 it wasn’t very accurate, but I decided I wasn’t going to be that other guy. I was confident I could find a good load. Actually, I found three, and they are listed below by bullet weight. They are all of comparable accuracy in my rifle.
Accuracy Load No. 1
Nosler 55-grain .243 bullets. It’s the lightest bullet available for the .243.Bullets, loaded ammo, and XBR 8208 propellant.
My first accuracy load for this rifle is the 55-grain Nosler Varmegeddon flat base bullet with 40.0 grains of XBR 8208 propellant. I seated the bullets to a cartridge overall length of 2.606 inches without a crimp, but I haven’t experimented with bullet seating depth or crimping. I used Fiocchi large rifle primers because at the time, primers were scarce and I bought 1500 of the Fiocchis when I could.
Accuracy Load No. 2
Hornady 58-grain VMax bullets. Hornady makes a good-looking bullet.I shot all the rounds I loaded with this bullet, so this picture will have to do.
Another excellent load is the 58-grain Hornady VMax bullet with 42.0 grains of IMR 3031 propellant. I ordinarily wouldn’t use IMR 3031 in the .243, but I had a tiny bit of it left from some development work on another cartridge and good buddy Kevin told me IMR 3031 was his powder of choice for the .243. It was a good recommendation. I set these rounds up with a cartridge overall length of 2.620 inches. Like the load above, I have not tried different seating depths or crimping.
Accuracy Load No. 3
Cavernous hollowpoints in the 75-grain Speer varmint bullets. These shoot exceptionally well.I found IMR 4895 works well with the Speer 75-grain bullets.
My third accuracy load is the 75-grain Speer Varmint hollowpoint bullet with 39.0 grains of IMR 4895 propellant. I loaded this round to an overall length of 2.620 inches, and like the others above, I have not experimented with overall length or crimping.
What I Haven’t Tried and What Didn’t Work (for me)
I have a couple of boxes of 65-grain Hornady V-Max bullets and I’ve only tried them with a few powders. So far, nothing gave me acceptable accuracy with these bullets.
.243 ammo loaded with PRVI 100-grain bullets. I couldn’t find the secret sauce to make this bullet accurate. Hornady 100-grain bullets weren’t any better.
I also have a bunch of 100-grain bullets (from Hornady and PRVI). Neither of these 100-grain bullets grouped well. They stabilized (no target key holing), but the groups just weren’t very good. That’s okay; I’m not going to use the .243 on pigs or deer. But if I ever took it varmint hunting, the accuracy loads listed above would get the job done.
The Bottom Line
Typical results with the accuracy loads listed above.
Any of the above loads will shoot a three-shot group at or below 0.75 inches at 100 yards. The groups would be tighter with a more skilled rifleman. For me, getting the old .243 to group into three quarters of an inch is good enough. I’ll call it a day with load development on this rifle and stick with the loads above. On to the next rifle. Stay tuned.
Back in the 1970s I was a falling plate competitor. That competition involved knocking over a set of steel plates at a relatively short distance, usually with something in .38 Special or .45 ACP. In those days, nobody competed with a 9mm; the 9mm pistols had not made the inroads they enjoy today. A lot of guys competed with 1911s or modified K-frame S&Ws; I was a bit of an oddball and I used an N-frame Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum (with light .44 Specials, as the shot-to-shot recovery was faster and the .44 Special easily knocked the plates down). We shot from the ready position, with the gun held at an angle to the ground. The video below gives you an idea what the falling plate game looks like:
There were variations of this competition. The most exciting one was a bowling pin competition, which involved clearing a half dozen bowling pins from a table. In that one, you needed a .44 or a .45; the .38 Special didn’t have the energy to clear a bowling pin off the table. Both competitions were all about speed; whoever knocked all the plates over (or blew away all of the bowling pins) in the shortest time won.
Other similar competitions involved drawing the gun from a holster, and I wanted to shoot my AMT Long Slide Hardballer, a really cool 7-inch-barreled 1911. It’s the one Arnold Schwarzenegger used in Terminator.
An AMT (Arcadia Machine and Tool) Long Slide Hardballer. The story on it is here.
I needed a holster long enough to hold the Long Slide AMT 1911, and at that time there were none on the market. Other holsters could hold either 5-inch or 4 ¼-inch 1911s, but nobody had anything for the 7-inch AMT. Hold that thought. I’ll come back to it shortly.
I’ve written about good buddy Mike here on the blog before. Mike and I have been buddies since junior high school. He went on to become Chief of the New Brunswick Police Department. We still talk every week. Mike deputized me a couple of times when he attended the International Association of Chiefs of Police conventions. I’d always ask for a gun, and the answer was always no. But we had a lot of fun at those conventions.
The Director at the International Association of Chiefs of Police 2023 convention. I was his administrative assistant on that adventure. That story is here.
Mike called me last week. He was pumped up. He found his old New Brunswick Police Department duty holster from the days when they carried Heckler & Koch P7M8 9mm squeeze cocker semi-autos. That was the gun the New Jersey State Troopers adopted back in the ‘80s.
A New Jersey State Trooper Heckler & Koch P7M8 and its Tex Shoemaker holster.The NJSP emblem embossed on the Tex Shoemaker holster.
The New Jersey State Police had custom holsters crafted for their handguns by the Tex Shoemaker company, a legend in the holster business. They also had Shoemaker emboss the NJSP emblem in the leather. Not to be outdone, the New Brunswick Police Department also adopted the Heckler & Koch P7M8 9mm semi-auto, and they, too went to Tex Shoemaker for holsters embossed with the NBPD emblem. Mike had one when he served, and it was this holster he recently found. The Tex Shoemaker H&K police duty holsters have become collectible items, with this particular model appearing on Ebay for $300. Mike is going to donate his to the New Brunswick Police Department Headquarters display case. I think that’s pretty cool.
Good buddy Mike’s Heckler & Koch P7M8 Tex Shoemaker holster.The Heckler & Koch P7M8 holster with an embossed New Brunswick Police department emblem.
So I was thinking about this story and Mike’s holster and then I remembered: Hey, I have a Tex Shoemaker holster, and mine is brand new. The Tex Shoemaker company was located in San Dimas, which is not very far from my home. They closed up shop in 2019 (I’m assuming it fell victim to the pandemic, the move toward plastic holsters, and competition from the plastic holster manufacturers). Whatever the reason, it’s a pity. Shoemaker’s was an old line holster manufacturer started by Tex Shoemaker, a former lawman who started out making holsters in his garage. Their quality was unsurpassed.
When I needed a quick draw holster for my anticipated pistol competition (as described at the beginning of this blog), I couldn’t find anyone in the ‘80s who was making a holster for the AMT Long Slide Hardballer. I searched the yellow pages for holster companies (this was all pre-Internet), and that’s when I learned that the Tex Shoemaker company was nearby. I called them and explained what I wanted. I spoke with a nice guy who told me he didn’t know of anybody making a holster for the Long Slide 1911, but Shoemaker was experimenting with a new break-front holster that would handle all 1911 barrel lengths. He explained that it wasn’t on the market yet, but I could swing by and take a look at it.
My AMT Long Slide in it’s Tex Shoemaker experimental holster.The Tex Shoemaker logo.
Sue and I rode over to Shoemaker’s that day. It was a factory and they didn’t have a retail facility, so I walked up to the loading dock, looked up at a guy standing above me, and explained why I was there. A minute later that same nice guy I had spoken with on the phone appeared with the holster he told me about on the phone. I had my Long Slide with me and we tried the big 1911 in it; the fit was perfect. He also had two magazine holders (together they could hold four magazines). The holster was just what the doctor ordered, and I told him that even though it wasn’t commercially available yet, I’d like to buy it. He smiled, gave all three items to me, and told me there was no charge.
The Tex Shoemaker holster is adjustable for draw angle. It’s a cool feature.For normal carry, the pistol is secured with a cross strap.For quick draw work, the cross strap is removed. The holster has a strong clamp spring inside the leather that secures the pistol. When drawn, the pistol can be snapped forward without withdrawing upward from the holster.The Long Slide Hardballer, the Tex Shoemaker holster, and two Tex Shoemaker magazine holders.The Tex Shoemaker logo on the back of a magazine holder.
I was shocked when that nice man told me there was no charge, and then I realized I didn’t even know who he was. I introduced myself, and as we shook hands, he told me his name: Randy Shoemaker. Randy Shoemaker was Tex Shoemaker’s son.
I never pursued quick draw competition. I had visions of shooting myself in the foot, and it just wasn’t something I wanted to do. But I sure enjoy owning my Tex Shoemaker leather. Maybe someday, I’ll enter the Quick Draw McGraw games. In the meantime, here’s an unashamedly doctored video of me playing around a few years ago at the West End Gun Club.
I’ve joked around a bit about my 1940 Tula Mosin-Nagant’s bore by writing that it looks like a sewer pipe. It turns out my description was closer than I realized. I recently purchased a Teslong borescope (watch for an upcoming review here on ExNotes), and I took a look at what things looked like inside the Mosin. Wow, was I ever shocked. That photo above is my Mosin, from the inside.
My Tula Mosin and a 100-yard target shot with my reloaded ammo. The first five shots are at the bottom of the orange bullseye. As the barrel heated, the subsequent shots hit higher.
I shoot only jacketed bullets in the Mosin described above, and even with that funky bore it shoots them well. This rifle is surprisingly accurate. That’s amazing, particularly in light of the fact that the bore (while clean) is extremely pitted, and in some places, I couldn’t even see the rifling. Still, it cuts a relatively tight group at 100 yards, especially considering that I shoot it only with its native iron sights. On a good day, it will put five shots into a little over an inch before the barrel heats up, and then when it does heat up, it walks them up a line no wider than an inch due to the stock deflecting the barrel upwards.
The Izzy Mosin at the West End Gun Club. I shoot cast bullets in this rifle.A 7.62x54R cartridge loaded with a cast bullet.The above Mosin’s bore, as seen through the Teslong borescope. It is in much better shape than the rifle I use for shooting jacketed bullets.
I have another Mosin (a hex receiver 1935 Izhevsk) I use for cast bullets, and I thought it had a pristine barrel. I was wrong about that, too. The Teslong reveals all. It’s way better than the Tula’s bore, but it also bears more than a passing resemblance to a lunar landscape. But it, too, can cut a decent group at 100 yards. What makes that amazing (at least to me) is that it does so with the same old prehistoric iron sights and cast bullets.
A 100-yard target shot with cast bullets. This rifle had been zeroed for 50 yards, which is why the shots are below the bullseye.
When these rifles were new back in the 1930s and 1940s, primers were corrosive, and corrode the bore they did. And obviously the soldiers who carried them did little to clean them adequately. I’m not faulting them; those troops had other things on their minds and I’m just making an observation. I’ve been driving myself nuts using the new borescope when I clean my modern rifles trying to get every speck of copper and carbon out of the bore, and I’ve been living in anguish every time I see a machining defect or scratch in these firearms. As the Mosins show, I’ve been worrying for nothing. A bore that is in pretty rough condition can still be accurate.
Notice anything flaky about the bullets above? At first, I didn’t. But it’s there. Read on, my friends.
I confirmed a couple of good loads for the .30 06 Weatherby this morning and several months of trying different bullet weights, powders, powder charges, seating depths, and more. In the past, one of my favorite bullets for both the .30 06 and .300 H&H cartridges has been the Winchester 150-grain jacketed softpoint so I wanted to try these again, but they have been unavailable for a long time.
When the Winchester bullets finally came back on the market again a few months ago, I bought 1000. Sometimes they grouped well in my Weatherby, at other times they did not. I got to where I worked up a load with 51.0 grains of IMR 4064 (a max load for this bullet) and that had shown promise, but I’d get a good group and then a bad one. I was pretty sure it wasn’t me being flaky behind the gun; things looked good through the scope when I pulled the trigger.
My 40-year-old Weatherby Mk V, chambered in .30 06 Springfield. It’s a beautiful rifle.That’s a 1980s-ish 12X Leupold Silhouette scope on the Weatherby.
I found that how I positioned the rifle in the Caldwell rest made a difference. If I had the rifle positioned so that the rest was just forward of the rifle’s floorplate, it grouped well; if I had the rifle positioned further back, it did not group as well. Even while taking care to appropriately position the rifle, though, the Winchester bullets grouped erratically. I’d get good groups and then I’d get bad groups.
Then one day after another frustratingly inconsistent range session, I returned home, cleaned the rifle, resized the brass, threw the brass in the tumbler, and was reloading it with the above load when I noticed that the bullet cannelures were not at consistent heights above the case mouth after seating the bullets. Hmmmm.
Winchester 150-gr JSP bullets. Note the cannelure location inconsistences.
So I lined up some bullets on the bench, and son of a gun, the cannelures were all over the place on the bullets (with regard to height above the bullet base). I bitched to Winchester about this through their website and they agreed to refund what I had paid for the bullets. They even had a UPS guy stop by and give me a prepaid shipper to return them. I didn’t want to, though, because the bullets had done well in the past, and I still wasn’t certain that the cannelure location issue was affecting accuracy.
So I reloaded another 12 rounds and before I did so, I sorted the Winchester bullets by cannelure height. I loaded 6 cartridges with bullets that had cannelures at what appeared to be approximately the same location, and I took the bullets I had screened with what were obvious cannelure location differences and loaded 6 more rounds. The next morning I got out early to beat the heat and set up a 100 yard target at the West End Gun Club. I proved my hypothesis: The cannelure height variability was degrading accuracy significantly.
The top two groups had bullets with inconsistent cannelure heights. The bottom two groups had bullets with cannelure heights that were located in approximately the same spot, and the groups with those bullets were much smaller.
The group sizes for bullets with the same cannelure locations returned minute-of-angle groups; the group sizes for bullets with random cannelure height locations were more than twice the size of the consistent-cannelure-location bullets. Duh. I proved (at least to myself) that this cannelure height location issue is making a difference. I can hypothesize that cannelure location can affect the bullet’s center of gravity, center of pressure, drag, and perhaps other aerodynamic and mass properties characteristics. The bottom line to me is that cannelure location variability plays a big role. Winchester screwed the pooch when they made these bullets, which is a shame. I should also mention that these bullets were not sold as seconds. They were supposed to be good bullets. An old line company with a name like Winchester ought to be making a quality product, but they clearly are not. That notwithstanding, I think I’ll keep the bullets and sort them. I’ll use what I cull out for open sight rifles, or maybe I’ll sell them to a gas station and they can melt them down for wheel weights.
Yeah, I could just send the bullets back. To Winchester’s credit, they were willing to refund what I had paid for the bullets. But they disappointed me, and I have to tell you, I spent a lot of time and money in wasted components trying to shoot good groups with lousy bullets. What I’d really like is a note from Winchester telling me they’ve fixed the problem, and then I’d buy another thousand bullets.
You might wonder: Why not just use Hornady’s comparable 150-grain jacketed soft point bullet? It’s a logical question. I tried that with the same load, and it wasn’t as accurate as the screened Winchester bullets (even though the cannelure location was consistent on the Hornady bullets).
I did find a Hornady bullet and a load that worked well in this rifle, though, and that’s the 130-grain Hornady jacketed soft point bullet with 53.0 grains of IMR 4320 (a max load, so work up to it). It shoots slightly high and to the right compared to the load above. IMR 4320 is no longer in production, but I have a stash and I’ll continue to use it. This load is also extremely accurate in my Ruger No. 1A.
Wondering about the chrono results for the loads described above? Here they are, as shot from my 26-inch barreled Weatherby Mark V:
150-grain Winchester Loads
150-grain Winchester jacketed soft point bullet, 51.0 grains of IMR 4064, no crimp, cartridge overall length 3.250 inches, Fiocchi large rifle primer, inconsistent bullet height cannelure
Min velocity: 2861.7 fps
Avg velocity: 2891.8 fps
Max velocity: 2909.8 fps
Extreme spread: 48.1 fps
Standard deviation: 15.9 fps
150-grain Winchester jacketed soft point bullet, 51.0 grains of IMR 4064, no crimp, cartridge overall length 3.250 inches, Fiocchi large rifle primer, screened for consistent bullet height cannelure
Min velocity: 2902.9 fps
Avg velocity: 2912.5 fps
Max velocity: 2933.1 fps
Extreme spread: 30.2 fps
Standard deviation: 10.0 fps
130-grain Hornady Load
Load: 130-grain Hornady jacketed soft point bullet, 53.0 grains of IMR 4320, no crimp, cartridge overall length 3.095 inches, Fiocchi large rifle primer
Caldwell makes several different models of forward rifle rests. The one that makes the most sense to me is the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest. It has what I want in a rifle rest and at $102 it is reasonably priced (as much as anything can be considered reasonably priced in our inflationary times). It includes the forward rifle pad and it is adjustable for height, tilt, and squeeze on the pad. The features are explained in the photos below.
Rifle height off the bench is adjustable by the large black adjusting collar on the center shaft.The top right arrow points to the height adjustment. Once the height is set, it should be locked in place with the locking screw denoted by the arrow on the lower right. The arrow on the center right points to one of three height and tilt adjustments on each leg of the rifle rest tripod mount. These are also capable of being locked in place. The arrow on the left points to one of two knobs that adjust squeeze on the padded forearm rest.Another view of the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest. The upper arrow points to one of the two rest cushion squeeze knobs; the lower arrow points to the height adjustment lock.
About the only thing I don’t like about the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest is that the cushion lining will peel off with continuous use. It’s not a big deal and Caldwell sells replacement cushions. Or, you could just cover the worn area with duct tape, which is what I will probably do at some point. The amount of wear you see on mine (in the photos above) has remained relatively stable for a couple of years now, so maybe it won’t wear anymore.
The Mini 14 resting on the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest. This photo also shows the Garmin chronograph, which I’ll review in a future blog.
If you purchase the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest on Amazon, be careful to make sure that you order what you see here. When writing this blog, I noticed that Amazon has an error in their ad for The Rock Junior, which is a smaller and less expensive model. In the Amazon ad, they show the Caldwell Rock Deluxe Shooting Rest, but what they describe (and what they have for the price) is actually the lower tier Rock Junior.
I’ll write about two Caldwell rear rifle rests here. The first is the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag, which is the lower of the two rear rests I’ll describe here. I’ve mostly used this one until recently, when I bought the other model (and I’ll get to that in a second).
The problem with this version of the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag is that it is too low. One option is to lower the Caldwell Rock Deluxe to bring the rifle back on target, but that means you have to get all scrunched up leaning down on the bench (something that adversely affects accuracy for my shooting). The other approach is to put a block under the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag (I use an empty 100-round MTM .45 ACP ammo container). That gets the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag to just the right height for me and it makes for a more comfortable bench rest shooting position.
The Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag gets the rifle up to a comfortable level for bench rest shooting. In fact, the height is about the same as the Caldwll with a block beneath it, as I described above. I ordered it because I saw some of my bench rest buddies using it at the West End Club and I thought it would be more stable than the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag with an empty ammo container underneath. But the jury is still out.
So far, I found I can shoot tighter groups using the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag with an empty ammo box than I can using the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag. I think there’s two reasons for that. The first is that the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag, as delivered, is (in my opinion) overstuffed with filler beads. Its bottom is not flat, and I found my rifle wants to roll either left or right, requiring me to hold it where I want it (which induces a bit of unsteadiness. I suppose I could let some of the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag filler material out to get it sit flat on the bench, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. The other thing I don’t like is that the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag has a larger footprint than the Caldwell. When I shoot off the bench, I wrap my left arm around the base of the rear rest. I find that it’s easier to to that with the Caldwell Rear Shooting Bag and an empty ammo box than it is with the Caldwell Rear Medium High Bag. That’s just me; your mileage may vary.
If you own a Mini 14 (or any semi-automatic rifle) and you go to the range, you need a Caldwell Brass Trap. Especially with a Mini 14; they throw brass far enough and hard enough to dent cars. Don’t ask me how I know.
You’ll need to have some kind of a clamp to secure the Caldwell Brass Trap to the shooting bench. I bought the one you see here on Amazon. They were three to a pack. I’ve only ever used one.
There are two things I don’t like about the Caldwell Brass Trap. Sometimes the brass being ejected bounces off the heat resistant netting and gets flung forward of the firing line. This happens maybe 5 percent of the time. It’s not a big deal; I just wait for the next line break to retrieve my spent brass. The other thing I didn’t like is those clamps make it easy to store the Caldwell Brass Trap out of sight and out of mind. I clamped my first Caldwell Brass Trap to one of the 2x8s that run across the ceiling of my ammo factory (i.e., my garage). One day when I was going to the range with my Mini 14, I looked all over for the Brass Trap and couldn’t find it. Now I have two. Wouldn’t you know it? The day the second Caldwell Brass Trap arrived from Amazon, I looked up in my little ammo factory and saw the first one.
So how did I do with the GSR and the Mini 14 the day before I wrote this blog? Just so so. Some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you. But I still had fun. Every day on the range is a good day for me, and if you’re reading this, it probably is for you, too.
100 yards with the GSR and its open sights. The load is one that was tailored for the M1A; it shoots a scosh low in the GSR. I could adjust for it, but the GSR shoots better with a different load, and my GSR sights are adjusted for it.A 100-yard Mini 14 group with 62-grain Hornady bullets and ARComp powder. I’ve done better and I’ve done worse. Even though it’s not a great group, it’s good enough for minute-of-bad-guy.
Our Idaho exploration continued with a visit to the Idaho Military Museum, which near Boise’s airport. The Museum is small but intense, with a single large room containing many exhibits, and an outdoor area containing armored vehicles and aircraft. I think the best way to present this story is with captioned photos. Have fun reviewing them; I sure had fun taking them.
The view inside the Idaho Military Museum.A GAU-8/A, which is a 7-barreled, 30mm A-10 cannon. These guns fire 30mm at either 4200 or 2100 shots per minute. I used to be an engineer with Aerojet Ordnance, where we manufactured ammo for this beast.Both Honeywell and Aerojet manufactured A-10 ammunition. This round was manufactured by Aerojet. Aerojet’s cartridges featured two nylon rotating bands on the projectile.A water-cooled M1917 .30 06 machine gun. The thick jacket around the barrel contained water that kept the gun cool.One of several military rifle displays. The Idaho Military Museum has a great military surplus small arms collection. If you enjoy seeing vintage Mosins, Mausers, Springfields, and more, this is where you want to be. I sure had a good time here.A Nagant revolver. These guns featured a complex approach to sealing the barrel-to-cylinder gap. It’s a brilliant solution to a problem that doesn’t exist..More military rifles on display. See the round silver disk in the Mauser’s stock? It’s a feature for disassembling the bolt.The Idaho Military Museum has two large military ship models. This is the USS Ronald Reagan.The USS New Jersey. The actual New Jersey battleship was recently refurbished at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. If you ever get a chance to tour a US battleship, don’t pass it by. These behemoths are awesome.A Soviet machine gun. These fire the same 7.62x54R cartridges used in my Mosin-Nagant rifles.A US M-60 machine gun. These are heavy, but I used to love lugging these around when I was in the Army. Firing them is an experience.The M-72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon, or LAW. It was our version of a rocket propelled grenade. The Army had to take these out of service, When the telescopic launch tube was extended, it sometimes pulled the warhead off the rocket motor, with the result being an explosion in the tube when the thing was fired.Yours truly, reflected in one of the Idaho Military Museum exhibits. That’s the M1911 .45 ACP pistol and a Claymore mine. Front Toward Enemy says it all. The bad guys sometimes turned these around, which turned the ambushers into ambushees.An M1A Abrams Main Battle Tank outside the Idaho Military Museum. These are still in service. They are powered by a turbine engine. The prior US Army tank, the M60 that was in service when I was in the Army, had a 12-cylinder air-cooled diesel engine.Two military jets on the Idaho Military Museum tarmac: A Soviet MIG-21 and a Korean War vintage F-86. When I was based at Kunsan AFB in the mid-1970s, the ROK Air Force was still flying the F-86.
The Idaho Military Museum is located at 4692 West Harvard Street in Boise. Admission is free. Plan on spending an hour or two there; it’s a great stop on any Idaho excursion.
Talk about a hidden gem and a great destination: The Yanke Motor Museum in Boise, Idaho is about as good as it gets. There’s precious little information on the Internet about it, but trust me, it’s worth seeing. It’s not widely publicized and you can’t just roll up and visit its treasures; admission is by appointment only. My advice is to make the run to Boise and make the effort to get an appointment. The Yanke Motor Museum contains a world class automobile, motorcycle, tractor, and musical instrument collection.
A 1924 Packard convertible is one of the first vintage cars you encounter upon entering the Yanke Motor Museum.
As you know from reading this blog, I’m a big fan of car and motorcycle museums, and I never heard of the Yanke Motor Museum. It’s the only automotive museum in Idaho, and it never appeared on my radar before. I only came across it because I Googled “motorcycle museums in Boise.” Some of the Internet services won’t tell you that it’s by appointment only, but that’s the deal. Further complicating things, some of the GPS programs get the directions wrong. We used Waze to find the address and it worked.
There is a lot to see at the Yanke Motor Museum. We were lucky: Sue and I had the place to ourselves. We made an appointment and new good buddy Tyler (one of the curators) pulled up just as we entered the parking lot. Tyler was in a silver Subaru WRX, so I liked him right away. He opened the place just for us, and then he had to walk around turning all the lights on (and he flipped a lot of switches to do that). The place is huge.
A 1957 Cadillac. This is a beautiful car. I was 6 years old when it rolled off the assembly line.
I didn’t quite know what to expect because when we entered the main display area (after walking through a collection of musical instruments), I at first saw mostly automobiles. They were impressive and they were plentiful (see the Packard and drop-dead-gorgeous pink Cadillac above), with the odd motorcycle parked here and there. There was a Ural and a couple of Harley dressers, so I asked Tyler if there were more motorcycles. He smiled and pointed me toward another hall. Wow, were there ever! In fact, my back started bothering me lugging my boat-anchor Nikon D810 and 24-120 lens around to get the photos you see here, but it was worth it.
A Ural with a sidecar. Good buddy Dan owns one of these.
Before we got to the main motorcycle hall, we saw several more interesting motorcycles and the odd trike or two. There was a ’37 SS Jag replicar. It was flanked by a stunning cherry red Harley Servi-Car and a custom flathead Ford trike with Offenhauser heads.
Sweet!A fire engine red Harley Servi-Car.A flathead Ford trike. Check out the front brake.A custom in every sense of the word. The workmanship is stunning.Offenhauser heads. Offy also made complete 4-cylinder engines. Think decades of Indy 500 dominance.One last view of the flattie trike. Even the tires are beautiful.
Susie and I were blown away by the classic cars and the multiple motorcycles we encountered at the Yanke Motor Museum, and we hadn’t even made it to the motorcycle room yet. In the main hall, classic motocross and other bikes were scattered among the cars and other vehicles.
I once had a friend who thought a Bultaco was a Mexican food item. No kidding.
There was a flatbed truck with a Harley XLCR Cafe Racer, a vintage Indian Chief, and a vintage Harley.
I could have bought a new ’77 XLCR just like this one for $3,000, but I couldn’t justify spending $3,000 for a motorcycle back then. I don’t know who I thought I had to justify it to.A 1941 Indian Chief. Those fenders!
When we entered the motorcycle room, it was like being a kid in a candy shop. No, wait, I take that back. I used to be a kid in a candy shop six or seven decades ago. This was better. Just about everything imaginable was there if you are looking for cool motorcycles. Desert racers, WW II military Harley 45s, modern bikes, custom bikes, vintage Harleys, vintage Indians, scooters, Whizzers, vintage flat track and flathead Harley race bikes, and more. The Nikon was giving me fits weighing heavily on my lower back, and leaning over to get macro engine shots was getting downright painful, but I didn’t care. Susie had an Advil, I swallowed it, and the photo safari continued. I was on a mission. Anything and everything for our ExNotes readers…that’s our mantra.
In the motorcycle room…check out the Army 45s.A 1934 74-cubic-inch Harley VLD flathead, another stunning motorcycle.A Lambretta!Whizzers! Carlos, take note!Harley-Davidson flathead flat track racing motorcycles.Ah, the patina! Check out the steel shoe!Flathead porn.An Army 45 in decidedly non-Army colors.
The Yanke Motor Museum also contained some cool military stuff, including Jeeps and a few cannons. Cannons!
A 1948 US Army Jeep.A 25mm Hotchkiss cannon.The same action as a Ruger No. 1. A classic falling block concept.Another falling block artillery action.A custom scope mount for direct fire. This thing must be a hoot to shoot. Folks at the Museum reload for it.
I thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, but when I peeked into an adjoining room I spotted several 37mm and 25mm projectiles in various stages of the reloading process. Imagine that: Reloading for your own cannons! There’s no doubt about it: The folks who own and run the Yanke Motor Museum are our kind people.
Ron and Linda Yanke started the Museum. An extremely successful entrepreneur, Ron is unfortunately no longer with us. The Yanke family started the business empire with a machine shop. Ron Yanke expanded the business holdings to sawmills, an air charter service, a firefighting equipment manufacturer, extensive timberland holdings, several real estate companies, a mechanical contracting firm, a manufactured housing company, and a couple of banks. He was one of three original investors in Micron Technology, the world’s second-largest memory chip manufacturer.
