Guns – Page 28 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

Reloading the .257 Weatherby

I’m a big time Weatherby fan, and I make no apologies for that. I met Roy Weatherby in person and I shoot and hunt with Weatherby rifles. I believe in the company and their cartridges. Your mileage may vary, but that won’t change my opinion. One Weatherby chambering I always wanted but didn’t own yet was the .257 Weatherby. It’s the fastest .25-caliber cartridge there is. The heart wants what the heart wants, and my heart wanted a rifle chambered for the .257 Roy.

A .257 Roy Ruger No. 1

I’m also a big Ruger fan, and in particular, I’m an admirer of their No. 1 single-shot rifles. When Ruger offered a limited run of No. 1s chambered in .257 Weatherby Magnum, for me it was a no-brainer: I had to get one. I found the one I wanted, it had great wood, and I pulled the trigger.

A Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby Magnum. Circassian walnut, a 28-inch barrel, and a classy falling block action. What’s not to like?

Chambering Challenges

The only problem? This was not a marriage made in Heaven. My Ruger did not want to chamber the ammo I had loaded for it. I first purchased a box of .257 Weatherby brass manufactured by Hornady and loaded it in several different flavors. Wow, was that ever disappointing. The rounds just wouldn’t chamber easily and closing the action was difficult. And on the ones that would allow the action to close, accuracy was dismal. I thought I had screwed up by reloading the brass directly without running the brass through the resizing die first, so when I got home I resized the brass. It was still tough to chamber. I measured the brass and it seemed to me it was right at the max dimensions. I called Hornady to complain. They were nice. They sent me three empty new cases.

Hornady versus Weatherby Brass

On my next trip to the components store, I picked up four boxes of new Weatherby (not Hornady) brass. It chambered in the Ruger easily. I loaded up some ammo and I was off to the range again. Yep, I reasoned, it must have been that Hornady brass. The .25-caliber bullets I used, though, were not designed for the very high velocities the .257 Weatherby attains, and they were disintegrating in flight. Accuracy, as you might imagine, was atrocious. Then I got busy on other things and the Ruger sat in the safe for a year. You know how that goes…sometimes life gets in the way of having fun.

Earlier this week, I decided to load up a bunch of .257 Weatherby Magnum ammo and work on finding the secret sauce for an accurate load. I resized all my brass (both the Weatherby and the Hornady brass), tumbled it until the stuff glistened, and then tried to chamber it. Son of a gun, the Hornady brass still wouldn’t allow the action to close. Damn, I thought. I probably spent $50 for that box of brass. I made a mental note to call Hornady and get my money back.

Then I tried the Weatherby brass that had chambered easily in the rifle when the brass was new (but was now once-fired and resized). To my great surprise, the Weatherby brass wouldn’t chamber, either. Just like with the Hornady brass, the Ruger’s action wouldn’t close on any of the resized and polished brass (Hornady or Weatherby).

Hmmm. What could be causing this? I wondered if the Ruger had an undersized chamber. That would account for both brands of brass not chambering. That would get messy. I’d have to send the rifle back to Ruger to have the chamber recut, and hope they didn’t ding up the stock or anything else in the process. But the Weatherby brass had initially chambered easily in the Ruger. The rifle’s chamber hadn’t shrunk. Maybe it wasn’t the rifle.

Then I thought maybe it was the resizing die. Yeah, that could be it. If the resizing die was cut too deep, the brass would be too long after resizing, and that would result exactly in what I was experiencing: The resized brass wouldn’t chamber. Hmmm. Yeah, that could be it.

RCBS Tech Support to the Rescue

My next step was to call RCBS, the reloading die manufacturer. I found the number on their website, I called and waited on the customer service line and in a few minutes I was speaking with a guy named Bill. I explained my problem to him and my belief that the resizing die might have been cut too deep.

“We get two or three calls a day on the .257 Weatherby Magnum cartridge,” Bill said. “Tell me how you set up your dies.”

So I did. I explained that I ran the press ram all the way up, screwed the resizing die all the way in until it touched the shell holder, turned the resizing die just a little bit more to assure intimate contact between the die and the shell holder, and then locked everything down.

“That’s where it’s happening,” Bill said. “For the .257 Weatherby, when the die contacts the shell holder, withdraw the ram and turn the die in another 90 degrees. Then lock it down.”

“Geez,” I said. “Won’t that break the press?”

“What kind of a press are you using?” Bill asked.

“One of yours,” I answered. “A Rockchucker. I’ve been reloading ammo on that press for 50 years.”

“You’d have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wheaties to break that press,” Bill said. “Trust me on this. We hear this a lot on all the Weatherby cartridges, especially the .257 Weatherby. And the 6.5 Creedmoor, too. Go another 90 degrees in on the resizing die. Call me if that doesn’t work, but I know it will. You can’t break that press.”

So I did as Bill advised: Intimate contact between the shell holder and the resizing die, another 90 degrees in on the resizing die, and then lock everything down. I resized a single .257 Hornady brass case and then tried the empty case in the Ruger No. 1. Son of a gun (to use an apt metaphor), the Ruger’s action closed effortlessly. I tried several more cases with the same result. Wow, now that’s real expertise and great customer service. The boys at RCBS know their business. As it turns out, so do the folks at Hornady. There was nothing wrong with their brass; I just didn’t know the secret handshake to resize it properly.

It’s beautiful ammo, isn’t it? With help from the RCBS customer service folks, I solved my chambering issue. I loaded 70 rounds immediately after talking to Bill at RCBS. If I were to purchase new ammo, it would cost something north of $220 for those 70 cartridges; by my reckoning, I spent about $50 on the reloading components. Reloading provides more accurate and much less expensive ammo.

That night, I loaded 70 rounds of .257 Weatherby Magnum, all with the 100-grain Sierra jacketed softpoint bullet, and I’m headed to the range later this week to test for accuracy. I’ve got rounds loaded with IMR 4320, IMR 4064, IMR 7828SSC, and H-1000 propellant at both the low and higher ends (but not the max) of the charge spectrum. I’ll report on what works best in a subsequent blog.

Read the first blog on the .257 Weatherby Ruger No. 1. And hey, you might want to read our other Tales of the Gun stories! Interested in other Weatherby stories specifically? Here’s one on a Mark V in .30 06. And another on a 7mm Weatherby and meeting Roy Weatherby! How about a Remington 700 chambered in 7mm Weatherby? And one more…our story on three rifles chambered in the mighty .300 Weatherby Magnum!

The 1886 Winchester

An 1886 rifle chambered in .45 70. Octagonal barrel. Color case hardened receiver and other bits. Finely-figured walnut. It was a good day.

It was one of Theodore Roosevelt’s favorite rifles, and it was a rifle I’ve wanted for a long time: The 1886 Winchester, except mine isn’t a Winchester. Mine is a Chiappa, and it’s a faithful reproduction of the original 1886 Winchester. After a diligent search, I purchased mine through Gunbroker.com from an outfit in Pennsylvania called Elk County Ammo and Arms and I had it shipped to my favorite local gun shop, Bullet Barn Guns here in southern California.

I picked up my 1886 this week and I was on the rifle range with it the day I did so. It wasn’t my brightest move; it was over a hundred degrees on the firing line and the heat made me woozy by the time I got home. But I wanted to shoot my 1886. Not surprisingly, I was the only nut on the range that afternoon. Also not surprisingly, I enjoyed every second of my 1886 range session. For me, the rifle’s heritage, beauty, performance, accuracy, and general magnificence overcame the heat. Even though old Davy Crockett did his thing a good half century before the Winchester 1886 came on the scene, I kept hearing the music from that old 1950s TV show while I was on the range. You know. Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and all that. A stunningly-beautiful 1886 and high temperatures will do that do you. King of the Wild Frontier. I liked that. It’s how I felt that afternoon, a feeling fueled by the vintage look and feel of my 1886.

My 1886: Blue Steel and Walnut

Well, not just blue steel and walnut. Blue steel, color case hardened steel, a 26-inch octagonal barrel, and extremely well-figured walnut. It’s a combination that’s tough to beat, especially on a classy lever gun like the 1886.

Left and right views of my 1886. This is a beautiful rifle. But that buttplate!

The folks at Chiappa know what they’re doing. Check out this color case hardening. It’s stunning.

This is a classy rifle. The color case hardening is magnificent.

The craftsman in Italy who do this kind of work are underpaid. I have no idea how much they earn, but I think they are underpaid. This kind of work is priceless.

The fore end tip is also color case hardened. The checkering is hand cut and beautifully executed.

Painfully beautiful, this buttplate is. It captures the era and the feel of an original 1886, but with full power loads, it’s painful.

The 1886 and 45 70 Accuracy

So what’s it like shooting the 1886? Hey, take a look…

The 1886 Chiappa will shoot. The heat not withstanding, I was having a good time out there. The sun was playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds, and when it went behind the clouds, the difference in accuracy was immediately apparent. I saw firsthand what happens when you have glare on the front sight. When the sun ducked behind the clouds, the front sight stood out clearly. When the clouds moved away and the sun bore down on the 1886 directly, the front sight caught a fair bit of glare. It made getting a clear sight picture difficult, and you can see the results on the target below.

Five 5-shot groups at 50 yards with the Chiappa 1886. The first three groups were shot with the sun behind the clouds. The Chiappa 1886 is accurate! The sun emerged for the last two groups, and the accuracy difference was startling. Glare from the front sight made the groups open significantly. My 1886 had not been zeroed yet. The purpose of this range session was just to see how the 1886 would group, and it did not disappoint.

I had my Marlin 45 70 accuracy load (a 405 grain cast bullet with 35.0 grains of IMR 4198 powder) and I used it on the target above. I fired the first three groups with the sun behind the clouds and no front sight glare. Then the clouds shifted, the sun was out in the open, and the front sight started winking at me. Glare kills accuracy when shooting open sights. I proved it. With no front sight glare, the groups were impressive.

The 1886 was shooting to the right, and when I examined the sights, sure enough, the front sight was slightly biased to the left. On a rifle or handgun rear sight, you move the sight in the direction you want the bullets to go (if you want your shots to move to the left, you move the rear sight to the left). On the front sight, it’s just the opposite. You move the front sight in the opposite direction you want the bullets to move.

Look very closely, and you can see the front sight is a bit to the left. That octagonal barrel is beautiful.

The front sight on my 1886 needed to move to the right because I wanted to move the shots to the left. I had a gunsmith screwdriver kit with me at the range, but between the heat and my sweating like a stuck pig I didn’t want to fool around trying to move the sights out there. I thought it would be best to wait until I returned home and do it in my shop. That’s what I did, and I’m eager to get back out on the range and try it again.

45 70 Recoil

In the video above, the 1886’s recoil looks to be pretty mild, and it was for the three shots you see me firing in the YouTube (I was shooting a light Trail Boss load). I brought two different loads with me to the range. One was the aforementioned light Trail Boss load; the other was the more serious IMR 4198 load that I also mentioned earlier. Trail Boss and IMR 4198 are two different propellants; Trail Boss loads generally give low bullet velocity and low recoil (you know, it’s the old f = ma thing). IMR 4198 makes the bullet step out more earnestly and that load used a heavier bullet. Both resulted in a sharp step up in recoil.

With the light Trail Boss load and a 300-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point bullet, the recoil was tolerable (as you can see in the video). With my accuracy load (the one I developed for my 45 70 Marlin, a 405-grain cast bullet and 35 grains of 4198), the steel 1886 buttplate hurts big time. I had to use a wadded up T-shirt as a half-assed recoil pad for a field expedient. But the rifle will shoot. It’s accurate, as the above groups show.

The Gunstores

As I mentioned above, I bought my Chiappa 1886 from Elk County Ammo and Arms in Pennsylvania. There are a lot of shops selling the 1886 Chiappa, but Elk County Ammo and Arms was the only one willing to take photos of my rifle and email them to me so I could see what I was getting. That was a big plus for me, and it cinched the deal once I saw the actual rifle. I had Elk County Ammo and Arms ship the rifle to my local gun store, Bullet Barn Guns, here in southern California. Bullet Barn Guns is a family-run operation and they are absolutely top notch in every regard. Like me, they appreciate blue steel and fine walnut, and they were blown away by my 1886 when it arrived (so much so that they shot photos of it and emailed them to me, too). The folks at Bullet Barn are enthusiasts, just like me.

The 1886 Chiappa: The Bottom Line

I’m a happy camper. I wanted an 1886 with good wood and this one answered the mail. The walnut is stunning. The checkering is hand cut and sharp (it’s not laser cut or pressed, as is the case on many rifles today). The walnut is oil finished, which makes it easily repairable when the inevitable hunting, range, and general use scratches occur. The metal work is superior (you can see that in the above photos). The trigger is good (there is no creep). And the rifle is accurate. It groups well. After I shot the above target, I used up the remainder of the box of ammo I brought to the range shooting at a rock out at about 150 yards, and I connected every time. That was cool.

About the only thing I don’t care for is that the lever does not lay flush against the receiver; it’s angled out a degree or two. I don’t think that’s a big deal, but I had to find something to bitch about (I’m told it’s part of my charm). That’s it.

The bottom line is that the Chiappa 1886 is a beautiful and accurate rifle. I had wanted an 1886 with nice wood and color case hardening for a long time, and now I have one. Keep an eye on the ExNotes blog, folks. This is a rifle that will be back on these pages.

Like stuff on blue steel and walnut, or maybe the 45 70 cartridge? Hey, check out our Tales of the Gun page!

Refinishing the Mini 14

A couple of years ago I spotted a beat-up old Mini 14 rifle stock in the used parts junk pile at my favorite local gunstore, and I thought it might be fun to refinish it. It was for the earlier series Mini 14 and I didn’t own one, but the stock looked like it needed me. It was dinged up but didn’t have any gouges, and the anodized aluminum buttplate had multiple scratches. I asked John, the guy behind the counter, what he wanted for the stock, and we were both in a quandary. John’s brow furrowed. He was searching for a price that wouldn’t be insulting, but I could see that he was eager to unload something that had all the earmarks of becoming a permanent resident. There were several old timers in the shop (there always are; it’s that kind of place). All eyes were on John and me.

“I don’t know…maybe $25?” John said.

I recoiled as if struck by an arrow. It’s all part of the game, you know. All the eyeballs were on me now. It was like being in a tennis match.

“I don’t know, John,” I answered. “I was going to offer $30, but if you gotta have $25, then $25 it is…”

Everybody laughed and I went home with a Mini 14 stock that looked as if it had been to Afghanistan. I wished I had the foresight to grab a few “before” photos of it, but I did not.

Like I said, the stock was decrepit, but I wanted a refinishing project and now I had one. I removed all the metalwork, I stripped the finish (you can see how to do that in our series on the Savage 340 refinish), I steamed out the dents (same story there; it’s covered in the Savage 340 stock refinish series), and then I went to work on it with 200, 320, 400, and 600 grit sandpaper. The buttplate was hopelessly scratched all to hell, so I did the same thing with the same grades of sandpaper and I decided to leave the aluminum bare. In one of my prior aerospace lives, I worked at company that made interior doodads for aircraft, and the approach I just described was one we frequently used for doorknobs, latches, and the other metal chotchkas you see in aircraft cabins. That particular company was not a good place to be (my boss was a butthead), but I liked working with the crew of Armenians who handled all of our finishing work. Whenever I had an idea about making an improvement, those guys were quick to tell me that wasn’t how they did it in the old country, and I went with their expertise (it was the right thing to do). But I digress; that’s a story for another time.

Mini 14 stocks are birch, which is a light wood, and the question was do I want to stain the birch for a darker look, or leave it unstained for a lighter look? I went for Door Number Two, and I think it turned out well. I used the same approach described in the Savage 340 blog, taking care to use very light coats applied with a fresh bit of T-shirt cloth each time and waiting a day between applications. This one has 10 coats of TruOil. TruOil is good stuff.

I had a beautiful rifle stock, but no rifle to go with it. One of my good buddies told me his brother had a Mini 14 that was in rough shape, so I gave the refinished Mini 14 stock to him to send to his brother. It was a fun project and I really liked the way this one turned out.

Check out our other Tales of the Gun stories!

Gunstock Refinish: Part IV

This blog will wrap up the series on refinishing the Savage 340 rifle. It’s been quite an adventure and the Savage is quite the rifle. As you may recall, I found this rifle on the consignment rack at a local gun store, and to my great amazement, my little $180-dollar econo gun turned out to be quite the tack driver. I purchased the rifle with a refinishing project in mind, and now it’s complete.

The Refinished Savage

I stopped after eight coats of TruOil, as the results were the same after the sixth and seventh coats. The Savage went back to together in minutes, and it looks like a new rifle. Actually, that’s not quite right…the 340 Savages that left the factory never looked this good..

Here are a few shots from the right side…

And a few from the left…

Before and After Comparisons

Here are a few before and after shots to allow a more direct comparison…

The original finish had a lot of scratches and dings; those are all gone. The 340 originally had white line spacers between the buttplate and the stock, and between the pistol grip cap and the stock. I like the “less is more” look (I think it’s more elegant), and I think I achieved it by deleting the spacers. The rifle’s original finish was some sort of shellac or varnish that gave a reddish hue to the stock; the new TruOil finish allows the natural walnut color to emerge and I like that better.

Oil Finish Advantages

There are other advantages besides just good looks to an oil finish. When the stock gets scratched or worn (and if it’s used in the field, it will), it’s a simple matter to just reapply the TruOil again. When you do that, the stock will be like new again. It’s easy to touch up an oil finish. Another advantage is that the stock is sealed. The oil finish is relatively impervious to moisture, and that keeps the stock stable. It won’t induce a shift in bullet impact as a result of the stock absorbing moisture and distorting. And of course, there’s that most basic advantage: It just flat looks good.

If you would like to see how this project began and read a bit about the Savage’s accuracy, you can do so here.

A Savagely Inexpensive Rifle
Savage Refinish Part I
Savage Refinish Part II
Savage Refinish Part III

Gunstock Refinish: Part III

In our previous blogs, we removed the Savage 340 barreled action from the stock, we stripped the old finish and made a few minor wood repairs, and we sanded the stock to a smooth finish with successively finer sandpaper. We’re now ready to get to the fun part, and that’s applying the TruOil for a rich, deep, and elegant finish.

TruOil Application

Applying the TruOil to the stock takes several days because it involves repeated applications and drying cycles. There are basically two ways to go here. We can create a deep gloss finish, or we can create a subdued satin finish. I like both, and as of this writing, I haven’t decided what the final look is going to be.

You’ll recall that I omitted the white line spacers between the stock and the buttplate and between the pistol grip cap and the buttplate because I like the look better without the spacers.

I always c-clamp a rod to my bench because that’s where I’ll hang the stock after each TruOil coat to allow it to dry. You can see that in the photo to the right.

The way I like to do this is I cut out a small square of old T-shirt for the TruOil applicator. I’ll put a small bit of TruOil on the cloth and rub that into the stock, and then hang the stock to allow it to dry.

On this particular piece of walnut, I noticed that the walnut pores were large in a few areas, so I put on two coats over the space of a couple of days to see how they filled. I didn’t like the way the pores looked (they were not filling) after the second coat. That’s okay; we have an app for that. It involves applying a thick coat of TruOil and giving it several days to cure. That worked for me because I was going to be out of town for several days (another secret mission, you could say), and that would give the third coat plenty of time to thoroughly cure.

Some folks like to use a wood filler to fill the pores. I’m not one of them. I like to let the TruOil do all the work. I think it looks better than using a filler.

After the third, thick TruOil coat cured, I then went to work on the stock with 0000 steel wool. The idea here is remove all of the excess TruOil from that third, thick coat, and get a uniform surface with no open pores. That worked out well, and I had a nice subdued stock finish that already looked way better than the original finish. I could have stopped at that point and reassembled the rifle, but I decided to go for a deeper finish. More TruOil coming up, folks.

I applied a thin fourth coat of TruOil and allowed it to cure overnight. The stock started to look very good, and I next applied a fifth thin coat. It’s what’s curing now, and it’s what you see in these photos. The drill is to go very, very light with each coat, rubbing it into the walnut with the cloth applicator. You want to get the wood wet, but just barely. If you get it too wet, the TruOil will run (and then you have to rub it down with steel wool after it cures and start all over). I’m going to do this a few more times, and I’ll decide on the total number of TruOil applications based on how the stock looks after I apply each coat. As I mentioned above, I may leave the high gloss finish as is, or I may opt to break the shine with 0000 steel wool and have a subdued satin finish. We’ll see.

Read more of our Tales of the Gun stories here, and don’t forget to sign up for our automatic email blog notifications!

Did you miss the earlier blogs on this Savagely inexpensive, tack-driving Savage 340? You can see them here, here, and here.

Gunstock Refinish: Part II

I told you a bit about my 222 Savage 340 in an earlier blog, and I described removing the barreled action from the stock for a refinishing project. This is the second installment of that project, in which I remove the old finish and prep the stock for refinishing.

Stripping

At this point, all that’s left is the walnut stock, and that means it’s time to remove the old finish. The last time I did this I used an spray that took the finish off almost immediately, and it required only one application. This new stuff is supposed to be better for the environment, and the spray can said it might take a couple of applications to get all of the old finish off. The instructions also said to wait 3 hours after applying it. It did take three applications to get all of the old finish off. Somewhere a tree hugger is thankful, I guess, but it meant that with the wait times after each application this task was spread over 2 days. The way I used it was I sprayed the stuff on, I waited the three hours, and then I wiped the gooey finish remnants off with a towel. I wore disposable rubber gloves and wiped the stock down with an old terry cloth towel.

The stripper. I’m hoping the search engines see that term and we get lots of hits. You know. The stripper.

Oil Extraction

After that, I went to work with a heat gun on the stock. That sweated out the whatever oils were left in the wood, and then it was time to start the stock repairs and the sanding.

Undinging

There were a couple of depressions in the stock (not chips, but slight depressions where the wood had been compressed). That called for the old wet washcloth and iron trick. The drill here is to lay a wet washcloth over the dings in the stock, and then apply the hot iron to the washcloth directly over the dings. The resulting steam is forced into the wood and it lifts the dents. It works well because the wood wants to return to its uncompressed state and the steam helps it do so.

Butt and Cap Alignment

After that, I reinstalled the butt plate and the pistol grip cap, but without the white line spacers. The white line spacer thing was a popular look in the ‘50s and 60’s, but I don’t care for it. I like the look of a black buttplate and pistol grip cap directly against the walnut. There was a bit of mismatch between these plastic parts and the stock, but that’s okay, too. It will be addressed in the next step.

Sanding

You might think the walnut would be smooth because it was already smooth before the original finish was applied several decades ago, but that’s usually not the case in a project like this. Stripping the finish raises the grain a bit, and truth be told, original finishes from the factory are usually not so good, anyway. And, as hinted at in the preceding paragraph, sanding will assure a perfect match between the walnut stock and the butt plate and pistol grip cap. I start with 220 grit sand paper, then 320 grit, then 400 grit, and finally, 600 grit. Again, patience is a friend here. I worked to get the match I wanted between the stock and the black plastic parts, and I wanted a smooth surface all over the stock. I always sand with a block to support the sandpaper, and I’m careful not to round any edges where crisp edges are desired (like along the top of fore end).

All of the above took a little more than 3 days, and at the end of this phase of the project, I had a pristine stock with a perfectly matched buttplate and pistol grip cap. It was ready for the next step, and that’s the start of the TruOil applications for a rich, subdued, and elegant oil finish. That’s coming up in the next blog on this project.

Read more of our Tales of the Gun stories here, and don’t forget to sign up for our automatic email blog notifications!

Did you miss the earlier blogs on this Savagely inexpensive, tack-driving Savage 340? You can see them here and here!

Mini 14 Marksmanship

I recently purchased a copy of Field and Stream, a magazine I had not read in decades. I was traveling, the selection of good reading material at airport newsstands is limited, and it was the only thing that looked even remotely capable of occupying my interest on a 3-hour flight. In scanning the cover, I saw that the magazine included an article on long-distance shooting, so Field and Stream it was for that flight.

The Ruger Mini 14

Back on topic, the Ruger Mini 14 is a rifle not known for its accuracy, and I was frustrated with mine. It was (I thought) barely okay as far as accuracy goes. I like shooting it, but the Mini 14 wasn’t great in the accuracy department and great was what I wanted.

The Field and Stream piece on long-distance shooting was partly focused on hunting at extreme distances (something in which I have zero interest), and partly focused on rifle marksmanship (something in which I have a keen interest). There was nothing new in the article (I’d been exposed to all the topics it covered at one time or another), but seeing them all in one place was a good refresher that made me realize I was getting sloppy in my old age. As I read the article, I realized that I wasn’t doing a lot of the things that are important for shooting tiny groups and I had been relying too much on the rifle and the load to make it all happen. This somehow seemed particularly relevant to the Mini 14 and it made me want to get to the range with it and focus on the techniques mentioned in the story. I realized there was more to this accuracy business than just the gear and the ammo. The nut behind the trigger plays a significant role, and this particular nut had not been focused on the basics.

I resolved to concentrate on the fundamentals mentioned in the Field and Stream article (things I learned 50 years ago in the Army) during my next trip to the range. As soon as I returned to California, that’s exactly what I did. And you know what? I shot better. A lot better.

Back to basics, and the groups got smaller. My load was a 62-grain PRVI full metal jacket boat tail bullet over 23.2 grains of ARComp. Always start low on the powder charge and work up; this is a max load in my rifle. Your results may vary. These targets were shot at 50 yards.

The load (a 62-grain bullet over 23.2 grains of ARComp) is one I had previously found to be a decent one in my Mini 14, but it had never given me groups like I shot that morning. That morning my groups were consistently tight and significantly smaller than what I had seen in the past. It was extremely satisfying, and I proved to myself once again that it’s the fundamentals that make a difference. Bear with me; I’ll get to those in a moment.

First, a comment or two on my Mini 14. Whenever I show a photo of it or take it to the range, folks ask about the stock. My rifle is a special run 580-series Mini 14 offered by Davidson’s (a Ruger distributor) about 10 years ago. It has a Circassian walnut stock (folks often ask if it’s a custom stock, but it’s not). I looked at a lot of Mini 14s online from that special run before I bought the one you see above. I wanted exceptional walnut and I think I found it in this rifle.

As configured from the factory, my Mini 14 didn’t meet the laws here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia. I had to remove the flash suppressor and replace it with a muzzle brake to bring it into the Golden State. I also replaced the Ruger rear aperture sight with one from Tech Sites (it’s a better design, in my opinion). Other than that, the rifle is completely original. I’ve put tens of thousands of rounds through my Mini 14, it’s my favorite rifle, and it’s absolutely reliable. But it’s never been terribly accurate (or so I thought) until I read that Field and Stream article and got back to the basics.

Marksmanship Fundamentals

You might be wondering about what the fundamentals of sound rifle marksmanship are. Or maybe you already know what they are, but you would like a few reminders. That’s kind of where I was. Here’s what I took away from that Field and Stream article.

1. The first fundamental is to get into a good position. I shoot from the bench, and most folks might think that the rest, the rifle, and the bench make everything work. There’s a lot more to it than that. You need to get square to the rifle and sit directly behind the stock, and you need to adjust your position to achieve a natural aim. What that means is that after you think you are in the right position, you sit up away from the rifle, close your eyes, and then position yourself behind the rifle again. Open your eyes, and when you look through the sights, the sights should naturally align on the target. If they are not on the target, you’re not there yet. Move around and try it again. Keep doing this until you can shut your eyes, get in position, look through the sights, and find the target right where you want it to be. Trust me on this: It makes a difference.

2. The next fundamental is to focus on the front sight only. The Field and Stream article was about a rifle with a telescopic sight, but it mentioned front sight focus for iron sights and I knew I had a hard time doing it right when shooting the Mini 14. I guess I needed to be reminded. This is a tough thing to do for most people. I do it superbly well with a handgun, but I have a tough time doing it when shooting a rifle equipped with a rear aperture sight. I find myself wanting to look at the target, wanting to get the front sight post perfectly aligned in the rear aperture, and generally not doing this the way it’s supposed to happen. Focusing on the front sight only is almost zen-like in the concentration it demands. When I do it right, though, I actually don’t see the rear sight or the target and that’s tough for me to accept mentally. When I do it right, the only thing I see is the front sight and the muzzle flash when the hammer drops. Seeing that flash outlining the front sight lets me know I’m in the zone and I’m doing it the way it should be done. It’s a weirdly satisfying feeling. When it happens, I know the bullet will go where I want it to go.

3. The third important factor is breath control. None of us can hold a rifle steady while breathing, so I had to find a natural point to hold my breath. According to the Field and Stream article (and my old drill instructors) we can only do that for a couple of seconds before the sight starts to blur. In the Army, we were taught to take a breath and let it half out. The Field and Stream article pointed out that the “let it half out” thing may not be the best approach. The article said to find your natural point for holding your breath, so I tried that and sure enough, I seem to have a spot about two-thirds of the way down that feels like a natural stopping point. The article also mentioned that if the front sight starts to blur, don’t try to force the shot. Take another breath and start over. Not doing all of these things, I realized, were bad habits I had picked up.

4. The fourth important factor is trigger squeeze. Easy, steady, straight back, using the tip of my finger only. I have a tendency to get my finger too far around the trigger. On this outing, I forced myself to use only my finger tip, and wow, it really worked.

5. The last thing the Field and Stream article mentioned was holding the rifle properly with your trigger hand. Some of this stuff I knew, and some of it I didn’t. Shooting from the bench involves barely touching the rifle. That part I knew, and I think I did okay there. What I do is to just barely have my cheek on the stock without bearing down on it (you can impart torque into the rifle if you hold it too securely, and that works against accuracy). The other thing was how to hold the rifle with your trigger hand. This was something I hadn’t been doing correctly. The correct technique is to use my lower three fingers to lightly pull the rifle straight back into my shoulder, use my trigger finger tip to squeeze straight back on the trigger, and position my thumb off the rifle above my other fingers (I had to relearn not to wrap my thumb around the stock). That last part felt unnatural to me, but boy oh boy, it sure worked. I could see the difference on the target.

So there you have it. I focused on the fundamentals described above, and what do you know, I shot my Mini 14 better than I ever did before. My Mini 14 is suddenly far more interesting and way more fun to shoot, and I have a new respect for it. And the group sizes show it. Back to the basics. Good times.

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Gunstock Refinish: Part I

I’m refinishing the stock on my .222 Remington Savage 340 and as promised, here’s the beginning of the story on this project.

The Rifle: A Savage 340

This story goes back a few years when I spotted a Savage 340 on the used gun rack at a local gun store. Several thing about the rifle intrigued me…it was cheap (it was only $180), it was chambered for the 222 Remington (a very accurate cartridge), and the stock was scratched and worn (but the damage was superficial). I thought the little Savage would make for an interesting refinishing project. But I guess I’m like Gresh. Some things need to be put on simmer for a while.

The rifle shot well, I played around developing a load for it, and it was only after the thing sat around for a couple of years that I finally got on with my refinishing project. I’ve blogged about this rifle a couple of times before, and I’ll give you the links to those posts at the end of this blog.

The Original Finish

The Savage had some kind of a shellac or varnish finish that was flaking and scratched in a lot of places. The underlying wood was sound; there were just a lot of finish scratches all over.

Other light scratches. Like I said, the underlying walnut was sound.

The rifle had a black butt plate with a thin white plastic spacer, and the pistol grip catch had the same deal. I knew I was going to delete the white spacers because I like the look better without it.

I’ll show you what the butt plate and pistol grip look like without the white line spacers in a subsequent blog. Trust me; it’s way more elegant.

TruOil to the Rescue

Me? I’m a big fan of oil finishes, and my soup du jour is always TruOil for projects like this one. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The best stuff ever invented, TruOil is.

Barreled Action Removal

The first step in any gunsmithing project is to make sure the rifle is unloaded, which I did, and then I remove the barreled action from the stock. That was easy peasy…the Savage has three screws securing the metalwork in the stock. It’s the rear trigger guard first (and unlike most rifles, on these old Savages all that rear most screw does is hold the rear of the trigger guard in the stock; it does go all the way through to the receiver). Then it’s the screw up front, which taps into a barrel retainer. And then it’s the main action screw, immediately under the forward portion of the receiver. It’s an unusual setup. Most rifles are secured by bolts through the trigger guard/floorplate that secure the receiver to the stock. Having only one attach point to the receiver and another on the barrel is supposed to hurt accuracy. No one told that to my Savage, though. It shoots into an inch at 100 yards all day long. After that it was the sling swivels, which unscrew from the stock.

Three screws release the barreled action from the stock (the barrel mount, the forward action, and the rear trigger guard screws). The sling loops unscrew, too.

The rear trigger guard screw and the action screw.

The next steps are to remove the butt plate and the stock’s pistol grip cap. Those are retained by Phillips head screws and they came off easily.

That’s it for now. The next steps will involve stripping the finish, and that’s a topic for the next blog in this series. Stay tuned. If you want to read the original blog we posted on the Savage 340, it’s here.

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Loaded for bear…

Good buddy Jason, a Ruger No. 1 in .338 Win Mag, and a 400-lb, 7-ft Alaskan black bear.

As the title of this blog implies and in this case, my good buddy Jason was literally loaded for bear. For several years I had owned a Ruger No. 1 single-shot rifle in .338 Win Mag. That’s a monster of a magnum. I had never fired the rifle and I sold it to Jason. He told me he was going on a bear hunt in Alaska (something I’ve always wanted to do), and I was happy to the see the rifle go to a good home. Most recently, Jason sent the photo you see above and a recap of his hunt to me to share here on the ExNotes blog. Here you go, folks!

It all started in 2016 when I purchased my first Ruger No. 1 in 338 Win Mag from Joe. I’ve always wanted a Ruger No. 1, but I already had a Winchester Model 70 in 338 Win Mag. I planned to go on a bear hunt in 2018, so what I did was sell my Winchester Model 70 to my best friend, who went on the bear hunt, too. I would be using my Ruger No. 1. So this is a story about me and my new rifle and our quest for a big Southeast Alaskan black bear. It was a guided hunt through Alaskan Coastal Outfitters.

Our base camp was on a boat and in the evening we would take a skiff and cruise around all the little islands and bays looking for the right bear. We saw lots of bears (a lot of sows with cubs). We also saw a lot of boars. On Day 4 of our hunt we saw a really nice bear. We got as close as we could without spooking him. My guide told me to get out of the boat and he held the boat still for me. Then, as I was pulling my leg over the side of the boat I got hooked on to the edge of the boat and I fell face down in 8 inches of water.

The bear ran off and my beautiful Ruger No.1 was laying in 8 inches of salt water, so we raced back to the boat, took the rifle apart, and cleaned it up so it was like new.

The next day we went out again and this time I was extra cautious not to fall in when we came across the bear you see in the picture. He was about 300 yards from the skiff when we spotted him. We got as close as we could without spooking him, which was about 140 yards, and my guide kept on asking me if I could make the shot. I always answered “yes, no problem.” I lay down and rested my rifle on my pack. Wouldn’t you know it, I had to lay down in a little creek so I got wet again. We lay there for what seemed to be an eternity. My guide made sure it was a boar and not a sow. Finally, he gave me the OK.

Just then, the bear turned so he had his back to me (so I couldn’t shoot). It gave me an opportunity to situate my follow-up shot. I decided the quickest way to get a follow-up shot (if I needed one) was to shoot with the next round in my hand.

The bear finally turned broadside and I dropped the hammer. I hit him just behind the shoulder and he dropped. My guide backed me up with a 375 H&H rifle, but he didn’t need to fire it. The bear went down, and when we reached him, we saw he was the monster he appeared to be from a distance. The bear measured 7 feet and weighed about 400 lbs.

Jason, that’s an awesome story and a magnificent photograph. I was sorry to see that rifle go, but it obviously went to a good home and you sure put it to good use. You know, it takes a real sportsman to do what you did…going after bear with a single-shot rifle. Congratulations on a successful hunt, and thanks much for sharing your adventure with us here on the ExhaustNotes blog!

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The Rimfire Series: ¡Siluetas Metálicas!

Metallic Silhouette Origins

The sport of metallic silhouette shooting came to us from Mexico, where it started roughly 80 years ago as a part of a culture of rural village celebrations. They used live animals in those days tethered to a stake, which made it a lot harder to hit them because after the first shot the animals tended to take evasive action. I guess it was considered politically correct in those earlier times because the match would be immediately followed by a rip-roaring barbeque (at which, of course, chicken, pig, turkey, and ram were on the menu).

I learned all of this from a world-class metallic silhouette shooter named Jose Porras in the 1970s. Jose used to drive up from Mexico to shoot with us at Fort Bliss when I first got into the metallic silhouette game. He was the guy to beat, and I never did. I didn’t care. I just liked hearing his stories about the old days and the origins of the sport.

Metallic Silhouette Targets and Distances

I had last shot in a metallic silhouette match about 45 years ago. By then, the sport had morphed into shooting at metallic silhouettes, like you see in the photo at the top of this blog. There were chickens at 50 meters, pigs at 100 meters, turkeys at 150 meters, and rams at 200 meters (this was for the handgun competition). All of the silhouettes were life-sized. For high power rifle (which we always shot with a scope back then) the targets were the same, but they were located at 200 meters (chickens), 300 meters (pigs), 385 meters (turkeys), and 500 meters (rams). Those are long distances, and all of the rifle shooting was offhand (no slings or shooting jackets). You could shoot from a sitting position in the handgun matches, but the rifle competition was all a stand up affair. It was challenging, and that’s what made it interesting. The winner usually connected with only about half the targets, and you either hit them or you didn’t.

Just hitting the targets didn’t count. You had to hit them with enough energy to knock them over. In the rifle competition, that alone ruled out the light cartridges. And you couldn’t use magnums, either, because those cartridges would damage the targets. Nope, in the rifle game, it was a Goldilocks affair. The energy had to be just right. 7mm Mauser, 7mm-08, .308, and .30 06 were the favorites back then.

In the handgun competition, everyone either used a magnum cartridge (.44 Magnum was popular), .45 Colt loaded to the max, or a custom wildcat (I’ll say more about that below). .45 ACP, .38 Special, and the standards of the day didn’t have enough energy to knock the targets over, and their rainbow-like trajectories meant there wasn’t enough adjustment in the sights. 9mm? Fuhgeddaboutit. The 9mm was woefully anemic for this game.

Metallic Silhouette Handguns

In the International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA) national championships in 1976 in El Paso, I tied for 5th place and then lost a shootoff. I was out of the money in 6th, but I was still pretty pleased because I was using a bone-stock Smith and Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum with my cast bullet reloads, while all of the guys who did better than me were shooting custom XP-100 Remingtons. The XP-100 was a single-shot pistol based on a rifle action, and in those days, guys would have them custom barreled in 30×223. The 30×223 was a wildcat based on the 5.56 NATO cartridge blown out to take a .30 caliber rifle bullet. It ultimately became known as the 300 Blackout cartridge. Jose used one of these 30×223 custom handguns for culling coyotes on his estate in Mexico during the week and for winning matches in El Paso on the weekends. He was really, really good. I imagine the coyotes hated him.

.22 Rifle Metallic Silhouette Shooting

Well, to make a long story slightly less long, I had been wanting to get back into metallic silhouette shooting for the last four and a half decades, and one day a year or so ago I did. I broke the suction between my butt and the seat in front of this computer and I shot in the .22-caliber metallic silhouette rifle match at the West End Gun Club. I shot my Browning .22 A-bolt (a relatively rare and semi-collectible rifle).

I didn’t know it when I went out there, but they shoot two classes: One with scopes, and the other with open sights. The open sight targets are roughly four times the size of the scope targets, and for whatever reason, on the rams the targets for the scoped guns are set back an additional 10 yards (for the other three animals, the distances are the same). At all distances, though, the targets for the scoped guns are really, really small. Take a look.

With apologies for the lack of focus, here’s a zoomed-in shot of the turkeys. The iron sight turkey targets are on the left; the scoped-rifle turkeys are on the right…

Like I said, the scoped-rifle targets are really tiny. You can see that in the photo above. They were maybe two inches tall. Shooting at these things offhand was a challenge, but I had a blast out there. There were four guys shooting scoped rifles (I was one of them) and 14 guys (and gals) shooting iron-sighted rifles (mostly lever guns; all with expensive aftermarket aperture sights). It was a good crowd…mostly older guys (my age and up) with a few folks in their 20s and 30s. Everybody was friendly.

I could have started this blog by telling you I came in fourth in the scoped class and let it go at that, but the fact is I had the lowest score in the scoped class. I only got 14 out of 60 silhouettes, the next guy got 18, another guy got 20, and the highest guy got 22. It’s a tough game. I’m pretty happy with what I did, though. I had only zeroed my rifle at 50 yards (where I got about half the chickens). I got about a third of the pigs I shot at (these were the 65-yard targets, and every shot at them when I connected was at the low edge of the target). I only got one each of the rams and the turkeys (the turkeys are always the toughest), but like I said, I wasn’t zeroed and those were just lucky hits. Next time I’ll do better (and there will be a next time). This was all shooting offhand at teeny, tiny targets. I’d like to try the open sight class next time, too, just because the targets were a lot bigger. It all was a lot of fun.

The club also has a centerfire lever gun silhouette match, and I’m thinking I’ll try that, too. Those distances go out to about 140 yards, it’s all open sights, and it’s all lever guns. They told me they mostly shoot .357 Magnum (a handgun cartridge) and .30 30 for the centerfire metallic silhouette competition. The bug has bitten and I am enjoying being back in the game.

Good times, folks. Life is good.

More Tales of the Gun stories are here!