Category: Shooting

10 shots at 40′ with a 6″ .38 special S&W

https://youtu.be/G_9wKlqH9R4

My wife and I joined a pistol league at our local gun range. For the league she is shooting a pistol she doesn’t have much time with. So this weekend we went out and let her get comfortable with it.

A friend called and asked if I remember a firearm that someone else won in a raffle last year (to be clear I am pretty sure I purchased $220.00 worth of tickets for that raffle, because I wanted two of the three firearms for myself and still didn’t win, so “yes” I remember it quite well.) The owner has decided he didn’t want it. I’ve been looking for something that my wife would like and be comfortable with. So we got to go test fire it.

Turns out the wife really liked it. So she got a new pistol, I got to pay for it, and I get to save up again to buy myself one. The things we do for our wives…

Everyone has had one, or seen one, or four dozen. It is estimated that approximately 37,000,000 have been produced.

Sure there are certain models that are rare or collectable, but more often than not people just have the $80.00 – $100.00 version. I never much understood treating a Mosin like a safe queen, but most people that own them never take them out to the range.

Let’s be honest, they kick like a mule, the sights are rarely on. The trigger has the finess of a stubborn, pissed off Rhino. The finish on the wood scratched and chipped as the slightest bump, and it rattled. Lastly there is non stop complaining about ammunition and inaccuracy.

So I decided to give one an update.

It all started with a lot of YouTube videos, and reading forums, to get the ideas and see what products existed, and how easy they are to install.

The next place I went was eBay, I wanted a front sight tool, and bore laser specifically for 7.62x54R and I wanted them cheap, since I only planned to use each one once.

Once I had my parts I went ahead are removed the stock, rings, and front sight. Then I got out the punch set and hammer to remove the pins from the rear sight.

Then it was time to get out the torch and start heating the silver solder holding the rear sight. A few minutes with the torch combined with a few whacks with a mallet and punch, it slid right off. It turns out there is a 3/8″ dovetail that the rear sight mounts to.

I went back to the internet, I found a rail that would clamp down onto the dovetail, and had multiple set screws to level it. To provide a solid mount. I also took the time to find a scope that fit what I wanted. There are a number of “long eye relief” scopes on the market. But then I noticed complaints that general terms like “long eye relief” weren’t enough, you wanted a manufacturer that listed a specific range, from the shooters eye, that the scope was intended for. That narrowed it down dramatically.

Next, the trigger had to go. So I picked up a Timney trigger, and bedding pilars that had already been milled out for the Timney. Timney doesn’t joke or embellish, it really is 1 screw and 1 pin to install.

Next, it was time to slug the barrel. I went through a pile of fishing weights, and found one larger than the bore. Then lubed it and tapped it through using segments of dowel rod. Turned out the barrel is actually 0.312″ not 0.311″ so I was able to find a better fitting projectile.

I decided to add a bolt on muzzle brake, and a new stock and then started researching how to pilar bed.

I’m not going to explain how to pilar bed this rifle, there are already many videos and instructions all over the internet, I will saw that I used a high grade carnauba automotive wax as a release agent and it worked very well. This video is the one that I referenced several times and found to be the most beneficial: https://youtu.be/-66A6_ib5FI

At the end, I put the 7.62x54r bore laser in the chamber, and lined the cross hairs on the scope with the dot of the laser at 50 yards. The thinking is that would be a good starting point when someone goes to site it in.

Here is the final product:

Here is the video of the first shot going down range. The kick was drastically reduced. The accuracy dramatically improved.

I took my wife to the range this morning. She isn’t a huge enthusiast but she likes to maintain a comfort level with some common pistols. It’s good to share hobbies from time to time. There is a great clean range not far from our house, Parma Armory. They are building a larger range, they frequently have classes, and not just Basic Pistol. Later this month some friends and I are taking a gun law workshop there.  

 

So I took out the Mosin Nagant. I’ve had it for several years and am tired of it just exsisting for the sake of collecting. So it’s going to take some time to work with it to make it a shooter. About a year ago I took it out and saw 4″ groups at 25 yards. But I also noticed quite a few shots went wild. I’ve taken time over the last year to really scrub the barrel, and aquire 3 different brands of ammo instead of random grab bags of surplus. Today I saw noticeable improvement.

Left to right: Herters, Winchester, & Steel Surplus.

Herters:

There is a nice little group about 1″right and 2″ high.

Winchester:

Still high right group, high is to be expected because I am only at 25 yards. So this next group I also expected to be high.

Steel Surplus:

So again, 1″ right 2″-3″ high. I have a sight alignment tool and a bore sight ordered. So hopefully a little more tlc and some minor sight adjustment this should be dead center. Then I can start backing it up out to 100 yards.

Once the iron sights can hit steel plates at 100yrds I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

I’m all for praying, but I don’t know that the middle of the gun range is the appropriate place.

One of my favorite games to play when we take out the .22’s is Battleship. We found these targets at Fin Feather & Fur a few years back. These make a great afternoon.

My friend JP, who grew up here in the Cleveland area,  flew in one winter and wanted to go shooting. So I called another friend, and we headed down to Ashland Lake Gun Club.

We don’t win every match. We don’t always catch the largest fish. Sometimes no matter how much we practice we make a mistake. One day my friend Bill and I took a long drive out to a indoor range that did IDPA practice sessions on Monday and Tuesday nights. During a magazine change Bill didn’t notice his magazine wasn’t fully locked in until it was too late.

I took a friend who has very little experience with firearms to the range and decided it was time to get over her fear of “big guns.”

Just to be clear, in this photo are a Sig Sauer p229 in .40 S&W and a Smith & Wesson J frame .38 Special. Let’s all take a moment to realize what this 120lb 5’6″ girl was about to take on.

Just one more perspective… On the right is a .40 S&W, in the center is a .38 Special, and on the left is the S&W 500 Magnum cartridge. That particular one was loaded with a 700 grain bullet. That’s right, literally 1/10 of a pound of lead. The .40 S&W is loaded with 165 grain, the .38 Special is loaded with 158 grain. Cor-Bon and S&W got together and created one bad momma.