A new action cam and preparing for Baltic Storm with Sphinx 3000!

I have been so busy in my work so I haven't updated my blog for a while. I have practiced gun draw and keeping a touch in good trigger control even if it is cold in the range. Fortunately spring is coming and its time to come out from the gun closet! (probably not funny in english...)

As same as last year I don't have a EU permit to take my trusted Cz SP-01 to other country, so I'm taking Sphinx 3000 from a friend to the match. I picked it up couple weeks ago. First I had to modify my holster for sphinx. Even it is a copy of CZ 75, the trigger guard has different shape and the slide is a bit wider. I liked sphinx a lot! Its fits my hand better than cz and the trigger is so sweet. When I fired it a first time in double action it actually felt like it was accident.

Now when its getting worm and you can actually see something in evenings is more pleasant to go shooting. I thought about my videoclips what I have taken with counts action cam, it would be nice to follow my progress(hah..) more with videos and it would be nice to some day watch old footage. I noticed that Sony's as200 action cam with live view was on sale so I bought that. (actually it was't so simple, before decision to buy new camera contained 50h of a youtube reviews). New head cams are so good that you can use it as a normal videocamera, without a zoom of course.

I made my girlfriend to film me when I shot with Sphinx. The video above quality is 720p and 120 fps. It is slowed down to 4x. You can actually do 240 fps with this camera but it is only 480p an its requires a lots of light. I did also bought go pro inverter and go pro helmet mount and but the camera in left earmuff. Whit sony's steadyshot on it is quit nice, but the best part is sony's microphones. You can actually talk and shoot without any problem. Some camcorders cuts the audio off fore some time after a rifle/pistol/shotgun shot. I had an idea to start making shotVlogs :) Next video is filmed in 1080p and 60fps, steadyshot and wind cut on. If some one non-finnish is wondering, I tried first shots in the snow to determine were the sights adjusted right.

Winter practice and trying to kill a bad habit

Pistol shooting in winter conditions  is not the most pleasant way to start practice for out coming competitions, but I don't have a choice. Fortunately the cold dropped from -30 to - 6 so I have some chance to practice whiteout frostbites. Simple and short pistol exercises at this time. One shot at pepper popper target in option 1. Winter clothing is trouble factor enough at least when you have some time from last practical shooting.

With thick jacket I was available to hit pepper popper at 20m in 1,5 seconds.

Second thing what I was training was "recoil fear". Especially shooting with one hand(for some reason mostly dominate hand) I make a twitch at 7 a clock with right hand and 5 a clock with left hand. This is only shown at shooting range when handling live rounds. I think this is a some kind of reflex with knowledge because I don't notice this when I practice with dummy rounds.

I read that only way to get rid of it is to make my self aware of it. To do so first I load in 3 magazines a dummy round, then I load hot rounds a random number for each magazine. After that I mix the mag's so when I start to shoot I don't know when I do dry fire. I was surprised how big my anticipation for normal 9mm pistol were. This is what I need to practice more often, after few surprise dry fire I was available to take down small plates in 25m so easily!

  

Remington 700 Police range report

I did spend a lot of time in range in Christmas holidays, espesially with my customised Remington 700. Before Christmas a gunsmith shortened barrel from 26" to 21" and but a 18mm thread in the end for a Aseutra j-zet suppressor. Now with shortened barrel balance with suppressor is quite good, espesially if you need to carry it in the woods.

Here are some results: I shot  Seller&Belliot 9,55 g FMJ and some handloads with Lapua Scenar 10g. S&B performed quite well, all the grouping were under 1 MOA also in 300m range. With 10g Scenar I got one load that gave under 0,7 MOA grouping. Although my scope rings started to move in some point when I fired hot loads. There was a Lapua case, CCI 200 primer and vihtavuori N140&N150 powders. COAL was 73mm(longest that fit in AICS magazine).

S&B 9,55 g 308 Win

S&B 9,55 g 308 Win

S&B 9,55 g 308 Win

Scenar 10g with Lapua case 73mm COAL

Scenar 10g with Lapua case 73mm COAL

Scenar 10g with Lapua case 73mm COAL

Dry draw exercise with CZ SP-01

This years first pistol exercise started in -29 degrees of Celsius, indoors of course. I recorded my pistol draw in video and it looked quite well. PAR time was from 1 - 0,8 second in normal standing and 1,2-1,0 second in surrender standing.

The holster is Finnish SLB Custom. Its good for IPCS shooting but not very "practical" for IPDM or army reserve shootings

First attempt for a long range

My first over 300m shootings were  in a cold weather, -8 degrees Celsius and a little blustering wind. First distance was 320 meters according to my zeiss rangefinder( a Christmas present for my self, maybe I going to do a review of it some day). I shot prone with my remington 700 police with 20'' barrel with suppressor and Dragunov.

In 320 meters my Remigton 700 was easy to hit 200mm plate and head of practical target. One hit on the 100mm plate swing it over the beam twice! So maybe the 100mm plate is to lite for 308win. With Norma jakhtmact 9,7g fmj I had to adjust my scope 1,9Mrad to hit center. That was more than I expected, probably because of the cold weather. And Dragunov with leader surplus ammo hits easily 200mm plate with 350m sight adjustment.

Elevation adjustment for 320m

Remington 700, with norma 9,7 fmj = 1,9 Mrad
Dragunov, with leader surplus = 350m

At 489m thing got very difficult. Blustering wind starts to interfere in shooting. 200m plate was very difficult to hit, one out of five shot hit the target. But with practical target hit ratio was nearly 90%. And it was surprise for me how easy it is to hit target with dragunov! Only 4x scope in that thing! Of course first my friend looked with Remington's 18x zooming scope where I was hitting with dragunov so I know were to hold.

Elevation adjustment for 489m

Remington700, with Norma 9,7 fmj = 4,7Mrad
Dragunov, with leader surplus = 600m

No wind adjustment needed, if you shot in a wind bluster you did not hit the target.

Dragunov's 4x scope at 489m, camera did,n pick up the targets but with bare eye you can see the biggest target.

Steel targets for a long range sooting

Long range shooting is a long waited dream of mine. This Christmas I started to fulfill it. Shooting at long distances 300 to 600 m to a paper targets seem to be little bit poring. Five shots in five minutes and then 20 minutes to check the target. But to shoot to steel targets was more to my taste.

First I watched punch of YouTube clips about steel targets what people use and started acquire equipment for steel targets. I desaidet to do "swinging" steel target. For a swing I needed squire steel pipe two different sizes 25*25mm and 20*20mm for the legs and 25*50 steel pipe for the beam. For hanging the steel targets I bought 10mm thick rubber belt and cut it to a 70*500mm. As for the steel target them self's I order them from a metal shop. They are made from Hardox 450 12mm thick and there are tree different sizes 100mm plate, 200mm plate and C and head zone of a practical target.

Steel targets hanging from rubber belts. After this photo I did extension joints in legs and painted the swing black

Reeloading steel cases for dragunov

I tested is it possible to reload surplus ammo with  steel case. I wanted a handload that is safe to shoot from dragunov, in finland there is no hard primer like CCI 34 on the market so I have to improvise. I unload chineese surplus ammo with steel case and use the unfired steelcase and primer and reload it with new bullet and powder.

Unfortunately there's no reloading data for .311 bullets and no info for reloading steel cases. I tryed some loads with .311 bullets and wihtavuori powder.

1. load.

Hornady 150gr sp
COAL: 73mm
Powder: N135 46gr

avarang speed was 860 m/s with old type of primer (larger one)
And with newer type of primer speed went up to 890 m/s with same amount of powder! Presure went too strong, some of the steel cases crack in the shoulder.

2. Load (my friends load for ukko-pekka)

Sako .311 8g
COAL : 71mm
Powder: N135 49gr

Avarange speed 930 m/s. This load makes the magazine jam. The COAL is too short and ammo in the magazine start to move when shooting.

3. load

Sierra 174 gr
COAL: 75mm
Powder: N140 45,5gr

Avarange speed 785 m/s. Works well, exept load is too hot. Steel cases with old primers give more pressure than expected. Some of the cases cracked in little. Same loads with sako and lapua shells did not give any hot load symthoms, but I did'n mesure the speeds eitheir.