Spring has sprung. Get out and shoot your Henry

Had to go out

Put your range reports for all brands and types of firearms and other items.
Post Reply
bandit1250
Cowboy
Posts: 1645
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:25 pm
United States of America

Had to go out

Post by bandit1250 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 7:37 pm

I couldn't wait any longer to go burn up some ammo. Missed out on the couple warm days last week so I made up my mind today was the day. Had light winds this morning. That is the good part. Now the bad. The temperature was 20*. I thought to my self am I really here to shoot today in this cold. I took my Savage 220 Swift and my CZ Ultra Lux to shoot. The Savage Swift is the one I am thinking about cutting the chamber off and cutting new threads and getting my gun smith to chamber it in 222 Remington. It has a great shooting factory stainless barrel on it with pretty low round count through it. I was using my home made sand bags off the bench. I shot no fouler shots through it but just went right to the hundred yd. target. The clean cold barrel shot was right at 12 o'clock about 1/2" high. The next three were right beside the first one and were a .515 CTC group. I only shot 4 so I could shoot one more four shot group and have two rounds left for the ride home. Had to save two in case "Old Wily Coyote" might be on the prowl looking for a meal. While waiting to shoot the next group I went to the CZ 22. I took a few boxes of some new Aguila SE standard velocity with me. I set up 30 empty shot shells at 50 yds to shoot at. I missed two out of thirty shots and hit them on the second shot. Then I shot some that got thrown up on the berm on the snow until I ran out of targets to shoot. I believe this Aguila stuff is going to be good practice ammo from how well it shot in my CZ's and my Marlin 39D a couple weeks back. I bought a 5000 round case for $200 OTD. That 39D is a little finicky on ammo but shoots well with what it likes. Then 4 more through the Swift at a new bulls eye. This group was better than the first and measured a nice .189 4 shot group. :) Makes me think again about making a 222 out of this Swift! I may just have to rethink this for a while. Well to finish the story. My hands got so cold shooting I could not hardly pick up the 22 Lr ammo to drop in the single shot adapter that was in my CZ for shooting off the bench. My wife thinks I am a 69 year old nut case. :shock: :lol: She is usually right. ;)
3 x

User avatar
RetiredSeabee
Administrator
Posts: 2284
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2016 5:04 pm
Location: Harrisburg, North Carolina
United States of America

Re: Had to go out

Post by RetiredSeabee » Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:43 am

Brrrrrrrr! I wouldn’t be able to shoot in that cold. Two pairs of gloves and mittens wouldn’t work for trigger feel. :lol:
Great shooting sir.
1 x
Load on Sunday and Shoot all Week.......okay it's a Mare's Leg I will reload on Wednesday. ;)

User avatar
Les
Cowboy
Posts: 1913
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:31 am
Location: Runcorn, UK, via Africa and parts unknown.
South Africa

Re: Had to go out

Post by Les » Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:48 am

bandit1250 wrote:My wife thinks I am a 69 year old nut case. :shock: :lol: She is usually right. ;)
Well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do! :lol:

It sounds like you had a great day, bandit, despite the cold weather. Image
1 x

User avatar
BrokenolMarine
Ranch Foreman
Posts: 5770
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:28 am
Location: South Central Oklahoma in the mountains
United States of America

Re: Had to go out

Post by BrokenolMarine » Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:57 am

I used to shoot in the cold... too much hardware in the bod these days. :D
More power to you, sounds like a great day!
1 x
You can tell a lot about the character of a man...
by the way he treats those who can do nothing for him.

User avatar
JEBar
Town Marshal / Deputy Admin
Posts: 19270
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:58 pm
Location: central NC
United States of America

Re: Had to go out

Post by JEBar » Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:12 am

BrokenolMarine wrote:I used to shoot in the cold... too much hardware in the bod these days. :D
More power to you, sounds like a great day!
sadly, all too well understood
0 x

User avatar
North Country Gal
Firearms Advisor
Posts: 6054
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 12:46 pm
Location: northern Wisconsin
United States of America

Re: Had to go out

Post by North Country Gal » Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:06 am

Bandit, great report! Enjoyed it, thoroughly. Yeah, 20 degrees may sound extreme to some folks, but, for us in our northern winters, we have to wait till it warms up to 20 degrees before going to the range. :)

Some thoughts on the 220 Swift. If I had a barrel that could shoot to POI and do groups like that from a cold bore, no WAY would I mess with it. No way at all. A barrel like that is a gem to be appreciated. They don't come along that often. Honestly, if you want a 222, just go buy a rifle in 222. My opinion, for what it's worth.

What that CZ can do may come as a surprise to some folks, but not to those of us who shoot CZs. We have an Ultra Lux, too. Bought it just to use with the factory tangent sight setup. We have guns costing much more than our CZs, but when it comes to shooting small groups, our CZs are our go-to guns. Every time I think about trading one, I get as far as pulling it out of our safe, then it goes right back.
1 x

bandit1250
Cowboy
Posts: 1645
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:25 pm
United States of America

Re: Had to go out

Post by bandit1250 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:44 am

[quote="North Country Gal"]

Some thoughts on the 220 Swift. If I had a barrel that could shoot to POI and do groups like that from a cold bore, no WAY would I mess with it. No way at all. A barrel like that is a gem to be appreciated. They don't come along that often. Honestly, if you want a 222, just go buy a rifle in 222. My opinion, for what it's worth.

I have two 222's now that are both sporter barrel rifles. I have a Sako A1 Hunter and the new Tikka T3 Forest I have not fired yet. I would like to have a heavy rifle like this Savage 112 for bench shooting because the weight makes it lay well on sand bags. I got some prices on building one and it was just to high and I would need a donor rifle to get a action. I have run out of places to shoot varmints with the Swift and the varmints are scarce here any more. The 222's and 223's will handle 98% or more of varmint hunting here now with far less noise. I have time to think it over and shop for a donor rifle from Savage or Remington to build off of. I think part of the reason I want a 222 is I am almost back to where I started in the 60's with my new 700 Varmint in 222 that I actually fired enough to clean about 1/4" of the rifling out at the throat from all the shooting I did with that rifle. My friend still has it with the same barrel on it and shoots very well with just seating the bullet out farther. Loaded rounds for it don't even look like 222 Remington rounds. :shock: :lol:
0 x

User avatar
North Country Gal
Firearms Advisor
Posts: 6054
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 12:46 pm
Location: northern Wisconsin
United States of America

Re: Had to go out

Post by North Country Gal » Thu Feb 01, 2018 12:07 pm

I understand. Just goes against my grain to mess with a gun that shoots so well. Best of luck on your project, though. Love to hear how it goes.
0 x

Post Reply