Shooting @ the Rock Pit

sabotloader · 03-23-2010, 03:03 PM

It was a great day to go shooting here so i grabbed the newer Knight elite 45 and headed to the rock pit. I really do not like shooting in the pit much any more because so many people trash the place by hauling in junk to shoot and then leaving the mess on the floor. I know the Forest Service is going to clamp down and close the area - it is only a matter of time.

Here is a picture of the pit and you can see what i mean... If you look carefully you can see the clay pigeons that are placed here and there around the pit. They are arranged from 50 to 107 yards. You have to look hard on the back wall to see the birds placed in the rocks.

I had already decided this mission was two fold... 1. I just wanted to shoot the gun since I just installed a new REALTREE camo stock on the gun - thanks 'rt-con'. 2nd... I wanted to shoot the latest NFPJ that I had.

Since I was not shooting paper - I was just picking out targets on the floor or on the wall to shoot with the gun. I shot the gun 24 times this afternoon. Since this will be my deer hunting gun this year I was trying to shoot what I will be using during the season - the 40/200 gr. Lehigh. This gun has a Bushnell 3200 3x9x40 with Ballistic Reticule, I started shooting the less expensive Speer 40/180 Gold Dots at first as they fly very much like the Lehigh 40/200 gr. DOA. I was also shooting a Winchester T7 primer, a know dirty primer, and using MMP 4045 Light tan sabots - all pushed along with 110 grains of T7-2f powder.

The gun is deadly on target... i shot the first 15 shots with the Gold Dot and then not in my nature I decided to set out 10 birds on the wall and shoot all ten with the expensive Lehigh 200's. What great fun. Since I am shooting a 1/30 twist Knight it really is a bit slow for the long Lehigh's but for some reason this gun flat out shoots them...

Next! Grouse always tells me that that we probably can not get 100% blow back free with a Knight... But I think I have achieved 99.9% blowback free operation today.

Look at these pictures - I do not think I can get the breech area any cleaner than this... I was happy...

Any body that did not get out shoot today - you missed a good one....

My next shooting trip is already planned - I am going to the farm to shoot a bunch of different bullets across a chrono... I promised GM54-120 - I would do this a long time ago.... He has one heavy 260 grain .406 I am really interested in shooting...

halfbakedi420 · 03-23-2010, 03:11 PM

after the myth busters show on bouncing bullets, i wouldnt be shootin at a rock field. but kewl set up

sabotloader · 03-23-2010, 03:17 PM

halfbakedi420

I wish you would tell that to the hundreds of people that shoot there... If you are shooting lead and you pick your target location you do not get any bouncing bullets... they pretty much destroy themselves on contact with the basalt rocks. Now then if you shoot a glancing shot on the floor of the pit you can skip a bullet into the back wall. But really all in all there just are not any ricochets unless you get a low angle on the floor and skip a bullet.

cayugad · 03-23-2010, 03:19 PM

nice shooting... that really is clean. I think you have it there.

Semisane · 03-23-2010, 05:05 PM

Sabotloader, do you fully clean that grease from the bolt, or just wipe it down and refresh it?

sabotloader · 03-23-2010, 05:19 PM

Semisane

Usually just wipe it down... just remember there is a lot more grease on the sufuce of the bolt housing than I normally would ever use. It was greased like that to add to the ability of the area to collect blow back - it would make it easier for me to see since I am blind.

During the cold of hunting season it would just be a light coat of quality gun oil (slip 2000) that way i do not worry about freezing.

Is that the information you were looking for????

Breechplug · 03-23-2010, 05:49 PM

Looks like you got the Knight just about as Blowback Free as you can, nice work! You should have a sweet ML for Deer.
(BP)

sabotloader · 03-23-2010, 06:03 PM

Breechplug

Needless to say I am pretty happy with the results - blowback wise and accuracy... Now it is just so dang long till October 10...

Semisane · 03-23-2010, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Is that the information you were looking for????

Yup! Neat idea - capture the crud before it can migrate to the action.

sabotloader · 03-23-2010, 06:29 PM

Semi

Exactly - make cleaning a lot easier... and I am all about easy...