In need of "airing"

[Mortblanc]

These little conversations are one of the fine points of SUK one does not find on most other forums in the UK or the US either one. No arguments, no flaming, just passing the time and some information.

I bit the bullet and made a trip outside this afternoon. Still only -2c so I put on the flannel lined canvas pants, thermal knit underwear, fuzzy wool socks, pullover wool sweater and the down parka. Topped my head with a sock hat and found some gloves.

I loaded up the two rifles and a box each of ammo, grabbed the target stickers and stapler and headed for the range.

I got there and the place was empty, just as I like it for running these tests.

By the time I walked down to the target banks and set up, unloaded the guns, ammo, lead sled, sandbags, spotting scope I realized I was sweating!

I peeled off the parka and began the shooting. It was still cold but I was not suffering, except for a very cold trigger finger, which did stop me from shooting my best.

At least that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

I got both rifles adjusted at 25 yards, then backed off to 100. In spite of the cold I was able to keep things reasonable with a 1" group for the .308 and about 2" for the 300 Win-mag. About half the primers I used on the Win-mag rounds were bad and that made me antsy enough to not shoot that rifle particularly well. It is capable of much better, but not when things go click instead of bang.

The groups were still good enough to get them positioned where they needed to be so I am calling the rifles zeroed and sending them home.

I will pull all the bullets from the reloaded rounds and get that problem sorted out. I had purchased 2 packs of primers from a local shop and no telling what they had been exposed too. That is the first time in my 50 years reloading experience that I have fallen victim to an entire batch of bad primers.