Received a call from my old shooting buddy yesterday…haven’t really heard from him much since COVID. Our Clay Target Club has a 75 target Sporting Shoot on this Sunday and my mate asked if I was interested. My answer, sure, why not. This will be the first comp I have shot since 2020 because of COVID.

Have I mentioned I want FAUCI…I have some very special plans for this POS, the man who I consider to be the Father of COVID, responsible for millions of deaths around the world. I still can’t believe he is breathing after all the death threats he’s had since it became known for that which he is responsible.

enjoy the day....dont overthink it,just up and smash them clays mate.

Elvis wrote:

enjoy the day....dont overthink it,just up and smash them clays mate.

That’s exactly the plan mate. I’m also taking my SxS 12g to give it a run as well so both it and me are up to speed for hunting.

Speaking of Recoil Therapy. Deb just spent some of her tax return on a Stoeger 20 ga Coach gun (her "porch sweeper") in bright stainless. Will be tested tomorrow.

Bushmaster wrote:

Speaking of Recoil Therapy. Deb just spent some of her tax return on a Stoeger 20 ga Coach gun (her "porch sweeper") in bright stainless. Will be tested tomorrow.

Outstanding mate. I think Deb will be quite impressed with the performance of the 20g. Not sure how Deb reacts to recoil, but we found that 2400 powder is a good fit with the 20g. Only problem is recoil…it was quite stout (read, very solid) when loads of 20gr+ were employed with slugs.

I used my 20g single shot (can’t think of the brand right now) for shooting clays with 22grams of 7 1/2 shot and it was very effective.

Well, so much for smoking some clays today…weather is not conducive to an enjoyable outing. Temperature is bearable, but the humidity is through the roof and showers are predicted throughout the day. The range is on the edge of a fair bit of swampy land, so the mosquitos and midges (similar to no see ‘ems) are in plague proportions. Sooo, it will now be April before I can shoot a Sporting Clays competition.

Sorry 'bout that Vince. Deb, brother-in-law and I had a great time breaking in Deb's new 20 ga. Ran a few with my Browning BSS 12 ga. Broke in my Brother-in-law's new 9mm. Shot 50 rounds in my Ruger .357 mag and ran 50 rounds through Deb's .22 Bobcat.

A nice balmy 70 degrees F. A well spent afternoon on my range.

Bushmaster wrote:

Sorry 'bout that Vince. Deb, brother-in-law and I had a great time breaking in Deb's new 20 ga. Ran a few with my Browning BSS 12 ga. Broke in my Brother-in-law's new 9mm. Shot 50 rounds in my Ruger .357 mag and ran 50 rounds through Deb's .22 Bobcat. A nice balmy 70 degrees F. A well spent afternoon on my range.

That is outstanding mate. Our temperatures aren’t over the top right now, around 29°C - 32°C (84°F - 89°F), but it’s the humidity that is woeful,,,it’s around 80% + 24 hrs a day. Apparently we have a heatwave coming as well…can’t say I’m looking forward to that though. See the pic below.

It sounds like you had a fantastic afternoon on your range mate…I’m jealous as hell. Did you use factory or reloads in the 20g? What is the 9mm? If I remember correctly, putting 50 rounds of 357 Mag down range of your reloads would be character building as they are, whilst very accurate, rather stout. Debs Bobcat would be a lot of fun, and being a Beretta it would be accurate. Although, with that short barrel it would be a bit of a handful…what .22 rounds do you use, LR, High Power or the likes of Stingers?

Both the 12 ga and the 20 ga were factory #6 shot. The Ruger .357 mag were hand loads with 16.8 grains of 2400 under a 140 grain Remington SJHP. The 9mm was a Sig Sauer P226 Elite with factory 124 gr hardball. The Bobcat used CCI Mini-mags.

Yup...Went through 12 targets and 3 hours of BLISS.

Looks like it's gonna get a bit warm down there.

Bushmaster wrote:

Both the 12 ga and the 20 ga were factory #6 shot. The Ruger .357 mag were hand loads with 16.8 grains of 2400 under a 140 grain Remington SJHP. The 9mm was a Sig Sauer P226 Elite with factory 124 gr hardball. The Bobcat used CCI Mini-mags. Yup...Went through 12 targets and 3 hours of BLISS. Looks like it's gonna get a bit warm down there.

#6 shot in either the 12g or the 20g will be extremely effective at porch ranges…not necessarily lethal, but will pretty much stop and drop anybody…although a BB or SG load would be more “spectacular”.

That .357 Mag load would be stout but very accurate. I used to load 16gr of 2400 behind a 155gr projectile from memory, and it was very accurate, even out to 200yds, with the furthest I ever consistently hit a target being 350m. They were the fun days when I had two good young eyes.

With the 9mm, it seems that 124gr is close to the ideal bullet weight, regardless of the load. Some of the best groups I ever shot in competition were using a 124gr hard cast 9mm Conical from my 586 S&W revolver, albeit pushed by around 3.5gr of Bullseye (only had to penetrate a Masonite or corflute target at 50m).

I like the CCI MiniMags, they are my “go to” round after Winchester PowerPoints for my .22 rifle rabbit gun, with Remington SubSonics for my other .22 rifles. Do the CCI MinMags stabilise OK from the short barrel of the pistol?

Getting in 3hrs of recoil therapy would be amazing mate…I’m working on getting some soon.

Her porch sweeping will be done with 3 inch #5 Turkey Magnums.

She shoots the Bobcat at 25 feet and it is quite accurate at that distance.

The 16.8 grain loads are for when I go to the woods and in camp defense when the rifles are put away for the day.

Vince..if you can still find any Ozzie made winchester .22lr grab as much as you can afford then some more..the batches coming out of the states should be labeled crapohla...very inconsistant to say the least.

A Winchester .22 LR from Ozzie??? I think Vince's love came from Belgium...

Winchester 320 have their action made in Australia, but the barrel and the rest is made in USA I think.
I have one of this.

sorry guys I was talking about .22lr ammunition.
the ozzie made power point has been the benchmark for hunting for the last 30 years and its now turned to crap in a big way.
guys now turning to cci or eley to get accuracy and CONSISTANTCY back again...Im talking fellas who shoot 1-300 rabbits an outing who have rifles that shoot well enough to be still headshooting at 50 yards....
the orange box powerpoint is the old stock ozzie made stuff...white box for subsonic 40 grn the newer stuff is just crap crap crap..many folks pulling out hair trying to get it to group...