We were graced with a nice sunny 60 degree day here in MN. Went out to my favorite range near Madison Lake. Brought 2 new purchases and my Bergara 6.5 Creedmoor.

Earlier this winter I purchased the XDM Elite Compact 10mm. Topped it with a Burris Fast Fire 3. I really like this gun. Im not so sure about the Burris though. First time I ever used one. I have always used Vortex Venom. I am considering the Hex Dragon Fly. Put about 50 rounds through it.

Second purchase I got about two weeks ago. Thompson Center Contender pistol with a 30-30 Win and 45 Colt/410 barrel for less than $600. I also purchased a 14" 35 Remington barrel for it on ebay. Came with a Leupold pistol scope. I did get this to the range one day after I purchased it. Scheels had Remington ammo available when I got it so I got four boxes. The first box the rounds were all over the place. I could not get the scope sighted in at all. I would start getting it headed towards the bullseye and then the next round would disappear. Another round I find that I was shooting about a foot high. This coming from hitting about 6" low. I spent 20 rounds and gave up thinking the scope was trash. I sent it in to Leupold to see how good their lifetime warranty is. The barrel is now topped with a Vortex Spark. Today and another box of Remington ammo and it was still all over the place. Now I am thinking Remington ammo is trash. At least in this 14" pistol barrel. MIlls Fleet Farm did have some Hornady American Whitetail ammo. I had the red dot zeroed at 50 yards in 5 shots with the Hornady ammo. I spent 5 more rounds at 50 yards and the next 10 round ringing the 8" steel plate at 100 yards.

Then I swapped the barrel and put the 35 Remington on it. Oh my...what a blast. This thing has some recoil and muzzle flash. It doesn't rip your arm off but you know you pulled the trigger. The biggest one of these I have ever shot is a 270 Win and this 35 Rem has more recoil than that 270 did.  But I still put 30 rounds through it of various kinds. I had some Hornady Leverolution and some old Federal Power Shok. Also tried out some of my hand loads 200 grain Remington Corelok with 39 grains Leverlution powder Hornady Interlock 200 grain with 39.9 grains Leverolution powder. I also have a Marling 336 and Remington 141 in 35 Remington. What surprised me the most was the Remington load had more recoil than the Hornady load even though there is almost a grain less difference in powder. I have this topped with a Simmons pistol scope. Not sure if I will keep it on or switch this to a red dot also.  I am thinkin about sending this barrel in to have it threaded and adding a muzzle break to it. The 30-30 has a muzzle break on it and I can shoot that all day.

I havent shot the 45/410 barrel and not sure I will. I am considering selling it.

Then I shot my Bergara for 40 rounds mostly to harvest some brass and start working on hunting loads. I hope you all got out to enjoy the outdoors. We are headed back to winter starting tomorrow. I am going back outside now. Need to install the lithium batteries I got for my boat this year and get the boat ready. The lakes are open around here and I am getting antsy.

Evening Rooster41, sounds like a fun day, we are aprx an hour north of you or around 45 miles west of Mpls. Hold on tight, sounds like the storms could get nasty

Ken

Quote from: Rooster41 on April 11 2022 03:30:26 PM MDT
mostly to harvest some brass and start working on hunting loads.

I love these kinds of "bullet puller" sessions.  Much better than the RCBS kinetic version that gets brought out for mistakes 

Another nice day here. Finally a break from the heat and humidity. 

Today was a red dot sight in and handload testing. When I was a cop, I got into the red dots on handguns. Put a Vortex venom on a Gen 4Glock 19 MOS which I carried for duty. Since then, a lot of my handguns now have red dots.

First I started with the 30-30 Contender. I took off the old scope that came with it and put a Vortex Spark. Got it sighted in and then tested some handloads I had worked up. First was 150 grain Speer Hot Cor over 29.5 grains of IMR4895. No chronograph today but I had .975 inch groups at 50 yards and I was able to put rounds on the 100 yard steel plate. Not bad for a 14" barrel. Then I tested some 150 grain Hornady round nose over 27.5 grains of IMR4895. These still need some work with a 3" group at 50 yards.

Then I went to the Bergara 6.5 Creedmoor. I loaded up 140 grain Nosler BT with 40 grains of Hunter. Had a nice .626" group at 100 yards. This was listed in the Nosler manual as their "most accurate" load for this powder. Next time I will have to bring the chrono out and see the speeds.

Next was the Walther WMP 22 WMR. I put an ADE green dot sight on it. This was like $60 on amazon. This is a fun little gun. Big fire ball with every shot. Which is funny, because I have never had a fire ball with my Ruger Single Six. IT was pretty easy to go through 100 rounds yesterday. This one may get expensive to feed.

Next was the Smith and Wesson Shield Plus. I bought the "bug out" edition with came with 5 mags, a shoulder sling bag, optics ready and night sights. All for the same price as just going and buying the Shield Plus at your local retailer. On this I put an ADE red dot on this. THis sight comes with a notch in it so you can use the regular sights. I like this red dot and it was easy to sight in.  This will be my primary carry and bed side. I also added a Streamtight TLR6 (flashlight only) to it.

XDM Elite 3.8 10mm had a Burris Fast Fire on it, but I switched it out for a Vortex Venom. Got this sighted in at 25 yards and good to go.

I bought a red dot mount for the Ruger Super Redhawk 44 Mag that attaches to the integrated scope mounts. I put the Burris on here and got this sighted in at 50 yards. was shooting 240 grain Magtech bullets over 19 grains AA#9.  Had about a 2"ish group at 50 yards and put 4 of 6 on the steel plate at 100 yards. The steel plate is a 10" plate. I wish I would have bought more of the Magtech bullets.

Then I put some rounds through my newly acquired Smith and Wesson M&P compact 40. No red dot on it. Just standard sights. I think it was a police trade in or a LEO's personal since it has nights sights and came with 3 mags. Also it was $275.  I like it. Good shooter. The night sights are pretty dim. Not sure if I will swap them out or shoot it as is.  I never liked the full size M&P pistols, but this one feels good in the hand. The same place I got this also has a 9mm version for about the same price. Thinking about picking that one up too.

Two hours later I had to get going. I had some other things to get done before the wife got home. If I didnt have to work today I would go back out to the range.