It never hurts to measure before you shoot.
Plans to go to the range for over 2 weeks. The day arrives. Gear already set out. Kit is complete.
We have the chronograph, the tripod for the chrono, our 3 x .308 ladder loads, our .308 Savage bolt action, the Mech Tech CCU, the 10mm factory ammo, the 10mm reloads, targets, staple gun, staples, pen, paper, knife, hex key set, water, cash. All good.
Leave early. Arrive early. Range opens at 10:00. There at 09:40. Shooting buddy there also. We are first ones in. We request the station that allows us to shoot at 100 or 200 yards without moving seats. Go to the line for 100-yard rifle stall. Set up the chrono.
Unpack the gear. Shooting Buddy, aka “Boot” has the new PSA AR10…the PA10. A delightful firearm. Boot is also the fine millennial who came over one Saturday to learn some reloading. We reloaded some Federal 1x fired brass. We used Federal #210 primers. We use the Sierra Match King 168 gr bullets. He brought his IMR 4064 powder. We consulted the Sierra reloading manual. Repeatedly. We trimmed our brass to 2.005” just like the manuals say to do. We even measured the bullet seating depth of his new PA10.
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First, we inspect the brass. Then we anneal it. Then we resize it. Full length resize it. Then we prime it. We are setting the case back to SAAMI minimum of 0 on the RCBS Precision Micrometer. We are measuring every round with the micrometer and the calipers and the Hornady head space gauge. We hand measure each round. In fact, Boot mentions how accurate I was when I told him that reloading for .308 is mostly spent measuring and re-measuring.
Boot has sighted the Vortex optic in at 50 yards. Now he needs a true 100 sighting. He reaches into the deep well of his range bag and pulls out the IMI 7.62 x 51 Razor Core ammo, 168 gr. Sierra Match King he ordered from the fine people at www.sgammo.com . Within a few rounds of zeroing to a mighty fine group at 100 yards, about 0.6”, it’s time to test out his ladder loads.
Enter Murphy. Enter Loki. Enter Leslie Jones from Ghost Busters reboot. Why her? Well, besides being even less funny than joke stealing Amy Schumer, she is just brutally annoying. Like pinworms annoying.
As Boot, a former US Marine, who has been trained by the finest rifle corps in the world, loads the first five of the ladder load into the magazine, there is a giddy silence. This moment is 3 months in the making.
He aims. He squeezes. He fires. BANG! Waiting on the chronograph. I am the scribe for this moment in history. “Hey the rifle won’t charge.” The second round has partially loaded. It cannot be forward assisted. The charging handle won’t budge. The round cannot be ejected.
Well, break down the rifle. Won't unlock. Bang it on the ground. Can’t. Brand new. Don’t want to bang it on the ground in true USMC fashion. Get the flashlight. Very clearly illuminated is the fact that this is Charlie Fox.
Enter Sand Man. Well, not really. Probably named ‘Sam’ so that’s close. Range Officer Sam has asked if we need help. Surrendering our Man Cards, we nod in the affirmative. He returns with a rubber mallet. Sam holds the rifle. Boot pounds the charging handle back towards the stock. It moves. It keeps moving. Finally Boot is able to pull the charging handle enough to eject the round. Success.
We take out the calipers and the head space gauge. We measure a factory IMI round. We measure the round that was stuck. The difference in headspace is significant. We measure some more of the ladder load. The headspace measurements are all over the map. Worse than government work. Worst of all the hand loads with the ‘too great’ headspace were about 50% of the total.
Thinking (not my strong suit) we should test just one over-spec round. See if it happens again. This was stupid. Reasons to follow. So the second attempt results just like the first. I hold the rifle. Boot hammers the charging handle back.
The elation at having solved a game-stopping, Murphy Moment was pure dopamine. So, why don’t we skip those hand loads and use another set…one of the 3 sets I brought. Same brass. Same primers. IMR 4895 powder and Sierra Game Kings at 165 gr. Their headspace is within 0.005 of each other.
The next 20 minutes were pure dynorphin. The exact opposite of dopamine. The 0.6” group disappeared into what looked like a country and western line dancing pattern. An evil Cotton Eyed Joke. The next grouping appeared fired from a shotgun. Dope was adjusted. Dopamine was failing. Dynorphin was increasing. The target was inspected. After 20 rounds fired, the target was ugly.
What would any competent rifleman do? Return to the IMI rounds that had provided the 0.6” group prior. Excellent plan. That plan went straight to the crapper. A competent, expert marksman in the USMC , kitted with a quality AR10, saw his groups look like hammered crap.
I did the resizing on the batch that sucked worse than the Ghost Busters reboot. Then it occurs to me that hammering the charging handle has knocked the optic out of zero. So, in true jackass fashion, I failed to resize, failed to measure at the range, and then, lit the candle in the methane tunnel with "let's try a second broke round."
Enter Sandman’s Pin Worms. Boot spend the rest of the day at the range, getting the optic back to zero. Meanwhile, I am attempting to chrono my ladder loads and get some kind of grouping down range. Ladder loads worked well. Some rungs had 6 fps as the spread between high and low velocity. But then I could not get the bipod off the Savage to put it on the Mech Tech. I looked like a monkey sexually assaulting a football (American not real football).
So, what should have been a day of science, data collection, trigger time, and joyous groupings was flung onto the dung heap. Don’t get me wrong… trigger time is better than work any day. But when you eff it up for someone else, it’s worse than pin worms on a hot day and no hands to scratch with.