Range Day w/CW45 - 2/17/2014

[pbagley]

It was the warmest day in weeks today, and a work holiday to boot. Once I was done shoveling and plowing the fresh snow in my driveway off to the range I went. Arrived around 3 - much later than I'd planned.

It was about 25f today, below freezing but still warmer than the past few weeks have been. The CW45 was the third gun to be shot today. I've had issues with the trigger, and I'd put a load of oil on the trigger bar. This turned into a poor trigger today with such a cold gun.

First up was testing some Berry's 200gr PSWC reloads. These are being used instead of cast since this CW45 has a rather rough bore. Lesson learned last range trip when I tried my long favorite bullseye load in this gun.

This was shot at 25 yards, with a trigger giving me problems, two hand hold, sighting at 6 o'clock.
http://i57.servimg.com/u/f57/13/62/95/74/p2170313.jpg (http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=631&u=13629574)
Yes, that's a double at 7 o'clock.

I'm happy with the load. The Berry's bullet does not cut as clean a hole as the Hornady JSWC. The brass does not all fall in about the same place, so there was a little searching. One FTE, the case caught in the gun. Two mangled cases, the rest look fine. Very perplexing.

Now that the gun is past the 200 round mark I decided it was time to test some defensive loads. If SWC's chamber then there should be no issues with anything, but you have to test to be sure.

Guard Dog's - same 6 o'clock sight picture. I dropped the front sight on the last two. My bad. I also lost two of the cases, no idea where they went.
http://i57.servimg.com/u/f57/13/62/95/74/p2170314.jpg (http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=632&u=13629574)

Some old Speer Lawman 200 gr JHP's I've had for years. Same 6 o'clock sight picture. All the cases were in a nice little 24" circle. I think I made a sighting error on one of these.
http://i57.servimg.com/u/f57/13/62/95/74/p2170315.jpg (http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=633&u=13629574)

Last up for the day was some WCC84 hardball I found on the reloading bench last weekend, followed by some reloaded 230 gr JRN's at about the same velocity. All seems to shoot about the same point of aim as the 200gr PSWC target load, which is lucky.

Thanks for reading. I hope the pictures were entertaining. As always, any reloading data should be cross checked to be safe for your gun.

[hardluk1]

Looks like your doing fine with shooting and finding the ammo it likes best . And shooting at 25 yards!! I no longer have the eyes for good open sight shooting.


After reading this last night and seeing another tread saying there pistols trigger had a slow to release trigger when cold I emptied my 3 kahrs and popped them in the freezer and for got them till this morning. Temp was -1* and found all three triggers worked like in nice warm weather.


I used a clp and a heavy grease on the rails called pro-gold from pro-shot products for many years and its always been fine on all my firearms. But around a year ago I changed to only Pro-shots Zero Friction on my pistols. Its a bit thicker lube than regular gun oils or clp's but has a operation temp range of -75* to 500*+ and really makes for a slick action. Very pleased with it as it stays in place and does not evaporate as some oils do. Might be worth try'n .
http://www.sinclairintl.com/gun-cleaning/bore-cleaners-lubricants/lubricants-grease/pro-shot-zero-friction-oil-1-oz-needle-oiler-prod32850.aspx

[Bill K]

Thank you for sharing. Very well done report.

That's some very decent 25 yard off hand shooting. I imagine without trigger problems you'd have grouped even better.

[pbagley]

... around a year ago I changed to only Pro-shots Zero Friction on my pistols. Its a bit thicker lube than regular gun oils or clp's but has a operation temp range of -75* to 500*+ and really makes for a slick action. Very pleased with it as it stays in place and does not evaporate as some oils do. Might be worth try'n .
http://www.sinclairintl.com/gun-cleaning/bore-cleaners-lubricants/lubricants-grease/pro-shot-zero-friction-oil-1-oz-needle-oiler-prod32850.aspx

Thanks for the tip. I will give that a try - can't hurt and the price isn't bad at all. Last night here at home dry firing a 68f gun the trigger as good as any, but has 0 over travel. Glad to hear your trigger works across a broader temperature range. I'm still hoping this is a break in issue, and that it will get better as it gets more range time.

[pbagley]

That's some very decent 25 yard off hand shooting. I imagine without trigger problems you'd have grouped even better.

Thanks! In warmer weather I hope to move those 8's into the 9 ring, and hopefully not double in the jerk :mad: zone. It's good to keep all 10 in the black with any gun. Funny thing is that this gun has shot a little to the left for me from round 1. If I do my part (sights/trigger control) it hits dead on with a (6 o'clock sight picture. I think this is me adjusting to the grip and trigger - though I don't have this leftist tendency :eek: with my cm9 so maybe not the DAO part of the trigger but more the trigger problem.

[tony k]

nice work and thanks for sharing. I'm left handed, and when the first joint on my trigger finger gets too close to the trigger, my shots drift a little to the right.

Your trigger finger might be nudging the gun ever so slightly to the left, assuming you are a right handed shooter. Not saying it is definately why you are shooting a little to the left, but it might be.

[pbagley]

Thanks Tony. You are probably right. With the long DA trigger it is not as easy to keep the pad exactly where I'd like. Much easier to make the trigger pull straight back with a target gun. Same with finger tip and thumb pressure on the grip pushing the gun around (even whole hand squeeze) - one has to be ever aware of any bad habits creeping in to destroy the marksmanship skills that we've worked so hard to develop. If I can hold the black with this gun I'll be very happy.