He finally gets to the range

[Bill in Oregon]

An e-mail I got from a well-known member here put me in such a wonderful frame of mind this morning that I decided to take a little time off from worrying about house repairs and go to my local club shooting range. I joined the Sweetwater Rifle and Pistol Club in July, but aside from putting in some hours on a work day, this was the first time I shot there, and the first time shooting a handgun from a rest in months -- and a scoped handgun in many years.
I first put a few cylinders of handloads through the Charter Bulldog at seven yards and the immediate lesson was Bill, you need to do more offhand and double action work, mister. Most rounds struck in the lower right quadrant and thinking about it, I realize that the dang NRA pistol instructor training I took last year "unlearned me" from using the stance and hold that has been natural to me since I first read Jeff Cooper on the matter as a ninth-grader long, long ago -- the Weaver. When I go back to the range with the Bulldog I will make a conscious effort to unlearn the ridiculous both-thumbs forward stuff the NRA is teaching. It might work fine for Glocks, but I think it sucks for revolver work.
Next up was the Cimarron/Uberti Model P in .45 Colt. With my fondness for the history of the Army in the American West after the Civil War -- and having watched every episode of Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975 -- I had to have the 7 /2-inch barrel and the Old Model frame. At 25 yards, rest, I was pretty sloppy, but there was cause for hope as there were glimmers of accuracy if I weeded out the strays. Again, I have gotta work on technique, and I confess that the very thin tip of the front sight on the old model SAA takes some effort to work with after being spoiled by years of using square rear and partridge fronts ...
Last up -- and moved over to the rifle range for this -- was the CVA Scout break-open single shot, mine chambered in 6.5 Grendel. Even though I was very rusty at shooting a powerful single-shot handgun, this thing excelled. I put a box of Privi Partizan 110-grain FMJs through it to dial in the scope, get a feel for the gun and the recoil impulse and leave me some brass to load.
As you can see, it gave me a 1 1/2-inch group on the right -- my first five-shot group at 100 -- and on the left a 1 3/8-inch group with the scope adjusted to where I wanted it, high and centered.
I know I could have done better, as I kept fiddling around with my rest and squeeze bag, finding some padding for my elbows and just basically squirming around out of practice. Considering all those negative inputs, I am quite thrilled with this $353 handgun.
The group of three on the right target was with first handloads -- a Sierra 107 grain TMK, Nosler brass and 22 grains of H4198 with CCI 400 to light things off. The recoil impulse was much milder and I thought the three would group well away from the five Privi FMJs, but they didn't. And the Scout obviously prefers some other flavor of handload, although a test sample of just three hardly constitutes guidance.
Just as evidence of how rusty I was today, I only just now realized that the Burris scope is a 2-7X. I shot the targets at 2X!
Boys and girls, if anyone here has been on the fence regarding one of these handguns, get off of it and buy one while they are available, as CVA is a bit of a squirrely outfit. As more range and field reports on these pistols come in, I hope CVA will see fit to do more to promote them -- and maybe do another run in 6mm ARC.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[2ndovc]

Good for you!

I really like the Cimarron. Their Uberti's are a weakness of mine, though I just picked up my first Taylor & Co. This one is just as nicely finished as the Cimarron.

jb

[JimT]

Way to go Bill! Good on ya. The Good Lord willing I am gonna be on the Range a couple times this week.