Yuri goes to the Gun Show!

This last Sunday I had the pleasure of going to the Oregon Arms Collectors show in Portland, OR. Jeffersonian and I made the rounds of the show and checked out all of the displays. There was so much to see! I especially liked the historical displays around the outside of the room. Also, due to my immanent purchase of a SMLE in .303 British, I managed to pick up some reloading equipment, with Jeffersonian's guidance. You can't really see everything I got in the photo, but here is a brief rundown. Items that were not bought at the show are indicated as such.

Lee Reloading Press (Clark Rifles Swap Meet)
Reloading Dies in .303 British
Shell holder #7
100+ empty .303 British brass
RCBS Scale
RCBS Rotary Case Trimmer 2
RCBS Powder funnel
Speer Reloading Manual #12
Redding Model #3 Powder Measure
MTM Case-Guard loading tray (at Washougal River Merchantile)
RCBS Hand Priming Tool (New @ Bi-Mart)
100 CCI #200 Large rifle primers (New @ Bi-Mart)
Hodgdon H380 Rifle powder 1 lb. (New @ Bi-Mart)
100 Hornady 123 gr sp .310 bullets (New @ Bi-Mart)
Thumlers Tumbler Ultra Vibe-18 case/rock tumbler (used at Washougal River Merchantile)
Generic Digital Calipers.
Kitty Litter ($1 from Dollar Tree)
Orange Primer flipper over doo-hickey that was thrown in for free.

All told, you're looking at roughly $230 worth (what I paid) of new and used reloading supplies. A lot of the used items retail new for a LOT more than I paid for them. In addition, I picked up some military surplus .303 British at Washougal River Merchantile as well. Yes I'm gonna shoot it, but it also gives me the real deal to compare my handloaded rounds to. In case you're wondering what the kitty litter is for, since I don't currently own a cat. It's the media for the case tumbler which I'll use to pollish the brass with. It's a heck of a deal at $1 from Dollar Tree. Oddly, the guy mentioned that he goes through a LARGE amount of kitty litter every month. Weird... I didn't know that many people owned cats in Camas/Washougal. He did say that a local autoshop owner comes in and picks some up for help with oil spills at his garage, but it's still a strange thing for there to be a run on it every month. If I didn't know better, I'd think people were eating the stuff!

After lunch Jeffersonian and I went up to the range where I finally got the sights on my Ruger 22/45 sighted in. By the time I got done shooting it, I was getting groups of about 1" at 15 yards. Check out the ten shots in the lower left quadrant of the target to see what I'm talking about. There's a couple fliers, one about .5" high and one an 1" low, but those were my fault and not the gun. I'm not Bob Munden yet, but I'm doing okay as long as I remember to take my time. I'd like to enter the plate match next weekend, or at least come and observe, but with the children home it might be an issue. I'll have to see if I can get a baby-sitter for the day.

I also shot my Ruger 10-22 at 100 yards, but my scope was way off and I wasn't hitting butkis. I forgot to bring my laser bore sighter with me so I was having to adjust the scope while wasting ammo. Jeffersonian helped with spotting for me. After a short while I gave up in frustration and took out my Mosin Nagant M91/30. I got to try out some of Jeffersonian's excellant hand loads for the Mosin in 7.62x54R. Less recoil and very accurate in my rifle. Very nice! I also shot some Albanian Military Surplus ammo I bought off Jeffersonian a couple weeks ago. Much harder kick and the POI was way high. Oh, found out something interesting. For a long time, I was having problems with my Mosin's bolt being hard to open after a few shots. Turns out, that when firing brass cased ammo instead of steel cased ammo, I didn't have that problem at all. There's something about the steel cased ammo that doesn't agree with my Mosin. As far as how I did, well, with my bad eye-sight, I couldn't even see the red diamond on the paper target, so I just aimed for the middle of the white rectangle. What I'm trying to say, is I can still hit a paper plate from 100 yards. I REALLY need to get my eyes checked and probably some glasses too.

Jeffersonian also let me shoot his $20 Garand. Ask him about it if you want the whole story, which he delights in telling to anyone who'll listen. :-) I got some practice in loading single shots and then full clips, as well as advice on how to avoid "Garand Thumb". Very sweet! I've gotta get me one of those. Oh well, I'll just have to add it to the list! Hehehe...

I also got to shoot a custom Mouser style rifle in .270 Winchester. I still think there was something wrong with the guy's bolt, because I was having the darnest time getting it to close. It may be the extractor is bent in a little bit. When I first got my Mosin, I had the same problem and I had to bend it out carefully, and now it works like a charm. Anyway, the kick was hard and it was real loud. That's what I like! I swear though, with him in the next bench, I jumped everytime he touched one off.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day, except for the heat at the range. It was only 90F, but it was humid on top of that and I found myself getting dehydrated fast. Even under more temperate conditions, walking out to the target and back is an adventure with my legs all screwed up like they are.

Yuri out!