Monday, August 13, 2007

Range Day

Ran out to the range again Sunday with a couple of buddies to sight in our hunting rifles... deer season is coming up! My Weatherby didn't need any adjustment - still dead nuts on. Scopes sure do make it all easier, let me tell you...
One of the guys who came out had a bit of a rough time. He had just bought a Savage in 7mm magnum that needed a scope. He bought one, and waited until range day to try and mount it. No dice. The scope was too short to fit with the mounts on his rifle, so he had to jet over to the nearest Turners for another one. He wound up dropping close to $300 on a pretty fancy one - a lot nicer than any I possess, at any rate...
Poor guy thought his ordeal was over -- alas, no. He loaded his rifle, fired a round, worked the bolt... and no case came out. WTF?
The case was still in the chamber. We had to push a cleaning rod down the front of the barrel to push it out.
He fired another, worked the bolt... same thing happened. We pulled the bolt and checked it out. No frigging extractor! Huh? I've never heard of this! This was a BRAND NEW Savage from Big 5...
We still have time - maybe 6 weeks or so - but if he has to send the rifle back to the factory, it may be problematic... not good. Poor bugger was pushing that cleaning rod down the barrel every shot - he was determined to at least get his rifle sighted in! Good practice for muzzleloading, maybe...
I would be a lot more pissed about it than he seemed to be...
Took the STG-58 out again; I'm getting better at loading with those stripper clips, but I think switching mags would be much better...

8 comments:

none said...

My enfield MKIII showed up on my doorstep with no extractor. Of course mine was made in 1915.

That totally sucks for your buddy!

FHB said...

Did I miss it, or did you ever get that after market FN FAL?

FHB said...

Oh, that's the STG-58 you talked about. Never mind.

Shrink Wrapped Scream said...

Blimey, I haven't a clue as to what you lot are talking about (strops off in a sulk, and slams door behind her.) Sigh.

NotClauswitz said...

I hope he didn't hurt the muzzle! I'd get on the phone to Savage right away and have them just send a whole bolt with extractor.
It always pays to dry-fire with snap-caps and practice loading and unloading, the scope is more problematic with tubes and risers and sizers and crap...

Alex L said...

no extractor, that would be annoying, running the barrel in and having to do that to get the shell out everytime. Whats the kick on the sucker like, the biggest i've shot is a 3030 lever action.

Kevin said...

Hammer- Thanks for stopping by. I bet finding an extractor for a Lee Enfield wopuld have been a sight harder, though...
FHB- yep, that's the FAL - the whole thing went down while you were over at Mushy's... a couple more issues (like the gun not getting shipped from the warehouse) but its done with now and tucked away in my safe:)
SWS- sorry, ma'am - gun stuff - an extractor is a wee hook on the side of a bolt that pulls the bullet case out of the chamber when you work the bolt. Needless to say, a pretty important piece of the bolt...
DC- I agree with you - using snap caps beforehand, heck - even trying to fit the scope at least SOMETIME before range day ;)... live and learn, I guess...
Pope Terry - Thanks for stopping by... I didn't get an opportunity to shoot it - he only had one box of ammo with him and besides which, those rounds did look pretty beefy - much larger than my .308s, so I reckon they would give a healthy kick...

NotClauswitz said...

7mm Mag comes before .30-06 in my Sierra load-book and 150-grain bullets both go off around 2900fps - but I believe that its .284 cal designed bullet(s) have a better ballistic coefficient, and the cartridge design burns more powder more efficiently - the shoulder-smack shouldn't be too bad.