A beautiful sight

Now that's what I call a productive afternoon.  Since my 59.5gr load shot so well in practice, I decided to load up 40 rounds for the Safari Rifle match two Sundays from now (30 March).  This will let me save my dwindling supply of factory ammo. 

Now, I've loaded almost 60 total rounds of 9.3x62mm, and I was shocked to see that I'm more than halfway through my pound of Big Game.  I'm used to loading mild .38 Special and .44 Special, with about 4-4.5gr of powder per cartridge.  I've been on the same pound of 700x for a year now, and I'm just barely putting a dent into it.  But when you're using almost 60 grains per cartridge, you burn through a pound of powder (7000 grains) in fairly short order.  Time to find a big jug!

Testing my gear under pressure

Now that I've got at least a semi-acceptable load dialed in, I can use it for practice far cheaper than even the Prvi factory ammo.  That's a good thing.  I still need to get a chronograph and see how the velocity compares to factory ammo, but based on the shot placement, it should be about right.  I reckon I'll load up about 40 or so rounds of this current load in preparation for the PR&GC Safari Rifle match at the end of the month.

The first time I shot this match was a year ago, and my rifle was brand new and just barely sighted in.  I hadn't gotten any real accessories for it, just the rifle, scope, sling and some ammo.  My goal then was to get used to the rifle and optic, and I was pleased as punch with both.  Now, my goal is to practice with my shooting sticks and fine-tune my walking-around loadout for the safari itself.  So let's make a short list of things I know I'll be lugging around on my own person:

1.  Rifle
2.  Ammo
3.  Water
4.  Snacks
5.  First aid kit
6.  Multi-tool
7.  Knife
8.  Flashlight
9.  Compass
10.  Rangefinder
11. Survival/possibles kit

I won't have all of these on my belt, of course, but I do want to fine-tune my belt setup further than I have in earlier posts/thoughts.  That generally means ammo, water, snacks, multi-tool, knife and flashlight.  My daily carry rig, as I mentioned before, is a Frequent Flyer belt from the Wilderness.  I've worn this for years, and it's comfortable, yet rigid enough to carry a pistol and all my daily accessories, and bomb-proof durable.  I see no reason to try anything else on this trip.  On the belt will be my Leatherman Wave (11 years old and still going strong) in the factory leather belt sheath, my Sure-Fire G2 (nearly as old, albeit with a replacement KX4 LED conversion head that makes it significantly brighter and longer-lasting) in an even more ancient Blade-Tech scabbard, a Twin Loader (also from the Wilderness) for two fast rounds, and my Westley Richards belt carrier for five more rounds.  For the purposes of the match, I also plan to carry a sidearm as I do when deer hunting.  In this case, it'll be a Beretta 92G in a Wilderness Safepacker holster.

So, how well does all this kit work on a single belt?  I'm used to having the Beretta on my strong side hip, plus the G2, Wave and a spare magazine on my left hip.  All I have to do is find room for the rifle ammo.  Now, ordinarily I like spare ammo on my left hip, but the manual of arms for a bolt-action hunting rifle generally means I reload with my dominant hand.  As such, I'll put the TwinLoader just in front of the pistol, and the belt carrier just behind it.  I'll give it a whirl at the match and see how I like it.  Since none of the stages are more than 5 rounds, I will download my rifle a bit so that I have to reload on the clock and put my setup to the test.  I have a set of suspenders designed for military 'war belts' if I need any support with all that gear as well.

Where does that leave the rest of my gear?  Well, my folding knife will live where it always does, in my right front slash pocket.  As for the rest, right now I'm looking at either a small daypack or using my existing Maxpedition Jumbo EDC Versipack.  The Versipack can hold quite a lot of gear, and is actually quite comfortable to wear over long periods (I use it a lot when hiking or even just going to the zoo with my family).  My concern is that it is not tied down (though I could conceivably lash it to my belt if I so chose), and I worry that it will get in the way of my right-side gear if I position it so the strap isn't on my shooting shoulder.  I may end up looking at a fanny pack of some sort.

I'll also test out some clothing choices at the match.  I've got a pretty solid choice of hats, either boonie-style or baseball-style.  I tend towards the former because I've got fair skin and get sunburned rather easily, so I appreciate the extra coverage.  I'll likely bring both in case the boonie proves too cumbersome in the brush.  I also tend towards long pants and sleeves when outdoors, for the same reasons.  I live in a desert, so it's not as punishing to have my lower limbs covered as it would be in, say, Houston.  Since I'll be hunting in the dry season, I hope South Africa will be similar.  For the past few years, I've been wearing Cabela's Trail Hiker pants.  They're a bit heavy and hot in the summertime, but they wear like iron and are very comfortable for me.  Everyone's a bit different when it comes to fit and cut, so your mileage may vary, but for me the Trail Hikers have the best wear, best pocket placement, and least chafing in long use of any pant I've worn in the past decade (which admittedly, isn't a lot of them).  Of course, footwear is also crucial, and until my Russell Joe's PH boots get here, I'll stick with my comfortable New Balance sneakers with Smartwool medium hiker socks for the match.

The moment of truth.

Well, it's time for the moment of truth.  I shot an IDPA match this morning, and did reasonably well.  I shot some follow-up drills and did better.  Then I scampered off to the rifle side of the facility to test out my first-ever batch of rifle handloads.

I set up a makeshift rest with the range's carpet-covered wooden blocks and my folded soft case, loaded up the first three rounds (56.5gr of Big Game) and got to work, checking each individual case for pressure signs.  Then three rounds with 57.5, three more with 58.5 and so on until I got to 61.5gr.  By that time, I had started to develop a bit of a flinch from shooting off the bench, and I decided it would be impractical to continue shooting groups.  I fired one round with 62.0gr from the shooting sticks (mostly to verify there were no pressure signs, and there weren't), and banged steel @ 200 yards.  I fired five more factory Prvi rounds, but the flinch was starting to show.  I buckled down and fired one last round and banged steel.  I like to finish on a high note.

Then it was off to the butts to see how I did.  And boy, was I surprised.  I had a few stringers that I will readily ascribe to the emergent flinch (especially on the last two sets of three), but the 59.5gr load (rounds 10, 11 and 12) shot sub-MOA @ 100 yards!

Now I need to get a chronograph and see how much velocity that load's pushing, and load up some more from about 59gr to 62.5gr and see if that's the sweetest spot or if there are greener pastures.

Now, on to the shooting sticks.  Work bit into my free time, so I only had time to craft one set of sticks.  I used the green Home Depot garden stakes with a section of bicycle inner tube to make a very simple apparatus.  And yet, with a proper hold, I was able to shoot reasonably well @ 200 yards with it.  I found that by laying my hand in the crotch of the sticks, and using that to brace the gun and prevent it from bouncing, I could shoot pretty well.  I really like these sticks.  They're extremely lightweight, stiff, tough, and practical.  Best of all, they cost me all of $7 and change.  I'm thinking of getting a third stake to try the tripod route, but right now I'm finding it hard to argue with the simple effectiveness of the current setup.  Still, experimentation is what this is all about, so I'll give it and the wooden swivel bipod sticks a run for the money.

Reloading... progress!

I was supposed to fly to Dallas yesterday for a training conference, but Mother Nature decided otherwise.  To console myself, I ventured into the reloading room to work on my 9.3x62mm loads.  I had done a bit of research and talked to some folks who do quite a bit of reloading in this caliber (in addition to some good advice from people reading here), and it made me confident of some of the dimensions I would need.  So, off to the loading bench I went.

As commenter "BS" mentioned after my earlier reloading post, I started with a lower charge and worked up.  I loaded a few rounds in each charge weight, going up one grain at a time.  So now I've got 18 rounds theoretically (see below) ready to test-fire, hopefully next weekend if the weather cooperates (and it's Phoenix in March, so it usually does).

I did find some unusual results.  All of my cases are once-fired Prvi Partizan brass.  I miked four or five out of the batch to see if I needed to trim, and they were all within a few thousandths of each other, and well within acceptable length.  When I loaded them, I got a fairly wide range of COL.  Minimum was about 3.295, and max was 3.307.  That seemed like a large discrepancy, so I used my bullet puller to tap the projos slightly forward, and reseated them, thinking my seating die might have come loose.  They all reseated... to the same COL they were before being pulled.  The 3.295 cartridge reseated to 3.295, and the 3.307 cartridge reseated to 3.307.  All of them fed and chambered in my rifle with no issues, but it's troubling.  There seemed no rhyme or reason to why they were different lengths.  I had rounds with the same powder charge near each of the extremes.  None of the charges got up into the neck of the case, so I'm not yet dealing with compressed loads.  I'm going to start with the lightly-loaded rounds and see if there is any variation in point of impact, recoil, or any signs of pressure.  If not, then I'll gradually work up.  I didn't load up to the max yet, I can always come back and load them if I see no pressure signs.  The next batch I load, I'll mike every case to ensure uniform length, and the projos as well.

The second thing I wish to accomplish before the weekend is to construct a basic set of shooting sticks.  I'll shoot groups off sandbags on the bench, of course, but I would also like to shoot some factory ammo from the sticks to refine my technique before the match at the end of the month.

All in all, a day of both frustration and satisfaction.  The weekend will determine how it all ends up.

Those Reloading Blues

I'm fairly new at reloading, having done only straight-wall pistol cartridges with mild loads on a single-stage press so far.  I bought the press so I could afford to shoot my .44 Magnum, and I figured it would also work well for loading hunting and precision rifle ammo.  This past weekend, I needed to go tinker with the roll crimp for my .38 Special recipe, and I figured what the heck, now that I've fired a few boxes of the Prvi factory ammo, I'll use the empty cases and dial in an initial batch of 9.3x62mm as well.

One thing I've discovered about reloading is that the ammo drought has extended to reloading components as well.  I've got cases and projectiles, and was able to scrounge up 1000 WLRM primers, but powder is hard to find, especially locally.  That's important, because when working up a load, I don't want to buy 8 lbs of a powder I might not end up using, and the combined hazmat and shipping fees are more than most 1lbs cans of powder cost.  At those prices, I might as well just buy factory ammo.  So after striking out on more common powders like Varget and RL15, and reading some various forum posts about people using it for the 9.3, I was rather happy when I found a single pound of Ramshot Big Game in a local store and forked over my money.

Now, as I mentioned, I'm new at reloading, and I don't consider myself anywhere near the level of experience to start going off into the weeds on load recipes.  As I gain more experience, I might start doing some experimentation, but for now I stick to the book religiously, including component selection, measurements, etc.  So imagine my surprise when I can't find any published data that uses Big Game in the 9.3 (Hornady lists TAC, and Barnes doesn't list any Ramshot powders for this cartridge), and only a few mentions of using Big Game specifically with Prvi cases and bullets (note:  I don't plan to take Prvi bullets to Africa, but I do intend to use them for familiarization shooting, learning the initial ins and outs of reloading bottleneck rifle cartridges, and likely some whitetail hunting without breaking the bank on premium bullets.  For the actual safari, I will be loading up the tried-and-true Barnes TTSX and either Barnes or Hornady solids.)  My 'economy load' for practice and familiarization won't pan out if I can't find load data for it.  So, off to the internet I go.  And lo and behold, I found www.realguns.com had some data for Big Game with Prvi bullets.  Awesome.

And so after I set up the RCBS neck sizing die and resize/measure the first sacrificial case, it's time to dial in the seating die.  I'm hopeful that I can get everything zeroed in and start loading my initial batch.  And before I seat a round, I take a look at the printout of the load data and I notice a little asterisk next to the COL data for the Prvi bullets.  The data for this particular load has a COL of 3.305", 0.014" longer than the maximum COL in every factory book I've read (3.291"), and 0.030" longer than the COL of my factory Prvi ammo (3.275"). Spider sense... tingling.  At this point, I put the dies away and go back to Google.  Eventually I found someone using that particular recipe in a Ruger African with no issues, though he did back down the rather heavy powder charge and used non-magnum WLR primers.  So, I emailed the Ramshot people to ask if they had any recipes for Big Game with Prvi bullets, but they don't. 

So, for any of you more experienced reloaders out there, what would you suggest?  Pick the data for a similar bullet, seat to normal COL, and start with a lower charge and work up?  Keep looking for data for the exact components that I have?

Ounces are pounds

Like a lot of people, I tend to believe in the old adage "Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."  I'm always on the lookout for new gear that will let me do more, or stuff that's just interesting.  I'm always forgetting something on every trip, and I tend to compensate by incorporating redundancy in my equipment.  Maybe it's my IT background, but I am firm believer in the notion that "Two is one, and one is none."

That can get one into trouble when dealing with a lot of physical activity.  As a boy, up through my early 20s, I was an avid hiker and camper.  I grew up tromping around the hills of northern West Virginia, both alone and with friends and family.  At first I carried everything but the kitchen sink, finding an excuse for anything if I had room in my monstrous expedition pack, but hiking up and down those endless hills taught me rather quickly that less is often more.  By the time I was 16 or 17, my warm-weather overnight kit consisted of a bolo knife, an old rubberized Army poncho and liner with some pre-cut lengths of paracord for a shelter, a first-aid kit, some MREs and a canteen or two.  I'd eat local plants and occasionally animals if it was the appropriate hunting season, and purify water by boiling it in my canteen cup.  I was young, and agile, and glad to be unencumbered.

Life has its ways of intervening, and I don't get out camping much anymore, much to my dismay.  I've come to like my creature comforts, even when camping.  But I still remember how on a long hike, every ounce felt like a pound by the end of the day.  Considering a proper safari consists of a whole lot of walking, I'm taking a hard, hard look at what I really and truly 'need' outside of base camp.  What I carry, and how I carry it, will become critical.

So first thing's first:  a belt.  I carry a decent amount of stuff on my belt on a daily basis.  Thus, I need a solid, stiff, and durable belt that adjusts to the situation as necessary.  For about 15 years, I've been using belts from The Wilderness.  Their original Instructor Belt is a classic for a reason, but with weight an issue, I opt for the polymer-buckle "Frequent Flyer" model.  With the 5-stitch reinforcement, I've found it plenty stiff for holding up my pistol and accessories all day.  I also like that the nylon and polymer construction is unaffected by rain, snow, sweat or other environmental conditions like leather.  There are a lot of good belts on the market today, but I've not yet had any reason to switch.

Now, what to carry on that belt?  For daily use, I generally have a Leatherman Wave, a SureFire G2 flashlight (though I've upgraded it to a higher-end head and bulb assembly), and my pistol and spare magazine.  When hunting, I add a belt knife for field-dressing game and a spare ammo carrier for my rifle or revolver.  I don't anticipate taking a pistol to Africa (the laws are a bit Byzantine in that regard, from what I'm told), and the safari company will have skinners that are far better at their trade than I could ever hope to be, so I won't likely bring a belt knife (though I'll still have a folding knife, because a blade is useful). 

I've been experimenting with a belt-mounted ammo carrier.  Initially I bought a Rifle Ammo Pouch from Triad Tactical, because I liked some of the features.  I figured I could keep rifle data and hunting licenses in the see-through flaps, and ten rounds each of .30-'06 and 9.3x62mm.  I have no complaints about the quality of this piece of gear, but I just found it to be a bit more than I wanted to carry on a long hunt.  I think it's a great piece of kit for carrying additional ammo on a backpack, or for laying out when you're in a hide or other stationary spot, but it's bulky on my belt and not all that quick to access when it's all folded up and buckled shut.

I also had a Twin Loader from The Wilderness, and I like it quite a bit positioned around 2:00 for a quick reload of the magazine.  But that only holds two extra rounds, and I want a few more.  At a recent safari rifle match, I noticed many competitors with simple, flap-closed cartridge carriers that held four or five rounds.  While attending the Safari Club International convention earlier this month, I happened across several similar items.  I found one from Westley Richards that suited me, and bought it for a reasonable price (they were liquidating some old stock due to a logo change).  I think when combined with the Twin Loader, it'll give me sufficient ammunition on my person for most situations.  

So that takes care of blades, tools, light and ammo.  Next time, I'll talk about one of the most important things you can carry with you into the wild:  water.