Recoil Therapy and So Far, Nothings Happened…. Yet.

Greetings and Salutations!
I found a new range to “vent my frustrations on”. It’s up in Fishhawk and whoo-eee! The place is so big you can rent a golf cart to haul you around as needed with your gear.

Clays, pistol and rifle ranges…

Today was the ‘shooting for record’ for record for the Springfield and the ‘matching numbers’ Lee Enfield No. 4. I wanted to get some groupings to judge the accuracy, as well as blow out the remaining crap in the Lee Enfield as the barrel fouling still had some crap up in there that after about 50 rounds, it was cleaned out.

Some of the holes in the targets are from some of the guys at the range that I let fire off a couple of rounds for funsies, as I do like to share and also bask in the accolades… some of the old timers were exceptionally pleased to “…see a younger guy who’s into the gunsmithing and restoration stuff!”

Heh. “Younger”
Geez… I’m 55 but during the cold range phases, the discussions were allll about how gunsmithing is a dying art, as well as weapons preservation. One guy who was a Vietnam vet was allll about the whole historical; angle and how the last 20-30 years of anti-gun bullshit had made gunsmithing itself a almost dead art.

And all those places like the Sonoran Desert Institute are a HUUUUGE pile of shytte. That’s one of the big sponsors of a LOT of ‘Guntoobers’ like Brandon Herrera. The problem with that fucking place is it’s a huge scam. I researched that place out of curiosity… What I found out kind of pissed me off.

Seems that it’s an ‘all online’ remote gunsmithing “school” and I use the term loosely. The tuition is $26k without ‘assistance’ and they really go hard at Veterans to loot the G.I. Bill bennies from them. THAT I find horrible.

The reviews out there are very telling.

LOTS of people talking about the shitty curriculum. Apparently the coursework is so minimal, and that you can pretty much learn everything you ‘need to know’ off of youtoob vidyas, which is actually where a lot of the “teaching” happens!

Meh.

So back to the shooting.
The results:
Rifle: 1884 Springfield Trapdoor
Round: 3 rounds of .45-70 500 Grain Flat-Nosed Lead Boolits
Range: 100 Yards
No Optics, just old Iron Sights while using a smol sandbag rest
The Aiming Point was the red “Center Mass”

A little high.
The left/right is I think from ‘recoil anticipation’
It’s hard not to brace while firing this Gorilla Killer.

Either way, I’m exceptionally pleased
I need better sights tho…
Which is a pain in the ass as the one on there I paid $150 for. It’s good, but a wee bit worn, and also, to be perfectly honest, I’m 55 and Ye set of Olde Marke One Mod One Eyeballz ain’t what they used to be.

BUT

Those are kill shots, and with practice this thing is going to be fun to keep working with. I mean throwing a 500 Grain slug a full football field, and hitting a 3/4 size man sized target? Not bad IMO. Fuck your plates, fuck your chest and fuck the guy behind you and HIS plates too.

Now, the other rifle.
I’ll say I’m impressed.
Now this one, it’s positively peppered with shots. That’s the target I let folks tag initially as the ‘cold range’ wasn’t going to be for a bit, and I couldn’t swap the target out easily, so it got a wee bit ‘shot up’. That being said:

Rifle: Lee Enfield Mod 1 Mk 4.
Round: 170 Grain .303 Brit, 1970’s Greek Surplus
(Thank You Borepatch!)
Distance: 50 Yards (Initial Grouping)
This is the initial 5 round group with a tight 4 round hit:

That was off the sandbag. A niiiiiiice and tight group of 4, with the 5th being a flier off to the far left. I do know that when I tore it apart initially when I first got it, the front sight blade was waaaaaaay off to one side… if I remember right, it was far to the left, and I re-centered it during the rebuild. Looks like I’ll have to do the ‘tap and shoot’ and realign everything. Get it back to the left…

So now I know I have two good shooters.

It’s been a minute since I’ve been to a range for an all day affair. Left me a lil drained from the heat (it got a wee mite hot today) but overall I had a literal blast with Sapper. He did like 2 shots through the Springfield and declined any more as his shoulder was beat from two shots. Wimp. LOL!

So nothing on the fam side… things are quiet.

Hence the necessity of shooting up shit to relax.
Which was highly needed.
The aforementioned Borepatch is the one who quoted it as “recoil therapy”. Truer words were never spoken.

I’ll keep you updated a bit more as we go along.

More Later
Big Country


28 thoughts on “Recoil Therapy and So Far, Nothings Happened…. Yet.”

  1. Yeah…Elon Musk has made the statement that many “skills” don’t require a formal training scenario, that one can learn all that’s needed online and do it self taught. Not all skills can be learned online, but many of them can. And a degree or certificate in no way proves competence.

  2. “…got a wee bit ‘shot up’. ” Indeed! He’s dead, Jim. High, near the head woulda rattled the brain pan in passing, the shoulder ones woulda ripped the arms outa the sockets, causing a bleed out right shortly, and the others…welp…you shot till HE thought he was dead. A bad day at the range (or fishing) is ALWAYS better than a good day at work. Not only “recoil therapy” but also some “Aroma therapy”.

    Mention us to The Hair Diva.

  3. The 1884 Springfield shot to the left shoulder neck base would have been a kill shot, it would have destroyed the carotid sheath and taken out the artery and the jugular vein on that side just a mere inch or so to the right and the poor sap would have bleed out faster than pouring piss out your boot… The kinetic energy would have pulverized the cervical vertebra.

  4. I SHOOT A 300WM from a bench @1000, if I hit the target 10 times I call it a day, recoil is brutal. I hate to be a buzz kill but you may want to check the straightness of that 303 barrel, at least it prints well and barrels can be straightened

    1. Yeah, I recently learned I’m done shooting my 7mm Rem Mag after 9 shots. Guess I’m not 10 ft. tall and bulletproof anymore.

  5. Paranoia here, Tiny – you’re shooting reduced loads in the trapdoor, right?

    Get some cast lead boolits, round nose, 405 grainers. Load them down to 1400-1600 FPS. The old duffers are not meant to shoot modern heavy loads and you are too smart for that, right?

    If I recall the 45-70 has three load levels in my cast lead manual with light stuff for the antiques, medium stuff for the modern lever guns, and heavy loads that’ll kill on both ends of the gun in tanks like the modern No.1’s.

    Good to see ya poosting again… 😊👍

    1. No worries
      Got it loaded with the reduced charges.
      No way in Hell am I firing modern level rounds… That’s a part of the fun. A 500gn BIG assed boolit, lead cast solid.
      I got the Wolf’s Western Shooters reloading guide to the 1884 Springfield Trapdoor

  6. Very nice work on both. Problem is you’re gonna get hooked on shooting the Trapdoor…

    Never mind the Enfield.

    Back in my prayers regarding Addy

    Coelacanth

  8. I can appreciate it, thanks for sharing!
    I too have benefitted from recoil therapy. Sucks cuz boolits are still expensive, but nothing takes the stress off like 20-rounds through the mini-14 with all the steel going PING!!! PING!!!! PING!!!!
    I can’t fathom 500 grains….
    Kubota therapy comes in a close 2nd. If you ever sell the casa, get yourself a couple acres and an old tractor. Diesel’s cheaper than ammo.

  9. BCE, for the 45-70 use shooting sticks. The bench is no place for shoulder mounted cannons. You are positioned to not be able to flex and bend with the recoil on the bench. Good luck finding tall enough sticks though.

    1. Go down to the woods and cut a skinny sapling with a fork or branch at least forehead height or higher. Strip the bark and little branches until all that’s left is the stick and a crotch or branch. Let it dry upright in a corner or dangling from a string with a heavy weight hanging from the bottom. Maybe a few weeks or several months depending on where you stash it to dry. After it dries, just trim to the height you want and you’ve got a walking stick/shooting stick for cannons that doubles as a weapon in non-permissive environments. Pro tip, cut a few and dry them all. It’s very easy to cut the first one or two shorter than you need and that’s very painful for recoil!

  10. I think this quote is from one of Bracken’s books…

    “Certain esoteric skills related to applying mass times velocity over random distances to within very tight tolerances of time and space. Skills without much demand in the civilian sector. ”

    But SO worth practicing. The BENEFITS of recoil therapy.

  11. “Clays, pistol and rifle ranges…”
    For just a minute there, my old brain thought “Claymores! Now we’re talking”

  12. Yea, SDI is a great YT influencer scam alright. I’ve seen their training vids.
    But,BC you could do your own school if these clowns are making bank.
    I Can see it now:
    Big Country’s School of Gunsmithing, Drinking, War Stories and Debauchery.
    Yes, my friends you too can get a degree from BCE for the lowly sum of only $12K a year. That’s less than half of those cuck bastards at SDI.
    Ladies, we want you to learn to be a gunsmith also, SOOO If you apply within the next hour and send Boobie pics we will discount your tuition to $10K a year

    1. I would definitely sign up for that if BCE is teaching, and getting to say hi to Gretchen would make it worthwile.

  13. Sounds like a neat range. If they have a sporting clays course, I highly recommend trying it out at least once. If you’re pressed for time and they have a 5-stand sporting clays, you can get a good idea how the game is played. It’s a hoot! You can run what you brung, too. No need for a $25,000 Italian O/U shotgun. I’ve even watched a guy shoot 5-stand with a SXS “Coach gun”, and he was doing pretty good! The Sporting Clays folks are not the same type of people you encounter on the trap and skeet range, either. They don’t tend to act like blue bloods.

  15. Nice recoil therapy.

    I share your love for historical firearms. Those rifles were sturdy and tough as Hell where you CAN restore them after 80 or 100 years. What shape is a Glock going to be in 80 or 100 years ?

    In war, guy’s lives depended on those rifles and they didn’t fail them.
    Yet you can read about the early M16s in Vietnam where they jammed in combat and guys got killed.
    I’ve never heard a story about WW1 or 2 rifles like Enfields, Springfields, M1s or the like doing that.

  16. $26k for gunsmith training. Yeah that’s a scam for sure and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing that. My son has a 45-70 Marlin lever action. After about three shots I’m done. I don’t know what I would’ve done if a bunch of savages were trying to scalp me. If I yelled “Hey! I shot three of you. I can’t shoot no more.” Would they have left me alone? Probably not.

  18. Shit, I thought everybody knew SDI was bullshit. I always figured that anybody dumb enough to fall for it deserved to be relieved of their money.

  19. I had a 45-70 Marlin when they first went on the market. The kick wasn’t too bad except with the Remington 405 grain hunting loads. Sold it a couple years later as I wanted to reduce the number of different caliber weapons in my collection.That’s what has stopped me from doing some of my own restoration stuff (that and time). It’s gotten to the point that I’m going to start putting stuff up on GunBroker to reduce things to fit in one safe. Just going to keep all the high end stuff.

  20. FYI If you want to see big booolits shooting thru level IV plates try Levergun50 on you-tube. He shoots mostly stuff by the greatest gun designer ever. Mr. Browning. Model 1886 is a favorite. I have a modern steel antique reproduction in 45/90 WCF. The shell casing is .4 longer than a 45/70. My light load is a 325grn Hornady FTX at 2450fps. The buckhorns are set low as they go, 4 high a 100, dead on at 2, 4 low at three. Had the nephew shoot the 3hundred, old eyes don’t see well for fine work. It punches 1inch diameter plugs out of 1/2inch mild steel at 25 yards.

  21. I just got back into shooting now that I am retired. I got rid of my .270. It was no fun after three shoots. I shoot a 1928 Winchester 52 with ladder sights and a Colt Police Official 22 trainer pistol. Just CCI clean ammo for 200 rounds sitting in a chair. With 6 to 8 inch gongs at 125 yards the goal how many rounds ca you do with no misses. With the pistol I start with 21 inch gong at 125 yards then it is how many hits you can get with the on the shovels. I see very people who can shoot a 9mm at 30 feet as well as a snub 38. They do it faster though. Tom

  23. Hi BC, Fred in Texas. The current issue of Guns & Ammo has part 2 of a WWII Sniper Rifles and it features a #4 Enfield with a model 32 scope. The picture was pretty… I can just imagine fondling it and crooning ‘my precious’ with weird troglodyte eyes.
    Shoot me an email and I’ll send you a couple of PDFs of gunsmithing manuals I found. Be warned. This shit is EXTREMELY habit forming. I started out slicking and tuning my Henry .22 lever gun about ten years ago. I basically did it with wet/dry sandpaper I glommed from a body shop guy I knew and buffing/polishing compound. And a couple of dowels and a piece of small square stock to form the paper. The difference in performance was mind blowing. I said to my self, “Self, you’re not pissing away anymore time and money on hotrods n shit. You’re going to go nuts with this stuff. And broke…”
    Current project is an old Mossberg 151M(b). I gotta make a barrel vise and action wrench to clock the barrel to the action.
    Anyway, holler at me about those PDFs.

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