Story Time - the rabbit holes we dig!
Some time ago a cousin who is a professional hunter gave me 500 rounds or so of 6.8SPC ammo - a real mixture of factory stuff of every flavour, and reloads (all done professionally) for a handed in AR.
Why did I take it?? buggered if I know but never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially in these times of shortage. But decisions have CONSEQUENCES and I should have known that, dammit I've told my kids it often enough!!
The only rifle I could find in 6.8 SPC was a TC Contender "carbine", and since I'd wanted one forever, it was ordered and duly arrived. All very nice and new. Walnut and Blued steel - proper new like!
Trouble was it wouldn't go BANG, and after a bit of messing about it was obvious the hammer wasn't striking the firing pin. Contenders (and Encores, of which I've previously had a couple) can be a bit fussy but I'd never struck one with this fault - I was fairly confidant of a fix but wasn't keen to void the warranty of a rifle I hadn't even shot. After the local gunsmith confirmed the diagnosis Furley's said they'd take it back to fix it. Trouble was their so called gunsmith couldn't fix it either (for fucks sake, these are very simple mechanisms!). After a long hiatus they found another frame and decided they'd better test fire it before they returned it.
In the meantime a TC Contender 17HMR barrel came up on TM. Duly purchased at considerable expense (I hope it wasn't one of you guys on here who ran me up!). The guy selling it allowed that it was on behalf of a mate who had other Contender stuff. Now @akaroa1 and I had been talking a big talk on Contenders and made many plans (plans I hoped wouldn't come to fruition, due to their potential ruination of my now meager bank balance). But they did and the purchase of a further cache of Contender stuff was negotiated. It hasn't arrived yet but needless to say as well as the 17HMR and 6.8 SPC barrels I'd already committed to, now there is a 300BLK also in the picture. Luckily my lost AR was in 300BLK so I have a wee stash of ammo for it too.
So - on Friday, after a 6 week wait, my frame and barrel came back, complete with the 6 cases they'd test fired and nice note.
For all you "nay-sayers" who like to dis Southland weather, well I challenge anyone to try and tell me where in the whole world you might get two better windless, mild afternoons with good light, to test rifles at the range - yup - right here in Southland!
Saturday. I shot the 17HMR barrel, quickly got it on paper and with a loaned scope (thanks @nor-west , yes your Nikko Stirling is a cracker) it immediately started making nice small groups at 100M, three shots going mostly into 20mm, the odd group opening up to 30mm. Nice.
Time to change barrels, on with the 6.8 SPC and out with a fresh box of 110 HPBT Hornady "American Gunner". I was RO'ing and with a bunch of other guys present @Kiwi-Hunter son Tim and mate John, plus some others it was hard to keep the concentration on my own stuff up. Consequently at 100M it took quite a few rounds to find that the scope was way off the bore. But at least it was going BANG now. Eventually i got it zeroed and had time for just two 3 shot groups, one of 30mm and one of 40mm. Not too shabby for cheap factory ammo and a brand new rifle.
Sunday. Managed to escape to the range again, only one other bloke present. Weather and light conditions perfect! Shot some of the reloads, I think they are 110 gn hornady V-maxs. Anyhoo they were making very nice groups, all about 20-22mm. I tried the 110 Factory AG stuff, yup about 30mm groups, then some factory Hornady 120 gn SST's. The SST's were not its cup of tea, groups were around the 75mm mark. Oh well, at least the gifted ammo wasn't hundreds of that flavour!
Changed barrels to the 17HMR and tried a 10 shot group. Just under 40mm for the 10, with 7-8 going into 25mm, which is about as good as I've seen with the HMR ammo we can get.
Oh - and a photo - yup - coming right up.
