... a couple of new acquaintances this afternoon. It's not like I met anyone new to hang with but I did have two brand new rifles (new to me anyway) that I wanted to get acquainted with at the range and a new set of grips on my Ruger Redhawk. So, I decided to go today and run a test fire of each gun.
The first gun to come out of its case was the KDF Model 2005 that I bought last week at the Hessney Auction. It was billed, for the auction, as a KFF Voere but there is no such model in 22LR and thus it did not take me long to figure out that the rifle I bought must be the KDF 2005, the only semi-auto model in 22LR that I could find as manufactured (or imported) by KDF.
I was a bit anxious about this one because I was unfamiliar with the specific type of semi-auto action that was operating it. My biggest concern, at first, was that the only way to get the bolt to travel forward was to pull the trigger. That had me concerned that maybe I had bought a clunker. A little research gave me the answer though - this model fires from an open bolt. Place the loaded mag securely into the mag well, pull the bolt handle pretty much straight down, maybe 1/2" at most, from a captured position and it is ready to fire with action in the open position. Squeeze the trigger and the bolt moves forward and fires it. It then returns to the open position for the next shot. I do not see the upside of this type of mechanism because if you wanted to use the rifle for something like squirrel hunting on a rainy day, the inside of the action would get soaked. I am guessing that firing from an open bolt has an advantage for it if you wanted to try converting it to fire full auto (which I am not about to try since it would be illegal). I do not know why that would be an advantage but I do know that some full auto submachine guns fire from an open bolt and thus there must be some perceived advantage for that feature on full auto guns. As it is, according to the Blue Book of Gun Values (online), ATF banned further importation of this rifle some years ago. It does not say why that was done but I am again guessing it has to do with it firing from an open bolt. Enough of that drivel, let me tell you how it did.
I fired about 50 rounds of 22LR ammo from it and used two brands of lead round nose. The first bunch I fired were Magtech 40 grain lead round nose. They fed and fired without a glitch. I had a bag of loose 22LR ammo with me of a wide variety of leftover rounds but instead of using those, I cracked open a box of the infamous (because it is often horrendous as to its lack of reliability) Remington Thunderbolt ammo. I fired off a few magazines worth of it (the mag holds 10 rounds). Everyone one of the Thunderbolts fed without fail and everyone of them boomed their thunder too.
As a matter of fact, from a standing unsupported position, I was able to get a group size of 2". No that is not great but it wasn't bad considering the ammo I was shooting was the Remington Thunderbolt and that I was firing unsupported. In fact, five of ten shots that I fired gave me a one hole group and the other five were spread around that group. I am guessing it would have been much better had I used the bench for support (or a tree or a knee if out hunting).
Next up was the brand new Mossberg MVP Long Range - Tactical (aka: Mossberg MVP LR-T). I cleaned it a bit before heading to the range. Wanted to make sure it would work smoothly. I have to point out one thing I noticed right away before even one shot was fired. The mag was difficult to load even past two rounds. I had to press down with the round canted at almost a 35 or 40 degree angle to get them in the mag. My guess is that will ease up with use.
The PMC ammo I shot through it was 5.56x45mm, 62 grain, green tip-LAP ammo, I also fired some Federal ammo though it that had three failures to fire. Later found out that was the fault of the ammo as the failures to fire also happened with the same ammo in my Ruger Ranch Rifle. I only had one box of that particular ammo, so no great loss.
In all, I fired 60 rounds through the Mossberg. As for how it shot, I fired a test target at about 30 yards (longest distance on my local indoor range). Before I tell you how it did in my hands, let me say that I slapped a scope onto it before leaving my house. That is pretty much literally what I did too. The scope was the one I had on my Savage Model 93 BVXP before sending it in for warranty repairs to Savage. It was still in its rings and I just attached the rings to the Picatinny rail on the Mossberg and tightened the screws. I had no clue if it would be even on the paper at 30 yards. Here is how it did, with me firing from a standing unsupported position (and I am no rifleman):
The first gun to come out of its case was the KDF Model 2005 that I bought last week at the Hessney Auction. It was billed, for the auction, as a KFF Voere but there is no such model in 22LR and thus it did not take me long to figure out that the rifle I bought must be the KDF 2005, the only semi-auto model in 22LR that I could find as manufactured (or imported) by KDF.
I was a bit anxious about this one because I was unfamiliar with the specific type of semi-auto action that was operating it. My biggest concern, at first, was that the only way to get the bolt to travel forward was to pull the trigger. That had me concerned that maybe I had bought a clunker. A little research gave me the answer though - this model fires from an open bolt. Place the loaded mag securely into the mag well, pull the bolt handle pretty much straight down, maybe 1/2" at most, from a captured position and it is ready to fire with action in the open position. Squeeze the trigger and the bolt moves forward and fires it. It then returns to the open position for the next shot. I do not see the upside of this type of mechanism because if you wanted to use the rifle for something like squirrel hunting on a rainy day, the inside of the action would get soaked. I am guessing that firing from an open bolt has an advantage for it if you wanted to try converting it to fire full auto (which I am not about to try since it would be illegal). I do not know why that would be an advantage but I do know that some full auto submachine guns fire from an open bolt and thus there must be some perceived advantage for that feature on full auto guns. As it is, according to the Blue Book of Gun Values (online), ATF banned further importation of this rifle some years ago. It does not say why that was done but I am again guessing it has to do with it firing from an open bolt. Enough of that drivel, let me tell you how it did.
I fired about 50 rounds of 22LR ammo from it and used two brands of lead round nose. The first bunch I fired were Magtech 40 grain lead round nose. They fed and fired without a glitch. I had a bag of loose 22LR ammo with me of a wide variety of leftover rounds but instead of using those, I cracked open a box of the infamous (because it is often horrendous as to its lack of reliability) Remington Thunderbolt ammo. I fired off a few magazines worth of it (the mag holds 10 rounds). Everyone one of the Thunderbolts fed without fail and everyone of them boomed their thunder too.
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| Not great but none too shabby. |
Next up was the brand new Mossberg MVP Long Range - Tactical (aka: Mossberg MVP LR-T). I cleaned it a bit before heading to the range. Wanted to make sure it would work smoothly. I have to point out one thing I noticed right away before even one shot was fired. The mag was difficult to load even past two rounds. I had to press down with the round canted at almost a 35 or 40 degree angle to get them in the mag. My guess is that will ease up with use.
The PMC ammo I shot through it was 5.56x45mm, 62 grain, green tip-LAP ammo, I also fired some Federal ammo though it that had three failures to fire. Later found out that was the fault of the ammo as the failures to fire also happened with the same ammo in my Ruger Ranch Rifle. I only had one box of that particular ammo, so no great loss.
In all, I fired 60 rounds through the Mossberg. As for how it shot, I fired a test target at about 30 yards (longest distance on my local indoor range). Before I tell you how it did in my hands, let me say that I slapped a scope onto it before leaving my house. That is pretty much literally what I did too. The scope was the one I had on my Savage Model 93 BVXP before sending it in for warranty repairs to Savage. It was still in its rings and I just attached the rings to the Picatinny rail on the Mossberg and tightened the screws. I had no clue if it would be even on the paper at 30 yards. Here is how it did, with me firing from a standing unsupported position (and I am no rifleman):
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| 13 shots, all on paper and only one of them not on target. I am happy. |
Two things I'd like to say about that - I think I did okay and I guess I set the scope pretty well just slapping it into place on the rail and tightening the screws. I'll have to take it to an at least 100 yard range, preferably 200 yard one, to really see how I can do with it resting on sandbags on a bench.
After that, it was onto the Ruger Redhawk with its new grips. I picked up a pair of new - old stock Pachmayr grips for the Redhawk at the Hessney Auction last weekend. I bough them from a guy whose wife had the high bid on a box with 15 Pachmayr grips for different guns in it. I had asked a dealer, I knew who was going to bid on the same, if she would sell me that one set of grips if she had the high bid on the box of them. She told me it would be too complicated to sell me something at the auction and I just walked away. Lucky for me, the other lady had the high bid. When I asked her if she would sell me the Redhawk set, she had me ask her husband. I offered him $10 for the set of grips and he said sure. They had gotten the box of 18 pairs of grips for, as I recall, and $80 bid (making it $86 with buyer's premium and tax). That worked out to about $4.77 per set of grips. I should have bid higher myself and then sold them if I had the high bid but I really am satisfied with just the one set of grips.
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| The Ruger Redhawk with its original wood grips. They offer way too little to grip onto especially up at the top in back and front. Thus the few times the web between my thumb and forefinger was bitten & bloodied after firing this beast. |
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| The Pachmayr grips cover more of the frame, are much more bulky & offer more grip to hold. They make the Redhawk ever so much more controllable. |
As for those grips on the Redhawk, yes they made a difference - a big one. The revolver still kicks like a mule, at least when shooting 300 grain semi-jacketed soft points but the kick was absorbed by the grips much more than by the original wood Ruger grips that came with it. They are quite the improvement. The ones I got are an older version and quite beefy so to speak. Thus they offer a lot to grip onto and offer more protection to the shooting hand while making the recoil much more controllable. They were well worth a mere ten bucks. I may actually have lots of fun with the Redhawk now, or at least more fun than the limited amount I had been enjoying already - limited because of had badly it was on the hand before these new grips.
All in all, a nice hour at the range.
All the best,
Glenn B
1 comment:
Full auto guns fire from an open bolt because the chamber quickly gets hot enough to heat the cartridge enough to make it "cook off" almost immediately upon entering the chamber. This results in an uncontrollable runaway with a closed bolt.
Guns that fire from an open bolt slam fire by design to prevent this.
Under ATF regulations, firing from an open bolt is a defining characteristic of a machine gun, thereby rendering your gun ineligible for importation.
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