Hector J Medina G
Member
It is not easy to find a good private range.
And those that are good, are usually expensive.
I spent a day at Guntry, in Owings Mills. I was invited by a friend who is a member there.
At $50 per hour for the first lane, even with some discount for the second/guest lane, it still was a very expensive outing.
But, you do not look into the horse's mouth when it is a gift and so, I went happily along.
It was an opportunity to compare ammo in my DIANA R22, and also a chance at shooting some pistol because I don't have one and had not shot CF in about 6 years.
I bought the ammo for the pistol shoot, the least I could do if I was borrowing a pistol AND being invited to the range. Ammo cost was not too high, I paid $25 for a box that would have cost $23 outside, so not too bad. Probably the same box could have been had for less through the net if purchased in bulk to offset the HazMat charge, but opportunities are taken.
I did like the range VERY much. Staff is professional and as low key as they can be. The Cafe is also quite nice with a good menu and not too expensive (you need to think that I am somewhat accustomed to paying $20 for a small cheeseburger at the theme parks my kids like to go, so...)
We started at 11:00 hrs with an hour at the pistol range, I was lent a SIG P365 that I enjoyed immensely. Bare bones, long first stage trigger pull, but reasonably accurate out to 15 yards (to my surprise, everyone at the range was shooting 10 yards or less).
Rapid Fire with practice ammo, groups at 15 yards were a bit under 2" and with FP ammo they opened a bit to 2¼", so not bad.
My friend was shooting a Performance Center "something" that didn't appeal to me with all the bells and whistles.
After an hour we stopped for lunch, and then went to the rifle range.
The rifle range is well equipped with electronic carriers preset to some distances (50, 75 and 100 yards), but you can set your own if you want within a yard resolution.
They also have cameras at the 50 and 100 yards in case you forgot to bring a spotter scope.
I was interested in what the performance of my little DIANA would be with Competition ammo by Aguila. Yes I know there are ultrasophisticated RF's out there, but I have no interest in spending more for a RF shot than needed; even for CF's I do not see the point in spending more than $0.50 to $1.00 per round, so I either reload or buy surplus.
In any case, I had brought a few boxes of Aguila Super Extra Std Velocity (ASE), and some of Aguila Competición ( AC - almost the same cartridge dimensionally, except for the priming used and an extra step in the manufacture). The difference in price is not substantial, and, as we will see, the performance up to 50 yards isn't either.
So, I setup and brought the POI where I wanted, I am still using the Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24X50
and started shooting some 10 shot groups, first at 50 yards:
I always measure groups outside to outside (O-O) so, for more "standard" usage, you need to deduct one caliber for a C-C measurement).
On the left, the Super Extra group measures 1¼", on the right, the Competición measures the same. But it is noticeable that the ASE has more shots "clumped" into a sub-group.
Then I tried at 75 yards:
On the left, the ASE group measures 2.37" and on the right, the AC measures 2.4" (again O-O).
Same thing, it seemed like the gun WANTED to shoot better the ASE than the more elaborate and slightly more expensive AC
It is also fairly typical that changing ammo between groups sometimes needs some "settling in" of the gun because, as much we would like, the lead in each batch is always ever so slightly different than the next one.
So I shot some more groups and the capabilities kept the same, but this time I shot only with one type and then changed and shot with the other.
By the time our hour was up I had 5 cartridges left and I decided to do a serious test using the Olympic small bore target, this is a 5 shot group:
The first shot went wide to the left, and it could have been me, that opened the group to 0.95"
The remaining 4 shots went into 0.59" (O-O, or 0.37" C-C).
Properly sighted in, there would have been 4 "Tens".
Truly a remarkable result from a sporter gun using cheap ammo.
I am now seriously thinking of using a better scope, maybe a HorusVision 4-16X56, or maybe an Opteck Laser Rangefinder 10X
We'll see. Winter is High Power season anyway, LOL!
Keep well and shoot straight!
HM
And those that are good, are usually expensive.
I spent a day at Guntry, in Owings Mills. I was invited by a friend who is a member there.
At $50 per hour for the first lane, even with some discount for the second/guest lane, it still was a very expensive outing.
But, you do not look into the horse's mouth when it is a gift and so, I went happily along.
It was an opportunity to compare ammo in my DIANA R22, and also a chance at shooting some pistol because I don't have one and had not shot CF in about 6 years.
I bought the ammo for the pistol shoot, the least I could do if I was borrowing a pistol AND being invited to the range. Ammo cost was not too high, I paid $25 for a box that would have cost $23 outside, so not too bad. Probably the same box could have been had for less through the net if purchased in bulk to offset the HazMat charge, but opportunities are taken.
I did like the range VERY much. Staff is professional and as low key as they can be. The Cafe is also quite nice with a good menu and not too expensive (you need to think that I am somewhat accustomed to paying $20 for a small cheeseburger at the theme parks my kids like to go, so...)
We started at 11:00 hrs with an hour at the pistol range, I was lent a SIG P365 that I enjoyed immensely. Bare bones, long first stage trigger pull, but reasonably accurate out to 15 yards (to my surprise, everyone at the range was shooting 10 yards or less).
Rapid Fire with practice ammo, groups at 15 yards were a bit under 2" and with FP ammo they opened a bit to 2¼", so not bad.
My friend was shooting a Performance Center "something" that didn't appeal to me with all the bells and whistles.
After an hour we stopped for lunch, and then went to the rifle range.
The rifle range is well equipped with electronic carriers preset to some distances (50, 75 and 100 yards), but you can set your own if you want within a yard resolution.
They also have cameras at the 50 and 100 yards in case you forgot to bring a spotter scope.
I was interested in what the performance of my little DIANA would be with Competition ammo by Aguila. Yes I know there are ultrasophisticated RF's out there, but I have no interest in spending more for a RF shot than needed; even for CF's I do not see the point in spending more than $0.50 to $1.00 per round, so I either reload or buy surplus.
In any case, I had brought a few boxes of Aguila Super Extra Std Velocity (ASE), and some of Aguila Competición ( AC - almost the same cartridge dimensionally, except for the priming used and an extra step in the manufacture). The difference in price is not substantial, and, as we will see, the performance up to 50 yards isn't either.
So, I setup and brought the POI where I wanted, I am still using the Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24X50
and started shooting some 10 shot groups, first at 50 yards:
I always measure groups outside to outside (O-O) so, for more "standard" usage, you need to deduct one caliber for a C-C measurement).
On the left, the Super Extra group measures 1¼", on the right, the Competición measures the same. But it is noticeable that the ASE has more shots "clumped" into a sub-group.
Then I tried at 75 yards:
On the left, the ASE group measures 2.37" and on the right, the AC measures 2.4" (again O-O).
Same thing, it seemed like the gun WANTED to shoot better the ASE than the more elaborate and slightly more expensive AC
It is also fairly typical that changing ammo between groups sometimes needs some "settling in" of the gun because, as much we would like, the lead in each batch is always ever so slightly different than the next one.
So I shot some more groups and the capabilities kept the same, but this time I shot only with one type and then changed and shot with the other.
By the time our hour was up I had 5 cartridges left and I decided to do a serious test using the Olympic small bore target, this is a 5 shot group:
The first shot went wide to the left, and it could have been me, that opened the group to 0.95"
The remaining 4 shots went into 0.59" (O-O, or 0.37" C-C).
Properly sighted in, there would have been 4 "Tens".
Truly a remarkable result from a sporter gun using cheap ammo.
I am now seriously thinking of using a better scope, maybe a HorusVision 4-16X56, or maybe an Opteck Laser Rangefinder 10X
We'll see. Winter is High Power season anyway, LOL!
Keep well and shoot straight!
HM