Weight-lifting update
Mrs ERJ and I attended a local fish-fry yesterday. It was a trial-run for Lent when several local churches offer Friday fish dinners.
I was chatting with a delightful, young mother of four children when she mentioned that she lifted weights between 5:00 and 6:00 at the same gym I go to. I had never seen her there. OH! 5:00AM and 6:00AM.
She warms up with 225 pounds for dead-lifts and finishes with 300 pounds.
Holy Tamales!
On dead-lifts I am in my groove with four sets of six reps at my body-weight with a warm-up and cool-down of ten reps of 65% of my body-weight.
I PRed on squats. I started at 135 pounds and did two sets of four.
I have been doing fewer repetitions of squats because I get light-headed when I return to the full, upright position.
That went well so I added 20 pounds and did three sets of four reps.
Those went so well I did one more set at 165 pounds which is my personal-record. My long-plan is to get up to my body-weight, give or take a few pounds and then maintain at that level, just like the dead-lifts.
It occurred to me that they young studs have an entirely different perspective of workouts than I do. I want to be physically strong so I can perform "real-world-tasks". Lifts that exercise large numbers of muscle-groups and lifts with free-weights to develop stability muscles seems to be the right answer for me.
The young studs want to LOOK good. They do resistance exercises that target very specific muscle groups.
A case in point: A million years ago the gym teacher would have kids do pull-ups. Arm-lock down to chin over the bar. The young studs now do partial, mid-range pull-ups from 4" above arms-lockout-down to eyes-level-with-bar.
Monkeys off my back
I expect that the majority of the monkeys I have been carrying around will be off my back by middle of next week.
We made the decision to have a CPA "do our taxes" this year. Mom passed last year and as a result I ended up with odds-and-ends that I don't want to botch the taxes on.
Sierra SKU #7177
Apparently, this is what all of the cool kids are using to hunt thin-skinned, non-dangerous smallish big-game. Example
Hunting deer and antelope with a .22 caliber rifle went from being a stunt to being ethical in some circles.
At one time, there were only two kinds of .22 bullets for center-fire rifles. There were full-metal-jacket which MIGHT break in two when hitting an animal or would probably tumble if the impact was not perpendicular. Terminal ballistics were somewhere between mediocre and very underwhelming.
The other choices were bullets that disintegrated upon impact. Fabulous for varmint hunting where they turned woodchuck heads into pink mist. On larger game they tended to create gruesome, large, shallow wounds that were usually mortal but might take days for the animal to expire.
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| Yards from muzzle along horizontal axis. Typical velocities of 55gr .224 bullets from a .223 Rem vs 77gr TMK out of the same. The 55gr starts faster but sheds speed more quickly. |
The Sierra #7177 is a 77 grain bullet that was designed to be a target bullet but long-range hunters found that it had extraordinarily good terminal ballistics (for a .224" diameter bullet). Being "heavy" it has typical velocities of 2750 fps at the muzzle from a .223 Rem or 5.56mm NATO. Being slippery, it is still trucking along at 2000fps at 350 yards. That 2000fps-to-2750fps is a very favorable window for terminal ballistics of a traditional cup-and-core bullet.
The happy accident is that the green plastic tip is large enough and the contour of the lead behind the tip is favorable to initiate expansion. That is a rarity for most "target" bullets. Maybe the Sierra engineers planned it. Maybe it was truly an accident.
Like all bullets, this one has some limitations. You cannot shoot a deer in the poop-chute and expect a quick kill. The animal will die but it might be five miles away from you when it expires. Similarly, shots into the thoracic cavity when the animal is quartering away can get iffy if the animal is not giving you a good look at his rib-cage. This bullet is not a good choice for shots that must penetrate through the rumen, diaphragm and thence into the lungs. Hunters who like to drop animals in their tracks by breaking major bones might be disappointed.
On the up-side, manufacturers sell an order of magnitude more "match" bullets than they do hunting bullets. Paper and steel are the #1 targets in America. Hunting is a tiny niche in the shooting industry. That means that bullet availability for "match" bullets is likely to be fairly robust. Another plus is that the .223 Rem/5.56mm NATO uses 60% as much power per pull-of-the-trigger as .308 or 6.5CM meaning it will be cheaper/easier to supply practice sessions and to keep those perishable skills honed. Brass for .223/5.56 is also available in large quantities.
Great work at the gym ERJ!
ReplyDeleteAs I will be at The Ranch at least twice during Lent this time, I foresee one and perhaps two Catholic themed dinners with Uisdean Ruadh. Last year they did soup instead of a fish fry, which sorely disappointed me.
If you want to practice with your .223 in an AR, get a .22LR upper or a dedicated rifle in.22LR.
ReplyDeleteFor a bolt or a Semi, just get a similar rifle/scope combo. In the long run wit will be cheaper than the .223 and the reloading, even before you factor in your time.
All FMJ .22 bullets tumble on impact. The reason has to do with stability. In order to get the bullet to not tumble, you need to spin it and the spin rate required is a function of the density. (This is why the original AR-15/M-16 twist of 1/14 was upped to 1/12 - at low temperatures/high air density, the bullets would tumble). But flesh/blood/bone are orders of magnitude higher density than air, so no twist rate will stop tumbling once the bullet hits. And most FMJ with a cannelure will break apart when they start traveling sideways in anything denser than air, which works well for self-defense but not so well for hunting (unless you like small chunks of lead and brass in your venison).
ReplyDeleteFragmentation threshold velocity for M855 ammo is listed as 2700fps at impact. Not a for-sure thing from a 10" barrel at-range. Maybe not even 16".
DeleteTumbling rate is not "controllable". The bullet can do a half-tumble and go ass-backwards through the target with the widest wound channel maybe in, maybe not-in vitals.
I'm stickin' with my thurdy-thurdy. It goes Bang, they go Flop. ken
ReplyDeleteAround my area deer are small white tails. The 243 100 grain corelock has done the deed as long as I do my part. But then again if I have any doubt I do not shoot. I shoot, wait about 5 minutes and generally the deer is within a 100 yards of where I shot it.
DeleteI'm guessing a quick twist of 1:9 would be required to stabilize those heavyweight bullets.
ReplyDeleteSierra recommends 1-in-8" or faster
DeleteThank you sir.
DeleteSierra 77gr SMK in an IMI load that clones Mk262 stabilizes okay from my 1:9" barrel. That's just one data point, from a random internet poster, but I suggest you buy some and try it before dismissing it.
DeleteContrary to the Fudds and stubfarts, the 223 is a magnificent cartridge and is definitely worth reloading for as I explain in this scholarly article:
ReplyDeletehttps://dirtyearniessolitude.blogspot.com/2024/02/thursday-babble-retard-range-day-with.html
I can build match ammo for the same price as you’d pay for economy hardball factory shells. I get all my brass out of the garbage can. Factory match ammo might do as well but it ain’t cheap and with supply chains being what they are…you can do the math and feasibility analysis yourself.
In the real world the 223 has been killing men that weigh anywhere from 150 ~ 220lbs, military hardball…for close to 70 years. It will do the same to deer given an optimal shot.
BUT
The 223 is at the very minimum side of the ballistic envelope for hunting ballistics. You have to do your homework, using YOUR loads and YOUR rifle. My new little pea shooter has a 16” pipe. My hand loads were running around 2600 FPS. My trajectory seems to be much more pronounced than the ballistics programs predict.
My rule of bum is that if a bullet manufacturer tells you not to use their target bullets for hunting…you should probably heed them. If they say their bullet is a dedicated small varmint round… you should believe them too. Use the right bullet for the right job. Establish your effective ranges at the rod and gun club. Chronograph your ammo and create your own tables and charts. This is the true problem with the 223… you HAVE to do this with the pea shooter to make ethical judgments on shot opportunities. But… most Fudds, Cletuses, and Bubba’s won’t do that. When hunting season rolls around they’ll go down to Walmart, buy the cheapest ammo (usually military ball) - and take to the field. Or worse, they’ll buy the light 40gr stuff with super frangible bullets and get the dismal results you describe. It may seem counter intuitive but for ethical big game… the 223 is an expert’s gun. Bubba and Cletus are much better served by classical deer guns like the 243/6.5/270/30.06/etc. etc. As are most non-retarded hunters, for that matter. 😂
It’s a fascinating discussion though, and I will do further investigation on my own. All I know for sure right now is that the Ruger American Ranch gun is a tack driver right out of the box, is a handloader’s dream, and it takes AR mags… and it’s dirt cheap! If you want to enjoy the 223 outside of the AR… the little bolt gun is the way to go…
😂👍
Congrats on the PR! I've hunted with 62gr 5.56 on SMALL hogs, and they're good for 100-maybe 150 lb hogs.
ReplyDelete