Shot my Lightning today

[The Arapaho Kid]

It was a good day today.  I took my Colt Lightning out the the range and pumped a few rounds through it.  They were all going high and right.  Another guy there got out a little punch and hammer and we moved the front sight a little to the right.  This brought the hits to center target, but still high.  We checked the back sight.  It was as far down as it could go.  He suggested filing a little off the front sight.  I went to the gun shop and the owner said the same thing.  He took my hit report and will pass that along to the gunsmith, who will do a graff and see how much to file off.  Right now if I aim at 6 low they go in the bull. I put the front sight on the bull, then drop it a shade so there's a little white showing.  I ran about 40 rounds through it.  It jammed a couple of times and I couldn't eject the spent shell.  We ran a cleaning rod down the bore.  He tapped it and I worked the slide.  That got the spent shell out.  I don't think this is an internal working problem.  I think the shell may have swollen up a bit much when it was fired.  This only happened twice out of about 40 rounds.  I'll be going to Colorado next month for a shoot.  You can jolly well bet the Lightning will be going with me!

[Big John Denny]

Kid, I wouldn't be real worried about the rifle shooting high. At our SASS rifle distances in a main match just aim at the lower part of the target and you'll hear a clang. What concerns me more is the two jams you had in 40 rounds. It would only take one of those at the start of the rifle string to put you really out of the running. I would suggest the gunsmith look first at that problem. Your shell cases shouldn't overexpand if they were all properly resized and loaded with the same charge.

[The Arapaho Kid]

Kid, I wouldn't be real worried about the rifle shooting high. At our SASS rifle distances in a main match just aim at the lower part of the target and you'll hear a clang. What concerns me more is the two jams you had in 40 rounds. It would only take one of those at the start of the rifle string to put you really out of the running. I would suggest the gunsmith look first at that problem. Your shell cases shouldn't overexpand if they were all properly resized and loaded with the same charge.

I was thinking the same thing on the rifle stage targets.  Those suckers are usually fairly big and kinda hard to miss.  I can just take a 6 low on them and get the clang.  As for the jamming....I'll run more rounds through it and see if it jams again.  If so...I'll have a smith take a look at it.

[Big John Denny]

I think you mentioned before you had the barrel lined on that rifle. I wonder if that could have effected the chamber area.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Was it a full reline? If so it would have been rechambered, maybe a little tight........Buck

[The Arapaho Kid]

Was it a full reline? If so it would have been rechambered, maybe a little tight........Buck

Buck:  It only jammed on two rounds out of 40.  I'll get some more ammo and run more through it and see if it jams again.  If it does....it goes back to the gunsmith for a fix.  If it doesn't, I'm not gonna lose a whole lotta sleep over it.