Yesterday I took out the Shooting Chrony F1 Master Chronograph and got some good data points. For those who don’t know, a shooting chronograph measures the feet per second your bullet is traveling. You probably will never *need* to know this, but it gives me more information on my reloads.
From my Remington 700 with a 26″ barrel – 7mm Rem Mag, Midway 154gr – 2811 FPS, Hornady 139gr SST – 3014 FPS, and factory Power-Point 175gr round pushed 2929 FPS.
On a side note, I’m very happy with the stock upgrade. Emily and I shot great groups with it.
I only chronographed 9mm in pistol yesterday, but it’s neat to come pare with the rifle. How much different they really are. 9mm 124gr Precision Delta loaded with Win 231 gave me 1100 FPS out of the PPQ, and closer to only 1000 FPS out of my PX4(with a shorter barrel)
I shot a couple of my carry PDX 147 rounds from the PX4, and they are around 850FPS. I may switch to the 124gr +P.
I need to pickup the Chrony printer. My only gripe about this product was other than me writing it down, or typing it into my phone, there is no way to save the data.
Category Archives: Shooting
Remington 700 Stock Upgrade
Last week I spent some time at the range with my father. While his pistol shooting techniques are horrendous, I’ll give him that he knows long guns.
We were shooting out at 200 yards, the new bullets I loaded for my 7mm Rem Mag in my 700 and his Marlin .35.
After a few shots he noticed my stock/barrel was pretty loose and not sturdy. There was just far to much flex for my liking. I took it home, took it apart and found out the SPS Stock from the factory… is just bad.
The fix? About $250 from Midway. A Bell and Carlson M40 Stock.
I just installed it and I’m impressed. This thing is rock solid. There is no more movement or tweaking.

Removing the stock is just two bolts at the bottom
of the rifle. Remember: the short bolt toward the front.

The Bell and Carlson stock on the left, the SPS factory stock on the right. The Bell and Carlson has aluminum bedding
The hardest part of the install was aligning/mating the magazine well to the action. Its a little tricky.
I think the new stock increased the length of pull just a bit. It does feel like it has a larger recoil pad. There really is no more movement. It’s a bit heavier.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get out and test it!
Lee Loadmaster Press
My journey with reloading has been rocky. A few squibs, a blown primer, and of course the rounds that just go click instead of a bang. But thats part of the process. I started out just loading .40 S&W, but now I load 9, 45, 7mm, and .35REM.
This is really to outline the pros and cons of the Lee Loadmaster.
First, its the cheapest progressive you can find. With dies, you can find it for under $250. This includes a case feeder, a priming system. and pretty much what you would expect from a progressive.
Cons. Things on a progressive, just go wrong. Often. Sometimes cases don’t get primed, sometimes the press doesn’t index(turn, or cycle to the next ‘station’) sometimes bullets get seated wrong. Or sometimes it just jams and locks up. I really wish it had a light somehow built into the press. I’ve sort of rigged a book light in between the dies and it seems to work.
Most recently the issues I’ve had have been relating to priming/indexing.
If the press doesn’t prime correctly, in my case the primer pin would get stuck in an upward position. I also noticed the primers were getting stuck in between the pin and plastic
1) I sanded the primer trough smooth with very fine grit paper
2) Bent the arm that cases push back upward to get better contact with the case.

You will spend lots of time getting these issues worked out. Lots of time learning on how exactly the press works.
In all fairness Lee puts up many videos to explain how the press works and how to fix common issues. There is a whole site by loadmaster users with videos to fix common issues.
I would suggest you watch all of them while you wait for your press to arrive.
The good thing about Lee is the support. I’ve found e-mail works great to get in contact with them. They usually respond the same day and tell you new parts are on the way.
Common things that break:
Primer System(the plunger/feeder/spring)
Flipper gets worn
Decapping pins

All in all, I’ve loaded well over a thousand rounds on this, its cheap and gets the job done, but does have some issues.
IWB Holster Review
Today my “Old Faithful” (warning they have a flash animation with audio on the homepage) Inside the waistband Holster arrived.
I ordered the kit that was already molded and needed to be assembled. With shipping it was $44.71. From order to shipping it took exactly 2 weeks to arrive. This is my second inside the waist band holster, this one for the Walther PPQ. I currently use a Crossbreed holster, for the PX4 and its great. However it was closer to $70 and took just over a month to arrive. I’ve had it for about six months and it has so far served me well. The beauty of the Old Faithful holster is obviously the price, but is it worth the assembly work?
The package arrived with the kydex sheath, leather backer and hardware kit. Everything looked fine.
So assembly of the holster, wasn’t exactly as easy as I hoped for. It took about an hour. Most of the time spent was working with these small leather anchors need to be set. You pound these in with a hammer. I had sort of a tough time getting this done, but managed.

The holster fit is tight and I do like how easily adjustable the tension is vs the Crossbreed.(just four screws) However I don’t like how the leather anchors weren’t already sunk in the leather. It would have make the experience so much better.

Old Faithful
Crossbreed
I’ll try to update once I start wearing it and it breaks in.




