New Workbench

Ever since we decided to move my daughter downstairs and allow me to reclaim my home office, I've been considering putting a workbench in. Although I have a workshop out back, it's not climate controlled. So, it's often uncomfortably warm in the summer, and frigid in the winter. I could really use a space in the house to tinker with stuff and fix things.

So, last week I ordered a Seville Classics UltraHD workbench from Home Depot. (It's also available from Amazon.) It arrived around 7:00 PM last night. I mostly put it together last night and finished up this morning.

It's very solid and went together pretty easily. The frame, pegboard backsplash, drawer, and shelf are all made from steel. The work surface is 1.5" butcher block, well-finished, and heavy. It came with a power strip that has two USB ports and an LED light that's mounted under the top shelf. It came with an assortment of hooks to mount on the pegboard.

The dimensions are 65.6" high x 24" deep x 48" wide. The top of the work surface sits 37" high. It's really the only thing I'd change. Being short I would prefer it to be a few inches lower.

It came with two tools for assembly: a stamped steel wrench and a long Phillips head screwdriver, which is magnetized. That came in handy although I mostly used my drill with suitable screw driver bits. It also came with a few spare screws.

My first project was to clean my 1948-vintage Remington 550-1 .22 autoloader. I put at least 100 rounds through it on our last camping trip, including a bunch of CCI .22 CB Shorts, so it was filthy inside.

Next up will be my Uberti 1866 Yellowboy. Since getting it earlier this year I haven't removed the sideplates. Unfortunately, Uberti has a bad habit of over-torqueing the action screws on their rifles, which combined with their cheese-like hardness means that there's a good chance some will be destroyed in removal. I therefore have hardened replacements on order from VTI Gunparts. After getting the gun apart I also intend to replace the loading gate cover (AKA "ladle") with a stronger, improved one. For now, I have penetrating oil soaking into the screws.

Another Rimfire Range Day

I made it to the range again today, this time with my 11 year old in tow. This was her first chance to try shooting my Ruger 10/22 fitted with Tech Sights and a Choate M4-style stock.

She did well with the Ruger. With the stock fully collapsed, it is short enough for her to shoulder and get a proper sight picture.

We shot the Ruger with Aguila Super Extra standard velocity .22 LR. It runs well in the Ruger but the powder does have a funny smell, similar to that of a lot of Russian ammo that I've fired. We had a few failures to feed but I tracked them down to an old 10 round magazine we were using. It also caused FTFs with CCI Mini Mags. That particular mag dates to the late 1970s and belonged to my father. Considering how much my brother and I shot his old 10/22 when we were kids, G-d only knows how many rounds have been through it. I'll try taking it apart and cleaning it to see if that'll make a difference.

I also brought my Remington 550-1 again, and this time grabbed a half-full brick of Winchester Xpert .22 LRs to try in it. I bought the Xperts the year before my daughter was born. The reason it lasted so long is because it was the worst, gummiest, dirtiest .22 LR I'd ever tried. The last time I tried it in the 10/22 the rifle choked on it. I'd shot it in my Old Model Ruger Single Six and a S&W Model 18 (both revolvers) and it gummed them up.

However, the waxy lube seemed to have dried out a little over the years. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Remington 550 fed them with only a few hiccups. I did get a few stovepipe failures to eject, but for the most part it functioned OK with the XPerts, and shot them fairly well. I wanted to burn up the rest of XPerts so when I noticed the FTEs starting to increase I added some additional FP10 to the bolt and inside the action, and the rifle kept going.

That Remington 550-1 has become my favorite .22 semiauto rifle. It's accurate, reliable, and handles even .22 CB Shorts as a semiauto.

Another Rimfire Day at the Range

I was able to put some more .22 LR downrange today, from both my Ruger 10/22 and my Remington 550-1. Most of my shooting was done from the bench at some NRA 50 yard small bore targets that I printed up this morning. The 50 yard target has a 4" diameter bullseye. At 50 yards, the bullseye appears to be the same diameter as bead front sight on the Remington. IOW, it looks like a black dot at that range. The rear sight on the rifle is an open rear notch.

The top left target was shot with Federal Automatch 40 grain solids, the top right with Winchester Super-X 37 grain HPs, and the lower left with CCI Mini Mag 36 grain solids. (The holes in between the top two bulls were leftover from someone else.) I figure that with a scope I should be able to get the rifle grouping in about an inch or less at 50 yards with the right ammo. It definitely likes the Mini Mags.

I also put 20 rounds into an AQT-type target at 25 yards, offhand. This target is a 100 yard target scaled for shooting at 25 yards. The lower edge of the black is about 6.5" wide.

The front sight needs to be drifted a little left to move the POI to the right, but I'm pleased with the group. The Remington has a nice balance for offhand shooting.

I wrapped up the afternoon by doing some plinking at some 50 yard gongs. The largest of these are about 8" in diameter and I was able to hit them most of the time.

The Remington has a Williams floating chamber designed to allow it to function with .22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle, so I tried some CCI .22 Short CBs in the Remington and was happy to see that the rifle functioned most of the time with them.  I did get a number of stovepipes with the CBs, though. I suspect it would function better with regular .22 Shorts, either standard or high velocity loads. The tubular magazine will hold 20 .22 Shorts, which is fun for plinking. Shooting the CBs, the Remington sounds like an air rifle and no hearing protection is needed. The CBs dropped about a foot more at 50 yards than the HV .22 LR loads I shot earlier.