April Range Report:  Flint Hills Long Range Shooting

D9 Jr, affectionately known as Shotgun testing out the Tikka.

My friends we apologize for the time off from our range reports and were reminded by several of you of this.  Over the last few months we’ve been extremely busy with several projects at our real profession as well as building and selling the hell out of guns (we’ve logged over 150 on and off already), filling out Form 4’s, working on our ammunition project, and trying to keep Mrs. D9 happy.

So last weekend we took a day off to visit our good friend JR down in the Flint Hills of southeast Kansas to do some long range shooting.  We also had our oldest son in town, which for unknown reasons joined the Army and not the Marine Corps (Corpse for you Obamaites), who joined us for a little father/son inter service rivalry. 

Our friend JR has been working on new targets and getting as much distance as possible for shooting.  Each time we’ve been down there it’s always a challenge to deal with the various cross winds and this weekend was no different with 20mph gusts on the front end and calm at the targets.  Our goal is to get to a long range class someday to learn the science, skill, and in our case luck behind making these without going through a case of ammunition.

We packed two of our favorite rifles the Tikka& AR-10.  Generally we tend to over pack on these trips but we found bringing only a small contingent of weaponry allows us to focus more.  (But we always pack at least two because you never know when you will have an equipment failure.)Our good friend JR just picked up a new Les Bear AR-10, very nice rifle, with a Leupold MKIV mil-dot optic.

D9 testing JR’s new LB AR-10.

We started off warming up with the Tikka because it’s one of our go to long range rifles.  When something has to be shot from a long way’s a way we usually go for the Tikka.  (Our favorite varmint sniper rifle is our Tikka T3 22-250.)  Unfortunately with the optic we have it requires an Allen wrench to make significant adjustments so we ran out of elevation and was hitting about 18” low.   Fortunately we were able to test our 175grn Zombie load and delivered impressive results.

Since JR hadn’t been able to run his new L.B AR-10 he broke it out.  We spent a better part of an hour and about 40 rounds dialing the LB in on paper and it was a challenge in those winds.  After getting dialed in we started pounding the 12” steel plate with almost no effort.  We tried a few shots at the smaller plates but wasn’t able to connect. 

Don’t worry my friends; this was taken before we started shooting.

Then solider boy stepped up to the plate and just started hammering the plates.  (What a punk.)  Even in the winds he connected spot on with the 2.5” target (which he later confessed was luck).  Honestly folks it was some good shooting.  We spent most of the day tuning that rifle in and just had a great time doing it and made for an excellent day at the range.

Shotgun displaying bragging rights of a 2.5” hit at 460yd.  He was also hammering the 5” above his left shoulder.  Haji’s, squirters, and skinnies take note he’s not even a sniper.

Over the past few months we’ve been working with an ammunition specialist to develop loads for the 5.56 and 308Win.  We’ve run several small test batches and have a couple of solid loads for both calibers.  Within the next week we expect to have a new web page up describing the different loads.

5 Shot group of 308W 168grn Match+ rounds at 100yd from D9 AR-10.  1/2MOA.

Our ammunition will be manufactured on a per order basis.  We will be setting our presses up so that we can manufacture either 308Win or 5.56 with minimal setup time and maintain about a 3 week lead time.  We’ve also been procuring components as they come available from our local wholesaler.  (We can tell you that we’ve seen at least a 25% increase in our materials cost over the last 2 years.  About 3 years ago we bought a lot of reloading components and we’re now having to stock back up.  Wow.)

5.56 Match Ammo

D9 testing our custom 5.56 ammo at the range with our official prayer rug.

When we haven’t been testing ammo we’ve been building some bad ass rifles for several of you.  This is really what we enjoy especially when it comes to the AR-10.  Right now parts are in high demand and becoming a real pain in the ass to get.  All these dick heads had 3 years to prepare for the potential re-election of our statist in chief and now decide oh-shit I better get my rifle.  Manufacturers are not releasing parts so that they can build their own rifles.

D9 AR-15: 18” TS contour sst barrel, Troy TRX Extreme rail, Vltor stock.

A custom D9 SBR for one of our LE friends in NE KS.  My friends you will see a precipitous drop in crime in his county once the crackheads, rapists, murders find out they’re running D9 weaponry. 

A pair of rifles we upgraded for a local client who likes his bull barrel 5.56 rifles. 

A pair of D9 custom AR-10’s with our new Tactical Sniper (TS) contour barrels using Rock Creek 5R blanks. 

This is a rebuild we did for a good friend of ours who wanted a marble hydrodip.

D9 Custom AR-10 with AP4 hydrodip.

We’re also working on a new web page to help guide you through the build process and what components we found work really well.  We’ve also made a few changes in barrel blank selections and are using Rock Creek for 30cal, Shilen for 26cal.  We’re also working with another barrel blank manufacturer to start using their 30cal blanks and we’re expecting our first barrel in the next month.  These barrels will have a 308W match chamber which has a little more free bore than the 308W Obermeyer.

The Obermeyer chamber is designed primarily for the 168grn projectile but will handle the 175.  We have run tests using 180grn hunting loads and found that it will blow the primer pretty consistently.  So we are going to test the 308W match chamber to see if that will work better for heavier projectiles.

Rock Creek 30cal 5R 1:11.27 TS contour finished and chambered by WOA.

As part of our real profession we’ve been working down in Kentucky (where the hillbillies set their only freaking couch on fire to celebrate the UK over Kentucky win).  One poor bastard was shot in leg down here last night after the shellacking they gave KU.  But I digress.  What’s great about working down here is if you don’t have a gun there are 5 guys willing to lend you one while in town.

However, each time we come down here we go out with our good friend Billy Bob Haji. (Haji is slang for islamo fascist goat herdingheroine junkie terrorist.  We do not find this to be bigoted, racist, or otherwise insensitive to the feelings of the aforementioned individuals since it is rooted in fact.)  Although Billy Bob is not a Haji, he has demonstrated one Haji like characteristic.  For example, he found that shooting sub-sonic 22 and standard 22 straight up in the air sounded approximately the same.  Now we’ve all seen the Haji’s shoot their AK’s in the air while burning an effigies of George Bush while two miles away a street full of children lie dead from bullet wounds to the head from the projectiles returning to earth.  I guess understanding physics is no longer required to be a Haji terrorist.

Of course we use the term Haji affectionately when applied to Billy Bob since he is capable of understanding and performing physics calculations.  (This is the only gratuitous complement we will give him.)

Regardless Billy Bob likes to talk a lot of crap about his IDPA skills.  We can tell you this for sure, if you’re near an active shooter and Billy Bob Haji is nearby, the active shooter along with every other swinging dick (for you babes out there, every bouncing bosom) including you is going to have a hole in them in less than 6 seconds.If you see him, just hit the dirt and you’ll probably be ok.  I’ve seen his skills at shooting small static targets on the ground, and Chicken Nuggets can do better with her new suppressed MP15-22.

Now we (D9) on the other hand will selectively shoot each asshole dead (this would not be considered murder since we would confirm they were genuine assholes with intent to maim, sodomize, kidnap, rape, bash your head in with a hammer, break your legs at the voting booth (NBP’s) or kill just to name a few) with a solid double tap strategically placed to the chest cavity and rollem up with a single tap to the cranium in roughly 12.5 seconds.  Although we talk trash about Billy Bob he can wield a gun very effectively but remember he is from Kentucky and you know what they say about Kentuckians. 

Finally if you’re considering a suppressor the wait is not getting any shorter.  Currently, just about as soon as we get a serial number we generate the paper work.  Our inventory from last November went from about 35 suppressors down to about 6 of our on personal or demo suppressors.  This also includes the 40+ new one’s we’ve logged on and off already this year.

If you’re considering purchasing a suppressor is running about 5 to 6 months.  We’re actually having people postpone buying a suppressor ready firearm and opting to buy a couple of suppressors since the lead time is so long. 

We’ve also started carrying suppressors from Thunder Beast Arms.  They offer all titanium suppressors and are primarily designed for precision shooters.  You would not use one of their 30cal cans on a short barrel or an AR-10 that you plan to dump a mag through in 15 seconds.  We’re also maintaining a constant order of AAC, SWR (which we hope to start seeing), and Silencerco.

Thunder Beast 22L-1 Titanium suppressor

As always it’s a pleasure to meet and work with you all and appreciate your business. 

D9 & Company.