Doc Lisenby

What are the chokes in the upper and lower barrels on a Winchester M101? When the safety is moved to the left or right which barrel will fire? Which barrel should be fired first in skeet in this shotgun? Doc Lisenby

I was introduced to "Mac's Gold" in New Zealand and it was excellent. Goes with the fields of sheep. So many I couldn't count them. I kept trying but every time I tried to count them I kept falling asleep. Lot of sport shooing going on there. Great companionship on the range and in the pubs. Drank "Kiwi" in the 50's in Japan not great but was cheap at Happy Hour. Amoung the little folks in the vill' I drank Asahi, Kirin and Nippon. The best was Kirin on tap. I noticed that no one has mentioned "33" in The Nam called "Bomdebom". It was supposed to have formaldehyde in it. But in The Nam I was fearless and didn't give a rat's behind. "San Miquel" in the Phillipines was lousey. What about "Lone Star" in Texas or "Iron City" in Pittsburg? They both would wet your whistle and who cares if you use them to chase Jim Beam, Jack Daniels or Wild Turkey. (Boiler Makers) Drank "Castle" in South Africa and it was great! "Barlow" around Philly is OK and inexpensive but you had to bring the bottles back for the deposit. The local beers around Wilks Barre suited me just fine. Remember "Ballentine Ale"? It was real good when it was real cold but got skunky like "San Miguel" when it warmed up.

Where can I find the rules and course of fire for Full Bore Rifle shooting? Thanks for any help.

The 1100 is the least recoiling shotgun I have so I suspect that you are holding the buttstock slightly away from your shoulder when you shoot. Another thing that will cause heavy recoil is a very tight choke or a short chamber/forcing cone but this shouldn't be a problem in a modern gun like the 1100. I don't think you are shooting shells longer than the gun is chambered for, like a 3" or 3 1/2" in a 2 3/4" or using steel shot in a choke not designed for them but only you know this. Reloads can also lead to problems if they are loaded with excessive powder and/or excessive shot loads. If all this checks out and you want a gunsmith's advice than I would recommend one which you can screw on yourself rather than have me install it. It is labor intensive and you pay for it. The Truglo Limbsaver is prefit for the 1100 and is about fifty dollars. They also have models for the Benelli, Mossberg 500 and the Winchester 1300. Brownell's sells them. Stock No. 900-000-020. If you are poor like most gunsmiths are than get a slip on boot, size small, black or brown, Stock number 690-901-001 from Brownell's is $12.48 plus shipping. They aren't fancy but will work to reduce enough recoil to satisfy most shooters shooting the 1100 Rem. even with heavy loads. I shoot trap something like 200 rounds a day and sometimes when I'm tired I don't hold the buttstock firmly into my shoulder and get a slight bruise. But I'm shooting an Ithaca Trap gun and it kicks more than the pleasant shooting 1100. Sorry to make this so long, but it is a rainy Sunday and you caught me in a babbling mood.

Eric reminded me that I have an HS Precison Police stock on my old 1000 yard bench rest rifle. I graduated to a McMillan when I needed the 3" wide forend to fit the rest according to the rules requiring a 3" width. I tried Bob Hart's accurizer for a while and it was satisfactory to fit the round forend in the rest. No problem when using a sandbag with the round forend. I like that aluminum "backbone" in any synthetic stock. Surprised to hear that your's flexed on the end, Eric. Of course I never used the bipod rest which is way out on the forend. I bedded the action, even though the aluminum did an acceptable job. Didn't mean to imply that the HS wasn't a good stock when I preferred the Hogue OverMolded for a "tote/scout" rifle.

Now I usually recommend McMillan also, but I recently put a Hogue Overmolded on a custom .308 with a heavy barrel for a customer because of price considerations and because he liked the feel of my Ruger 10-22 which I had one on. I don't know if the rubber will deteriorate but it feels great in the winter and when it is wet. This stock has potential for hunting purposes and it is well designed. It has a tendency to get temporary friction marks when it is rubbed against certain materials but this isn't a biggy. If you like the feel of a well shaped relatively comfortable rifle, I'd say go for it. It won't slip on bags, or other supporting devices during recoil, but neither does it make noises when going through brushes and twigs. I got him the full block rather than the pillar bedding model because of the heavy barrel and personal preference. The rubber recoil pad plus the heft and feel seems to reduce recoil considerably. He loves it. I wish they would make one for my Savage Mod 10 Tactical. I like this stock.

I read an article written by Mike Venturino about using round nose bullets rather than spitzer type bullets for hunting deer and would like some experiences and opinions pertaining to their accuracy and killing capability. Mike experimented and said that they didn't drop that much more than spitzers at normal deer hunting ranges. A reply by a reader said he found that they shot more accurately and he thought that it was because of the ability to engage the rifling in long throated factory rifles sooner than the spitzer would. Considering that the local hunters engage deer at less than 200 yards (more often less than 100 yards) using different factory ammo which is practically all spitzer type bullets I was just thinking that maybe they would be better off shooting round nose bullets. Seems to me that they might have the edge on the spitzer which I've heard sometimes will cause skin contact blow up or expansion. New designs with polymer tips and coatings are the main attraction these days but I'm thinking that it just isn't all that great. They are pretty and deadly looking but I think maybe that is just a marketing method to attract the nimrod hunter. I re-load all my ammo and it is not easy to find as many round noses as those sleek spitzers with boat tails. I know that the boat tail doesn't even come into play until after the velocity drops below about 1100 feet per second. Certainly in most of the magnums and modern high power deer rifles, it doesn't drop below that within 100 yards and some not even 200 yards. How about thinking about this and let me know what you think.

I tried it in the bore of my 1000 yard competition rifle and I noticed an immediate improvement of accuracy. This was a few year back. I have tried it on friction points of various firearms (and even axles of toy race cars and it seems to work to reduce friction. I can't prove that it is any better than other friction reducers but it did work. I believe that the other friction reducers do what users say they do, but to what extent one is better than the others, I can't say or prove. Faith has a lot to do with it. Try it and let us know. Dealers will sometimes overstate the capabilities of their products. As a gunsmith I hear all kinds of claims made by my customers. I don't think the user is lying, but sometimes he is just saying what he has been told by someone else; usually a salesperson. The higher the price, the more extravagrant the claim. I know that molybdenum is low on friction, but so is teflon, silicon, graphite, and talc. I just can't find much on engineering tests which is helpful to prove one is better for guns and bores and I've found in this business you have to experiment and decide for yourself. Good Luck and pass what you learn on to your fellow shooters, please. Dri-Slide from Brownell's works well on semi auto pistols. Some shooters say that moly builds up in bores. I found that this is true. Moly fusion probably doesn't. I just don't know. Sorry.

Yeah, I got off on Clays because at the local trap range seems like everybody shoots it in their 12's. I was on Green Dot but thought Clays would shoot cleaner. Dirty burning didn't prove a problem for hunting but several rounds of trap showed me why they liked Clays. Not only that but I can load my revolvers (44 Russian and Rem Mag plus 45ACP) with it and it works fine. The tournament shooters shoot a lot more than I do and dirty powder is a problem. Dove hunting does't present a problem for me but it does for some people. I know because I'm the local "smithy" and many shooters here shoot cheap factory loads and a lot of them shoot the whole season without cleaning their shotguns. It is surprising how many shooters neglect their guns and may just spray them with WD40 and keep on shooting. Thanks for the advise good members, I will consider and heed all info. I've been shooting Red Dot for a long, long time and it has never failed me but didn't consider they have changed the formulation. I have used a lot of it in pistol rounds when there wasn't any other choice locally except Bullseye, Herco and Unique. I have just about quit shooting semi-autos or as we call them "jamomatics". Sure hope the new Benelli has a fool proof design. Think I will just stay with Clays Univeral for my 20 ga. it seems very clean and Green Dot is pretty good also from my limited experience with it. Thanks guys.

You said that right! The socket head bolt on a Charles Daly Semi Auto is supposed to be 7mm. The bolt head is so shallow that you can't get a bite in it. Plus the hex head wrench has a taper which doesn't allow the flukes to grasp any solid part of the head. I just couldn't get it out in a customer's gun. I was trying to get the buffer out which had broken off flush with the back of the receiver and wanted to go in the back end. I ended up drilling the nylon projection out from the front of the back of the receiver with a long drill. Next time, I'll send it back to the Company. It has a good guarantee (but you know how that goes). I wasted time fooling with it. If I could have gotten it out I was going to replace it with a slotted head bolt like most guns have. I try to switch all small hex bolts and screws to Torx heads if I anticipate that I will have to work on that particular gun again.

I know, thats what I've been told. I loaded my first lead loads 60 years ago and have always assumed that pure lead will lead barrels. I don't even know where to get pure lead. Some of my customers load black powder loads and they also prefer pure lead for their round ball projectiles. I have looked at several of their bores after firing and lead is minimal. Of course they are purists and lubricate with lard only, but have switched to Hodgdon 777 or CleanShot powders and use shotgun primers. I saw a couple of deer hit with the round pure lead balls and the wounds were more than necessary to kill. Chronographed loads were near to 900 fps and balls were about twice the weight of the 45 ACP. I don't know if this correlates in any way to this subject but I think there is a connection, however reluctant I am to try experimenting. Maybe hard bullets aren't the answer, I know that gilding metal/jacket metal is harder than hard/chilled/alloyed lead and metal fouling is a problem in precision/competition rifle barrels sometimes and both my hard ball 45 1911's foul (copper wash) regularly. It just isn't the problem it is in my competition rifles. They let me know it by accuracy degradation when they foul. Leading in a muzzle loader and/or powder residue will make loading more difficult. Maybe hard lead has more of a purpose than preventing leading, i.e.,preventing base deformation wherein lies a cause of inaccuracy.

Along the lines of shooting lead bullets, one shooter I know said that when you get leading, you should increase the velocity until the leading stops. He told me this and I never tried it because I had always thought the opposite. I always used gas checks when I wanted to prevent it when my loads were hotter than usual. I'm still undecided about it 'cause I haven't shot lead recently. This shooter shot competition and should know what he is talking about. Anyone heard of this? Better yet has anyone tried it? He also said he preferred pure lead to antimony alloys. I'm still skeptical but he might have something which we should know about.

I tested the size of the one I use and it is 5/16". These hex head screws are notorious for not fitting well. Try it and let me know. Doc

I recently received an answer to my question posed to Hodgdon about why there is no data in your book(s) about using Clays in the 20 ga.. They said that it is too fast for the snaller bore. I'll accept this word "from the horse's mouth" and not be tempted to try it. I still like it mainly for its' clean shooting characteristic. Anyone got a comment on Green Dot Powder. I an presently using it. Any better choices?