Fun at the Range alongside Scoped Bolt Rifles

[tarkio]

I made a trip to the range this weekend. Rifle season for deer and elk open this weekend so the range was full of people.

Many guys and gals there sighting in their rifles. The standard practice seemed to be to sight your rifle in, fine tune it on paper and then go to a longer distance to check it out. At this range they have 3 gongs hanging at 300 yards. For some of these guys it was quite a struggle to get it done even with extremely expensive glass on some very nice rifles.

While I was getting a couple rifles tuned up quickly, I heard many guys there talking about how they finally got the rifles shooting and were finally able to hit the gong once or twice.

Well, I finally got out the Win 71 with a Williams peep sight to check it out. 2 shots at 100 convinced me the rifle was shooting alright. So I thought I would give the gongs a go, so to speak First shot, a hit on the larger gong, about 12" I think.

I asked the RO to come down and make certain I was hitting the steel. Next shot just barely off, below gong. Next 2 shots, hits.

Suffice to say my 50 + year old rifle sans glass was the talk of the people on my end of the range.

I love doing something like this. Kind of like when I was in college. We got a great deal of enjoyment beating guys with custom pool cues using cheapo bar cues. Very rewarding and a lot of fun.

This rifle is listed for sale by the way in the classifieds.

Have a great day.

[Andrew]

I love hearing stuff like that.

[Borregos]

That is always satisfying I know what you mean about pool too, as long as I could find one with a reasonable tip I was ok

[Mike D.]

That happens most any time I drag an old Winchester out to the club range. Everyone want to see a "real rifle". Don't 'ya love it?

[Ben_Rumson]

Fun fun.. Doing it with an beater Milsurp used to be a hoot

[jnyork]

I firmly believe that all shooting, of whatever sort with whatever firearm, is 95% shooter and 5% equipment.

Our club hosts a public sight-in day at our range, with club instructors and range officers present to help , targets, spotting scopes, etc, all provided. It is a ZOO!! People walking onto the line with loaded rifles, scopes loose in their mounts, guys with the wrong ammo, guys who dont know how to load their rifle, guys who cant hit a paper plate at 100 yards off the bench, every goofy thing you can think of we have seen!! I finally quit going out to help, just too scary.

[Nath]

Yes very good, I recently put my peep on my trapper after two years of wearing a scope and it was still on zero and shot just the same groups as the scope at 100yds

Nath.

[Borregos]

jnyork, we used to hold those sight in days at one of our ranges too. Stopped holding them because they were really scary, makes me glad I hunt in a very thinly populated area!

[AJMD429]

I always thought it would be neat to shoot a levergun or some 'obsolete' military gun alongside the AR-15 and M1-A folks at a DCM match. I certainly know people who are shooting leverguns and breakopens who outshoot the 'military' guns.

[JReed]

I remember a few years back I went shooting with a buddy he had just got a savage package deal in 30-06 and wanted to sight it in he is a very good shot but he was amazed how well I was able to keep up with him out to 400 yards with my No4 Mk1 and the peep ladder sight especialy since the sights dont easily adjust for wind.

[Ben_Rumson]

Nuther thing that adds to the fun .. slapping those gongs iron sighted & off hand with what looks like a beater.. but you've tricked the trigger & bedding out and are using hand loads

[Modoc ED]

I know it's just stubborness but I have always preferred iron/receiver/tang sights to scopes. I have a couple of rifles with scopes (hunting bolt actions/varmint semi and bolt actions) but none of my lever action rifles have scopes. I can easily keep up with a scoped rifle with one of my lever action rifles out to 200 yards for sure and with one of my .444 Marlin lever rifle out to 250 yards to 300 yards. That said, I generally try to keep my hunting shots with a lever action at 200 yards or less.

[Thunder50]

I had fun at our range one day, during our sight in days (sometimes the safest place is in front of these yahoos!!--but I digress). Couple of people from the Lone Star state had driven up here for an elk hunt. They were trying to sight in their synthetic stocked 300 weatherbys and not having alot of luck. After a couple of boxes of ammo and some flinching, they got dialed in. They hit the 200 & 300 meter gongs OK, but had trouble with the 500 meter gongs. They finally declared they were way farther than they would shoot an elk, so no big deal that they couldn't hit them (15" gongs). I said they weren't too hard to hit , so one guy pointed at this rifle and dared me to hit it. I picked up my iron-sighted XP100 in 308, put a ball round in and stood up and shot at the 500 meter gong. Heard a satisfying "ding" , put my gun down and said "see, I told you they aren't that hard to hit"

He threw his gun in its case, mumbled "S.O.B" and they all left. Glad they didn't ask me to do it again!!!


It can be a zoo at sight in days, but sometimes its worth it to go help!!

[Ben_Rumson]

After two powered by dollars dudes ran out of ammo using a 300 Weatherby, I heard one of 'em say he didn't hit the 300 yard gong "because his range finder was set wrong"