Range Report

When we tweren't scouting hunting grounds, we hit the Clark Brothers shooting range. I had some new weapons to test out.


First, that new, longer, shotgun barrel for my Remington Model 11. I showed it to the gunsmith and had him check out the home-rifling job some guy did on it. He was entertained, thought it amateurish, but it wouldn't hurt anything to try it out and see how it performed down range. He didn't have high hopes for accuracy, with slug or pellets. So I bought some slugs. I fired 2. Those 2 were close enough to the bullseye to make me happy enough, so the verdict is positive on the new-old barrel. Not bad for a freebie, but I wasn't there to test the shotgun. (Dang, that thing kicks when you shoot it from the bench.)

Next up is a redo of the Springfield 03. It's too nice to relegate to the safe without getting some performance out of it, so I decided to try re-zeroing it, with MBtGE spotting. At 25 yards it was shooting12-15 inches left of the bull, but with fine elevation. It just took some AGGRESSIVE sight adjustment to pull the point of aim around. For those not familiar with the sight on the older 03, it a flip up leaf spring with massive adjustments for elevation, out to 2500 yards +. Windage adjustment has no 'clicks' so you have to not where you are on the caliber scale on butt end of the sight. And Crom help you if the elevation adjustment loosen on you with the elevation leaf down, and when you have an aggressive windage adjustment. That little part is where the rear notch is, and if you are 9 degrees out to starbord side, but the notch slides forward... who knows what correction is dialed in. Not 9 degrees like I want, that's for sure. (I am guessing that they are degrees. It's about that. 9 marks on the little caliber scale. ) Well when everything was going right with the sight I switched from 25 yards to 50 and got some happier accuracy. Enough to make me happy with the 03. Not enough to pick it over the Garand in a hunting situation, but I didn't expect it to.

Thirdly, I got to try out my Dad’s old .22 bolt action rifle, a Mossberg 144 LR target model. What an absolute joy to shoot. It holds stead and just FEELS right. It’s not a top of the line target rifle, but it’s not some fly by night version of a .22 either. It just wants to put little holes in a piece of paper as close to the center as I can expect. Ok, not at first. I had to correct its sight quite a bit. It was also pulling to the left, lie the 03, and required some adjustment. Still, it shot very well for a rifle that probably hasn’t been fired for 50 years. I like the aperture sight on the rifle, but the hole is a little small. It’s fine for well lit ranges. Very easy to adjust, too. And MBtGE gave me 4 bricks of .22 LR rounds, so I have 2000 sitting in the home powder-magazine now.



I’m concerned that all the shooting and sight adjustment on both rifles are for naught. Clark Bros is a fine place to shoot a rifle, but you have to be seated at their little fixed in place shooting benches. There is no real way to establish a natural point of aim. What if the .22 and the 03 were just fine with their sights, but now I’ve shifted them all over and they won’t work properly in a non-Clark Brothers situation? And does this also mean that my Garand, which shoots well at Clark Brothers, will fail to hit the sides of Barns in the field? Pah! I need more range options. Private range options.

I am probably worrying over nothing. MBtGE has fired my guns a few times on Clark Bros benches after I zero them and gets good center groups. You’d think his point of aim would be different from mine and his groups would need vast adjustment to compensate for MY vast adjustments. Well, it’s a theory, at least. By the way, MBtGE get’s much tighter groups on the targets than I do. A function of his depth of shooting experience over mine, certainly.
MBtGE had his own issues to address at the range. He wanted to test out a new brand of .22LR in his Ruger semi-autos. He has found them to be quite particular in their diets. That effort was a bit of a bust for him and he is considering radical measures to address it and allow him to fire a broader array of ammo brands and types. Serious lapping and polishing inside the receivers by a good gunsmith may be on his short term list of Thing To Do.

He also got to try out his new Glock 21, .45 ACP. It needs breaking in. And those sights seem to be a bit clumsy, big, and unwieldy. It’s just not accurate yet. Hopefully a few hundred rounds will settle it down, and this circumstance was not unexpected. I would be a little wary for a carry weapon to not be ready for prime time yet before actually, you know, CARRYING it.