Not too wet for the range

[wolc123]

My range is on the far back corner of our farm, about a half of a mile from the house.  I have been putting off sighting in a couple of deer guns, because it has been too wet to attempt to drive any kind of motor vehicle back there.  I just replaced the factory iron sights on one of them with fiber-optics, and put a new scope on the other.   Normally, I sight in multiple guns at the same time, loading them all into my pickup and driving back there with all the ammo and gear.  That has been a no-go this spring,  and there is no end in sight to the wet weather. The long-term  forecast shows rain every day, over the next week, except tomorrow and Monday.    

I ran out of patience with the weather Wednesday afternoon, and walked back there with rubber boots, carrying my gun-rest, lever-action 30/30 on a sling, and a pack of ammo, targets, etc..  The fiber-optic front sight on that was was removed from my in-line TC ML, which does not need it because it has a scope.  The rear fiber-optic was removed from an old side-lock ML that I no longer use.  There are shooting benches back there at 50 and 100 yards, and a 5-gallon bucket to use as a seat.  Unfortunately, I could not get the rear sight adjusted low enough to get 150 grain bullets on the paper at 50 yards, just catching the top edge from 25 yards away.  The rear sight has about 1/4" of vertical adjustment.   I just finished machining and attaching a 1/8" spacer below the front sight and I am heading back tomorrow (maybe needing some higher boots since we got over an inch of rain last night) to try it again.  Fortunately, that 30/30 ammo is relatively cheap.

If things go well with that, I will walk back up to the house and fetch my rifled 12-gauge slug gun with the new scope.  The ammo is astronomically priced for that, but the bolt-action is easy to bore-sight, and I have a bunch of mis-matched ammo that I can use to get it on the paper. A side-benefit of the long walk thru the mud is that it provides a great workout.  If the rain keeps up, I might even be able to use my canoe to paddle between the target backstop, and a big pile of topsoil that the town highway crew left when they cleaned out the border ditch.  No big rush on the slug-gun, but I really want to get the 30/30 sighted in so I can break it in on some woodchucks.      

          

Edited May 11, 2019 by wolc123

[ny hunter]

Some range time is better then none at all..........I am sure you well get them all sighted in and shooting like you want...good luck and enjoy..

[wolc123]

30 minutes ago, ny hunter said:

Some range time is better then none at all..........I am sure you well get them all sighted in and shooting like you want...good luck and enjoy..

I always try minimizing range time with "real guns" because it is a pain going back there, ammo is not cheap, and I do not like subjecting the neighbors to the noise (I wear ear muffs).   None of that stuff inhibits me from taking thousands of practice shots off the back deck with the bb-guns however.   

Edited May 11, 2019 by wolc123

[rob-c]

Hey you got some exercise and you shot some, it’s a win win in my book . 

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, rob-c said:

Hey you got some exercise and you shot some, it’s a win win in my book . 

You got that right, now it's time for round two.  I got the pack loaded up with plenty of ammo and will be headed back in a few minutes.  Maybe I will take a couple extra wooden stakes back this time, for stapling targets on, because what was back there last time were in rough shape.  

[grampy]

This wet weather has definitely put a damper on my trigger time as well. I have some stuff I hand loaded over the winter, for 270 and 7mm-08, that I'd like to test out. Will get out soon for sure.

Have fun with your sighting in wolc ! Let us know how it turns out for you. 

[wolc123]

2 hours ago, grampy said:

This wet weather has definitely put a damper on my trigger time as well. I have some stuff I hand loaded over the winter, for 270 and 7mm-08, that I'd like to test out. Will get out soon for sure.

Have fun with your sighting in wolc ! Let us know how it turns out for you. 

It took a third trip back and forth to get the first one sighted in.  The 1/8" spacer that I made for under the front sight was not enough, so I had to walk back to the shop and make another.  It took some time and is not real pretty, but it got the job done.  I only have 6 bullets left for woodchucks, after that third trip back to the range.   Walking thru the soft ground and water really is a good workout with minimal joint impact loading and lots of calories expended.   I wound up getting that gun hitting right where I wanted, at 50 and 100 yards with the "mismatched" fiber-optic sights, but now I lack the energy to try the other gun.   The lawn could use cutting again, and my daughter has her last field-hockey game later this afternoon, so no more range time for me this weekend.       

[wolc123]

I planned on cutting part of the lawn earlier today but a late-morning rain stopped that.   It only rained for about 20 minutes.    Waiting for it to dry gave me just enough time to walk back to the range with my slug gun and it's new Redfield Revolution scope.    I decided to swap out my spotting scope for a can of deep-woods off in my pack, just in case the bugs were bad back there.  It said on the label that it is effective for ticks, so I sprayed around by pant legs (I had treated my rubber boots with Sawyers last time, and that should still be good).    

This Marlin bolt-action with the new Redfield gave me a lot less trouble than the "Remlin"  lever-action with the mis-matched fiber optics. That took over 20 shots to get sighted in properly.   The only glitch today, back at the range, was that my 5-gallon bucket chair was not high enough for the gun rest on the benches.   Fortunately, a top-of-the line swivel office chair (it is amazing what folks put out to the trash) that was back there in a weather-proof blind was just about perfect (other than the castor wheels that sunk into the mud). 

The 2' wide x 3' high backing paper was still attached to the stakes from when I was back there over a week ago (that is the paper that I was not able to hit at 50 yards with those "mis-matched" fiber optics, until I added 1/4" inch of shim under the front sight).   This time, I pulled the bolt to do a quick bore-site with the gun in the rest.  My first shot with an "odd-ball" sabot was about 5 inches low and two inches right from  50 yards.    Doing the math, and adjusting the turrets accordingly put the second, matching "oddball" centered, 1" above the bull.   I was impressed that this Redfield moved exactly as it was supposed to, and the "clicks" were very easy to feel and hear.   

After just two shots with "junk" ammo, it was time to switch to the Hornady, 2-3/4" SST's that I use for hunting.   The first shot struck a couple inches low, but once again the adjustment put the second one right about where I wanted it.   I replaced the target and fired another at 50 (with scope on 4X), which struck 1-1/4" above and 1/4" to the left of the bull.  There was an approximate 15 mph crosswind blowing from right to left.  Next, I moved back to the hundred yard bench and fired two more (with the scope at 7X).   While walking up to the target, I only saw one hole at first, besides the one from 50.  Closer examination showed that the second hole was really and "oval" made of two touching holes, with their centers 3/8" apart.  The center of that 2-shot 100 yard "group" was 3/4" below and 1" to the left of the bull.   

I was ok with that, and decided to quit well I was ahead, happy that it took just 7 shots to get this one sighted in.  If I packed sunscreen instead of bug-spray I might have stayed a little longer.  I probably will not shoot it again until Labor day weekend, when hopefully the range will be good and dry.   It was not very comfortable back there today under the bright sun with the temperature well into the 80's.  Surprisingly, there were no bugs at all back there.   The Redfield Revolution scope did very well on the range.  It was nice to see just one "bull" at 100 yards, and everything was crystal clear in the bright sun conditions.   This one is supposed to have the "illuminator" glass, so it will likely do very well in low-light conditions.   My two older Redfields, are the next grade down, but they still do ok in low-light conditions. 

Thankfully, that bright sun and wind dried the lawn out good and I was able to knock that off when I got back to the house.        

Edited May 19, 2019 by wolc123

[ny hunter]

Nice how things just fall into place...