Quality machinery

Another range trip yesterday. I started out with the new carbine I got from a friend at work.

The carbine itself is quite nice, especially for an older firearm. It is a bolt-action magazine-fed .22LR. I haven't been able to find any manufacturer's marks or serial numbers on it, and the exterior is a little rusty and battered. The bolt is smooth and solid, however, and the safety works. The carbine came with a mounted scope. Just from looking at it I could tell it hadn't been put on by a professional gunsmith. It was turned along its axis so that with the carbine level the crosshairs weren't, and if it had ever been bore-sighted it was on a different firearm. Still, I spent several magazines trying to zero it. About fifty rounds later I removed the scope and switched to the iron sights. Suddenly I was getting good groupings without any windage problems. In short the carbine is good and I'm sure that I'll find some use for the scope.

Having warmed up on the carbine I ran a target down to the maximum range available (25 yards), and switched to the AR-15. I fired a single round just for a function check, and spent a minute or two trying to find the hole with my monocular. Reluctantly concluding I'd missed, I pulled the target back to try a preliminary zero at a closer range. Then I spotted a hole at about 5 o'clock, an inch and a half or so from the X. The. First. Round. I'm happy when I do that with a pistol at 25 FEET. OK, neither the rifle nor I is going to Camp Perry anytime soon, but it was a promising start.

After 60 rounds I concluded that I'd need a longer range to zero the weapon. Almost every round would have been a head shot, and I am completely sure the errors were all mine - the rifle is heavy, the recoil is minimal and almost straight back, the trigger breaks cleanly, and the action was very smooth.

Deciding to have some fun, I took a braced position and fired 30 rounds rapid. About 40 seconds later I was surrounded by a haze of powder smoke... and had put every single round into a 4" bullseye. OK, it was a rifle at just 25 yards. It was also rapid fire over iron sights from an inexperienced shooter with a brand new weapon shooting factory reloads. I was expecting to do much worse, and as I practice I'm sure I'll do much better.

I may not be able to hit the broadside of a barn with a centerfire semi-auto handgun, but don't mess with me when I've got my AR. :-)