Tussock and Carlsen Highway go to the range
It has been many years since I made a trip to the range with @Carlsen Highway my first ever trip to any range was with him, and he taught me to shoot. At that point my problem was an inability to hit an A4 sheet of paper at 25m with a centerfire and my head was cluttered with popular myths and miss-conceptions. Since then I have spent long hours sleeping behind my rifle, to the point where I am now comfortable there.
That was until I bought a 7mmRemMag and a 45-70govt. I have not shot a rifle with recoil in a long time. I also had with me a Sako 75 .243 I bought recently that has a can on it. I had a no recoiling rifle on hand for comparison.
The 7mm Rem Mag was very pleasant to shoot and bore sighting got it onto paper. Shooting prone off an awkward rest I managed to get it on paper, while Mr Highway put the finishing touches on while I was away looking for some files to sight in the 45-70. The 175g Winchester factory ammo had a solid boot but it was a hearty shove and not unpleasant even for range work prone.
The .243 is a kitten and was sorted in minutes. I am not sure what scope I have, as I have not looked, but apparently it adjusts well.
Carlsen Highway checked the zero on his Model 70 30-06 but we never got around to shooting his fine Mauser. Both beautiful classic rifles.
Then things got interesting. Since 2012 I have had a 45-70 1895G Guide gun sitting in the cupboard. I have shot a couple of cattle with it point blank, but it has never been zeroed since I fitted Skinner peep sights. Carlsen Highway is a savant in the field of sighting in a rifle with a hammer, chisel and file. He zeroed my 1894 .44 Mag around 2007-2008 and the joy of open sights is I have not touched it since.
The first round fired sitting by yours truely hit the rock holding our 25m carboard box upright and blew the bottom out of the box. The next round confirmed it was shooting low and Carlsen began filing down the fore sight which was visibly high. The rounds walked up the box as he alternated between firing the rifle, swearing and filing.
When he had it where he wanted, we switched to the windage and elevation adjustments in the rear sight and moved out to 100m prone. The little rifle jumped around a bit, to put it mildly. We both punched ourselves in the face at some point. Carlsen developed a headache. We continued. The 325g FTX Hornady factory ammo is lively, but there are worse loads for this gun. The rifle was on an A2 sheet of paper by now and Carlsen fired two rounds which were found on the far left of the target. He moved the windage adjustment the right way (why I let him do these things) and I took over. I found it tolerable to shoot, having let Carlsen H do the bulk of the work and take on the bulk of the bruising.
I assured him I had not hit the paper at all. The front sight, rear sight and target were three separate blurs. The little rifles recoil and report was violent. For those wondering about such things, I had a good firm grip on the forend for a change. Carlsen H suggested early on that I remove some timber from the forend, but quickly changed his mind. I suggested adding some lead.
To my complete and total surprise, I had put two rounds into the (large) black dot. Firstly, given that using incremental adjustment on a scope turret rarely comes out this well. I as at a loss as to how someone eyeballs a rear sight, moves it by hand and gets exactly what he is after. Secondly, open sights never cease to amaze me. If you were to think about it, it would never work. If you have faith, trust your eye and squeeze the trigger, weird things happen. I really could not see much.
All the rifles need a little fine tuning and I will shoot the all (including the 45-70) put to 300 to see where they are going. Ready to hunt though:cool:
Cheers for the good day Carlsen Highway.
