Vintage 22 Rifles / iron sights / 50 yds / 'Good Groups' ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TCFAN

I just found this thread. My Only "vintage" 22 rifle is a Winchester model 62. Serial number says it was made in 1937.

---

Now THAT is very cool to me for the following:
Attachment 288907

My Winchester 1906 has to be one of the very last ones, and your 62 has to be one of the very first. I don't recall the exact answer I got from Cody, but it was probably tail-end production clean up of spare parts, as the serial number didn't exactly jive with the usual charts.

Relevant to this thread in that it is THE gun that I bought specifically to get me out of the accuracy mania I was in during my Highpower days. I looked at my heavy barrel, globe-sighted, magazine-converted Marlin 2000 that I used to simulate the large bore course, the spotting scope, the leather coat, mid-grade match ammo, etc... and said to myself "YOU have forgotten how to just go out and have fun with a rifle!"

That one gets the random, mixed assortments of .22, sometimes with Shorts and Long Rifles in the tube at the same time - if the can falls over, accuracy expectations have been met.[smilie=w:

Hi OS. Yeah, I've been out of it for a while. Not too well. I suspect I had an adverse reaction to the vax but it could have been something else entirely. Anyway, when I felt well enough OI went and had my second dose and there were no side effects at all.

Lighting hasn't been too good today, what with the rainy weather we are having. I did the best I could inside my workshop.

Here is the girl that did that not too bad group. And you are right, those were more than five. I would have fired ten with the first being out of group. Range was only 25m so not quite Olympic standards but it gives me a benchmark to strive for with open sights.

https://i.postimg.cc/3wvhSqML/DSCF3548.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/bJ1zJB3G/DSCF3549.jpg

This is another one. Further down you'll see how some previous owner did a bit of 'customizing'. It look like Mauri art. Kinda cool having someone's history in a rifle. I'm guessing whoever did it might have had it from new or perhaps it was a hand down but anyway, it's actually quite nicely done and feels rather good to hold. It adds character to the gun.
https://i.postimg.cc/L5RmZ3bx/DSCF3550.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/wMVg5sKg/DSCF3551.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/HW4Y1FrR/DSCF3552.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/5tY9c0zS/DSCF3541.jpg

Here's how my love affair with these Slazengers began. My then 9 or 10 year old great nephew was just getting into guns and hunting and Christmas was coming up so I found a single shot rifle for him and did it up as best I could. This is it.

https://i.postimg.cc/gJbwPYSv/Caleb_s_Rifle_002.jpg

It's a really nice little rifle and so sweet to shoot. Very accurate too.

So I decided to find another one and do something similar. I never did do the something similar but instead, found a few more. What can I Say? 22's are fun! [smilie=l:

With this little rifle plus his step dad and input from me, he has grown into a fine young man. Yup. Between us we saved him from certain doom. Well, I contributed in some not too small way, anyhow. So yeah, these Slazengers have some meaning to me.

And looking at that photo, I'm thinking I must do one of mine just like that. 8-) That by the way, is a boiled linseed oil finish, done over the original wood with light sanding. It took weeks of oiling and rubbing and polishing with steel wool because my nephew in law didn't believe me when I said the wood needs to be fine sanded then wiped with a wet cloth to raise the 'fur' then re-fine sanded and wet cloth and re-sand until polished. But I found a way to polish it after oiling, that being the fine steel wool.

303Guy...Something about those rifles reinds me of a Remington single shot (mod.33?) they shoot well, not doubt. I like that tribal checkering, don't you wish it could talk and tell you where that came from. Good job saving that kid to a smokey future!

Mk42gunner... I've seen that method & I like the results but it would be quite an undertaking to make a vertical tube to boil in.
I used instead, 0000 steel wool and Hoppes...came out pretty well with a minimum of white metal. She still looks old but she doesn't sport any rust now.
thanks

TCFAN...I am envious...that is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Nice shooting!

Bigslug...I hadn't thought of corrosive primers, that could be what happened?

. . . . . .

Got out today...and had another practice. With iron sights, I have a new morning preparation added to the routine of chamber swabbing, I am blackening the sights...

https://i.imgur.com/uVMsAjV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PBy5PV3.jpg

Also working on a repeatable cheek weld & am not there yet...I should add a little riser piece to index against but I am stubborn and am experimenting with getting just the right amount 'cheek meat' under my cheek bone. I am struggling with changing elevation because of that.

https://i.imgur.com/8PJsbpN.jpg

Results...I like the 2" spots best right now...they seem easiest to set atop the front square top blade...(don't ask about the top right spot! I think I was having a brain fart or something...adjusting the sights in the wrong direction! :bigsmyl2: )

https://i.imgur.com/Q500wi3.jpg

I've added 2 more spots, 8 now instead of the 6 I have been shooting. Now the practice doesn't go so quickly, feels like I get a little more for my time spent...

https://i.imgur.com/X8lvlK1.jpg

That's it for today, I took the rifle down and did the steel wool & Hoppes after practice. I'll have to back down to the 25 yd. bench and re-sight the rifle from scratch since I had taken the adjustable rear sight off and de-rusted it.
If all goes well, I hope to be in that 1" group size soon..."fingers crossed!"

Hey OS. That's some mighty fine shooting! Ok now see if you can do it off hand. :mrgreen:

Once upon a time, I could actually shoot quite well off hand. I remember shooting with a friends Remington 512. I could shoot as well with it as I could my own scoped 512. The targets were pebbles in a dry river bed. That gave an advantage of only requiring hitting in front of the pebbles to make them jump. Lot's of fun! and of course the great thing about shooting pebbles is there was no record of a bad shot! [smilie=1: But as I recall, neither me or my mate missed any pebbles. We wouldn't dare miss - we were competing with each other. :mrgreen: And he was a good shot. It wasn't his rifle though. It was a cousins or uncle's of his. I wish he could have acquired it.

These Slazenger were made by Lithgow in Australia for Slazenger. The barrel is 'ordinance steel' and it is tough! It took quite some doing to cut that barrel down with a hacksaw.

The barrel and action is actually one piece. A very simple design. It was a manual cocking design which I thought was ideal for the young fellow.

Here he is retrieving rabbits is step-dad shot.

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5LsTF8T/IMG009...10819-1631.jpg

and here is feral piglet his step-dad shot with his little Slazenger.

https://i.postimg.cc/zGppmDNv/IMG019...20128-1750.jpg

It's fun looking through these old photo's and reminiscing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 303Guy

These Slazenger were made by Lithgow in Australia for Slazenger.

The barrel and action is actually one piece. A very simple design. It was a manual cocking design...

---

Sounds like a local copy of the Winchester 67 - - interestingly, the Cody Museum has a 67 version that they put together for some Aussie youth group - - complete with military "musket" wood and a bayonet.

That's extremely cool stuff .303. We yanks grew up at the feet of the WWI and WWII generations with a lot of real "Golden Age" rimfires. It's neat to see the international equivalent "nostalgia guns" from around the world.

I worked in gun shops from '92 to '05. In the early part of that, we had Lithgow #2's in the teak stocks come through in pretty much new condition. Unfortunately, a gun shop salary paired with a Highpower Rifle competition habit stymied purchase of a lot of the types of guns I'm now into. My timing SUCKS!

And OS. . .your timing SUCKS! :wink: You launched this thread when I'm in deer season prep mode. Gonna be November before I can really play this game of yours.

Corrosive primers vs. black? Who knows? When I was a kid in the '70's and '80's, money was somewhat tight. Dad kept me in .22, but not the mountains of it I would have liked. Consequently, whatever ammo from whatever source at least got tried - - including green-brass, powdered-bullet rounds that could have been out of Rameses I's personal smallbore stash. The black powder stuff was copper cased and as I recall, split open on firing so I dumped the remainder of that in a drainage ditch. Smokeless but corrosive? All I can say is that by the time the 510 got sleeved, an untold number of kids from 1957 to 2000 had learned to shoot on it, and it was TIRED! Probably not an uncommon story for shooters of our vintage.

Charlie,

I have used black fingernail polish on the bead of my shotgun to blacken it. It stays on well but can be removed it desired. It might be too "glossy" for a rifle sight but worth a try.

Sitting in the shop this fine day having a cold brew & measuring and marking the targets I shot today...getting ready to post for tonight on what I was working on today...
Suddenly...I'm hearing this voice in my mind, it's not one of my usual voices I hear? Who is this nagging on me? Here it is again...

...."Therefore I go through A LOT of .22 seeing what I am capable of, shooting water bottles, cans, empty shotgun shells, or bits of clay pigeon, at varying distances without the benefit of any more support than my elbows from field positions. MUCH more entertaining, and overall, probably more useful, than chasing the paper dragon."

I remember this..but who is that?

...."That one gets the random, mixed assortments of .22, sometimes with Shorts and Long Rifles in the tube at the same time - if the can falls over, accuracy expectations have been met."

Then I hear...

...."And OS. . .your timing SUCKS! You launched this thread when I'm in deer season prep mode. Gonna be November before I can really play this game of yours."

Oh, heck...that's the Bigslug ! Now I remember.

Well...Pard, this ain't no one-way deal here..."Let me accommodate you & 'Your Game'...how about that?"

https://i.imgur.com/ytED3wZ.jpg

I think I'll take 5 shots from each of the positions...'standing...sitting, legs crossed & prone'. (No biggie...heck, I qualified as 'Expert Marksman' and high shooter in my Company back in 1971...even got a cheapo little shooting medal when I graduated boot. I'll show this guy!)
Here we go Bigslug...'standing'...

https://i.imgur.com/ongkDb4.jpg

Now sitting with my legs crossed, another 5 shots, Boy I'm tearing this can up!...(dang-it, I don't remember a big belly in the way back then? Oh well heck, 'adapt and overcome', that's what us Marines do!...I can do this!)

https://i.imgur.com/C6znzwe.jpg

Ah...now prone, one of my favorite positions! (I hope I can count all the hits on that can I'm shredding!)

https://i.imgur.com/ep3xe37.jpg

"Now Mr. Bigslug....before we start counting holes in the can, I want to tell you that I don't mind going to extreme trouble as I go out of my way to accommodate you boys that post here in my little thread. You might say...."I would even 'humiliate myself' to keep a good & honest thread going here...(should that ever happen, but I 'post'em like I shoot'em')...oh well...nuff said about that.
BUT...Know this also, GOD really loves us old'Fat'Farts...He helped me in a couple ways today. First He helped me into positions I haven't been in for 50 years! I hardly felt any pain!
And secondly...GOD made it easy for me to count all the holes in that can! "This is for your satisfaction Pard! Start counting..."

https://i.imgur.com/4UR0k3E.jpg

charlie . . . :bigsmyl2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OS OK

Ultimately I'd like to find one of these original dovetail peep sights to replace the rear sight I have now. I've looked high and low but unless you find one on a used rifle these things are scarce as 'hen's teeth'.
I'm not sure changing them would work since my sight is dovetailed in farther up the barrel, might make that orifice too small to use?

https://i.imgur.com/r30tsOd.jpg

---

I have a Win 60A with that rear sight in the forward position dovetail cut for the regular open sight. This was my father's rifle he got as teen in the 1930's - barrel is marked "32". I had never seen another like this pictured anywhere so posted it over at Rimfire Central and the Winchester rimfire experts there had never seen a reference to another with sights like this either. The rear sight is marked "Pat Pend" so is an early example of this sight and the dates this sight and the covered front which also was also not ever seen on this model by the experts, were introduced was right at the time the 60A was replaced so could have possibly come from the factory like this. They did agree the sights looked to have been on the rifle a long time. That sight in the forward position works perfectly with this front sight cover matching the orifice opening at the forward position with the sight radius of the 23" barrel. (There was an earlier thread on here about this rifle and sight combo.)

Attachment 288753

Attachment 288754

Attachment 288755

Charlie, do you get 24 Oz cans in CA?

See Charlie, I'm actually saving you money on that hyper-accurate Anschutz benchrest gun by keeping the difficulty level the same with existing equipment.

I'm nice like that! :grin:

NEKVT...I've seen the 67A set up that way, peep forward but I think it was someone who bought the peep sight and installed it themselves? If so they'd have to use a peep with a larger orifice to see anything.

dverna...Charlie, do you get 24 Oz cans in CA?

Hahaaa Don, I think your the only one who actually got the joke so far? Next time ... 'Milk Jugs!'

Bigslug...When you come back with the freezer meat, you'll have some time then to show me how to do it!
This is for the agile & able bodied Young Bucks. Standing there and weaving all about...I felt like a 71 year old Dog passing Peach Seeds!

I had to go to town today...for an errand so since I was 1/2 way to the gun shop I thought I just might drop by. I had called Tuesday to see if the 67A with the peep was still there but it was not. So ... I figure I'll check for myself and make sure it wasn't put somewhere else?
Sure enough, it had sold.
BUT ... there was a little Rem 33 there, evidently had just arrived.

https://i.imgur.com/73TYZIP.jpg

The rifle was designed by Crawford C. Loomis and was produced from 1932 to 1935, and was sold alongside the Model 34. It was the first bolt-action weapon made by Remington, and as such is highly valued for that reason alone. About 263,000 were made. (my serial is 225250) so I'm guessing it was made that last year? That would make the old'Girl 86 years young.

https://i.imgur.com/D5CJ7YY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/81glBM4.jpg

Looks like it's been parked behind the bedroom door for a half century.
I had a look at the bore before I committed and it looks pretty good, sharp lands. It needs cleaning in the worst way, think I'll polish it after I brush it well.
There's chatter from tool marks but I ain't going to hold that against her.

https://i.imgur.com/uboltXG.jpg

The Crown needs a freshen-up...

https://i.imgur.com/ox0lN3S.jpg

The leade looks sharp also, I've got a feeling this rifle stood behind that bedroom door so long they forgot about her!

https://i.imgur.com/H4OP79O.jpg

In a couple of weeks I'll have another Vintage old rifle to shoot...I have a feeling this one will do well?

Good score! I probably would not have passed either! Surprised they serialized them at that period, as they sure weren't 20 years after that.

Definitely a candidate for Mark Novak's boil-conversion of the rust treatment.

My theory on why a .22 rife can look like it was dragged over twenty miles of bad road on the outside, but still have a good bore is that the lube from the bullets protects the bore.

At least that Model 33's S/N is stamped on the receiver where it is easily found. The Model 41 (one piece receiver and barrel) has it stamped (very lightly, I might add) in front of the forearm at about the eight o'clock position as you aim the rifle.

Robert

I've read so many articles lately concerning these old rifles that I don't remember where I got this?

One of the articles mentioned that they were not serialized in those years unless they were intended for export.

Mark Novak's boil-conversion of the rust treatment sounds tempting? I'll consider that if I can figure a way to make the equipment needed, that is...the long boiler tube to submerge the barrel in & an efficient way to do the heating.

I got the 46D back together after the 'steel wool & Hoppes' cleaning, she looks a lot better now...

https://i.imgur.com/0TXalEo.jpg

Still...the weak link is me...

https://i.imgur.com/Q4Gborp.jpg

Had to do an errand in town yesterday & went to the gun shop after that, while I am on the road home coming home, an e-mail arrived from Killough Shooting Sports telling me they had the Eley contact back in stock. But...I didn't discover this until this morning! Now they are out of stock once again. When you get these notices you have to react 'Johnny on the spot' as they sometimes sell out while you are navigating their website.
I am down to the last brick of this ammo, it's the most accurate ammo I've found for the price point...

https://i.imgur.com/xMTKFtd.jpg

Just discovered this thread. 50 years ago we shot ordinary iron sighted gallery rifles, Remington 521, 513, Winchester 75, 52, Springfield M1922 at 200 yards on the old Army A target with 12-inch black and 5-inch V ring

With good quality standard velocity, not "match" ammunition, you could shoot 20-shot prone "possibles"; with more than a dozen in the V ring. With a really good rifle and match ammunition a high Master shooter could shoot 20 consecutive Vs into 5 inches at 200 yards.

We had a separate match for sporting rifles less than 6 pounds and the best of these could shoot a 20-shot possible in the 12-inch black at 200 yards with ten Vs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by richhodg66

I doubt it's bent, this one has been very well kept. I do kind of wonder if someone might have replaced the front sight at some point. Seems awfully low.

I have a 72A and 69A which both hit to POA with the sights pretty easily.

---

Maybe the rear slider for elevation adjustment is the wrong one???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Back in high school I was on the 4 position smallbore team. We shot old Mossberg 144B’s with US Govt. marked on them. We never had any target ammo, only CCI Blazers. They had peep sights. We only shot them at 50 ft. indoors and they really rang the steel backtraps loudly. We were using thumbtacks to hold on the targets. My favorite thing was to watch the guy next to me and when he was almost breaking the trigger I would shoot the thumbtack on his target and watch him miss the entire paper target [emoji457] completely. Unfortunately we ran out of tacks and the coach went on to using cellophane tape. The tape never did let the targets fall even after cutting it at the top of the paper target. Sure wish I had one of them nowadays.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk