Started out this morning . . . just like any other morning, headed out with a new routine doing this 'pre-warming' thing and aiming to gather some meaningful data.
After 30 minutes in the sun the thermometer was only 79ºƒ and the ambient air temp. was 62ºƒ. I thought I might see a little shifting of the groups, prolly see about the same size groups as the day before only shifted some?
This was not at all what I expected to see...those rounds were skipping back and forth between the POA and somewhere out in left field 9 to 11:00.
I started to think I have something loose? Maybe it's the scope mounts, yah...maybe them, when I finished, I headed to the shop to find out about that...
Nope...everything still as I installed it, snug as a bug.
Obviously, the thing to do was crack a cold brew and start 'mulling on the mystery' at hand. I had nothing, I checked the stock clearance around the barrel, checked the stock screws...nothing, everything snug!
Well...I'm thinking that this should repeat itself if there's something wrong. So, I put the rifle and a box of tenex out in the sun with the big thermometer and wait another 30 minutes for the pre-warm.
As I'm heading out to the 50, I'm now thinking that I might see a POA/POI shift also since I took the scope off and put it back? No biggie, right? It can't be that much of a shift.
Ready for some confusion? This time the rifle warmed to 91ºƒ and the ambient air was up to 64-65º...the sun is up a little higher so that made sense to me.
When I saw that first warmer shot I thought I misjudged how far off that scope might really be...then the spots played out like you see them below...
Working those spots with that 24 power scope, those rounds looked really spread out and I was less than impressed with how I was grouping. When I got to the last spot I was pleasantly surprised...I thought..."Ever old'dog finally finds his bone!" That was nice to see...I got me my first 'redneck one-holer', kinda oblong and technically not a perfect one-hole but that was good enough to put a big smile on my mug for the day!
Now...if I could only measure it accurately. I think it's a small group but I dare not try to measure it with a rule and call it what I'm thinking it is. Someone for sure would call "BS on that!"
It may be a once in a lifetime group for this MKII but it made me proud of this cheap little target rifle today.