Gentlemen;
I have recently been experimenting with a 3X Leupold on my M70 ~ then I remembered the M1903 Springfield I bought when I turned 18..
Since I have owned it for these 49 years it has seen many changes – one of which was scope mounting. I dug out my box of scopes (there must be thousands of bucks of optics in there) and found some scopes and bases and rings. I spent an afternoon when it was too cold for much else making shims, testing them and fitting them together, then I assembled the pieces and checked to see how it looked.
During this preparation I also wound up disassembling the old K-10 Weaver I had chosen for the job because it had some kind of contamination on the inside of the objective lens. The scope is old enough that nitrogen-filling was unknown and the work went well. This scope even has the capability to adjust for parallax – so that assembly had to be dealt with with care.
I loaded 100 rounds of known accurate components and on the next favorable day I headed for the range. I zeroed the scope off the concrete bench and then took the rifle up to the hill-top long range area to see if the outfit would reach out the way I wanted it to.
Shooting solo was hard since the ground is wet and/or frozen – showing little or no bare eye-ball evidence of bullet strikes as viewed from anything beyond – say – 350 yards. Sure the steel would ring if hit but a miss? Who knows where to correct? I sure needed a spotter.
I got in the 350 yard Bucket and the 395 yard Diamond OK but wasted 20 rounds just trying to find the 440 yard Bear. In disgust I moved to the 470 Rectangle and Wow! I suddenly noted that at the 470 yard distance I had just enough time to recover from recoil and move the focus of my eye from the cross-hairs to the right side of the field of vision and see the bullet strike in the 10-power magnification of the scope! I could self-spot! Just the additional 30 yards made the difference. My; what a relief.
I continued to shoot with very satisfactory results, getting elevation numbers for the scope and writing them down for future reference until I ran out of ammunition. It had been a good day even though I ran out before reaching the furthest targets.
At home I thought about it all and tested the scope to see what I had left after the elevation needed for the 648 yard "Big Chicken" ~ the last target I had fired that day. I estimated that I would have enough travel left in the scope's elevation adjustment to reach the 670 yard Big Round but never for the 834 yard Big Square.
I thought that over and have changed scopes to a good 6X Burris which I think may have more travel in its adjustment. Next will be to experiment and see if this is so. If it doesn't work out I'll be changing over to scopes that really won't fit the M1903 very well ~ stuff like big 12 and 24X Leopold target scopes is all I have remaining. They will "fit" but look mighty strange on an M1903 that still wears its full military wood.
The trouble is that I have not used the M1903 for very much for many years. It shoots wonderfully well but I have been using it "as issued" with the issue sights adjusted with the Camp Perry tool for some time. This is lots of fun of course but the short sight-radius combined with the narrow front sight made it tough too attain a good sight picture and the slightest error in holding would toss the miss. It is a world of difference in comparison with a single shot with its 30+ inch sight radius!
This being the case I did not have any bullets remaining in my inventory suitable for further testing since I fired all I had available that first day. ~ I'll get right on that.
Good evening,
Forrest
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Originally Posted by FAsmus
