I sent Pat I a picture of muzzleloader target I shot(I wouldn't post it here) 50 yds no less, think he said he fell out of the chair laughing and choking, hell I thunk I did good with opens
Edit- same gun, same load and same ol jerk behind the trigger took whitetail doe at 150 paces
Last edited by swheeler; 07-05-2014 at 08:12 PM.
Charter Member #148
+1. Me, I'm a paper puncher till I get bored, then I drag out some steel and bang away, but I like groups. However, the point of shootin' is hittin' and if one can't hit, great groups off a bench and bags don't mean diddlysquat. Two different arts, two different games, two different goals.
A trick a lot of high power service rifle shooter use to help with glare and light is to use an little carbide burner to smoke the sights giving a dead black surface. A little calcium carbide water and the burner miners lamp produces acetylene gas which gives off a very flat black soot and helps stop glares.
I just ran out and tried it again...this time with the sun glaring in real bad from my right and lower in the sky.
I used a circle about an 1 1/4 at 100 (traced around a 20 oz soda cap)...group was about 2 1/4 L to R and 1 3/4 up/down and would have been a bit smaller if I could try one of the shots over....must been a flinch jerk anurism thing... group would have been a nice round 1.5 inch without that pesky hole...it was the 3rd shot that left me a bit??.....all shots would have killed a beercan dead if I were shooting at it sideways...shooting at the bottom of the can I would have had that one solid miss.
I traced around a muffin ingot for the 200 yard target it was about a 2 5/8 target and could stand to be a big bigger...I was having trouble tonight with the sun glaring from the side like that. I was not trying to hit the target, just shooting at it and letting the boolits go low and the group was.....drumsticks please.....3 1/2 X 3 3/4 ......all shots were more than minute of whitetail or a FAT raccoon...the one redeeming thing about it I guess.
...I decided not to pop on the steel tonight.....deemed it pointless as there was about 3 solid misses in that 200 yard group had I been shooting my plate.
I noticed I was hanging a bit right the other day and it was even worse tonight (sighted in on 42 grains of W748 and the BRP 30SIlhouette boolit made of different alloy).....gonna have to move me sight a bit perhaps after I check it on a cloudy day in order to keep using these loads up. I actually forgot which load it was sighted in for I guess.
Did manage to get the target pic uploaded...tried 5 pics 3 made it through....wooohooo best luck I have had in many many months.
Last edited by 357maximum; 07-05-2014 at 10:44 PM.
We have all had bad days/weeks it happens......wanna ruin my group....stare at me super intently as I shoot it.....thats all it takes some days. I am actually surprised I hold up as well as I do when our little group gets together to shoot....I quit competitive archery for a reason...and that was it. Most days I would be ok but when it truly mattered in that game I would flub it up.....my brain is not always my friend.....I have come to accept that fact..itis what it is.
Attachment 109848
I have found that with open sights I like the inverted triangle for good contrast and somewhere to aim at. For scoped work I use a circle and hold at six o'clock. These two targets are the same load - shot with the circle target first then with the inverted triangle the group really improves.
Last edited by sthwestvictoria; 07-05-2014 at 10:53 PM.
ars longa, vita brevis
SWV ...thanks for the hint...I will cobble up some targets like that and try it next time out. I have always shot round or square targets, but the square targets sitting on their point did seem to work better.....hmmmmm says I.......THANK YOU
That is a nice looking mauser! Nothing wrong with either target especially with a peep. I'm feared everything I own will have to be scoped soon ifin I want to hit anything.
If not scoped I'll have to invest in one of those Tenn bughole keyboards for the net
Last edited by swheeler; 07-05-2014 at 11:47 PM.
Charter Member #148
You know, good eyesight is wasted on youth. I remember just a few years ago (OK maybe it was 15) I had a lot of fun with a Winchester 290 (most accurate automatic 22 I ever owned) I would put a blank piece of paper up at fifty yards. I would shoot a hole into the middle and then try to fly the rest of them through that hole. Always ended up chewing out a ragged 1/2" group.
I also remember being able to see 22 bullet holes at 100 yards if I focused on the edge of the target. Couldn't see them if i looked directly at them but I could if I focused on an obscure part of the target. Sucks because I didn't know jack about shooting at that time, and had I had a mentor of some sort, there's no telling what I could have done!
As it is, I just started wearing glasses this year. Not much of a prescription, but it get's me back where I need to be.
Hopefully, I'll still be able to shoot when I'm old and crusty.
Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.
Eyesight....I am at that age where my Dad got glasses and I am noticing things I do not want to acknowledge already. I grow more empathetic to that there issue by the day(used to be funny).....hard facts is what they is....it might already be happening (not so funny no more) . I still say it is the sun and old ammo though. I know this gun shoots tighter with this load.......groan......good thing deer have a 8 inch killzone and I do not ever have to shoot very far up at my friends place.
That Mauser needs some metal finishing but I kinda like it as she looks....loooks used and she is......just remember Boyd's is a bit optimistic on their 90% inletting. The finish is a mix of tru-oil and BLO...the stock was sanded to a good fine grit and them completely burnished with a glass rod before the finish was put on....it took forever and a day to dry is seemed. It also has hinged bottom metal that I found online made in another place in Spain and then I tapped the plunger for a machine screw...locktited it in and polished the head into a button of sorts....all that work and I never use the hinged floorplate.....go figure. ...aaaarg,
Hey Scott.........I will take two of them Tenn Bughole Buttons please ...just in case I lose the other one ya know.
Last edited by 357maximum; 07-06-2014 at 01:27 AM.
It happens to all of us. Father time is a cruel master. Mike and I were just discussing the eyesight issue this evening. I had better than 20/20 eyesight into my early 30's. When shooting iron sighted rifles at 100 yards I could see the groups with the naked eye from the bench and make sight corrections. Then I started to notice that I needed "more light on the subject" in my mid thirties. By age 40 I was having trouble reading fine print and it seemed that my arms weren't long enough any more. Went to the optometrist at age 41 and he told me that my right, dominant, eye was no longer focusing, and causing extra strain on my left eye to make up the difference. Something that happens to most everybody with age. Got my first set of eyeglasses then. Wore them for 18 months until I was having trouble reading again. Went back to the optometrist and he said I needed bi-focals, and that the left eye was now needing correction as well. He fitted me with bi-focal contacts and everything was great. Now I'm on my 3rd bi-focal contact prescription and last time he said that would be it for the bi-focal contacts. Next time is back to glasses.
Things are starting to change again. Won't be long and it'll be back to glasses full time. This whole deal has made me appreciate aperture sights a great deal. And, nothing will make you appreciate a good scope more than when your eyesight starts to go.
-Matt
Group Buys Honcho'd: C326-175-FN, 434-210-RF, C434-210-RF, 30-165-SIL-MOD, 358156-PB, 413-170-Keith, C348-225-FN, 8mm SIL, 45-230-CM, 45-270-Ohaus/SWC, Edd's 28-170-FN
Mike
When the day comes I will replace the bolt handle, and drill some holes in her ( I already have a Buhler safety sitting in reserve). Now my long barrelled 98 in 8MM that is set up basically the same way.....the hoodies may be an option........at a later date.
I started a thread here quite a few years back titled "Aging Eyes and Iron Sights" or something similar... it became a sticky. Funny part is two things, (1) at the time I wrote that I only needed 1.25 reading glasses once in a while. Now I keep 1.75 with me all the time. (2) I keep telling myself that if I'd never worn those silly things in the first place my eye's wouldn't be this bad As I was walking to a neighbors house yesterday evening, another neighbor (part timer) asked me if I know who the young man on the blue four wheeler picking blackberries was. I could see the four wheeler and the fellow at the side of the road. Had to walk another 100 feet closer before I recognized the boy's machine. So now, not only can I not see to type this without a decently lit room and glasses, past 250 yards I can't even make out plainly what I could see clearly a mere 3 years ago. Thankfully 357 hasn't brought up the issue of memory I hope Dad is having a good time with this...
My Dad is aware of the situation as we shoot together occassionally.....he just happens to be less cruel about the issue than I was 18 years ago, but he still gets his digs in occassionally. Memory....I have never had a real great memory, cannot miss something you never had.
Enjoy every moment you can with him, there will come a day when all you have is your memories. As to hoods, I've used sunshades on scopes, but never thought of a hood for the rear sight. My '93 Spanish sporter has a hood on the front sight, but I can see where a hood for the rear could work wonders. I've not yet asked, is the shooting you are showing offhand?
JohnH....mmmmmm NO....off a very stable bench and pile of sand filled cloth shot bags....offhand.......I would need a family sized cereal box at 200.....heck might need one at 100.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |