Range Day

I managed to get up to the range this afternoon, but I forgot they were on winter hours so I only had an hour to shoot until they closed. So all I had time to do was re-sight in my SKS. I only had time to sight it in at 25 yards, but I plan to go back up there on Friday.

The results were much better today thanks to the thread locker I put on the scope mount set screws; the red dot scope remained rock solid.

I started out with a bore sighter stuck in the end of the barrel and then adjusted the red dot so it was showing the same POI. That done, I took out the bore sighter and loaded the magazine from a fresh 10 round clip. Three shots later I looked into the spotting scope and saw this.


It's a nice grouping (1"=4MOA@25'), but it was about 8.5" higher than where I was aiming. Was the bullet rising? I don't know, but I've experienced the same phenomenon before with other calibers and guns.

I dialed down the elevation and adjusted the windage a few times until I was hitting the center of the target. I found out today if I dialed down the scopes brightness to 5 or under, the apparent size of the dot shrunk and I was able to get much better accuracy. It may seem like a no-brainer I guess, but it hadn't occurred to me until today.

Since I couldn't go out and change targets, being short on time, I decided to pump a few rapid fire magazines through the paper and see what kind of grouping I could get.


Not bad... The sprinkling of hits around the hole in the paper are from when I went a little crazy with the sighting in. There is also two ragged holes in the target, one on top of the other. The bottom one from the sighting in process, and the top 2" - 3" one which have merged.

Not bad I say, considering I had less than an hour of trigger time and was unable to change targets. In addition to the Sarah Brady targets I also have some human silhouette targets I was going to put up at 100 yards. They'll keep till Friday I suppose.

Here's an overview of the whole target:


Remember folks, the worst day at the range beats the best day anywhere else!

UPDATE: DoubleTapper reminded me to include a picture of the SKS I used, which I somehow forgot to post originally. Sorry about that, here it is. :-)

Range Report

Howdy! It was raining cats and dogs and Shetland ponies up at the range today, but that didn't detour me from heading up there with my custom Ruger 10/22 and my Yugo SKS with the new scope mount on it. The fact that it was still hunter sight in days didn't keep me at home either. There was the usual assortment of people who hadn't had their Remchester Bambi thumpers out of the closet since dear season ended last year, kids of all ages with their spiffy brand spanking new rifles who had no idea how to use them, there were also two or three who brought their new rifles straight up from the store. I don't know about them, but every new gun I've purchased has been dripping with lubricant and needed to be cleaned before it was shot. God bless the RSO's up there at the range, I wouldn't want their job!

Ruger 10/22

Well, Volquartsen came through with the replacement hammer, hammer spring, and sear for my custom Ruger 10/22 and I wasted no time getting them installed. Right off the bat I noticed that the safety once again was functional, which was a good sign, but I was unable to take it up to the range until today. Using the same ammo as before, I was able to keep a 2" grouping at 100 yards. Not bad even if I do say so myself. I have no doubt that the rifle is capable of greater accuracy than I am at this point. Kudos to Volquartsen for their fast turn around on the replacement parts! I also got to try out the new bipod from Rock Mount and it really helped with my consistency and shrank my group sizes. Hallelujah! My 10/22 is now fully operational again!

Yugo SKS

The Scout Scope mount I got from Scout Scopes came with clear instructions and everything needed and I had it installed in no time. I am very happy with this scope mount and it functioned completely as advertised. Bravo Scout Scopes! The rest of this rant will not be about the scope mount, but about the POS NcSTAR red dot scope I got from a local gun show. Big mistake, this scope is a piece of crap that won't hold zero and needs an Allen wrench (supplied) to adjust, with no detents at all. It was so sensitive and easy to get off target that it took a long time for me to even get the rifle on paper. Thank you to the anonymous RSO who helped me with this, btw. We had to take the bolt out and look down the barrel and hold it on target while adjusting the scope. Doing this I was able to hit the paper, albeit always about four inches left of where the dot was at, and no amount of adjusting would get it on target. Did I mention that the dot covered a 4" circle at 25 yards. I'm junking this POS and getting a good one. Anyone have a suggestion for a cheap (below $100) red dot that will take the recoil of an SKS? Short story is, I burned up about 60 rounds of corrosive milsurp ammo that stinks to high heaven (Seriously, this stuff smells awful!) and still need to go back with a new scope to get it sighted in.

Ack, well it wasn't all bad, but it wasn't my best day at the range. *sigh*