Changed Scopes

[Mortblanc]

We had a very pleasant day yesterday, sunshine, 10-12c and no wind.

I decided it was time to get to the range and check the zero on the newly modified rifle/scope set up.

It is a forward mounted, long eye relief scope on the Ruger Ranch Rifle I am presently dealing with.

I settled in at the shooting bench and set the targets up at 25 meters. The first shot from the rifle bore sighted by eye on the nice quilting square my neighbors have placed on their storage shed was 1cm to the left of the mark. I made my adjustments without firing a second shot and moved to 100m.

The three shot group was 6cm to the right, so I apparently over corrected or should have really taken a second shot to verify my adjustments.

The final three shots were exactly where they were supposed to be, 5cm high at 100m, and I called the deed done.

That setting will put that particular rifle, a 7.62x39, dead on at 200m and a little over 30cm low at 300m. I seldom get shots at long range anyway so the drop is not a negative factor for me. I am not required to hole over on any medium sized game target until it is out there at 225m-250m.

More importantly to this thread, My first shot was only 1 cm off the target using the old school bore sighting method that requires no equipment other than a stable base to hold the rifle. A card table and sand filled bread sacks will serve that function.

If I had fired the bore sighted rifle at 100m for the first shot it would have been on the target paper and probably still within the soccer ball sized kill zone of deer sized critters, which are my intended targets for this rifle.

If done carefully, bore sighting can be accurate for setting up a scope for its final polish, and will save a ton of money in wasted ammo. In an emergency it is sometimes the only way one can verify a scope setting or check for scope damage after a fall or damage to the rifle while in the field.