Well, Hardtarget, in answer to your question, it was (I hate to admit) my 60th... and I cannot believe it. I'm actually only 14 years old inside my head.
I'm blessed with pretty decent vision, but still..... shooting irons at 100 yards is a center-mass proposition anytime.
Today was this rifle's first range trip! I took some mid-power, 200 grain JHPs to try. My first thought was, this rifle does in fact say, "Hello!" to your shoulder! It's not quite what a .30-30 carbine is, and it's easily manageable, but to have a fun and longer range day I'll put together some softer shooting loads. It shoots very well.
At 50 yards I was able to hold about softball-sized groups, all right of center about 2 inches and quite a bit low. The rear sight had to come up a ways to get closer to the ballpark. Once I pretty much knew where it was hitting, I tried 100.
100 yards was a bit different! The old-eyes-thing! I was on the paper, strung in about a 10" vertical line, about 3" right of center. If it had been an animal, it certainly would have had the bejesus scared out of it!
I think I'll drift the rear sight left just a bit and take it back out. Overall, I'm very happy with it.
Lever rifles aren't exactly precision instruments, but this one is very nice. The action is essentially brand new - I have the history on the rifle now and it had no more (probably less) than 20 rounds put through it after leaving Browning. I got it from a close friend who is retired from Browning, so I am confident that's right. He test fired it at the St. Louis repair facility and then brought it home. When I got it, it was in the original box, plastic bag, and the little brown paper ties holding the plastic bag around the barrel and action were even still in the box. Original manual too.
I can see how you guys who have these rifles love them! In brushy country where shots are relatively short range, this would be a great hunting rifle. I guess that's what made all the early Winchesters as popular as they've been.
