Legionnaire
Contributing Member
Yesterday provided a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon ... too nice to stay stuck in the office. So I ducked out early and hit the range to get the lever scouts sighted in. They needed some work after swapping scopes and installing backup sights.
The 1964 vintage Marlin 336RC (.30-30) now sports a Leupold scout scope on an XS Sight Systems base and a Williams receiver sight and Firesight front bead as backup. I started by pulling the scope and sighting in the irons. They were already close to dead on at 25 yeards, so moving to 100, it was a simple matter to get the irons centered and about three inches high. Then stuck the scope back on and got it centered two inches high at 100. Pleased to see that it was grouping just around two inches with inexpensive Federal 150 gr fodder. Then on to the .44 ...
The late model 1894S (.44 Mag) took a bit more work. I installed an XS Sight Systems ghost ring set on it. Shooting 200gr JHP "Deer Stoppers" from Georgia Arms (factory rated at 1650 fps), I was still hitting six to eight inches high with the ghost ring bottomed out; no way to get lower. Guess I'll have to contact XS for a taller front blade. The Burris scout scope also took a bit more work to get settled, and when it finally did, I couldn't get less than a four inch group with that ammo. Good enough for deer out to 100, but I wasn't real happy ... until I loaded her up and took aim at the steel ram out at the 200 yard line. Holding right on the line of the back, I rang the steel 10 for 10 ... offhand! So I figure that one's good to go as well (although I will work on finding a more accurate load once I use up my current supply).
Anyway, a great couple of hours shooting and hanging out with some of the other locals who were also taking advantage of the beautiful weather.
The 1964 vintage Marlin 336RC (.30-30) now sports a Leupold scout scope on an XS Sight Systems base and a Williams receiver sight and Firesight front bead as backup. I started by pulling the scope and sighting in the irons. They were already close to dead on at 25 yeards, so moving to 100, it was a simple matter to get the irons centered and about three inches high. Then stuck the scope back on and got it centered two inches high at 100. Pleased to see that it was grouping just around two inches with inexpensive Federal 150 gr fodder. Then on to the .44 ...
The late model 1894S (.44 Mag) took a bit more work. I installed an XS Sight Systems ghost ring set on it. Shooting 200gr JHP "Deer Stoppers" from Georgia Arms (factory rated at 1650 fps), I was still hitting six to eight inches high with the ghost ring bottomed out; no way to get lower. Guess I'll have to contact XS for a taller front blade. The Burris scout scope also took a bit more work to get settled, and when it finally did, I couldn't get less than a four inch group with that ammo. Good enough for deer out to 100, but I wasn't real happy ... until I loaded her up and took aim at the steel ram out at the 200 yard line. Holding right on the line of the back, I rang the steel 10 for 10 ... offhand! So I figure that one's good to go as well (although I will work on finding a more accurate load once I use up my current supply).
Anyway, a great couple of hours shooting and hanging out with some of the other locals who were also taking advantage of the beautiful weather.
