stubbicatt
Member
Guys.
Took my faux sniper Mosin Nagant to the range today to attempt to get it zeroed. I've had it for some time now, and I like the rifle, but zeroing the scope has been a challenge. The rifle was built up in Ukraine using scope base that apparrently came from another rifle at some point in its career, and had already been ground down for that rifle. I tried shimming the scope base, with sort of mixed results, and never really felt like it was "right."
So I took it to Mike Six and Forrest Tiernan (sometime contributors here) at Hickman Rifles in Colorado Springs, for assistance. They put a weld of some sort of brazing material on the base, and slowly filed it down and adjusted the scope as they went. When I got it back the reticle was all centered up for windage.
I took it to the range a week or so ago to see where it was printing, but due to the conditions at the range, I never did satisfy myself it was working right.
Today went to the range and learned several things:
1) One simply MUST put the rifle on the sandbags off a bench rest exactly the same each time. I finally settled on the humped area of the stock in front of the magazine, just below the finger grooves. If I let the rifle slide to where the bag rested at the junction of the "hump" and the long, slender, fore end, the rifle would shoot 6 to 7 inches low, but still centered up for windage.
I settled on the "hump" figuring that once I get it dialed in, and learn to shoot it from field positions, I'll be gripping it there. This may or may not keep it centered up, but that's my starting point.
2) These can be some accurate rifles. I was shooting at these "sighting in" targets which have one big center bullseye, and four little diamond bullseyes, one in each corner of the paper. So I took my time and tatoo'ed the various targets, shooting 60 rounds overall. On one of the targets, I shot three shots, two of which were in the same hole, and the third of which was touching the other two. Initially, I thought something horrible had gone wrong, as shot number two was indiscernible through the spotting scope, and I figured the scope shot loose or something, as it wasn't even on paper. So I shot again at that target, and went down range to inspect. That's when I noticed the ovality of the one hole, and figured that's where the errant bullet went.
Good enough for me. (Oh, and I'll not mention the horror show that preceded this group, as I was frustrated beyond all belief narrowing down the issues with this rifle... and the "groups" (patterns actually) showed it.)
3) Once cleaned up, steel case ammo extracts much easier.
The action unlocks better when plastiplate grease is applied to the camming surfaces and the bolt lugs. Keeping the chamber clean makes a huge difference on reliability. I use a skosh of Kroil on the chamber brush each time I clean the rifle, and swab it out with a mop. Seems to help quite a little bit.
4) Optics are NOT user friendly.
For 3.5x magnification, the reticle on this scope is bright and clear, but not easy to use. The parallax is an interesting phenomenon. Once I figured out to split the front sight with the vertical post of the reticle, and maintain perfect eye relief, accuracy narrowed right down. Shooting this scope and this rifle is a lot more challenging than a modern rifle and scope combination.
5) Recoil of the x54r cartridge is less than the recoil of a 308.
Using Czech silver tip ball ammo, the rifle shoots very well, and recoil is not as noticeable as with a 308, which seems odd, as the 308 and the x54r are virtual twins for bullet weight and powder charge. Go figger?
6) BDC works great. After zeroing at 100, I started plinking @ little bits on the berm at 200. There was a fragment of clay pigeon which I was able to dispatch, and some other small fragments of stuff that I was hitting fairly regularly. I dialed the scope down to the stop, and then up to 200. It was as close to spot on as I could discern. --I can't wait to shoot at some real distances soon!---
Anyways, a great day at the range, as gaged by what I learned, as opposed to the results, although the results were not too shabby.
Took my faux sniper Mosin Nagant to the range today to attempt to get it zeroed. I've had it for some time now, and I like the rifle, but zeroing the scope has been a challenge. The rifle was built up in Ukraine using scope base that apparrently came from another rifle at some point in its career, and had already been ground down for that rifle. I tried shimming the scope base, with sort of mixed results, and never really felt like it was "right."
So I took it to Mike Six and Forrest Tiernan (sometime contributors here) at Hickman Rifles in Colorado Springs, for assistance. They put a weld of some sort of brazing material on the base, and slowly filed it down and adjusted the scope as they went. When I got it back the reticle was all centered up for windage.
I took it to the range a week or so ago to see where it was printing, but due to the conditions at the range, I never did satisfy myself it was working right.
Today went to the range and learned several things:
1) One simply MUST put the rifle on the sandbags off a bench rest exactly the same each time. I finally settled on the humped area of the stock in front of the magazine, just below the finger grooves. If I let the rifle slide to where the bag rested at the junction of the "hump" and the long, slender, fore end, the rifle would shoot 6 to 7 inches low, but still centered up for windage.
I settled on the "hump" figuring that once I get it dialed in, and learn to shoot it from field positions, I'll be gripping it there. This may or may not keep it centered up, but that's my starting point.
2) These can be some accurate rifles. I was shooting at these "sighting in" targets which have one big center bullseye, and four little diamond bullseyes, one in each corner of the paper. So I took my time and tatoo'ed the various targets, shooting 60 rounds overall. On one of the targets, I shot three shots, two of which were in the same hole, and the third of which was touching the other two. Initially, I thought something horrible had gone wrong, as shot number two was indiscernible through the spotting scope, and I figured the scope shot loose or something, as it wasn't even on paper. So I shot again at that target, and went down range to inspect. That's when I noticed the ovality of the one hole, and figured that's where the errant bullet went.
Good enough for me. (Oh, and I'll not mention the horror show that preceded this group, as I was frustrated beyond all belief narrowing down the issues with this rifle... and the "groups" (patterns actually) showed it.)
3) Once cleaned up, steel case ammo extracts much easier.
The action unlocks better when plastiplate grease is applied to the camming surfaces and the bolt lugs. Keeping the chamber clean makes a huge difference on reliability. I use a skosh of Kroil on the chamber brush each time I clean the rifle, and swab it out with a mop. Seems to help quite a little bit.
4) Optics are NOT user friendly.
For 3.5x magnification, the reticle on this scope is bright and clear, but not easy to use. The parallax is an interesting phenomenon. Once I figured out to split the front sight with the vertical post of the reticle, and maintain perfect eye relief, accuracy narrowed right down. Shooting this scope and this rifle is a lot more challenging than a modern rifle and scope combination.
5) Recoil of the x54r cartridge is less than the recoil of a 308.
Using Czech silver tip ball ammo, the rifle shoots very well, and recoil is not as noticeable as with a 308, which seems odd, as the 308 and the x54r are virtual twins for bullet weight and powder charge. Go figger?
6) BDC works great. After zeroing at 100, I started plinking @ little bits on the berm at 200. There was a fragment of clay pigeon which I was able to dispatch, and some other small fragments of stuff that I was hitting fairly regularly. I dialed the scope down to the stop, and then up to 200. It was as close to spot on as I could discern. --I can't wait to shoot at some real distances soon!---
Anyways, a great day at the range, as gaged by what I learned, as opposed to the results, although the results were not too shabby.