As some of you may remember, I had pretty poor accuracy with my 71/84 Mauser the firt time I shot it. I concluded that I couldn't see the sights well. Today I bought with me a Birchwood Casey Super Touch-Up pen in flat black. I blackened the front and rear sights with it. Boy, what a difference. I could now see the front sight very clear today. The target was also better illuminated by the sun than in my previous location where the sun was behind and to the right of the target. Range today was 100 yards. I didn't have my friends range finder today, but we have shot in the same exact spot before, so I'm sure its close.
I also changed my rest posistion on the rifle according to Mic McPherson's recomendation. There is no bedding of any kind between the stock and the barrel of this 121 year old rifle, so instead of resting the wood way out by the muzzel end where a bipod would be as before, I rested my hand on the rifle bag, and held her underneath the receiver, imitating an off-shoulder hold. The rifle continues to shoot high at 100 yards/meters as the battle sight is regulated for 200 meters. I shot at the bottom of the black target using a 6 o'clock hold, and was getting them in the black, but still high. I then modified my hold to 2-3 inches of white below the black and put one of 3 shots in the ten ring. I knew I was on to something. I thought I would give it one more try, and hope I would have something good to report back.
This last 3 shot group was my best of the day, although the flyer was still way off. I forgot to tip the rifle up and back down to settle the powder to the back of the case befor shooting the first round, but that wouldn't have accounted for the flyer. I think this could be a minute of angle rifle when the shooter does their part.
It was interesting, I found myself moving my focal point to the target, instead of the front sight. I would bring my focal point back to the front sight, and yup, it was still lined up with the rear notch. I could then let my vision focus on the target again, and found I could trust the sight alignment to be correct. Thats how well I could see the front sight today, even when not completely in focus. The trigger has a bit of grit to it still, but its OK as it gives me a reference point. I can tell as I'm SLOWLY pulling the trigger back just when its going to go off, or very close to it.
I was thrilled that I finally put one in the bull, and that this gun can shoot. It's hard to estimate 2-3 inches of white paper below the target, so these results are pretty good. Next time I might put a red dot reference 8 inches below the bullseye for a real reference. It will be interesting. Suffice to say, the rifle works fine when the shooter does his part.
I'm not normally this good a shot, but get lucky sometimes. A special thanks to Lupe for spending part of his day with me, and letting me use his range. He is one of the nicest people I have met in town, and I'm not the only one who seems to think so.
-Tutt
