) There are gongs at 300 and 400 yards that you can see in the pic, although the range distinction is hard to make out. Anyhow, I brought "Old Thirty One Twenty", my 120 year old 71/84 Mauser, and my CZ550 in 375 H&H Ackley Improved. I had ammo left for both and thought I would try to shoot it up. First up was Ol' 3120. Using the 485 grain loads that shot so well at Billy Dixon I was able to sight-in in a few minutes. After that, I could hit the 300 yard gong at will either seated at the bench or standing. I moved to the 400 yard target, and it took me even less time to sight-in and I hit the 400 yard target from standing twice in a row then stopped.
I bought out the 540 grain bullet loads to try them again. They had proved to be unstable at Billy Dixon, but the bore was not clean which may have been the issue. I still could not hit with these loads, but again the barrrel was no longer clean. Next time I will start with a clean barrel and shoot these loads up. Perhaps they will perform better.
Next up was the CZ in 375 H&H A.I. I had about 15 rounds left of a 300 grain Barnes TSX at close to 2700 fps. I was able to hit the 300 yard gong one time from standing but otherwise danced right around it. The gun is not painful to shoot, but the recoil still affects my ability to aim some!
Need more practice! I then moved to the 400 yard target. As the gun only has folding leafs for 100, 200 and 300 meters, this requires a little "Elmer Keith" style hold-over on the front sight in addition to the 300 m blade. I did hit the 400 yard gong once off-shoulder, but otherwise tended to dance around it as well. This is due to me, not the rifle. Still not too bad for iron sights! I was able to share both rifles with some of the people up there who had never seen a 71/84 Mauser and I think were impressed with its accuracy. I know I always am! I also let them shoot a few rounds of 375 A.I. One fella hit the 300 yard gong on his first shot. He also was a good shot with a levergun in 30-30 using its iron sights on the 300 yard gong from standing. I was impressed with his shooting ability.
A few shooters were from military or police backgrounds and had various black guns. The people next to me had come up all the way from Marin County. Finally, people had BBQ's and were grilling up some very good smelling beef. There was some very modest beer drinking, but everyone seemed to behave and not drink too much. Always makes me a bit nervous when the beer come out.
Anyhow, was a fun couple of hours but I decided to head-out and get some tri-tip myself to do on the grill as I was getting hungry and the weather was detiorating. But a nice introduction to the range.
-Tutt
.
