Today, I was at the range with three friends. We did a little shooting competition. Wooden boards sized about 6″x9″ were propped up on the bushes by the berm and we shot at them from 150 yards. Each shooter had five rounds and we fired at will. I had a .223 bolt action with what proved a loose scope mount — the predictable end result was no hits at all. Another friend had an Ishapore .308 Enfield, no hits either as he aimed at the middle middle rather than under the target with sights set to 200m. The third man had a Vepr 7.62×54 with a 6x PSOP scope and he had one center hit, but the board didn’t fall off the bush. Robert, pictured above with a happy grin, shot his .223 Savage with a 3-9x Weaver scope and got three hit out of five shots, knocking the board down.
We did a re-match, with the results repeated, only this time he knocked the board down in two shots. And I went down to the 100 yard line, missed some more and finally had the bright idea of checking the scope mount. Ironically, I also tried to hit the target with my old G23, only to have it break in the middle of the magazine (the recoil spring connection to the guide rod is busted). So the lesson is: “Test your weapons and optics. Have spare weapons on hand.”