I'd been wanting to sight in my old Mosin–Nagant sniper rifle for a good while, but yesterday I actually started the process. Got a pretty sore shoulder today because of it, but no bruising.
I took one of the 20 gallon plastic water jugs, filled it about 1/3 of the way up with rocks and dirt (The wind won't blow it away!) and then screwed a platform down on top of it to make a shooting platform. A folding lawn chair is the perfect height for shooting from it.
I use the sighting platform on loan from my neighbor to cradle the rifle while sighting it in.
I shot a total of 8 rounds and the first three were needed just to figure out how to get it on the target. The sites are perfect horizontally, but it shoots high and the site is set to shoot as low as it will go. Looks like I'm going to have to do some modifications to get that corrected. The 6 hits you see were while I was trying to get the elevation correct using Kentucky Windage. Or in other words knowing how far down, up, left or right the bullet will go and shooting either up, down, left or right to get it to hit where you want it to.
This was using the old battle field sights and that's a far cry from using a scope. Not likely I'll ever add a scope so the trick will be for me to get used to using the battle field site and get the group as small as I can. Where we usually shoot from is the tall yucca to the right of the target. I was shooting from another hundred or so feet away from that.
Just measured and that was a 239 foot shoot.
Found several more Strawberry cactus while out doing all of this so if and when they ever bloom again then that'll give me considerable more fruit. (Provided I beat the birds and rodents to it.) Unfortunately this year all they've done is bloom, but they didn't put on fruit under the blooms or at least the fruit was too small to do any good with.
Hey Tffnguy....saw a '42 stamped, round barrel, Mosin Nagant in a local pawn shop in FTW for $120 asking price. All shiny stock, nice clean rifle.
ReplyDeleteI may have to get that thing if it's still there next week.
seeya soon.
BF
Sounds like a good deal to me BF. I sure need to do some work on my stock because of a couple of cracks. If I can find my carbon fiber cloth I'll use it to take care of the problem and if I can't find it I guess I'll use fiberglass instead.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting project. That's a nice looking rifle. I bet you could take down a deer with it while sitting with a cool beverage on your back patio.
ReplyDeleteAllen, it would take down a deer real easy. I'd want to be a little more accurate though before I tried that. I'd just as soon drop them on the first shot for their sake and mine to. I'd also have to get some water back by the target and feed to start attracting them. Maybe later?
ReplyDeleteDamn, I should let you sight in my 1939 genuine brought back from WWII German Mauser. I've got plenty of buuulittts.
ReplyDeleteWell, Well, Well, You know I'm readen this thing... Yep you would have to make a whole lot of jerky and sausage. But sure would be goooodddd!!! And you are pretty close to keeping it in a pie plate pretty well for an old blind fart!! 8" pipe 4' long and a big hubcap with a 5 gallon bucket for a top makes a good feeder.. Killed bunch deer that way.. You would not have to worry about a coon getting down in it either.. That made a stinking mess one time as I recall. We'r watchen.. Tigger
ReplyDeleteForgot to say the hubcap is to catch the corn on the bottom...
ReplyDeleteBkid, I'd love that. Think I shot one of those before.
ReplyDeleteTig,I'll get around to the feed and water sooner or later. Hopefully not later. I thought you must have vanished. I ain't blind yet. Matter of fact the eyes are still pretty good. Its the shakes that screw up the shootin.
For curiosity's sake I just measured the distance from the shooting stand to the target and it came out to 239 feet.
ReplyDeleteThe rifle in that picture is not a snipers rifle.
ReplyDeleteIt at least needs to be a bent bolt and they has scope mounts and scopes.
2 Dogs, I couldn't say, but have seen them advertised as sniper rifles. I'd imagine it would be just as accurate and shoot the same distance as a sniper model with a scope added.
ReplyDelete