Range Report 04-14-10
Well I had the day off because I have to go into the shop this weekend for some special missions that we are supporting. Oh yeah I should probably mention that I bought a Ruger 10/22 yesterday. Look for a initial review of that in a few days.
It’s a little colder than it has been the last week or so but most of the snow has melted and it’s actually pretty nice outside. I took the new 10/22, the Saiga-12, the 1911, and I carried my Glock 19 as I do everyday. I also took my Birchwood-Casey .22 spinner target figuring it would be a real hoot with the 10/22.
I started by setting up the spinner target about 20 yards down range and loading up some 10/22 mags. For the first 50 rounds or so I don’t think I ever hit the spinners once. The only experience I have with long gun iron sights is aperture sights. I was trying to use the sights on the 10/22 like pistol sights lining up the notch in the middle of the big gap in the middle of the rear sight. Took me those 50 rounds or so to notice the much smaller notch in the bottom of the rear sight. Once I got that little trick figured out I was ringing the steel much more regularly.
Actually I still had some trouble hitting the targets every time so I set up a cardboard box and put a sticky target on it to see where my point of impact was compared to my point of aim. I set the box up right next to the steel spinner around 20 yards out. I shot an entire 25 round magazine at the target while aiming at the bullseye so I could get a good pattern to see how the POA/POI compared. Turns out with the irons I was hitting about an inch lower and an inch to the right of where I was aiming. Once I figured this out I applied a little Texas Windage (Kentucky Windage) and was able to hit the steel targets at least 9 times out of 10.
Total I fired 200 hundred rounds of .22LR and had a blast. As you can see from the picture at the top the steel targets are pretty much gray so next time I run by the hardware store I going to pick up some blaze orange paint to re-touch the spinners.
I also shot about 50 rounds through the Saiga-12 bouncing coke cans and bottles around the range. It has about 200 rounds through it now and it seems to be smoothing out. I actually had zero malfunctions at that was shooting nothing but Federal bulk pack from Wal-Mart.
I also ran a few magazines through my Dan Wesson Pointman 7 1911 and all I really learned was that I need more practice and I need to slow down and focus more on the basics. When I did my job the bullets went right where I wanted them. If I got in a hurry and rushed the shots they might end up somewhere in the vicinity of where I was aiming.
Over all I had a great time and really enjoy weekday trips to the range when there is almost no one out there. Since the weather has started improving the range has been really crowded on the weekends. Well I hope y’all have a great time on your next trip to the range no matter what you’re shooting.
Keep up the good fight
-Rob
Tactical Texan 