Time at the Hamilton rifle range

[branxhunter]

A couple of weekends ago the local rifle range held a 300m feral cat shoot, and I took Dad, the Omark 7.62 and my Rem .22-250 along to have a go. Readers might remember the first visit to this range early this year for a hunting rifle shoot.

As the Omark only had the stock lengthened and recoil pad fitted the night before it hadn't had a proper zeroing session, so we got there early and got a rough enough zero at 100 yards, with Dad having the last two shots, and his first two with this rifle and with the tunnel type foresight.


Once everyone arrived we arranged ourselves at the 300yard mound to start the shoot. There was an even spread of target and hunting rifles. I counted five .22-250s alone. We were shooting the Omark with peep sights while everyone else was using scoped rifles.

I adjusted the peep to allow 3" elevation and let Dad go first - 2 sighters (and choice whether to keep the scores from those two sighters) followed by 10 scoring shots (numbered reduced if sighter scores kept). I used my scoped .22-250 to call the fall of each shot.

I had my round a little later, with the result that Dad whooped me - I like to blame it on his calling of my shots, but truth be known he was apparently a very good shot when he was younger, and can obviously still hold his own. At 300yards the cat target was just an indistinct blob, and I was happy to get the hits I did.

I redeemed myself later in the day with the Remington. If I had shot both rounds with the .22-250 like the group I achieved I would have won the hunter class on the day.

All-in-all a great day out. Dad had a ball, and he is keen to head back again at some stage. The Omark is currently with a gunsmith getting drilled and tapped so I can add a rail, QD rings and a scope so we can shoot both peeps and scoped.

I have photos from the day but can't add them until tomorrow night.

Marcus


PS. That is strange, a 340kb photo attached and displays. I usually have to reduce to around 100kb to even get photos to upload. The photo below is the target with the .22-250. Sighters didn't even hit paper, rounds 1 and 2 I aimed level with the top of the target paper upper edge in line with the cats head, then all following shots were aimed as shown by the blue arrow. Wind from left to right.

[branxhunter]

Lets try adding photos one at a time.

100 yard zero
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[branxhunter]

Dad with the Omark

[Alboy]

Good deal. I love old man surprised me stories.

[branxhunter]

Dad's 300yard target

[branxhunter]

My 300yard target

[recoil junky]

That's great branx!! Love it when people get to go shooting with Dad. I miss it a way more than I thought I would.

RJ

[branxhunter]

On the 300 yard mound

[branxhunter]

A tricked up Omark

[branxhunter]

And finally, a custom Sako L579 .22-250

[branxhunter]

Al and RJ,

Yes, it was a pretty special time. A big part of getting this old target rifle up and going was to provide an opportunity for dad to get into some informal target shooting. My brother and I had an idea that he would enjoy it and that proved to be correct. I think that with a scope he might even show up some far shinier, far more expensive target rifle set-ups.

Marcus

[kombi1976]

Great story, Marcus. I've been meaning to take my own father out to the range and this is encouragement.

[gitano]

Farm out and right arm!

Takes discipline to shoot long ranges with open sights, BUT... once learned, it greatly helps the 'scope shooting.

Hope you get many opportunities to shoot with your dad. I certainly did not.

Paul

[branxhunter]

Farm out and right arm!

Paul

What does that mean????

Marcus

[gitano]

Back in the '60s in the US, the hippies used to express their amazement at something with the phrase "Far Out", and their agreement or approval with "Right On". Those of us that didn't want to be associated with hippies and chose to make fun of them used "Farm Out" and "Right Arm".

In this case, I was attempting to express my pleasured amazement with "Farm Out", and my enthusiastic acknowledgement with "Right Arm" without being associated with the fools of the '60s.

Sorry for the confusion. "Guess ya hadta be there..."

Paul

[kombi1976]

I like it. I have my personal beefs about hippies, mainly the way they drove VW Buses into the ground and made many of them so rusty they were irredeemable. Also their belief that marijuana was simply mind altering and harmless. But then my feelings are the same for 70s surfers. For the record, marijuana is a largest trigger of latent psychosis and huge cost in our mental health system. So "Right arm" to your altered slang!

[22hornet]

Looks like you had a fantastic day Marcus. A great day spent with your dad on the range.

[Jorge in Oz]

Nice write up and pics Marcus, glad you and your old man had a great time together.
 
Nice shooting too.

[branxhunter]

Had another day at the range with my brother and Dad. Since the last shoot I have worked up a load using low drag 155gn Dyer HPs, and have added a Davis 2 stage target trigger, a second hand Zeiss 6.5-20x50 scope, and an accessory rail to mount a borrowed F/class bipod.
 
We had a great day shooting the feral cat target at 300 yards and feral pig at 400 yards. My brother was shooting his heavy barrel Tikka T3 in .30-06 while Dad and I shared the Omark. And yes, he showed us up again..... The cunning old b%&&#@ was more than happy for me to shoot first at both ranges and get the rifle zeroed in......
 
Here are a few photos
 
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Marcus

[branxhunter]

A few more photos from the day.
 
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Marcus

[davidlt89]

Excellent!!! that is one nice target your dad shot at 300! was that with open sights? because if it was, that was some fine shooting. Looking at his target and your target, you may want to take a few tips from "dad":grin: God Bless.

[kombi1976]

There's plenty to be happy with in those results.
Out of interest, what sort of '06 ammo was your brother using?

[branxhunter]

Excellent!!! that is one nice target your dad shot at 300! was that with open sights? because if it was, that was some fine shooting. Looking at his target and your target, you may want to take a few tips from "dad":grin: God Bless.

 
Nope - we were both shooting the scope sighted Omark. The targets above are mine, while these are his two targets:
 
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We are both still feeling our way with this whole target shooting thing but it is a lot of fun, and is a great way to get a handle on the effects of wind.
 
Kombi, I am not sure what brand the loads are, but they are a heavy (up around 190gn?) target load he found at a reasonable price in one of the gunshops we occasionally drive past driving between work sites.
 
Marcus

[sakorick]

Dad's can surprise you! That is some great shooting. I have a friend with a Ruger bull barrel 22-250 Remington that shoots tiny groups. Seems to be a very accurate cartridge across the board. Regards, Rick.

[kombi1976]

I did wonder what they are. They look like Geco by the symbol on the box but I could be wrong. The cool thing with an '06 is that you can use a really heavy bullet as a target bullet......so long as your powder load backs it up. Bet his Tikka shoots well. Not an obvious target cal though.

[Brithunter]

  Interesting comment :-

Not an obvious target cal though

as after all for many .... many decades the 30-06 was THE target cartridge especially in the US and spheres it had influence. I suppose like the UK "down under" had the 303.

     Looking at the photos some of those "rifles" are more like artillery pieces.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[branxhunter]

I took the Omark to the range and shot two rounds of 10 at 300 yards - first time I have been back for many months. The wind was right to left and ranged from a strong breeze down to gentle breeze.
 
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I'm pretty happy with how I went. I came fourth on the day. The first three were all shooting rifles worth $3,000 + (two Barnards and a Stolle Panda).
 
Marcus

[gitano]

Excellent!

Paul

[Jorge in Oz]

Nice shooting Marcus.

That Omark is a gem. The shooter is not too bad either.

[JaDub]

Dang , Marcus.   That`s some great shooting !!