Time at the Hamilton rifle range

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 12:07:54 AM

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 · November 24, 2013, 12:50:52 AM

Lets try adding photos one at a time.

100 yard zero
[ATTACH]13468[/ATTACH]

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 12:52:11 AM

Dad with the Omark

Alboy · November 24, 2013, 07:00:42 AM

Good deal. I love old man surprised me stories.

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 10:18:56 AM

Dad's 300yard target

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 10:26:47 AM

My 300yard target

recoil junky · November 24, 2013, 10:37:12 AM

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 · November 24, 2013, 10:39:51 AM

On the 300 yard mound

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 10:45:47 AM

A tricked up Omark

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 10:48:17 AM

And finally, a custom Sako L579 .22-250

branxhunter · November 24, 2013, 11:47:51 AM

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 · November 24, 2013, 04:39:13 PM

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

gitano · November 24, 2013, 09:49:53 PM

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 · November 25, 2013, 12:08:15 AM

Quote from: gitano;129373Farm out and right arm!

Paul

What does that mean????

Marcus

gitano · November 25, 2013, 07:14:04 AM

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