[tahunua001]

for years I was told that i had a flinch. I never noticed it and for the life of me I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. all I knew was that I could not hit a derned thing with my older brothers 243(exact same as the one I inherited). he never had problems with it and liked to show off regularly that I was just a flincher.

well when the family moved away and older brother stayed in town I got dad's gun and threw a scope on it and grabbed a couple boxes of ammo and went about trying to sight it in. it was one of the biggest struggles of my life, no matter how much I shot that thing I could not get it zeroed just right and every time I thought I got close I would take it hunting and miss every deer I saw by several feet. I was getting discouraged.

one day, when it was blatantly obvious that I was not goign to get a deer that year with the current zero on the scope walmart was running a sale and the cheapest 243 ammo was no longer 80 gr remington corelokts but instead were 100gr federal power shoks. I figured that I would give them a shot since money was kindof scarce for a teenager who got by on doing odd jobs and once I got to the range I put out the first 3 round group and was about to do my usual head scratch when I noticed that even though the group was way off center as usual...wait a minute..they were all within an inch of eachother.

less that half a box later my gun was zeroed for the very first time and I have never touched the scope again. however through all those trials I got one very nasty habit which has become detrimental in more than one hunting trip... VERY STRICT CONCENTRATION. even though I hate the kick on the weatherby to a great degree I am usually able to push all that fear and self preservation instinct aside long enough to get a couple shots off.

Case in point:
I got the weatherby out to the range on saturday just incase I end up having to use it for elk season and even though I was only able to get 5 shots off before the shoulder said "no more" and the barrel got so hot I figured any more groups would going to spread out, I was able to get a decent 1 MOA 3 round group, make a correction and shoot 2 more into a 1 1/4 MOA group, just short of 2 inches above POA, at 100 yards.

it's not really a matter of "I can't make the shot" it's more of a matter of "I don't want to make that shot".