Hello reader,
I mounted the Simmons 3-9x 40mm scope Saturday morning, using a pair of Wilson brand mounts I bought from Midway. The mounts are contoured for the Mark II barrel which had two set of holes pre-dilled and tapped. I am borrowing the scope from my Dad, and me also provided a set of low-mount rings. We were concerned that they rings would be too low, but the mounts were fairly high off the barrel, so the scope seemed positioned just fine.
But they were having an NRA Smallbore match on the rimfire range Saturday, so I waited until Sunday to take it out. It was my first time at the rimfire range at Miami Rifle & Pistol, and the set-up is very nice. Covered PVC frame at the poured concrete shooting end, rows of PVC pipes set into the ground at 50 and 100 yards, and narrow wooden frames with corresponding PVC pipes at the bottom that slide into the ones out in the field.
And the range has very nice, recently constructed shooting benches (as seen in the picture below, but nothing to sit on! Fortunately I have a collapsible tripod stool in the truck of the car for inclement tire changes, so I was able to use that. Hey, do you like my "rear rest"? :grin: The bipod is so high I have to raise the butt up, so I used that rest so I wasn't holding it up there all morning!
In the following picture you can see downrange and my targets set at 50 yards. I plan in this being my "squirrel gun" so I figure it should be sighted at 50 yards. By the way, all my targets are available online for free. Just Google "Thomas Bullseye Targets Online" or something similar and you should find my web pages with the free targets.
I had cleaned the bore (and greased the bolt) before I started shooting. The bore was quite dirty, but I assume they test fired the rifle. I started shooting with Winchester Target ammo (XT22LR) and the groups were terrible, like 4-5 inches! (See lower targets in the picture below.) This is the ammo my Ruger Mark II pistol likes the best, so I was very worried that there was something very wrong to see groups that big out of a 22" barrel at 50 yards!!
But when I switched to some Federal Gold Match ammo, the groups immediately tightened up. (See upper right target in picture above.) And when I started shooting the Wolf Match Target ammo, I started getting very acceptable groups. (See picture below.) Of course this was the most expensive ammo I shot, so it figures that would be the stuff the gun likes! Yikes!
That's it, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I had brought along some other .22 ammo, the CCI .22 Quiet and some Aguila SSS Sniper Subsonic 60 Grain ammo, but I was too hot and sticky to shoot anymore. Next time!
- Thomas