Quick Trip to the Range

[rjinga]

I stopped at the near-by public gun range on the way to the office on Friday. I wanted to double-check my windage, and work a little on what I call “staying on the target.” The rifle: PTR 91, GI model. The ammunition: German surplus. I set the target backer at 25 yds, and shot everything off of the table using a rest. Iron sights; no scope.

First target (with a 1.5” red square):

The center of the 3-shot group was 0.5” off of the centerline of the target. However, the square was really hard for me to see, so put up a second target.

Second target (with a 2” red square):

This time the center of the 3-shot group was on the centerline of the target. I was satisfied with that.

Next I put up a Dog target. This is a scaled-down version of the Army Qualification Test “D” target. At 25 yds it is supposed to simulate a full-sized target at 100 yds.

When shooting this string I was trying to “stay on the target.” By that I mean I was focusing on keeping my head down, and looking through the sight all the way through the shot. And then, I’d make the next shot with as little readjustment/fidgeting as possible. As a result, I’d estimate that my time between shots was reduced by almost 40 - 50%. My POA was the black bottom edge of the silhouette. However, I was doing the ballistics backward in my head. At 25 yds, the bullet is below the 30 meter zero, instead of above it.

So, I put up another Dog target, and this time I tried to make my POA the bottom white line of the 5 silhouette. After my 4th shot, the wind blew one corner of the target loose, and I had to go out and reattach it before firing the last six shots.

[rjinga]

And then I moved out to 100 yds (the max distance at this range) with a 2/3-size silhouette (12.25” wide by 16” tall):


I had five rounds in the magazine, but when I saw the placement of the first shot, I had to go take a photo:


I put a patch on the hole and then shot the rest of the magazine:


Then, I patched those holes and finished off the box of ammo (nine shots) with the “stay on the target” faster shooting style again:

(The reason there are 10 holes in the photo is because one of the three shots in the tight group in the center knocked off the patch covering the previous hole in the center.)