Plans back on track

Well, the weather went south, but since the firing line is covered, I still managed to get the poodle-shooter out to see if it would print on paper.


It did.

Not knowing if the rifle had been properly sighted in, I shot at the 50 yard range. The extreme spread shown is 2.625". If this grouping had been at 100 yards, I'd be very pleased. As it is, I was having some difficulty getting a good sight picture with my eyeglasses, fading daylight, and the fixed 4x scope. Nonetheless, the rifle appears to be capable of greater accuracy than the person firing it.

Recoil was very tame. I was shooting some necked down .308 case loads that came with the rifle. The reloader's notes indicated that the 75 grain hollow points had been chrono'd at 3400 f/s. Since there were some incipient neck cracks (possibly because the reloader didn't anneal the cases during the sizing/seating operations), and because I have enough actual .243 headstamped brass, I won't reload these cases.

As Denney Crane noted in the prior post comments, small calibers, with the right load and accurately placed, can take a wide range of game animals. And although I've yet to hunt with this particular rifle, I can attest to the fun of uncasing its diminutive stable mate in deer camp, to the hoots of wannabe macho men (with their .338 Win. Magnums, or Weatherby this or that), and returning back to camp the following evening with one deer and one empty cartridge. One shot, one kill.

Next time, I may try a higher power scope than the Weaver K4 (or wear my contact lenses). I think a fixed 6 or 6.5x would be just about right, but will probably just mount an inexpensive 3-9x variable on it.

Note: No poodles, or canines of any kind, were harmed in the testing of the rifle today.