bluealtered
Silver $$ Contributor
I pick up a Howa 1500 in 7.62x39 the other day but didn't get a chance to try it out until yesterday, its still winter here. I have been wanting to try one but there just wasn't room to shoe horn anything else into the safe until i sold some of those in the back of the safe that had a inch or more of dust on them.
So yesterday i went to our range which also happened to be the hunters safety class day in both the 100yd and 300yd ranges so it was a no go there. That only left the pistol range that has one of the bays that you can get fifty yards out of, since i will probably use a 25/225yd zero with this that was ok. The only problem with the pistol range is that it's up on a step hill that turns to ice in the winter with a mean little "S" turn on it and a almost straight up and down about seventy foot drop off if you slide on the ice and over the side. However it was that or go home so up i went.
There was about four inch's of new snow on top of the 3-4 inch's of ice up there and i went to the first bay where i could get my 25-50yd target set up. Since it was in the upper twenty's i just didn't want to set at the table there on the ice so i set the jeep to where i could shoot off the hood using my pistol rest which works very good for that.
I set the target up at 25yds to start with and got out the three brands of junk ammo i took to just see which would group the best. It took me a few rounds to get it around to 25yds and then it started to group and the last five rounds were in one ragged hole right at 1". Which was not bad for Tulammo that had been on the shelf since i don't remember when. And of course since i could get 50yds there i moved the target out to 50 and started over. This is where a problem popped up, you see i had crushed the snow i was standing on back down to the ice which now was wet ice and now when ever i leaned over to shoot my feet started to slide out from under me on the ice making me use my elbows to hold my self up. If someone had been watching me they probably would have gotten a pretty good laugh since i was trying to get a shot off before my feet slipped out from under me.
It took about ten rounds to get it where i wanted it and then it started to group again, (i had to come back down 3 1/2"). The result was that when done it started printing those five shot one ragged holes again right at 1". Now it was snowing again so i packed it up for the day. I got back down the hill by cheating and hanging my driver side steering tire over the up hill side of the ditch, which didn't help the under side of the jeep any but beat the hell out of going off the other side into the canyon below. All in all a very fun first time out with that rifle, can't what to get the 300yd line Tuesday to see what it will do on the 3" gongs on the 300yd line, in fact it was fun enough that i forgot to try the other junk ammo. This will be a great beater coyote rifle.
So yesterday i went to our range which also happened to be the hunters safety class day in both the 100yd and 300yd ranges so it was a no go there. That only left the pistol range that has one of the bays that you can get fifty yards out of, since i will probably use a 25/225yd zero with this that was ok. The only problem with the pistol range is that it's up on a step hill that turns to ice in the winter with a mean little "S" turn on it and a almost straight up and down about seventy foot drop off if you slide on the ice and over the side. However it was that or go home so up i went.
There was about four inch's of new snow on top of the 3-4 inch's of ice up there and i went to the first bay where i could get my 25-50yd target set up. Since it was in the upper twenty's i just didn't want to set at the table there on the ice so i set the jeep to where i could shoot off the hood using my pistol rest which works very good for that.
I set the target up at 25yds to start with and got out the three brands of junk ammo i took to just see which would group the best. It took me a few rounds to get it around to 25yds and then it started to group and the last five rounds were in one ragged hole right at 1". Which was not bad for Tulammo that had been on the shelf since i don't remember when. And of course since i could get 50yds there i moved the target out to 50 and started over. This is where a problem popped up, you see i had crushed the snow i was standing on back down to the ice which now was wet ice and now when ever i leaned over to shoot my feet started to slide out from under me on the ice making me use my elbows to hold my self up. If someone had been watching me they probably would have gotten a pretty good laugh since i was trying to get a shot off before my feet slipped out from under me.
It took about ten rounds to get it where i wanted it and then it started to group again, (i had to come back down 3 1/2"). The result was that when done it started printing those five shot one ragged holes again right at 1". Now it was snowing again so i packed it up for the day. I got back down the hill by cheating and hanging my driver side steering tire over the up hill side of the ditch, which didn't help the under side of the jeep any but beat the hell out of going off the other side into the canyon below. All in all a very fun first time out with that rifle, can't what to get the 300yd line Tuesday to see what it will do on the 3" gongs on the 300yd line, in fact it was fun enough that i forgot to try the other junk ammo. This will be a great beater coyote rifle.
