Cast bullet match rifle

[madsenshooter]

Here's one of my cutdown 92/96 rifles. You've seen it before with a Weaver 6x scope on it. I sold my AR15 to avoid jumping through anyone's hoops to keep it, and removed this nice 6x24 scope before doing so. The Cast Bullet Association has a couple classes I could shoot this rifle in, military modified scoped, where I'd be limited to 6x. Or, I could shoot in the Light Hunter class and get several more rounds in a match shooting the smaller targets that the benchrest shooters use. I like shooting the smaller targets and getting more rounds downrange comes closer to making the long drive to the nearest CBA sponsored events worthwhile. The mount is a Miller Kodiak Dreamount from the 1950s. Lifting up on the rear of the scope and rotating everything 90 degrees allows removal of the scope and/or replacement with other pre-rigged scopes and it does return to zero. I have other sighting options, a Pacific receiver sight or replacing the bolt with one that has a Rice peep sight installed. Or, the dovetail of the scope mount could be removed and the issue sight put back on. I wanted to turn the rifle into a varmint rifle using a Remington 6mm barrel rechambered to 6mm/30-40AI, with the reamer held short so I could make the wildcat from .303 British. But, the lunkhead who shipped the barrel to me let it move 2" to and fro in the box and all I received was the empty box. Said lunkhead, one C.D. Dutton, won't take responsibility for his poor packing, and I didn't spring for insurance, so I'm out. P.O. has been looking for it over a month now, so I'd say some employee took it home with him. $90 wasted.

[psteinmayer]

I have thought about putting a scope on my cutdown too. I have a scope that I tried to mount years ago... I just need a good mount. I could use that for the cast bullet matches at Washtenaw.

[jon_norstog]

Lot of scope on that rifle, Madsen! And a very clean job of mounting it, too. It makes sense to me to do as much shooting as you can when you travel to a match. Do you have to pay a separate entry for each event?

jn

jn

[Dick Hosmer]

Haven't thought about one of those mounts for about 50 years, and have never used one. Always wondered just how they worked, and how they would hold up.

As Jon says, that is a LOT of scope - and I was concerned over how well they worked with ones half the size.

[madsenshooter]

I agree guys, it is big. I had a boosted Lyman Alaskan rigged up for it at one time, but had to sell it. It was trimmer and more attractive when mounted. If I was going to use it for hunting, I'd probably go back to the Weaver 6x. In fact I still have it rigged, so can easily switch. I've been buying the mounts when I find them over a period of several years. I have four of the front leaf springs, and different sizes of rings. I think it's about the best way to mount a scope on a Krag. I only had to have two holes drilled and tapped in the barrel between the existing rear sight mounting holes. If I had more dovetails, I could do that to all my Krags and swap scopes as needed. I wouldn't mind have mounting holes on one of my full length rifles.

Jon the small $15 entry fee is the same whether I shoot in the military match, or the light sporter class. Least up at Washtenaw near Paul. I think the difference is 20 rounds and the smaller targets I mentioned. I don't know about Idaho, but there are some CBA clubs in WA. http://www.castbulletassoc.org/forum/view_topic.php?id=9140&forum_id=52 I need to start my own SE Ohio chapter!

[madsenshooter]

I got out for a short shooting session the other day. I piddled around quite a bit trying to get the rifle and scope somewhat aligned by bore sighting the old fashioned way. Peep through the bore, peep through the scope, hope the rifle didn't move. Finally felt things were close enough and let go with two sighters, the shots out to the right. I then made a scope adjustment and shot the pictured 5 shot group. Nothing spectacular, but not too bad for a first effort. Center to center 1.5" tall x .82 wide. (squares are not 1")

Bullet was the NOE 314175, a Saeco 315 copy, that actually weighed 185gr. Powder was 17.5gr of 10B101, a surplus flake powder used in US 50 cal plastic training ammo. Cost a whole $7/lb. It burns about the same speed as Alliant's 2400. Velocity should have been in the neighborhood of 1600fps. I also shot a group with the same bullet over 36.5gr of a ball powder that burns about 4350 speed. That should have got the velocity up around 2100fps. The group from that load was about the same size, with one flier a couple inches out that I think clipped a small tree I was peeking past. Knew I should have knocked that buckeye sapling out of the way instead of peeking through its leaves!