A really great day at the range to me, is being there all alone, and not having to constantly stop shooting because someone needs to go down range because they don’t have a spotting scope. What is even worse, is that far too often it is a safety issue that irritates me because of how other shooters handle their weapons.

As it’s said, “enjoy it while it lasts”, as sure enough on my next trip out, I was not so lucky. I no more than got all set up, when a car drives up.

He set up to the left of me, and went out to put up his target at 25 yards. At least he was on the right track, as he had a nice new rifle and scope to zero in. This was about the last thing that was on the right track, as it was all down hill from here.

Next thing I heard was an action slamming shut, as he loaded his new Browning BAR, (unknown to me with a full clip). Then I heard a BANG, felt the empty case hit me in the head. His BAR was nicely ejecting the brass right where I was sitting. Good thing that brass did not go down my neck, as they are hot when it comes out of the gun.

He now fires four more shots about as fast as he can at the 25 yard target. Then he stops to look and says, “What the h…”, as he had not a single shot on the target.

Since a semi-auto (or pump or leaver action) is not able to be bore-sighted, is necessary to use a “bore sighter” that goes into the muzzle to align things. Obviously who ever installed that scope did not do that, so the fellow was forced to shoot it and go from there. I had quit shooting by now, and just need to get this guy sighted in and out of there.

So I told him to hold on the bottom edge of the target and try that. “Why” he said, and I replied, “to see if you are shooting high and maybe you will hit the target this way”. If there is no hit, then we will try holding on the top and each side of the target. Somehow we must get a shot on the target and work it in from there.

So he loads up the gun with a full clip again. “Stop”….I yell. “Now shoot only one shot aiming at the bottom edge, and if that does not hit it the paper, we will try some other aiming points”.

Luckily, his first shot did hit the top edge of the paper. Now we know what to do, and thank goodness his only problem was elevation, and not much windage.

Not knowing what the scope he had on there was capable for adjustment; we just had to go for it. Told him to give it 20 clicks down. “What does that mean”, he says. So I went over to him and showed him how adjust it on the dial.

Now 20 clicks is not much at 25 yards, but we are getting there. He could now aim at the center of the target again, and fired another shot, and glory be, he is now 6” above the bull. We gave it another 20 clicks, and he now it is getting close with the next shot. He now has a gun with 2 more shots in the clip, so he fires them too, just to empty the clip.

“OK”, he says, “I’ll go put another target at 100 yards.” To which I replied, “Let’s put one at 50 yards first, to be sure of what we are doing”.

Sure enough, he barely hits the target at the top again, so gave it 20 more clicks down. At this point I explained why we were shooting at 50 yards, and not missing the target at 100.

All this elevation is complicated by the fact that his nice BAR has high-see-thru rings and bases on it, so the center of the bore to line of sight is quite far apart as compared to normal installations. Why this gun even had thru rings really was confusing, because the gun had no iron sights on it, so why those were chosen is a matter of great conjecture.

When I asked him about it, he said that it’s because of the 50mm scope bell, and it needs clearance. Really I think the guy he bought if from, “saw him coming”, and sold him a real bill of goods. To further complicate matters, the scope was not on straight, as the cross hairs were not level, but then maybe it looked good to him.

We’re finally are ready to try it a 100 yards. He gets all settled in and fires a shot, then another and another, and another. “Hold it…Hold it”. “What are you doing”? I yell at him. “Seeing where it shoots”, he replied.

After I finished dodging hot brass again, I looked thru my spotting scope only find he did not have a single hole in the target.

At this point I thought he was going to toss that gun into the woods. I really should have let him done so, then took it home myself and fixed it right.

So I got him to lay the gun down for a 15 minutes and cool off while I fired a few shots of my own.

I then causally said, “Can I try a couple shots”? “Sure”, he says, “I have plenty ammo”.

So I took his gun and promptly put three shots right in the bull. This only frustrated him more, because he had not even hit the target.

With this he packed up his stuff, said “thanks” and left. He had had about all the fun he could stand for the day.

It makes me wonder just how he would have gotten along had I not been there.

So is there a moral to this story? Not really, except to beware of what one is buying. If you have a gun that cannot be bore-sighted, be sure and start at 25 yards. If using a rifle that can be bore-sighted, you should still start at 25 or 50 yards for at least one or two shots to be sure you hit paper.

Also, let the rifle cool down between strings, and don’t load the clip. Load one at a time, and if you insist on those see-thru rings, at least have iron sights on the gun. Oh and lastly, please watch where your brass ejects so that you don’t hit the fellow next to you.

I hope you all can relate to this story, and can maybe glean something from it.

Feel free to contact Terry anytime at tblauwkamp@superior-sales.com if you need help with something.