Range Report

[Tokageko 8]

The weather has been crap here for a while. That normally doesn't stop me, but I geuss I've gotten wimpier in my old age... of 25. lol Either way, I decided to take out a few rifles that were feeling neglected. Yes, my rifles' feelings get hurt if they don't get used in a long time. So, I took out the K31 (Schmitt Rubin) and the 91/30 (Moisin Nagant) to make sure they still work all right. Besides, I didn't have to worry about saving brass for either of them. Both preformed well. The recoil from the 91/30 was much less than I remembered. That could have had something to do with the military issue winter coat I was wearing though... Either way, there were no real "groups" to speak of, as I was shooting at clays tossed randomly onto the berm. I noticed something interesting with the K31: I can get a round into the chamber while the spent casing from the last round is still in the air. I'd imagine that's mostly to do with the high arc trajectory of the ejected brass. I think I'll be testing that capability with some other bolt guns as well.

 

I'm damned sure it's not going to happen like that with the 91/30. I mean, I just couldn't get the 2x4 up fast enough. Either way, it was fun, and good way to practice position shooting.

 

Now, if that wasn't exciting enough, I do have another one to talk about: the FN PBR.

 

My father decided that he wants to get back into 1000 yard shooting (with iron sights no less!). To that end, he added up the costs of getting a new barrel for his Win 670, installation (turning down, threading, truing, etc. of said barrel), target stock, etc. etc.... and concluded that it would be cheaper to buy something already assembled. To this end, he got an FN Patrol Bolt Rifle with 24" barrel (308) from CDNN for +/- $800 with shipping and transfer fee. It came with another of the same Target Sports 10x42 30mm body scope I had recently purchased for my saiga 308.

 

I have to say: it's a great rifle. That said, there are a few things that need attention from the people at FN.

 

- the bedding block that is molded into the stock is off-center with the rest of the stock, leading to the barrel contacting the forestock on the right side (easily fixed, but still annoying none-the-less)

 

- the magazine is a pain in the @$$ to load cartridges into, and to load into the rifle, not to mention that it only holds 4 rounds (not so easily fixed, but slightly irrelevent considering that the majority of rounds fired through this rifle are going to be chambered by hand, single-shot)

 

Those are the only real complaints. Aside from the loading problems, the magazine feeds rounds beautifully. It's a double stack, single feed type system, similar to most high capacity pistol magazines. What that means, in a nut shell, is that the top round in the magazine is always in-line with the chamber. There is also no BHO on the magazine follower. This is really not of any consequence for the rifle's intended purpose, but still worthy of note.

 

The bolt cycles pretty smoothly, and the trigger is a standard (slightly) adjustable Winchester type (as one should expect). The minimum weight for the trigger pull seems to be about 4lbs. Still, it breaks cleanly, and is going to be replaced with a expensive match trigger (a relic of his old competition career) anyway. I'd also like to take this chacne to say that I LOVE the Controlled Round Push Feed bolt. That's all there really is to say about it.

 

Anyway, for this rifle's first excursion to the firing range, my father lovingly handloaded 50 match prepared cases with 168grn Sierra Match Kings and a time-tested measure of IMR 4895 that I can't remember off the top of my head... Ok, it was 41 1/2. Either way, he topped the package off with a Tasco 10-40x50 target scope and headed out to see what it was capable of. Once the scope was dialed in (which took a lot of ammo, as it had previously been sighted in on another rifle), it produced .2-.3 inch groups at 100 yards. I wasn't able to get anywhere near that, but did manage 1 inch, and a tight little 3-shot group (shots 1, 2, and 5 out of a five shot group, the other two were called fliers).

 

Doing this, I was able to see very clearly the affect of improper breathing on precision shooting. So, that's something to work on.

 

The other really accurate rifle we shot was an Israeli coverted (to 308) 98 mauser, with replica German high turret mounts, and a Bushnell Banner scope (3-9x40). My father's best with that one had them in less than .5" at 100 yards. I did manage to get about the same after some practice with that one, probably because of the "touch and it goes BOOM" trigger. All of this was from a bench. I think I may actually (eventually) try my hand at 1000 yard "any sight" using that mauser. Concensus is that it wouldn't be likely to win, but it might scare the shit out of some people with high-dollar rifles. I'm all about that.

 

edited: to correct handload information

Edited March 18, 2006 by Tokageko

[BattleRifleG3 16]

I dislike single feed mags because they're harder to load and cannot be loaded while in the gun. I love the looks of the FN PBR but think I'll have to pass. Rem 700 DM has my attention.

[Tokageko 8]

Honestly, the PBR wouldn't have been my first choice either. Apparently Ruger is now making a line of target rifles, and boy do they look nice. The only thing really stopping him on that was the inability to put a left side mounted receiver sight on it. He did find one seller on the web who had made bases that would have allowed him to do that, but apparently after selling the last of those bases he decided not to make anymore. It took too long to sell the ones he had made. The story of small business, eh?

 

The price on the Ruger was very appealing: $579.... ordered from Wal-mart. LOL That was the other thing... I think you'd get laughed off of the firing line at a serious competition using ANYTHING bought at Wal-mart. Seriously though, if anyone wanted an accurate rifle at an affordable price, the Ruger seems to be one to consider. Every review I've read has been good.

 

As for Remington... I think they're more trouble than they're worth. The separate recoil lug is just plain dumb, the round receiver makes it hard to bed properly, and the extractors are a joke. Ok, so their extractors MAY have gotten better... but that's all I'll admit to. That's not to say that they aren't, or can't, be accurate rifles- I just don't care for them.

 

Honestly I think the only reason that any branch of our military started using them was because of the attractive price-tag. Prior to that it was always M70s.

 

Ok, I''m rambling.. time to stop.