Sunday morning was the local steel challenge match which I shot with my Ruger .22/45. Note to self, never use Winchester Xtreme in it again. But I still had fun. I shoot competitions for the fun and camaraderie anyway. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Sunday afternoon on the other hand was the long awaited M1 Garand initial range shoot. I had 25 rounds of some unidentifiable milsurp that was pretty ugly even after I tumbled it for an hour just to see if it would clean up. I met up with a friend of mine, JeffP, at a 100m carbine range and we set everything up. Jeff has got a Springfield Garand with serial number sub-250,000. Really nice rifle and great looking too. He had some Korean .30-06 he wanted to finish off.
My plan was not to do any zeroing Sunday. I just wanted to verify that it operated and nothing was seriously wrong with it.
Boy, did I exceed my expectations! We got situated on the shooting benches and I sighted in on a torso steel target 100m away. BANG... ping! Okay, even a blind squirrel (SQUIRREL!) can find an acorn once in a while. BANG... ping. Really? The next 6 shots went pretty much the same way. As did the rest of the 25 rounds.
My bulls eye rate dropped down to around 75% when I went standing offhand and reacquiring the sight picture when I tried a rapid fire clip (tehee, I get to say clip now, and be right) was a bit harder than on my M14. But that may have more to do with the Trijicon front sight I have on the M14 than anything else.
Oh, and the best part was when I finished that first clip of 8 rounds and heard that unmistakable ping of the clip ejecting. That is something that I will always remember.
It was a very good birthday present to myself.
3 comments:
I love my Garand too. Mine is a Springfield rifle made in February, 1942 according to the serial number. Mine has seen hard use. Because it must be cleaned from the muzzle, those last few inches of barrel is almost a smooth-bore. The wood is gouged and dinged as well.
I've thought about getting new wood from MidwayUSA, but finally decided to keep it just the way it is. Old battered, beat-up and still amazingly accurate. I got a 6" group at 100yds and that is astounding with my tired old eyes.
Garands are great. Probably the rifle that I enjoy shooting the most. (Stop over to my blog and look up "Garand" and you'll see what I mean.) Glad you finally got one and joined the fraternity. Keep practicing, and we'll see you at one of the National Matches are Camps Perry or Butner soon enough!
Glad you had fun, and the gun ran smoothly! Now, just don't get a case of M-1 thumb!!!
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