It follows me home and be my presciousessesssssss

So yesterday, in a fit of pure evil the color of the blackest politician's heart, Old NFO forced me to go to the local bugscuffleville gun store. And then at virtual gunpoint, coerced me to put a 1916 SMLE No. 1 Mk III* on layaway. But it gets worse!  Then, in what can only be the most diabolical of plots with the owner had said owner "mistakenly" charge my card not the layaway amount, but the remainder!  They then were able to hide that from me till too late last night. Upon discovery of this most dastardly conspiracy, I was left with no other option than to pick the rifle up today. And finally to add insult to injury, there was CCI Mini-Mag .22lr on the counter and some of that found it's way into the bag.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Range day weirdness.

First off, sorry for the sparse posting.

Today was .30-06 day at the range.  Well, to be more specific it was WW1 rifle .30-06 day at the range.

So, I dug out my Springfield 1903(a3). (I haven't found a decent shooter 03 yet.) My Eddystone M1917 and a Winchester made Eddystone that I'd bought from a friend a while back but never had out to the range.

I needed to get the 03 sighted in and so I picked it up first.  And had it nicely sighted in 6 rounds at 50 yd.  I was thankful for the a3 rear sight rather than the older ladder sight.  I did not want to have to figure out where my POI should be for a 547 yd zero POA. 

Since the only way to adjust the sights on the Eddystone is to take a punch and drift the front sight I was just gonna make sure they were pretty much where they should be and then plink away till I was happy.  My Eddystone Eddystone shot pretty much as expected and was a might bit right of dead center. 

When I pulled out the Winchester I was nowhere on paper when I checked after the first shot.  Just to make sure I wasn't pulling it something I fired a couple more carefully and nothing.  Just a really nice unmarked target.  So, I walked up closer (between 15 and 25 yd.) and fired a round.  Then a couple more just to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing.

This is what I got.

Yep, four rounds from between 15 and 25 yds and this is what I got. Keyholing like nobody's business.  Took the rifle back to the loading bench and inspected it as best I could.  Throat and muzzle looked okay.  The crown was undamaged. The brass from the fired shells were undamaged.  The rounds fed, extracted and ejected without a problem.  I checked the muzzle gauge with another round. 

That's not too bad really. I obviously don't have a .30 cal gauge to get an accurate measurement.  Talked with my captive gun smith, who I'd bought the rifle from and we're both stumped.  Next is a visit to my local smith and have it checked out.

Fun day anyway.