Sunday, March 6, 2016

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.


4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Did you ever get an answer???

aepilot_jim said...

Yep. Went to the guys at Jackson Armory in Dallas. They took a borescope to it and it was pretty much pitted the entire length of the barrel except for the crown and chamber. They has a M1917 barrel dated 3/18 there and they said they'd put it on for 100 bucks total. That's all in for the barrel and the work. But, it turns out that they really torqued those barrels on and they ended up breaking three tools trying to get the barrel off. In the end it was 120 total which basically means they gave me a barrel for free and I just paid for the broken tools. :D I picked it up tuesday so I haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet. I'll need to take a drift and a hammer when I do to set the windage on the front sight. I might take it out next week if I get a chance.

Old NFO said...

Interesting that the barrel was that bad, considering how good a shape the gun appeared to be in. But that would explain it! Have fun at the range!!!

.45ACP+P said...

Those nice old corrosive primers..........