A Trip to the Range

Before I tell a little story about my trip to the firing range, I just realized that there were pictures from yesterday's walk down to the beach still on the camera. So here we




As you can see, the tide was in. We hadn't walked down to the beach before when the tide was in. I walked down to the end of a concrete ramp that leads to the beach when the tide is out. The water was cold.


A little farther down the beach, we saw a bunch of seagulls. Here's a picture of one, so that you can see one of the only types of wildlife we've seen so far in Alaska.


Anyway, that was our walk to the beach yesterday. Now on to my main blog post!

After discovering the firing range at the town dump yesterday, I was afraid it was going to rain today. But it didn't! In fact, it's been a beautiful day.

I slept in, and Samara made me breakfast (eggs, toast and bacon--no, no reindeer sausage). We made a trip to the grocery to pick up some supplies for this week. After we got back, I decided I would head out to the range and shoot my rifle. I forgot the camera, so I didn't get any pictures. I will next time.

To remind anyone that's forgotten, I've got a Mosin-Nagant M44 which has been modified with a fiberglass stock, match-grade trigger, forward scope mount, BSA 2x pistol scope and shortened barrel. In other words, a scout rifle. It's chambered for 7.62 x 54R, which is roughly equivalent to .308.

I drove out the lake road, hung a right on Waskey and a left on the Landfill Drive. There was nobody at the range, which wasn't surprising. I set up at a table, and walked a target out to 100 yards. That's my guess, anyway. There was a target frame set up at what I guess would be the 100 yard mark. I hung a target, which was actually just a paper placemat with a stick-on Shoot-n-C target.

I loaded three rounds, slinged up the rifle, and put three rounds down range at the 100 yard target. Then I walked down there, and figured out that I hadn't hit the target at all. In fact, I hadn't even hit the larger targets underneath. None of my shots even made it onto the target stand.

It occurred to me that despite having sighted in the rifle before leaving Lexington, it might have gotten jarred enough during the road trip and various flights that it might not have been as dead-on. So I walked a target out to 25 yards. Again, that's a guess, but it seemed to be about 25. I put up another placemat with a stick-on target.

Now I shot a series of groups of 3 rounds at 25 yards. Here's my target, followed by the list of the groups:


Group 1: 3.5" spread, low and to the right
Group 2: 3,275" spread, low approx 3" and right approx 4"

Then I adjusted the scope 6 clicks left and 6 clicks up.

Group 3: 3.25" spread, low approx 1" and right approx 1"
Group 4: 1.5" spread, right approx 2"

Then I adjusted the scope 2 clicks left.

Group 5: 1.5", right approx 1" and low .5"

Then I finally adjusted the scope 2 clicks left and up 1 click.

Now by this time, I had gone through 18 rounds of a 20 round box. (I only brought two 20 round boxes from Kentucky.) I pulled 1 round out of the next box so that I could shoot one more 3 round group. I decided to see if I could get on paper at 100 yards now.

My final group was 5.5". Here's that target:

After shooting that last group, I decided to call it a day. I'd been at the range for about an hour, and I'd shot 21 rounds. I bought those two boxes before I left Kentucky, for about $17 a box. That's about 85 cents per round, which is fairly expensive for entertainment. I figured out that I can get 7.62 x 54R locally at the hardware store. That's pretty amazing. The problem is that it costs about $25 per box. That makes it $1.25 per round. At those prices, as much as I enjoyed shooting today, I wouldn't be able to make a frequent practice of this hobby. It's really unfortunate that ammunition suppliers won't ship to Alaska. Surplus Hungarian ammunition is available in 440 round tins for $110. That's 25 cents per round. They won't mail it here, though.

I mention all of that by way of saying that it's a real shame, because I really had a good time shooting today. It was very nice weather--about 51 degrees, and sunny. I wore a hoodie, and spent a nice hour outside. Considering that the shooting range itself is free, it'd be a great hobby to take up.

Oh well. That's my range report. I hope someone enjoyed reading it.