So I found myself in the predicament of having 'use or lose leave' so I took a few days off and spent them at the range. Several of my milsurp rifles are newer additions and I haven't taken the time to zero and shoot them, and in the case of my M39's I finally decided to load up some D166 rounds and see what they could do. I went out Tuesday with both of my M39's, a K11 carbine, my almost virgin LE No4 Mk2, and a Mosin faux-sniper I recently acquired...
My K11 was expectedly impressive. This one has the nicest trigger I've ever felt on any milsurp rifle at a very clean 2.5lbs. By comparison, my K31 trigger pull is very heavy. I checked 'zero' with PPU and found it to be on for elevation but shooting slightly to the right. Unfortunately I forgot to bring out my sight adjustment tool so I'll have to bring it back out for that later. Still it wasn't wildly off and when it came time to test it at 100 yards with some of my limited GP11 my shots were on target. Again me being the limiting factor, it too shot about 1.5 MOA.
The M39's were a dream. My older M39 I'd shot with 180gr 7.62x54R Winchester previously, but never adjusted the sights. So with that in mind, both came essentially zeroed for D166 and when I ran them at 100 yards both shot roughly 1.5-2 MOA, with the limiting factor being me. I've never been a huge fan of the Mosin platform, but I love these rifles and consider them 'barely' Mosin's. I think I will keep to only shooting D166 with these. Swiss rifles are rightfully praised for their accuracy, but with the appropriate ammo the M39 is a worthy challenger.
My Mosin 'sniper' was pleasantly surprising. I went out with some 182gr PPU and some 174gr Silver Bear to zero and test for accuracy. It zeroed really easily and at 100 yards shot 3-4 MOA with the 182gr PPU. Nothing worthy of a true PU rifle, but not bad for a 91/30. I took it home and shimmed the action and wrapped the barrel with oil soaked canvas and took it back out yesterday to see what the improvement was. Unfortunately I forgot to take into account how the shimming and wrapping, not to mention removing the scope/mount, would affect my zero and didn't boresight so when checking zero I couldn't even find the paper. Oh well, guess I'll have to spend another day at the range in the near future.
My Lee Enfield No4 Mk2 was mildly frustrating... I usually use Hornady to do preliminary zeroing and accuracy testing for LE's, but it seems they have ceased production on their .303 Vintage Match ammo. I do still have some Hornady Vintage but didn't want to burn up my limited supply, so I went out with some Remington UMC 174gr FMJ thinking it should work. Yea I got it zeroed but I was shooting at 3-4 inches at 25 yards. My initial thought was, ok this gun doesn’t like boat tails. Regardless I decided to go home and put my Fulton no drill mount on with a K3 and try again yesterday. With the UMC ammo I zeroed the scope and still got roughly the same accuracy. So again, not happy... Because I was there I decided to see how bad it was at 100 yards and while I didn’t measure it was pretty abhorrent. But I also brought out some of the Hornady Vintage ammo I still had and tried that at 100 yards. With that I got a couple 5 shot groups measuring just over 1.5 MOA. Now I just have to re-install the rear sight ladder and bring it back out and zero it proper. So in the end I’m happy with the rifle but I’ll be damned if I ever buy Remington UMC again.
My K11 was expectedly impressive. This one has the nicest trigger I've ever felt on any milsurp rifle at a very clean 2.5lbs. By comparison, my K31 trigger pull is very heavy. I checked 'zero' with PPU and found it to be on for elevation but shooting slightly to the right. Unfortunately I forgot to bring out my sight adjustment tool so I'll have to bring it back out for that later. Still it wasn't wildly off and when it came time to test it at 100 yards with some of my limited GP11 my shots were on target. Again me being the limiting factor, it too shot about 1.5 MOA.
The M39's were a dream. My older M39 I'd shot with 180gr 7.62x54R Winchester previously, but never adjusted the sights. So with that in mind, both came essentially zeroed for D166 and when I ran them at 100 yards both shot roughly 1.5-2 MOA, with the limiting factor being me. I've never been a huge fan of the Mosin platform, but I love these rifles and consider them 'barely' Mosin's. I think I will keep to only shooting D166 with these. Swiss rifles are rightfully praised for their accuracy, but with the appropriate ammo the M39 is a worthy challenger.
My Mosin 'sniper' was pleasantly surprising. I went out with some 182gr PPU and some 174gr Silver Bear to zero and test for accuracy. It zeroed really easily and at 100 yards shot 3-4 MOA with the 182gr PPU. Nothing worthy of a true PU rifle, but not bad for a 91/30. I took it home and shimmed the action and wrapped the barrel with oil soaked canvas and took it back out yesterday to see what the improvement was. Unfortunately I forgot to take into account how the shimming and wrapping, not to mention removing the scope/mount, would affect my zero and didn't boresight so when checking zero I couldn't even find the paper. Oh well, guess I'll have to spend another day at the range in the near future.
My Lee Enfield No4 Mk2 was mildly frustrating... I usually use Hornady to do preliminary zeroing and accuracy testing for LE's, but it seems they have ceased production on their .303 Vintage Match ammo. I do still have some Hornady Vintage but didn't want to burn up my limited supply, so I went out with some Remington UMC 174gr FMJ thinking it should work. Yea I got it zeroed but I was shooting at 3-4 inches at 25 yards. My initial thought was, ok this gun doesn’t like boat tails. Regardless I decided to go home and put my Fulton no drill mount on with a K3 and try again yesterday. With the UMC ammo I zeroed the scope and still got roughly the same accuracy. So again, not happy... Because I was there I decided to see how bad it was at 100 yards and while I didn’t measure it was pretty abhorrent. But I also brought out some of the Hornady Vintage ammo I still had and tried that at 100 yards. With that I got a couple 5 shot groups measuring just over 1.5 MOA. Now I just have to re-install the rear sight ladder and bring it back out and zero it proper. So in the end I’m happy with the rifle but I’ll be damned if I ever buy Remington UMC again.
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