My nephew Shane recently bought a new deer hunting rifle for the thick East Texas woods.
It is a Remington 700 SPS (Special Purpose Synthetic) in .308 Winchester. He also bought a Leupold 4-12 scope and a solid base for it. We put it all together in my shop and he was ready to sight it in.
He is working a lot of overtime and deer season is fast approaching and he finally asked me if I could sight it in for him. (More on that later.)
Here is the rifle.
It is in .308 Winchester and has a 4 cartridge magazine capacity. It has a 24 inch barrel with a 1 in 10 twist. It weighs about 7.5 pounds without the scope or mount. That might be a little heavy if you were hiking up and down mountains. But in East Texas we don't do that. We sit in blinds in thick woods and a heavy rifle is no problem.
The synthetic stock is nice and clean. It has a gray insert on the rear and front of the stock where you would grip it to shoot.
It has a very nice recessed muzzle crown to protect the crown from damage.
The fore end has 6 holes in it to allow the barrel to cool more easily.
The barrel is free floated from the chamber to nearly the end of the fore end where there is about a one inch section that puts a little upward pressure on the barrel.
It has a nice thick and soft butt pad that not only helps with recoil, but also allows you to stand it in a corner without worrying that it will slide down the wall and damage the scope.
The bolt is the standard Remington 700 bolt and safety design. The bolt and all the barrel is matt finished in black.
The scope is an excellent Leupold 4-12 adjustable scope. It is mounted with a solid one-piece scope mount. We tightened it to specs with my torque wrench.
The trigger is the only shiny part of the rifle and it has a nice, crisp trigger pull.
I took it to the range to sight it in. Let's talk about that just a minute. I have often read, and often heard at gun shops, that "You can't sight in a rifle for someone else or it won't hit anywhere near point of aim for them. They have to sight it in for themselves."
My experience is that this is a bunch of bull. I have sighted in many rifles for friends over the years and without fail, every one of them then shot the rifle to the same point of aim as I did. Now, they might shoot slightly larger groups than I do, but that is a factor of me doing a lot of shooting and I can shoot fairly well. But their groups, even is slightly larger than mine, will still hit to the same average point of aim as it did for me.
That doesn't mean that Shane shouldn't take it to the range and shoot it a little to get comfortable with the rifle. But I bet he will find it shoots right where the cross hairs are on the target.
I set the target at 50 yards to dial in the scope. I had some 150 grain loads for it and some of my 165 grain handloads.
It turned out to be fairly well bore sighted and it only took a few rounds and a little scope adjustment to the windage and elevation to get it to hit the bull.
I then shot some 3 shot groups for final sighting-in. I know that 5 shot or even 10 shot groups are better if you are wanting to know the accuracy potential of the rifle. But this is a hunting rifle, not a bench rifle, and the 3 shot groups will do fine to determine POI (Point of Impact).
Here are a couple of 3 shot groups at 50 yards, the one of the left is the 150 grain bullets and the one on the right is the 165 grain bullets.
I adjusted the groups a little more to the left and shot two more groups at 75 yards. Why 75 yards? Because that is the distance from his blind to the deer feeder. In the thick East Texas woods, that is about as far as you can see, unless you are on a pipeline.
Again, the 150 grain bullets on the left and the 165 grain bullets on the right.
I believe that is what we will call "ready to go".
Do you know that this group means?
It means that I need to make some room in my freezer for some deer back strap.
It's fun to shoot stuff.
It is a Remington 700 SPS (Special Purpose Synthetic) in .308 Winchester. He also bought a Leupold 4-12 scope and a solid base for it. We put it all together in my shop and he was ready to sight it in.
He is working a lot of overtime and deer season is fast approaching and he finally asked me if I could sight it in for him. (More on that later.)
Here is the rifle.
It is in .308 Winchester and has a 4 cartridge magazine capacity. It has a 24 inch barrel with a 1 in 10 twist. It weighs about 7.5 pounds without the scope or mount. That might be a little heavy if you were hiking up and down mountains. But in East Texas we don't do that. We sit in blinds in thick woods and a heavy rifle is no problem.
The synthetic stock is nice and clean. It has a gray insert on the rear and front of the stock where you would grip it to shoot.
It has a very nice recessed muzzle crown to protect the crown from damage.
The fore end has 6 holes in it to allow the barrel to cool more easily.
The barrel is free floated from the chamber to nearly the end of the fore end where there is about a one inch section that puts a little upward pressure on the barrel.
It has a nice thick and soft butt pad that not only helps with recoil, but also allows you to stand it in a corner without worrying that it will slide down the wall and damage the scope.
The bolt is the standard Remington 700 bolt and safety design. The bolt and all the barrel is matt finished in black.
The scope is an excellent Leupold 4-12 adjustable scope. It is mounted with a solid one-piece scope mount. We tightened it to specs with my torque wrench.
The trigger is the only shiny part of the rifle and it has a nice, crisp trigger pull.
I took it to the range to sight it in. Let's talk about that just a minute. I have often read, and often heard at gun shops, that "You can't sight in a rifle for someone else or it won't hit anywhere near point of aim for them. They have to sight it in for themselves."
My experience is that this is a bunch of bull. I have sighted in many rifles for friends over the years and without fail, every one of them then shot the rifle to the same point of aim as I did. Now, they might shoot slightly larger groups than I do, but that is a factor of me doing a lot of shooting and I can shoot fairly well. But their groups, even is slightly larger than mine, will still hit to the same average point of aim as it did for me.
That doesn't mean that Shane shouldn't take it to the range and shoot it a little to get comfortable with the rifle. But I bet he will find it shoots right where the cross hairs are on the target.
I set the target at 50 yards to dial in the scope. I had some 150 grain loads for it and some of my 165 grain handloads.
It turned out to be fairly well bore sighted and it only took a few rounds and a little scope adjustment to the windage and elevation to get it to hit the bull.
I then shot some 3 shot groups for final sighting-in. I know that 5 shot or even 10 shot groups are better if you are wanting to know the accuracy potential of the rifle. But this is a hunting rifle, not a bench rifle, and the 3 shot groups will do fine to determine POI (Point of Impact).
Here are a couple of 3 shot groups at 50 yards, the one of the left is the 150 grain bullets and the one on the right is the 165 grain bullets.
I adjusted the groups a little more to the left and shot two more groups at 75 yards. Why 75 yards? Because that is the distance from his blind to the deer feeder. In the thick East Texas woods, that is about as far as you can see, unless you are on a pipeline.
Again, the 150 grain bullets on the left and the 165 grain bullets on the right.
I believe that is what we will call "ready to go".
Do you know that this group means?
It means that I need to make some room in my freezer for some deer back strap.
It's fun to shoot stuff.
