Bringing an old gun to the range
I have some funny experiences to share when it comes to choosing guns and calibers for long range shooting. I use to be a member of a gun club that went out to 600yds, but it has long been closed down. When I was working on zeroing a DSA STG58 rifle at a 500yd target, I wasn’t getting any better than 10 inch groups at 500yds, but that wasn’t too bad considering I was shooting military ammo. That is just roughly 2 MOA at that range and for a gun that was a standar barrel and not match grade, I was pretty happy with it. I have had some issues with the DSA FAL mount I have, but since I have loctited the mount, it hasn’t come loose on me.
While I was shooting there, an old guy showed up with a 45/70 and a 12 inch box that he was going to shoot. He fired at 200yds to check his iron sight zero and it was dead on, he moved the box out to 500yds and asked me to spot his bullets for him. He took one shot and hit just in front of the box and then made an adjustment. I had one of several Leupold 3-9×40 tactical rifle scopes A few seconds later he fired a second round and nailed the box. He said I could shot at the box if I wanted to so I did. My gun could hit it, but I had about a 50% hit rate when shooting off of the bench while this 70yr old guy hit the box every time with iron sights. I’d like to know where that guy is these days because it made me realize that just because you have a modern firearm, doesn’t mean you are going to be a better shot them some old guy with his 45/70.
The Trijicon NSN has iron sights mounted on the top of the rifle scope which can come in handy in closer situations and are a less expensive alternative to mounted a red dot on your ACOG. That is worth the money if you are in the line of work that calls for it, but for general blasting and plinky, I think that $1800 optics is a bit much. The Eotech 512 is probable my recommended optic for an M4. I think people can get carried away with optics on the M4 because even though the rifle is pretty accurate, it really is not very powerful or effective past 200yds. With a growing selection of combat optics you can put on the AR15 type rifles, one other suggestion I have for shooters is to always keep your iron sights on the rifle. I’ve seen a few people show up at classes with just an Eotech mounted and they complained the front sight blocked their FOV. Well, taking a 200yd shot with an Eotech that has a dead battery is like parking a mini van from the furthest back seat.
While many in the tactical community have been learning that magnification does not increase your effectiveness is close quarters combat, it can actually hinder you, some are finding out that using a rifle scope to monitor movement, whether it’s for hunting, military or law enforcement purposes is not really a good idea. Field of view is very important for tracking movement because a 50mm objective on a rifle scope stands out like a sore thumb, weighs a lot and might actually be set at too high of a magnification that you will most likely miss any potential threat. It’s really almost like watching the stars at night with only one eye open and trying to spot shooting stars.
Optics have multiple purposes. They can be used for Astronomy, Scouting, birdwatching, target shooting, hunting and military purposes. With the emergency of combat optics for close quarter combat, scopes used on rifles have gotten smaller, more compact and sometimes have zero magnification. The point is to give you a good sight pictures and a reticle that is easy to follow.
Another issue you may run into when using hunting style optics on a military style rifle is this. What are you going to do if the optic fails or breaks? Are you going to need to u se a screw driver to remove it or can you detach it quickly? Quick detach optics and accessories can become very important if you have a failure of some sort. For instance, I’ve seen plenty of incidences where soldiers in Iraq took bullets in their optics but the rifles still worked. Always have backup irons on an M4 is a good idea. Not only can batteries on something like a Eotech gun sight go down, but sometimes that can actually get broken from being slammed around or from fragmentation. The Mini 14 ranch rifle is a very manueverable Carbine. Even though the Eotech optic is primarily for military purposes, I’ve found the Eotech to work very well on a Mini 14 Ranch rifle. The MOA dot works well with a gun that can shoot MOA as long as the rifle barrel has not heated up, which normally occurs after the 3rd shot, but from a hunting standpoint, I rarely know anyone that takes 3 shots on any hunting trip.
Another evolution has occured in the