Today was my first day shooting and I did some stupid things and learned a bunch of things.
First I hung the target very crooked but I didn't realize it until I was back at the bench. I mean like 20 degrees crooked. The vertical and horizontal tick marks on the target were useless.
Then I decided to clean the rifle after firing a few rounds and I almost got this cotton roll with solvent stuck in the barrel. I thought these cotton rolls get pushed into the barrel and then you push the needle point of the brass thing into it and through the end. But it got stuck a few inches in. In my mind I could hear people whispering, "check this guy out on lane six", "must be from San Francisco". I had to put about 40 lbs of force on the dewey rod to push it through.
Then I come home and find this cotton roll wasn't supposed to go into the barrel. Its for cleaning the chamber.
And the biggest mistake was that when I started shooting to zero the rifle at 100 yards my group was like 14 inches high. When I turned the turret to lower them I found the turret would only go so far below zero because it didn't occur to me I was turning it the wrong way. I was thinking lower the elevation number to lower the height of the hits on the target. It would only go a little below zero and that wasn't enough. I couldn't see how I'm going to lower it enough to hit the bullseye. I mean I did hit the bullseye three times doing elevation holdovers but I decided there is something fundamental I don't understand about dialing in the scope and packed it in for the day after only eight rounds. Of course on the way home I realized I was turning the turret the wrong way.
This is just a fraction of the things I learned so it was still a good day and a fun drive out there west of Petaluma, about an hour from San Francisco.
First I hung the target very crooked but I didn't realize it until I was back at the bench. I mean like 20 degrees crooked. The vertical and horizontal tick marks on the target were useless.
Then I decided to clean the rifle after firing a few rounds and I almost got this cotton roll with solvent stuck in the barrel. I thought these cotton rolls get pushed into the barrel and then you push the needle point of the brass thing into it and through the end. But it got stuck a few inches in. In my mind I could hear people whispering, "check this guy out on lane six", "must be from San Francisco". I had to put about 40 lbs of force on the dewey rod to push it through.
Then I come home and find this cotton roll wasn't supposed to go into the barrel. Its for cleaning the chamber.
And the biggest mistake was that when I started shooting to zero the rifle at 100 yards my group was like 14 inches high. When I turned the turret to lower them I found the turret would only go so far below zero because it didn't occur to me I was turning it the wrong way. I was thinking lower the elevation number to lower the height of the hits on the target. It would only go a little below zero and that wasn't enough. I couldn't see how I'm going to lower it enough to hit the bullseye. I mean I did hit the bullseye three times doing elevation holdovers but I decided there is something fundamental I don't understand about dialing in the scope and packed it in for the day after only eight rounds. Of course on the way home I realized I was turning the turret the wrong way.
This is just a fraction of the things I learned so it was still a good day and a fun drive out there west of Petaluma, about an hour from San Francisco.
