My neighbor Russ and I went out onto the riverbed to shoot today. Out there you can set your targets up for as far as you want to shoot. I drove my truck out and set up targets at 200, 300, and 400 yards. As I returned to the bank we shoot from a couple of trucks pulled up and the drivers wanted to shoot as well. We waited for them to set up their targets. They went out and set a target up next to my 200 yard target. Then they returned to the bank. Russ and I got our carpet to lie or sit on, and a short saw horse we use as a rest. Then we pulled out our guns, Russ shoots a Remington Bolt gun in .338 Ultra Mag. I had my H&R Ultra in .223, the one with the Night Force scope. These other guys admired Russ's Remington, then looked at my H&R and started laughing. One of them said what a waste for a perfectly good scope. Then they leaned over the hood of their truck and started shooting. After they had each shot about five rounds they came over and asked if they could look through my spotting scope. They could not understand why they could not see their bullet holes through their scopes. Neither one had a good group and both were shooting two to three inches low. One of them said "Something is not right", then he asked how far out had I set up my target. He thought it was awful far for 100 yards. I informed him that my first target was at 200 yards, the second was at 300, and the third one was at 400. We were using the 400 yard one first, I had another rifle I was going to use the 200 and 300 targets on later. They looked at my Ultra and again laughed, one of them said "No way, you are not going to hit that target with that cheapXXX single shot". I told them to "Watch the scope". I then sat down and took my first shot, then I called the shot one inch high and one inch left. The guy at the scope confirmed it. I took my time and reloaded, then made my second shot. I called it high and to the right, guy with the scope confirmed two inches high and three inches right. On my third shot it just did not feel right, I told them I was off and not sure how much. Guy with scope confirmed five inches low four inches right. They were in awe of my shooting with the cheapXXX singleshot. I was disappointed, I should have done better. Then Russ shot a three inch group with his Remington. After we were through I got them to take a couple of shots at the 400 yard target. The first guy made the statement "My Browning can outshoot that piece of XXXX anyday. Mr Big Mouth did not even hit the 12"X12" target, with four shots. His partner did hit the target twice, one at the bottom edge and one top right corner. The other two hit mud in front of the target. They did not say anything else, they just sat and watched us shoot other guns for the next 10 minutes. Then we loaded up and left. Russ laughed all the way home, about how those guys looked after missing the target. And how they shut up and did not say anything bad about my H&R after they shot. The quite one did ask what kind of scope I had, and where I got it. I told him "It's the rifle not the scope that made those shots, the scope just let me see where I was hitting".
I did feel good after we finished. My older Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle that I just recovered after being stolen for 12 years, shot a four inch group at 200 yards, six inches at 300, and was hitting the paper at 400 yards. Granted they were scattered all over, but at least all shots hit the paper. My other Mini-14 won't even hit the paper at 200 yards, neither will Russ's. Both are newer guns.
