Some days nothing goes right. Ever had one of those days? Well I sure did yesterday. Took three guns out to shoot.
First up was the FA83 in .44 magnum. This is a 7.5" gun and I had an old and much used Burris 2-7 scope on it. First shot at 25 yards was about 4" high and about 1/2" left. Made some adjustment and fired the other four shots for group. The first three went into 0.7" but I dropped the last shot a bit low to open it to 1.1". That shot was me all the way. Load was Hornady 300 XTP over 22.5 grains of W296 an old standby of mine. Scope is set to 4X for reasons to be explained later.
Next up was the Hornady factory load using same 300 XTP. Five shots around the cylinder went 0.9". So far so good. But it's at this point things begin to go south on me.
Next load up is Buffalo Bore ammo with 300 JFN. Group isn't bad at 1.5" but it's all strung out vertically with each shot getting further away than the one before. I also noticed some thing black and circular floating in the scope. At times kinda getting too close to the crosshairs.
Still I push on and next up is Buffalo Bore 270 JFN. This time the floater in the scope is really getting in the way. Last couple of shots it's almost completely blocking the crosshair making aiming a problem. But group still runs only 2.1" all vertical.
At this point I call the scope a complete loss for now and lay the FA83 aside until I have time to replace it.
----------------------------------------
Next up is the S&W 629 6" I'm shooting along side the FA83 like I did the Taurus RB454 when I did the review of the FA83 in .454 Casull. This one is mounted with an even older Tasco World Class 1.25-4 scope that has really been a good one for me. Since max magnification is 4X I decided to leave the Burris at 4X for a more fair comparison.
First shot I can't even see on the paper. I later found it almost precisely 11" high right in the group with my first target fired with the FA83. The load was a Lyman 429244 cast bullet most likely over 24.0 W296 but since I had only six of them left from years ago I cannot be certain of that load. They were only to sight in the gun and I figured six would do it. Not finding the shot I moved another target stand in place with two rows of three 8.5"x11" targets and fired away. Found it almost exactly 11" high. That's when I looked for the first shot again and found it on my other target.
I figure 11" at 25 yards is a bit much to adjust out especially since the scope was already set below the midpoint of it's adjustment range in the direction it needs to go. I think this might be related to me setting the scope too close to ring and getting on the part of tube that isn't perfectly round near the turret. Will first push it forward a fraction and try. IF that doesn't work will use Burris Signature rings and offset inserts in lieu of the Bushnell rings that were on the scope.
When I got back in the house I called up Bushnell and have a new Elite 3200 2-6 scope on the way for the FA83.
---------------------------------------------------
Last up was an older Ruger Model 77 with tang safety in 6MM Remington. I picked this one up from a shop in TX after a tip from a GBO member. Whoever owned it before had bent the screws that hold rings to base making them useless. I had a new set of Ruger rings but unfortunately they weren't for this rifle. So I just pulled the screws and used the SS rings that were on the rifle when I bought it. Mounted a Leupold VX-III 2.5-8x36 scope provided by The Optic Zone on it.
First shot out hit about 1/2" high at 25 yards but otherwise nearly dead on side to side. This was using Hornady Custom ammo with 100 grain SP bullets. Shot a three shot cluster at 25 yards to verify and moved to 100 yards. At 25 the three shots went into 0.4" so couldn't really see any problem there.
Next group at 100 yards tho told a different story. Two shots hit only 0.55" apart but the other opened group to 1.6". Not awful for Bama deer hunting in the woods but not what I'm looking for from this rifle. So I tried same ammo again for another group at 100 yards. This time two of them were only 0.5" apart but the third opened group to 1.5". So while not good as I'd hoped it was at least consisitent to this point.
-----------------------------------
At this point I was tired and frustrated so gave it up and came inside. Wind was getting pretty stiff and chilly.
Not sure if the rifle has a bedding problem, just doesn't like the one load I've fed it or just needs a good cleaning. Still I'm not unhappy with it to this point. Trigger is nice and the rifle looks and feels nice in hand. Yeah GB saying good things about yet another Ruger. :eek: Will the world stop spinning as a result?
------------------------------
So that's it for this report. Should have the new Bushnell scope next week so maybe can get back to the review of the FA83 then.
