Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors I found a nice little rifle yesterday

I have a question for your guys. Do you ever just have a "FUN" day at the range. I'm not talking good. I'm talking FUN!! Well, I took the new rifle out today with its new scope mounted. Had a little quirkiness going on with the old Leupold. I really hate to be a damn Leupold basher, but damn if there are some issues with them that I just don't like to put up with quite frankly. Now that that is out of the way. The new/old scope that I put on the old rifle is one I've had for years. Its not as old as my American made first Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle scope, but it's an old one nonetheless. The cool thing about this one is its gloss. Burris didn't make a lot of these gloss FFII's with the ballistic plex reticle:

(The Leupold did look better, but this scope tracks much better and I can trust it)

Most of them were matte finish. My other gloss with ballistic plex rides on the 22-250 XTR I bought at the beginning of the year. Anyway, I go to the range with some fresh ammo I loaded last night while you guys were sleeping. Its an old tried and true load with 180gr Winchester power points and good ol H4350. Its not the most accurate load I've tried in this rifle, but it shoots moa for 3 shots pretty consistently:


I also tried some Hornady 165gr BTSP with Big Game powder. Still on the fence about that powder. I may give it another try with magnum primers. I'm just not used to running magnums primers in the old warhorse:

I may throw another 1/2-1 grain at it as well. I think this rifle likes stiff loads. Anyway, after firing off the 180gr winchester power point load I decide to go to the 400 yard range. That thread about do groups really matter in a hunting rifle had me stirred up. Some guys get some weird azzed ideas that a rifle is going to shoot better the further the distance is. I set up a single target at 200 yards, 300 and 400 yards. Thinking it would shoot about a 2" group at 200, 3" at 300 and 4" at 400. Yeah, that is just about what it did. I don't feel like I was as focused as I am when I'm shooting my precision rifles, because I was there just having fun with my "hunting" rifle topped with my favorite hunting scope. Also, I couldn't see the fn target like I can with my 7-35x56 ATACR. ha ha just sayin.. Here's the range. I've shown pics of it before:

(This is an older pic, sorry I didn't take a pic of the '61 fwt on the bench, but you get the idea)^^^

Moment of truth at the 200 yard line, using the ballistic plex the way it was intended:

That powerpoint, as unsleak as it may be, did it's job^^^ Right around a 2" group, like I had predicted... No deer or elk would have survived that shidt...

300 yard line:

(Almost 4", damn!!) I blame it on my shooting and not focusing like I should. Still, in the kill zone though. That reticle is doing a damn fine job.

400 yards:



Of course, the wind decides to start gusting when I'm shooting my target at the 400 yard line, but I'll take it. Still easily in the kill zone of a deer. This is why I like this scope. I've used them on many rifles, most of my 30-06's and all of my hunting rifles, except for my 338wm. That one has a nice older 3.5-10x44 Conquest on top. That scope is great for those dark timber shots with the big 338. But the Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex never fails me. I am going to look for an older American made matte finish one and put this glossy sob back on the Tikka T3x 300WSM It came off of. It looks better on that shiny Tikka with the deluxe grade walnut stock:


I'm also still on the fence about those Conetrols. They sure are nice looking, but require a little more thought for scope installation than my favorite DD's. I have been zeroing the scope optically for windage and then adjusting POI more with the windage adjust screws on the side. Right or wrong??That way, theoretically, the scope will be on the centerline of the bore axis. Another reason I wanted to shoot 400 yards today, to see if anything was way off, but it seemed to be spot on for windage. Or at least close enough for my needs. I see some good potential in this new rifle, as I haven't even started load development for it yet. Except for the Hornady 165 BTSP load I posted a pic of above. That is the only work up so far and that was very minimal. I'm wanting to work up some 165 TTSX in this old girl, since I have a few hundred of those laying around. Load workup with that bullet may prove pretty promising. We will see though. This was posted because sometimes you just got to have fun out there. Its not always about putting every bullet in the same hole, its about finding out what your rifle is capable of and making the best of what you have to work with..