We had some beautiful weather today, so I did a little old-school plinking. This is my Remington 1903A3. I bought it through James River Armory 10 or 12 years ago, and it has a Criterion barrel, new walnut, and milled bottom metal. This was three rounds at 170 yards from a braced offhand position, and the load is the 155-grain Nosler HPBT on top of 49 grains of IMR4064 for about 2750 to 2800 fps.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

It's a great plinker. A 5.56 from an AR15 will make an audible clang and tip the steel enough to be visible at 200 yards. The .30-06 renders an exaggerated clang and tips the target a full 90 degrees.

When I bought it I quickly found a good load, but it shot about 11" high at 200 yards with the lowest setting on the rear sight. I had a new front blade made slightly too tall, and then filed it to a 200-yard zero. The bottom hit was just me, and I called it when the trigger broke. I'm not a particularly good group shooter, but from a rest the rifle will shoot less than 5" at 200 yards, and frequently 4 of the 5 are in about 2.5". I suppose I suffer from too much aiming error; nevertheless the rifle shoots straight.

Alas, I don't shoot this rifle as much as I should. In this day with all the polymer, high capacity magazines, high-speed triggers and red dots, I do find it redeeming to spend a little time with walnut, stripper clips, aperture sights, and two-stage triggers.