Range testing on the bench using a rather shorter and smaller ‘scope
group sizes too, since I invariably leave my optics at their maximum setting unless mirage becomes a problem.
Before and After Man The proof of this particular pudding isn’t in the eating but in the groups that it’ll shoot. Five ammunition combinations previously tried with the rifle in its original form were loaded again using the same components and range of charge weights. The first outing with two light HPBT match bullets over Viht N133 (NOT Viht N130 as I mistakenly typed on the captions for the target images last month), the 52gn Sierra MatchKing and its same weight plastic-tipped Hornady A-Max competitor. Now, I must confess to a mindset problem here. I’ve read many reviews of ‘tuned’ factory Remy 700s over the years and always been rather sceptical that what mostly amounts to barrel re-crowning really does shrink groups by the amounts claimed, or even at all. This cynical view probably stems from the Holland sprog’s responses to unsophisticated 1960s ‘Before & After Man’ TV adverts for shaving and personal hygiene products, many of which were subsequently sent up in hilarious comedy skits by the late Benny Hill. (The genre survives today in a more expensive, sophisticated form for a certain body spray that miraculously and
instantaneously produces a geek to babe magnet transformation. As if – I’d be buying the stuff by the crate-load if I believed in such fairytales!) So, I began to think in terms of the ‘Before’ rifle and its new hopefully improved ‘After’ rifle reincarnation.
However, before I could test anything, the Tasco ‘scope had to be boresighted then sighted-in at 100 yards so the previously mentioned and unimpressive Remington 62gn OTM factory fodder was wheeled out again. And the groups were ........ bad, like REALLY BAD! Starting at the 1.35 inches I’d achieved with the ‘Before’ rifle but now growing with each subsequent group until the final effort nudged two full inches! Oh ... er, maybe this wasn’t going to be a story with a happy ending after all.
So, it was onto the 52gn SMK with five by five- shot groups over 23.2-24.5gn of N133 rising in 0.4 down to 0.2gn weight steps - the best performer in the ‘Before’ rifle. This was more like it, with a near quarter-incher and the biggest group somewhere around the inch, although I’d need to measure and compare the groups at home to see how the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ versions compared.
The final set that day was five groups with the Target Shooter 29
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