Steampunk @ Dreamwidth

On my second range day with my new cyberpunk SARB-15 bullpup rifle, I realized a major flaw in my first outing in that I was attempting to sight my rifle optics with a red dot and reticle on a target with a red diamond at its center. This time, I switched to a green dot and that contract, plus a more stable sandbag setup, reduced my groups by about half. My six inch groups at 50 yards became three inch groups. Roughly.

But I was still unhappy with what I was seeing. I wanted some magnification to see the target better. The recommendation is to buy the scope for 80% of your shooting and the Vortex Optics Spitfire 1x Prism Scope was that, but switching out the range to 100 yards, I was having difficulty and could only imagine reaching out beyond that. I would not want to completely tank any shots out beyond 100 yards because my scope (and eyes) were only capable for that inner 80%.

Thus, I ordered a Monstrum Ghost G3 3X Micro Magnifier with Flip-to-Side Mount. They are supposedly designed to either sit in front of or behind the prisim optic to provide that magnification when you need it and flip out of the way when you don’t.

The third range day did not go well.

I tried the new magnifier after the prism optic and simply could not get it to work well. I think the second optic was adding a distortion so that I should, theoretically, sight it in through the magnifier but, once I moved it out of the way, the reticle wouldn’t line up anymore. I moved both optics so that the magnifier came first and it simply would not focus. The reticle was always either blurry or refracted. I moved back to the initial setup and, in the second attempt, could not make it work.

I returned the magnifier.

At the Liberal Gun Club annual convention, I had a chance to look through a Vortex Optics Spitfire 3x Prism Scope and I liked it. That was much of the reason I chose to get the Vortex 1x model. With that, I was looking at mid-ranges and though that, even at close range, the 3x wouldn’t be bad. So, I got one of those and put my 1x in a box for some future gun (perhaps a Ruger 10/22).

The fourth range day didn’t start out well. Sure, after mounting the scope I had used a laser bore sight at my workbench to try to line things up but the first shots at range went . . . somewhere. Not through the board. With the bore sight and the ballistics of the 5.56 NATO, I should have been off by a hand-span. Maybe even two. Who knows where those first rounds went.

I had brought my laser with me so went off the line to try to line things up again.

The next 5 round just barely hit the board, mostly centered but 22 inches high, but that was something I could work with. Adjusted, I pulled it down to 13 inches high. Then 5 inches high. Then just a little over half an inch low and a quarter inch to the left.

Nice.

According to the published ballistics and my optics setup, if I want to be zeroed at 100 yards (the reticle is calibrated for that) I should be an inch and three quarters low at 50 yards. I made some adjustments to try to get that and then took the rifle over to the 100 yard range and found it was printing about 2 inches high. I’ll do more math to try to work that discrepancy out but I may be better served by more testing at various ranges to work out the rifle’s actual performance.



This trip was about the 3x optic, though, and I was pleased. I could see at 50 yards very well and I wasn’t straining to see an 8 inch bullseye at 100 yards. And, also important, my group sizes had improved over what I had been doing with the 1x optic. My best groups were one inch at 50 yards and two inches at 100 yards (off the sandbag). Though most of my groups were bigger than that, they were still consistently half what I had been doing the week before.

When I was young and my eyes were good, I would spend my entire day and allowance at the Boy Scout summer camp rifle range. “One MOA all day long” with my grandfather’s Winchester Model 67. In the intervening four decades, however, I have not maintained that. Standard mil-spec expectation of the AR-15 is 4 MOA. That is (roughly) a four inch group at 100 yards. I am doing a little better than that but I am still far from the performance of my youth.

But also, the kind of shooting I am preparing for is different from the shooting I did then. Once I get the gun zeroed where I want it to be and am confidant in the machine’s performance, I am going to expand my manual of arms. Standing, kneeling, prone. Different ranges. Tactical movement. The Cabin Fever Challenge and Brutality-CQB East are going to be my benchmarks. I can make a two inch group off a sandbag at 100 yards, what if I was standing? Kneeling? After having just thrown a 35 pound kettle bell and run to where it landed?

That’s on me.