Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The smell of Rifle smoke in the morning. MMMMmmmm!!!!!!!!

Ah!!!! I love the smell of Hoppe's #9 in the afternoon. Going to the range is, for me, something of a therapy session. Hoppe's is something akin to aroma therapy. And the two combined really do a number on my mental state.(for the better obviously. LOL I am sure that there are some Libtards out there that would be highly concerned about that statement.)
So With the last week or so of CONgressional BS I needed some recoil therapy in the worst way. I had a great excuse too. I had made a new rear Aperture sight for the PSL that needed tried out. I have a gaggle of pictures of the process from the foam mold to the finshed product but I am only going to post the end result as they are large files. Dial up be warned.

Here is the sight as it is mounted now. I did quite a bit of measuring and calculating angles, thread pitch, Detent arrangements, etc etc. I also did a lot of double checks and made the foam casting three times before I was satisfied with it. I used a primitive Charcoal furnace to melt the aluminum. The green sand was made from fine sand, Diatomaceous earth and used motoroil. It smoked quite a bit but the casting was nearly perfect. It could have been even better if I had let the melt get a bit hotter, but I am not complaining at this point.(in all actuality, I am stoked. More on that in a moment)
So here is the end product from two angles. It isn't pretty but it doesn't need to look like DaVinci designed it so long as it works.



And Oh Boy does it work. I started at the 50 yard line to sight in as I hadn't a clue how "off" this sight was. My boresighter took a dump and is about 3 degrees off (and has since been used only as a toy to bug the squirrels with) so I was Figuratively shooting from the hip first shot.
And surprise, surprise, I was on paper first string. 3 rounds 4" low right. I had to go smoke I was so Excited. All of that painstaking work, math, scraping, sanding, etc, PAID OFF!

I went ahead and Zeroed there, Set the scope back up and verified its Zero was still in. Then I headed to the 100.

Below is the 100 yard result. Open sights, Homemade Aperture ONLY. (I put the scope back in the bag.) This is a 12" target at 100yards, 20 rounds. Only three fliers off black.(and those are all on me, not the rifle or ammo.)Everything is on Paper.



This rifle has just became much more versatile for me. I have always prefered Iron sights to scopes: I guess its the Marine Corps training for me. Dunno. But its a fact that I do prefer it AND I tend to shoot just as well (up to 400 yards) with Iron as I do with a scope.(My rapid fire with iron is actually more accurate than with a scope)



I will be back on to post observations and thoughts about what I have been hearing from the District of Criminals today. But for now, its Time for Diogenes to do a little celebrating for all the hard work he put into that little bit of metal that worked so well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am with you on the iron sights, I hate using scopes, I was 4th award expert in the suck.

After you get used to using windage and following the heat waves, using a scope gives you tunnel vision.

Never did get a good conduct medal, but the PTB always overlooked lots of crap for a jarhead with a 4th award expert badge.

I used to snicker at all of the dopes that would have to go to the range for the full two weeks.

Keep up the blog I read it every day.

Bill Nye said...

Diogenes, I hate the friggin comment bs. I always get it messed up. Non the less I posted that comment on the range.

http://theelectedretards.blogspot.com/

Semper Fi.

Diogenes said...

I know what you mean. I was the guy that could shoot, and the guy that would end up picking up Butts around HQ at least once a month.

LOL

Didn't get the big Chicken Dinner but it wasn't in the Top three either. I was something of a troublemaker, but I could be counted on to get the jobs given, done, done fast, and done well.(then I was off to the bar or wherever LOL)