Winchester Model 94...it's a mir-'cal of a shooter!!!!

[davet]

I'm thinking my Win '94 Legendary Lawman rifle.....which has a 16" barrel, is in fact haunted with the ghost of those Legendary Lawmen, Or maybe it's those not so great buckhorn sights and my 60 year old eyes? Well.....I've loaded up some Sierra 150gr. thurty-thurty boolets over 35gr. of BL-C2 and the round is 2" to 3" at 100 yards. The problem is.....it's about dead on at 200 yards. Yeah.....and according to my ballistic program....or any ballistic program that I've tried, the bullet should drop about 10" from 100 to 200 yards. But......it doesn't.

Maybe I'm "squeezing" the sights to close together when I'm aiming at 200 yards.....I dunno. Or.....maybe those LL's are carrying those boolits on a flat trajectory? I'll post some pic's later this morning. I gotta meet a friend for bacon and eggs!!!

[davet]

So, here is a pic of the 100 yard shot(s). Now, the two lower left were before I moved the sight, and the shot in the black and the other three were after I moved the sight for just windage. BTW, the black squares are 1".



Now the below is the 200 yard target. Three shots. the third, as I had written on the target, about 1" high off of the target. So....magic bullets or what???

[Muab Dib]

Sight picture and hold. Or...you've got a rifle that defies the laws of gravity!


Muab

[davet]

Shot off of a bench.....rest of course. Maybe it's that anti-gravity powder neck lube I started using for reloading? I'm almost afraid to shoot it at 300 yards......it will go up another 15"!!!

[dennyf]

Years ago when I was the head Range Monkey at our club, a guy was shooting a scoped 30-30 Contender at fifty yards from the bench. Came up to the one hundred where I was, fired a few shots and was confused why it was shooting "dead on" at both distances, thought something must be wrong?

So I asked him if he could think of any issues in shooting at a deer at 50 yards - with the crosshairs on the critter - or doing the same thing if the deer was 100 yards out? He thought about it a bit, said he couldn't think of anything that might go wrong. Then asked me if I thought he was worrying about nothing?

Pretty much.

For me, I'd probably want that M94 just a tad high, rested @ 100 yards? Then figure out the correct sight picture if a 200 yard shot came up? My Marlin 336SC in 35 Rem. had a peep on it. With the aperature insert removed, it was more of a "ghost ring" rear sight. Full front bead at six o'clock, it was right on @ 100 yards. Killed a few deer with that set up, including one at 90 yards. Never got to try it farther out, but front bead centered, pretty much on out to 150 yards.

I have a box of Sierra 150gr flat nose "Power Jacket" bullets and a set of dies for the 30-30. Got so many 150gr Core Lokts, no need to reload for it, yet. If I can conjure up a load with the Sierras that shoots as well as the Core Lokts, I'll be happy.

[davet]

Well.....there's no doubt that the load is MOD (Minute of Deer) and for shooting this rifle with the buckhorn open sights I have no problems after seeing what it does at the range. It's a "nifty" little carbine with only a 13.5" LOP and a 16" barrel.....heck, it's practically a concealed carry rifle!!!! My thoughts were (because I have a shoot from a vehicle permit) to attempt to use my 2D doe permit with this rifle. I really like to use different types of calibers when it comes to filling a doe tag. My only regret would be not using my 38-55 caliber. I have two of those and either of those actually have tighter groups at 100 yards than the 30-30....but the bullet drops about 16" (yes.....for real) from 100 yards to 200 yards. I have actually ran both 38-55's over my chronograph and they have a MV of 1,600fps.....one of the rifles being 10fps consistently faster than the other. The 38-55 uses a 260gr bullet while the 30-30 has the 150gr.

Of course....there's always next year!!

[dennyf]

I too like to thump baldies with different firearms and have been doing so for at least the past 20 years. Stopped shooting across the hollow from camp and other medium long range pokes, after my huntin' bud passed away in 2001. He and I were into that sorta thing for years and it was lots of fun.

Decided to try and stick to open sighted rifles for doe, mostly antiques and that's fun, too. Have taken doe with a M629 S&W, M94 in 32 Special, M92 in 38-40, Marlin 336 carbine in 35 Rem, my departed uncle's US Remington 1903A1 (original sights) and maybe something I've forgotten?

Figure to hunt doe with open sighted rifles, while I can still see and (kinda) still walk some. Can always go back to using a bipod and longer range set up, down the road.

Been wanting to kill one with the M64 Win. in 30-30/Lyman receiver sight, for the past few seasons. Things haven't quite worked out yet, maybe this coming season they will?

[davet]

Well, the better half is up in New York with two of her old high school girl friends "shaking up the town", plus visiting our oldest daughter....seeing a play 'n doing that type of stuff. I don't think I was invited....so I'm sitting at home.....you know.....crushed from not being invited 'n all. So, I went to the range today, shot a round of trap....first time in probably over a year. Got a 12. Missed the first 5 until I figured out how to do it again....plus I had #9 shot, (skeet loads) and I still had my skeet choke's in the tubes.....left the other's at home, and bla, bla, bla.

But then I also took the Olie Win 38-55 to the rifle range just to shoot it off of my shooting stick. Well, I was sitting in a chair and had the stick held solid against a bench.....set up a target at 200 yards just to get the drop correct again.....and then...the "magic" starts with THIS caliber!!

So, then I set up a target at 100 yards and took three shots only to find that my 100 yard shots (on average) were almost 10" high....which explained why they were close to "on" at 200 yards. So, I used the peep sight to "adjust" my 100 yard shot....and now I have both shooting MOD....or close to it. The 200 yard can be a bit tricky and I do think it's sometimes just "is what it is" when it comes to POA vs POI. Here's the 100 yard target.The three "high" impact shots were prior to my adjusting my aim. Well.....in any event it appears to be much better. Now, the 38-55 is shooting a 260gr. lead FN at a MV of 1600fps. The 30-30 is much faster....I haven't crony-ed it yet....but I can shoot the 38-55 and a short pause occurs before I hear the bullet impact the board at 100 yards. No such pause occurs when shooting the 30-30. I can only estimate the 30-30 is going at least 2,000fps.