New Rifle off to Promising Start

It finally happened. I shot my .204 Ruger today.

Getting this thing ready to fly was much harder than I thought it would be.

First problem: the scope I bought (ATN X-Sight II 5-20x) eats batteries fast. You might get 2.5 hours out of 4 really good AA batteries, but people have reported much shorter times. Realistically, you need the ATN external battery to run it. This is an extra hundred bucks, and you have to fit it to your buttstock.

Second: the ATN scope will not fit separate Weaver bases. You need a Picatinny rail. I had to pay $44 for one, and then I had to install it.

Third: you have to make sure you have the latest firmware for the scope. The scope is equipped with wifi, so you just put it next to your PC and upload ATN’s newest file. HAHAHAHAHA. That was a joke. In reality, you have to get a micro SD card (the scope has no memory without one), load the firmware into it, move it to the scope, turn the scope on, and make the scope update itself. The problem with this is that you may not have a micro SD card reader on your computer. I had to use a phone. Don’t make me describe the process.

Why can’t you upload video via the same wifi that allows you to download from the scope? Good question.

Fourth: the rifle was very tight when I got it. It was hard to turn the bolt lever down after racking it. That told me something was not completely normal. Today when I put a round in the chamber, the bolt refused to close.

I didn’t know what was going on. I wondered if the ammunition I bought had some peculiarity to it. People say Fiocchi brass is very good, though.

I took the bolt out. In order to do that, I had to take the battery pack off the buttstock. I looked the bolt over and couldn’t find anything wrong. Not that I would have recognized a problem had I seen it.

I didn’t want to force it, so I took the golf cart back to the house and got a cleaning rod. I figured I would knock the round out of the chamber and make sure nothing was stuck in there. That’s when I learned that my cleaning rod was over 0.204″ in diameter. It wouldn’t go in.

I bounced the rifle on its butt, and the round came out. I kept fiddling with it, and I finally found I could close the bolt if I gave it a good hard shove.

By the time I got the gun working, the scope had been on for quite some time.

I started shooting, and the rig was not comfortable. The ATN scope has a big eye relief problem. You need to mount it very close to your face. I put it as far back as I could, and I still had to lean forward. I was straining to get close enough, and strain makes you shake. Not good for accuracy.

I set up maybe 75 feet from the berm, so I wouldn’t shoot over it and kill anyone while zeroing the scope. I got it working, and then I moved back to something over 50 yards. I put the scope on 20x to see how it looked.

The video was not that great. It was hazy. Not like a real 20x scope. I have a 14x Burriss, and it gives me razor-sharp images. The ATN was so fuzzy I was not able to see all of the holes the bullets made. I knew it wouldn’t be as sharp as a glass scope, so I can’t complain.

I zeroed it as well as I could and started shooting at a clean target to see how well it shot. Here is the result.

After that, the screen went black. No juice. I shot a grand total of 12 rounds today, and only three were real shots. The rest were spent on adjusting the scope.

The group you see is not very good for 50 yards. The two shots that are almost touching are fine, but the flyer is pretty bad. I think it’s the result of having to wrestle with the gun.

The rifle’s trigger is wonderful, although I plan to see about reducing the tension. There is no creep. There is no grit. There is no staging. You pull, and it goes off. I am also happy about the recoil. It’s not nonexistent, like .17 HMR and .22 recoil, but it’s not going to be fatiguing or leave bruises. I didn’t find out whether it permits me to see shots land. I was too preoccupied with other matters.

The mechanics of the gun loosened up, so now it’s possible to chamber rounds and cock the gun without wondering if I’m breaking something or crushing a cartridge.

The eye relief is probably impossible to fix without some sort of custom rail. I need to figure out a way to get a decent cheek weld. I also need to start shooting from the other end of the pasture, because it’s hard to aim low with my table and chair at the west end. The pasture rises toward the west, so if I put my table to the east of the berm, I should have a trajectory that’s more level, so I won’t have to keep lifting up on the gun’s butt when I shoot.

It’s time to get a rear bag for the gun. I don’t want to use one when I hunt, but for sighting the scope in, I need it.

Will I be able to get coyotes? I don’t know. They’re out there. I may have to train them before I kill them, so they’ll lose their fear and show up where I want them to, but I think I can get them.

Tonight I saw what looked like a herd of pigs in a pasture a mile away. I realized I’m the only person in Florida who doesn’t have wild pigs and is jealous of those who do. Everyone else wants them to go away. If they came here, I’d be tickled pink.

I didn’t get a good look at them, but they were roundish black and white animals of assorted sizes, standing in a pasture. I haven’t seen goats that looked like that, and they were too small to be cattle. Also, they were in an area where I have never seen cattle. I believe it’s a horse farm.

My feeling about the scope is that it will work fine at night at relatively short ranges, but that a traditional scope would be infinitely preferable during the day, except on occasions when recording video of shots is important. Okay, not important. Desirable. Fun.

It would be hellacious on pigs in the pasture. I think I might want a semiauto for that, however. When you shoot pigs, you want volume. Kill as many as possible so they don’t replace themselves fast.

I love my neighbors more than ever. I was out there shooting, and I kept thinking about the lady who started asking me questions when I was hunting squirrels. Was I making anyone mad? Was I going to have another confrontation? Then I heard someone else shooting close by. Rapid fire, and then what sounded like a bump stock. Fast, but not as fast as full auto. I was thrilled to death. They kept doing it after I came inside.

She needs to desensitize her horses. I read about it on a horse forum. Some granola-based life form started complaining about people shooting near her babies, expecting sympathy and legal advice, and all the other horse people told her off good. They said she should be shooting on her own property to prepare her horses for gunfire and thunderclaps! Evidently the lady who lives near me is not a responsible or knowledgeable horse person. I’m not the problem. It’s all her.

I’m not a bump stock fan. I think it’s stupid and counterproductive to provoke liberals by trying to get around the law, especially given that you can fire a gun about 5 times per second without a bump stock. But it was nice that someone made it very clear that I’m small potatoes in the local noise pollution scene.

Now I have to take all my batteries out and recharge them. As soon as I can, I’ll get back out there and shoot.