Home Depot Table + Railroad Spring = Shooting Bench

My new .223 ammo arrived over the weekend, and today I got to shoot the AR15 again. The results were good.

I was upset after my first outing because I bought Norma 55-grain Tactical FMJ and got bad results. I shot something like 5 MOA. I thought maybe the gun was screwed up. I knew Fiocchi Extrema ammunition shot like a laser in my .204 Ruger, so I ordered some for the AR, figuring it had to be a good choice for determining whether a gun could shoot straight.

Last time I shot the gun, I was not happy with the table. I found the point of aim moved about an inch when I rested my hand on the plastic. Today I came up with a remedy worthy of my Eastern Kentucky heritage. I took an old railroad spring and put it on the table. I figured the weight would preload it and take out the bounce. It must have worked, because I didn’t see any changes when I put my hand on the table.

It’s not ideal, but it’s good enough to get the scope on paper.

I used a rabbit-ear rear bag. It’s not my favorite rest. It seems like it’s never the right height. I need to find something else.

Instead of my Rock Jr. front rest, I used a new Magpul M-Lok bipod. Pluses: it’s well-made, and it seems to be great at what it’s supposed to do. Minus: it’s not supposed to be adjustable for precision shooting. You get big jumps in leg length or nothing. You have to choose a bipod height and make your rear rest adjust to it, and that’s no fun when your rear rest is a problem.

My solution was to set the bipod as well as I could, lean into it to take out as much wobble as possible, finesse the gun’s butt until the crosshairs were on the center of the target, and fire. It worked fine for 50 yards. The shots were so close together, I started wondering if I was missing the paper. Here’s a photo.

I fired 8 rounds to the lower left, and the I moved the scope 12 clicks up and to the right. Then I shot 12 rounds in the center of the bullseye. The point of aim was the same for all shots. I had a flyer during the second group, but it was still not far from the center.

I am relieved. The gun will shoot. If it will shoot this well with cheap ammo, a terrible rest, and a dubious shooter, it will probably do 1 MOA at 100 yards with better treatment.

I don’t know if this ammo is right for pigs, but if it is, they wouldn’t stand a chance against this gun and these cartridges. If the ammo isn’t right, there is definitely something else that will work with the same or better accuracy. As long as the gun is good, accurate ammo can be found or made.

In other news, I got some pleasing information regarding my 20x scope. No, my other 20x scope. I wanted to use it for a long-range shooting class, but when I emailed the instructor, he said it wouldn’t work because it didn’t have target turrets. Now it looks like it will work after all.

I didn’t know what a target turret was. In case you’re wondering, I’ll put up a photo. Most scope turrets have tiny dials with microscopic graduations. I have no problem with them, but serious distance shooters use dials with huge markings. For about a week, I tried to get information about target turrets, and even with the Internet, it was not easy. It took me a long time to piece things together. It looked like I would have to spend around $200 even if I installed them myself.

I emailed Leupold, which is the company that made the scope. They pointed out that I already had target turrets. I just didn’t recognize them because they looked so different from the ones I had seen on the web.

A lot of long-range scopes have big turrets with enormous markings on them. I thought the big markings were part of what made them target turrets. In fact, they are not. It looks like a target turret is just a large turret with markings around the sides.

I think I’m all set. I have the scope. I have a couple of rifles to choose from. I already have ammunition. It should work out.

It will be neat to have someone telling me how to shoot. Generally, I have to figure things out myself.

I can’t imagine shooting at 1000 yards. It must be a blast to hit anything at all at that range. Also, I know what happens when you learn to shoot at long distances. It makes you shoot better at short distances.

If I can shoot well at 1000 yards, 100 yards, 25 yards, and 7 yards, I will be a very dangerous person indeed, which seems like a waste given my lack of hostile intent. It almost makes me wish zombies were real.

I guess squirrels are my zombies.