Iron Sights Accuracy at 300 Yards

justgoto

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Apr 11, 2009
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636
Location
Carrollton, Ohio
I seem to have stumbled upon an oddity and thought I would share.

I had trouble hitting my 6 inch target at 300 yards using iron sights. Some of the problem was my sight blade would cover the whole target and another was an optical curiosity. When I would get my sight blade close, it would actually pull the image to the blade and give me a false reading.

So I thought I would make a larger cardboard target, then attach a steel target painted the same color as the cardboard that is my actual target. This way I know where the steel is, I just can't see it at that distance, therefore I will not get that false reading.

When I first tried it I was using my 30-06 and figured it was army issue so the sights were to shoot at people, I made a silhouette of myself. It worked wonderfully, I hit 3 out of 4 shots on a 3.25 x 5 inch steel target. (the last shot was using my 30-30.)

So I thought about it a little more and figured it was the shoulders that gave me my vertical position, and the head that was giving me my horizontal position. I decided to make a cross to use as my reference points then put the target in the center. Here is a video of the shot I took with my Eddystone 30-06.

YouTube - Cross Aids Accuracy


How accurate should my rifle be at 300 yards with iron sights?
Because as of 5 shots, I have hit those targets 4 out of 5 at 300 yards. (The first shot when I missed was my first shot with my new 168gr A-Max bullets, so I didn't know how they would hit and aimed a little high.)

Then I have another question...

Before, I was always shooting 3 or more shots with the Eddystone U.S. Model of 1917 30-06 and would clean it every time until the barrel looked like a mirror. Well, since I have been shooting those cold bore shots at those targets, (one shot then clean the barrel for the next day,) my barrel has a lot of pits in it. I am talking hundreds! I cannot get it to look like a mirror whatever I do.

I think it had copper filling those pits before and I have just actually gotten the barrel clean from 90 years of previous owners corrosion, then copper fouling. Because the last time I cleaned it, (day before that video,) it just wouldn't get clean, and the more I cleaned it the dirtier it looked. I finally got it clean and noticed some of that dirtiness were actually pits.

It doesn't seem to have an effect on accuracy but I still would like to hear some feedback on that situation.
 
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