Just sharing. Placed this on another forum and will put it here as well.
Spent a couple of hours at the club range happily verifying the sights on the Winchester Model 94 Carbine in .32 Winchester Special made in 1941, probably on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Depending on hunting opportunities, a deer or a hog might appear in front of the sights of the rifle sometime this season.
I've scarcely ever needed to handload for this rifle as the .32 Winchester Special apparently is a lucky cartridge for me and supplies of factory ammunition turn up more frequently than I have need of them. I've only ever loaded a single box of 100 Hornady 170 grain component bullets and shot them through the rifle. I still have some boxes of factory Winchester ammunition on hand purchased years ago. A couple months ago a nice fellow at church asked me if I wanted six boxes of factory .32 Winchester Special he'd found in some of his dad's stuff. Well, of course!
Light played tricks with bright sun and cloud cover alternately. I always feel I do my best work with open sights in cloudy conditions. Anyway, the variable light looked like a fine place to find an excuse for shabby shooting to me. Light can influence one's perception when sighting with open sights. Since the rifle was fired from a bench rest under an awning and the front sight is hooded, this excuse might be a bit lame.
Last time I had the rifle out to the range was several years ago and it shot high. At the time I had adjusted the rear sight and figured the rifle remained sighted in.
First five-shot group off the bench at 100 yards today found the rifle shooting high yet again. There was only one more notch at the bottom the elevator of the Winchester's rear sight so the sight was lowered.
Fired a couple which landed pleasingly close together but were disappointingly low so the elevator was moved back and we were back to where we started. Fired three more rounds.
Shot a second 5-shot group on the same target. What's that round "off toward Joneses'" up there in that 7 ring? The other four shot were acceptable.
Best group of the day. An inch and 3/4, it's probably the best group ever shot with this rifle. This one seemed so nice that it had to be accidental. The last shot fired in this group felt as if I'd badly blown it to the right. Perhaps there was a mitigating flinch. This group was shot prior to fooling with the sights.
A more typical Winchester 94 Carbine 5-shot group at 100 yards from the bench for me. The shot into the orange center makes the group 2 7/8 inches.
The rear sight probably could use a bump to the right. I don't know if I'll bother going back to the range before hunting season to give it a bump or not.
Even the Winchester 94 benefits from careful shooting attention at the bench rest.
Fired off two boxes of ammunition this afternoon, thoroughly enjoying the purposeful report and nudging recoil from the Winchester 94 Carbine.
