Range Report -- my new BBS .357 Carbine
Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 12:12 am
I got my new Henry BBS .357 Magnum at the end of July, and had some difficulty sighting it in using a Skinner barrel-mounted peep sight. Wrote to Andy Larsson at Skinner about my problem getting the sight-in corrected. I had some problems with both windage and elevation adjusts. When I eventually "found" the target at 25 yards, my POIs were about 11.5" low elevation and 3"-4" right windage.
Andy asked if I had centered the sight in the dovetail, which I had done as best I could. If centered, then he suggested that perhaps something is skewed in the crown. As far as elevation adjust, as I raised the peep I ran out of threads on the stem, and was still 1"-1.5" low!! That never happened before as I've mounted several of these barrel-mounted sights.
My final decision was to "give up" on this barrel-mounted peep. So I ordered a blued Skinner "Express" sight, and installed it on the receiver. Here is my sight-in range report with this new sight on my BBS.
As some of you may remember, I am challenged using a rifle rest. I shoot much better off hand. But Friday at the Parma Woods range was different. I had quite a good time and quite easily got the Henry rifle on target. In fact, from now until deer season I've decided to concentrate my practice on using this Henry rifle. I'll need to determine which ammo is best to use for the hunt, and I had some good data when I practiced with my previous .357 BB. In my report following you'll see I need more practice at the 50-yard distance. I will get there again, and maybe even do some work at 75-yards.
Thursday I got my Express sight (blued model) from Skinner, and mounted it right away. It was a snap to remove the barrel-mount Skinner, install a blued blank in the barrel's dove-tail slot, and to mount the Express on the receiver. Ready to go for Friday range time.
OK, attached pics below of my four targets. My sight-in target was a 2" orange dot on white foam core, set at 25 yards. Shot two 4-round groups. First group POIs was both high and to the right, each off approx. 3". Adjusted both windage and elevation, and brought in the second group much better. After this group I made a mini windage adjust to try and center dead-on the bull. Sight-in done.
Mounted some other targets at 25 yards, another 2" orange dot and also a 6" black splash target. Hurrah! Got to set aside the rifle rest, and shot off hand only.
This is where the fun began! Both 5-round groups turned out really decent to my eyes! The orange dot group size was 2-1/4", and the black splash group size was 2-3/4". And these POIs were after only shooting a total of 25 rounds with the Express sight prior to these two groups. I'm a happy carbine shooter already at this distance! Finally, a comment on the 50-yard target. It is definitely a home-made target. I had a 12" X 18" silhouette with the bull pretty shot up, so cut it down to this 12" X 11-1/2" football-shaped target. Just made it for some fun plinking, which I did. I shot 10 rounds at 50 yards. Got 9 POIs in target, and one is low/right, just into the cardboard. Definitely need to tighten this up when shooting off-hand. NCG is right that it's about impossible to hold that barrel solidly steady for off hand shooting! But I think I'll be able to lessen the largish 8-1/2" group you see here. It's just too big. Anyway, it will be fun trying to improve at longer yardages.
It was a day with excellent weather for some outdoor range time. When I got to Parma Woods it was partly sunny, no wind, and temp in upper 60s. When I left after shooting an hour, it was only about 73*. Sure has been mild summer weather here in KCMO area for end of August and start of September! I'm good with that.
Almost forgot! Thought I'd mention one glitch I had with my BBS carbine. In the middle of my shooting time, I had difficulty chambering some rounds. It suddenly became very hard after I ejected a casing to bring the next round into the receiver. This maybe happened 7-8 times. So after emptying the magazine, I pounded pretty hard on the lever action and cycled a lot of times. For some reason, it eased up for the rest of my ammo. I only used the Rem 125gr JHP Golden Saber ammo. I'll have to look more closely at the rifle when I clean it. I cycled it several times again here at home, and it still seems to be okay. Wonder what happened?
Hope this wasn't too long, or too boring of a sight-in range report. Trust all will enjoy Sunday and the Monday holiday!
Take care....PT7
Andy asked if I had centered the sight in the dovetail, which I had done as best I could. If centered, then he suggested that perhaps something is skewed in the crown. As far as elevation adjust, as I raised the peep I ran out of threads on the stem, and was still 1"-1.5" low!! That never happened before as I've mounted several of these barrel-mounted sights.
My final decision was to "give up" on this barrel-mounted peep. So I ordered a blued Skinner "Express" sight, and installed it on the receiver. Here is my sight-in range report with this new sight on my BBS.
As some of you may remember, I am challenged using a rifle rest. I shoot much better off hand. But Friday at the Parma Woods range was different. I had quite a good time and quite easily got the Henry rifle on target. In fact, from now until deer season I've decided to concentrate my practice on using this Henry rifle. I'll need to determine which ammo is best to use for the hunt, and I had some good data when I practiced with my previous .357 BB. In my report following you'll see I need more practice at the 50-yard distance. I will get there again, and maybe even do some work at 75-yards.
Thursday I got my Express sight (blued model) from Skinner, and mounted it right away. It was a snap to remove the barrel-mount Skinner, install a blued blank in the barrel's dove-tail slot, and to mount the Express on the receiver. Ready to go for Friday range time.
OK, attached pics below of my four targets. My sight-in target was a 2" orange dot on white foam core, set at 25 yards. Shot two 4-round groups. First group POIs was both high and to the right, each off approx. 3". Adjusted both windage and elevation, and brought in the second group much better. After this group I made a mini windage adjust to try and center dead-on the bull. Sight-in done.
Mounted some other targets at 25 yards, another 2" orange dot and also a 6" black splash target. Hurrah! Got to set aside the rifle rest, and shot off hand only.
This is where the fun began! Both 5-round groups turned out really decent to my eyes! The orange dot group size was 2-1/4", and the black splash group size was 2-3/4". And these POIs were after only shooting a total of 25 rounds with the Express sight prior to these two groups. I'm a happy carbine shooter already at this distance! Finally, a comment on the 50-yard target. It is definitely a home-made target. I had a 12" X 18" silhouette with the bull pretty shot up, so cut it down to this 12" X 11-1/2" football-shaped target. Just made it for some fun plinking, which I did. I shot 10 rounds at 50 yards. Got 9 POIs in target, and one is low/right, just into the cardboard. Definitely need to tighten this up when shooting off-hand. NCG is right that it's about impossible to hold that barrel solidly steady for off hand shooting! But I think I'll be able to lessen the largish 8-1/2" group you see here. It's just too big. Anyway, it will be fun trying to improve at longer yardages.It was a day with excellent weather for some outdoor range time. When I got to Parma Woods it was partly sunny, no wind, and temp in upper 60s. When I left after shooting an hour, it was only about 73*. Sure has been mild summer weather here in KCMO area for end of August and start of September! I'm good with that.
Almost forgot! Thought I'd mention one glitch I had with my BBS carbine. In the middle of my shooting time, I had difficulty chambering some rounds. It suddenly became very hard after I ejected a casing to bring the next round into the receiver. This maybe happened 7-8 times. So after emptying the magazine, I pounded pretty hard on the lever action and cycled a lot of times. For some reason, it eased up for the rest of my ammo. I only used the Rem 125gr JHP Golden Saber ammo. I'll have to look more closely at the rifle when I clean it. I cycled it several times again here at home, and it still seems to be okay. Wonder what happened?
Hope this wasn't too long, or too boring of a sight-in range report. Trust all will enjoy Sunday and the Monday holiday!
Take care....PT7
- .357 BB Steel Carbine sight in.jpg (89.15 KiB) Viewed 2700 times
- .357 BB Steel Carbine off hand 25 yards.jpg (132.45 KiB) Viewed 2700 times
- .357 BB Steel Carbine off hand 50 yards.jpg (142.94 KiB) Viewed 2700 times
