Old Eyes, New Optics

Gun/Ammo Tests, Optics

As I told y’all last week, I fitted one of these newfangled red-dot thingies to my favorite Browning Buckmark .22 pistol:

..and off I went to my neighborhood range, bearing a couple of boxes of my trusty go-to .22 test ammo (CCI Min-Mag 40gr solids).  And because this was a sighting-in exercise, I shot off a sandbag rest.

This first target was just to get the sight thingy “on paper” (with a quarter to give some perspective):

Some words of explanation are necessary.  The Tru-Glo’s adjusting turrets don’t “click” — you need to turn the screw by guesswork — thus, I was going by “feel”, so to speak.  Anyway, the first five-shot string (unadjusted) shot low and a little left.  Up we go, to String #2.  Not bad.
Then the fun began.  Adjusting the left-right screw, I realized mid-adjustment that I was moving the dot  right instead of left — because I’m an idiot — so back left I went, trying to remember how far I’d just turned the thing.
String #3 showed me that I’d cocked the thing up completely and over-compensated (yeah, like none of you have ever done something like that before).  Back I went, guessing again, and mirabile dictu, I got it right first time.  String #4 looked pretty good.

But we all know that sighting accuracy may change at greater ranges, so I sent the target paper back out to 30ft (my normal shooting distance with handguns, whatever I’m shooting).  Would it change?  Indeedy, yes it did:

The 10-shot string was done with a center-dot hold, but after I’d adjusted the sight, the 5-shot string was made with a halfway hold (halfway between the bottom of the target and the center dot).
Not bad;  I thought I’d got the thing just right.
So off I went and shot the rest of that box at lots of different targets on the paper, omitted for the sake of brevity — okay, here are a couple, just for the hell of it:


(halfway-down hold)


(center hold)

Finally, I was getting close to the end of my allotted range time, so I packed up the gear to give the barrel a few minutes to cool down a bit, and then got serious, taking lots of time between shots instead of getting all impatient to get done with it (as I usually do):

That was fun.  Now to try some different ammo brands and boolet weights to see the differences…

7 comments

  1. Kim, Thank you for the update. These are enjoyable posts to read.

    If time and money permit, would you be willing to do a monthly update on your range adventures? Of any kind. Rimfire. Center fire. Rifle. Mag dumps. Bullseye. Etc.

    Do you still have the Ruger Redhawk 45 Colt?

    The Single Six?

    I enjoy these posts.
    And that is a damn nice gun.

    Thank you again

    1. Seconded!

      Your post has made my journey to a red dot come faster.

      I inherited a couple Ruger MK II pistols with red dots. I’m going to have to take them to the range soon

    2. CoffeeMan,

      Mostly, the only time I post a range review is when I think that others might benefit in some way from my experiences, whether in ammo, gun or optics.
      To be honest, most of my range sessions would be totally boring (not to me but to everyone else), in that they are mostly just repetitive practice drills involving my carry- and bedside guns, with some occasional .22 plinking when my wrist starts to ache from the .45 / .357 pounding.

      Which reminds me: I need to give the .22 rifles a decent airing soon.

      1. I think you got some cool guns in your collection. It is not boring to me, but I understand you are trying to make things interesting.
        All is appreciated that you do, sorry to be picky.

        Thank you as always for the best blog on the web.

    1. RHT,
      I do indeed have a thousand or two rounds of that Aguila stuff, and I think that I’ll compare it to the CCI Minis next time. (My only crit is that the Aguila is super-stinky…)
      Thanks for the prompt.

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