Shot my original '73 on Friday (photos)

[KirkD]

Well, hunting season is over, my old Winchester 1895 38-72 made in 1904 has brought home the meat and I have 138 pounds of venison in the freezer from my nice doe and another buck and a half from my buddies who like to hunt but don't really enjoy eating venison for reasons that I simply cannot fathom. No problem, I'm happy to take their deer, although it took me all day to cut and wrap all that meat out in the bush. We had the first neck roast on Saturday and, by gum, was it tasty and tender! The family couldn't get enough of it.

My old Winchester 1873 44 WCF (44-40) made in 1889 has been patiently waiting for its turn. It's never too soon to start practicing for next year's hunt, so I took the old timer to the range on Friday. Here is a photo of this fine old rifle ....



The temperature was just below freezing but there was a late fall sun in the sky and virtually no wind. I headed down to the 100 yard backers and tacked up my usual target, a 8 & ½ x 11 sheet of paper with the usual target on it. I then trudged back and laid the old beauty on my new rest, a gift from another fellow who dropped by for coffee a couple weeks ago. What a sweet rest! Much better than my shooting bag. Here's a photo of this excellent little rest ...



I fired a shot, took a stroll down to the 100 yard backers to see if it hit the paper. About the 75 yard mark I could see a hole through the bottom of the bullseye, so I went back and cranked out four more shots. I was using the tang sight, but the original rear sight is still in place and at its lowest setting it is sighted in for 100 yards, so the front sight tip is buried in the notch of the rear sight and it is very distracting to get it centered in the rear tang peep. I figured it messed up my first group, but here is a photo of the target, five shots from a rest into 3 & 1/8" ...



I was sure I could get a better group if I raised the tang sight just a tad to bring the top of the front sight just a wee bit out of the rear sight notch so it might be a bit easier to center. I still found it distracting to center, but it was an improvement. Another target, another five shots, and this time I got a tighter group. Five shots into 1 & 15/16" at 100 yards with an old Winchester 44 (as Louis L'Amour would sometimes call it) that was 132 years old. Still, I am sure that if I removed the rear sight, I could do better than that. Here's a photo of this second target ....



Well now it was time to do some real shooting .... free standing, off hand without even resting my left elbow on my chest. This is my favourite kind of shooting .... the kind a fellow has to do in real life hunting or when suddenly jumped by hostiles. It was the first time shooting offhand with with this particular rifle and I knew I was shooting a bit sloppy, especially one shot that I called way off to the left. I cranked out five shots and then went down to take a look .... Four shots on paper and the one called flyer just off the left side of the paper. Here's a photo of that target .....



I was pretty embarrassed by that heinous shot off the left side of the paper. Fortunately, an old fellow who was watching me shoot had headed off somewhere with the garbage barrels to empty them. I figured it was time to shape up and exercise some discipline while offhand shooting. What happened next made me dearly wish the old fellow was still watching. With a new target tacked to the 100 yard backer, I fired five rounds free standing, offhand, then went down to see the damage. I was feeling pretty good about my shooting this time but when I saw the target I stopped cold and stared gape-jawed at it. I thought I must be hallucinating and forced myself to get a grip and look carefully at the target. It was the best five-shot, free standing, offhand target of my life and not a soul to witness the event! Five shots into 2 & 1/8" at 100 yards. I know that with a scope this is not hard to do, but with iron sights, albeit a tang sight, I find it much harder. Nevertheless, it tells you what a tang sight can do when it comes to shooting. Here's a photo of the target ...



This was an eye opener for me .... it suggests that with practice, a fellow might become pretty good at offhand shooting at 100 yards if he could repeat whatever happened just then. It has certainly raised the bar in my own mind as to what can be done in free standing, offhand shooting, but I ain't holding my breath that it will happen again any time soon. Until it can be repeated on a reasonably regular basis, I'm calling it an accident .... but an accident that I am going to try and repeat. I think it is this old '73 and the tang sight that does it. I've never had a rifle that pretty much lines itself up with the target all by itself, in spite of the old geezer holding it.

Some fellows might have quit right there and headed home and framed that target, but I wasn't fooling myself; a fellow can't take credit for an accident like this ... so I put up my last target of the day and fired six shots free standing, offhand at 100 yards. The last shot was awful. I felt myself leaning back and for some crazy reason I pulled the trigger and then let out a yell of disgust with myself. I made my final trek down to the 100 yard backers and retrieved the target ... the usual spray of bullet holes all over the target, with the final crazy shot making a lone bullet hole high up on the target. Here's a photo of that target ....



Well, the old fellow had returned by now and he wondered how I did. I told him I had just shot the best offhand target of my life but told him I didn't expect anyone to believe it. He said he'd watch me shoot enough times to believe it as I showed him the target, along with the other more sloppy ones. He said that he's 70 years old, but I've inspired him to take the scope off his Marlin 35 Remington levergun and start practicing with a ghost ring. I told him he should stop by my house for coffee sometime and he figured that would be a good idea, so we exchanged names and phone numbers. I'll call him up in a week or so when it gets a little on the cold and snowy side of things to do much shooting and we'll have ourselves a good visit. The old fellow is a talker, and I enjoy listening to the stories old timers have to tell.

[dusty texian]

Dang fine 73 Win. and Dang fine shooting.Dusty.

[King Medallion]

That will put meat in the freezer for sure! Nice shooting.

[w44wcf]

Howdy Kirk,
Great story....Nice shooting!  The Steel ram @ 100 meters in NRA Cowboy Silhouette is 6" high so you would have cleaned a bank of them (5). 

w44wcf