Just a little high, about 30mm, with 2300fps 174gn loads. I can't say precisely how high it shoots at 50m as I've only fired perhaps a dozen groups with the iron sights, and being an SMLE the groups are not small, but I'm guessing it's hitting about 30mm high. I ran it through a calculator using a guesstimated BC of .450, (assuming 30mm high at 50m) and it should zero around 130m and be about 30mm high at 100m. If it's only 20mm high at 50m it'll zero around 110m and be 10mm high at 100m, if it's 40mm high it'll zero around 150m and be 50mm high at 50m. Either is easily near enough to consider it "zeroed" at 100m due to the probable group sizes being at least 100mm, and more likely closer to 150mm. The bigger issue is how my eyesight places the sight picture over the target I think. I use a diamond around 50mm to shoot open sights at 50m, but it's on the small side really. I'll do some diamonds from 100mm to 200mm to practice on at 100m to determine which is most suitable, but the actual target I'll be aiming at is the big irregular blob of the Figure 11 at 200m and the figure 12 at 100m and 300m, so no precise aiming point that can be seen with my eyes at 100m.
Being around 130mm high at 50m seems ideal for the military competitions I think (my mate's rifle already shoots like this). This would make it about 250mm high at 100m so hold on the bottom edge of the 600mm target at 100m. It would be about 270mm high at 200m so hold about a quarter up from the bottom of the 1200mm target at 200m, and should be about dead-on at 300. This would avoid making any sight adjustments. But I don't even know yet if the competitions are shot at 300 yards or metres, and I think it varies depending on how each range was set out. But ideally I should be able to find a sight setting that avoids making any adjustments out to 300m.
Yes, that period with open sights tended toward the shooter being able to see the target above the sights, so they wanted the bullets to hit well above the aiming point - sort of an "aim at the belt to hit the chest" setup. This was usually only out to about 300m though, then they tended toward hitting point of aim as ranges extended. If you measure your sights and plot them you should see two separate curves, a short-range curve, then it should have a "step" around 300m as it becomes a long-range curve. So you might do better to find a low aiming point on closer-range targets, or just ignore the range settings entirely and gather your own DOPE. Or put some weld on the front sight and file it down to suit the load you've settled on, but then I would expect the longer range settings to hit very low.
But it does seem odd that somebody would sporterise it and not adjust the sights to shoot to point of aim.
I have actually already painted some other military targets that have 200mm centre bulls, I'll take one out next time and see how I go on it.
Vince24 wrote:Hi Bladeracer
If your 'high at 50m" turns into "zero at 100", it's that your loads are really mild;)
With my loads or with the PPU FMJ, "high at 50m" becomes "super high at 100m", and I have noted with the PPU that they don't really drop at all between 100m and 200m, you can use the same sight setting for 100 and 200.
That being said, this sporter is my only Lee shooting ridiculously high in the most annoying vintage Mauser/Mosin style.
My other Lee shoot quite low, I am often on the 400/500m setting for 100m (except those in 308w which are true to the sight setting).
To answer your question, the 7 ring is 20cm. the diameter of the 10 is 5cm and the diameter of the bull is 2.5cm.
This target is very nice at 50 metres, but slightly too small at 100m I find.
Cheers
Vince
what-I-need-is-an-elephant-in-a-corridor...