Winter Shooting

[Mark A Ouellette]

It has been a very cold winter even for Michigan with @Altitude sickness and I live. Finally, the barometer raised above freezing for the entire day. What to do but grab our rifles and head to the shooting range. That heading wasn’t really hard since I have a range in my back field and a John Deere Gator to take us there!

Now, what we did not anticipate that we should have was a drastic change in weather meant a new weather front. What brings new weather? Wind! And the wind blew making 45 degrees Fahrenheit to (7 degrees Celsius) feel like 25 degrees F (-4 for the rest of the world). So we had snow, ice, and mud on the ground and wind in the air. We decided to forego any 100 yard shooting and set up at 50.

Along with the rifles pictured below we also shot my Heym 88B in .458 Win, Blaser S2 in 375 H&H, and Sako in .308. Unfortunetly we didn't capture them in still photos. We did video shooting some on them but honestly, I haven’t yet figured out how to post them on YouTube and Rumble. One step at a time…

50 yard range set up in snow​

Trusty John Deere with Altitiude Sickness at firing point​

Altitude Sickness's WWI era 8x57 Mauser with Ghost Ring rear aperture sight​

Notice the Ghost Ring sight​

50 yard shooting results​

Shooter pulled first shot to right but settled down for next two​

Author shooting Krieghoff 500/416 - Hey, the good looking rifle balances out my goofy hat combination! ​

Altitude shooting Vektor Action 450 Rigby by Bill Dowtin ​

 

[Altitude sickness]

Thanks for inviting me to your range Mark. And letting me shoot a fair amount of weight in bullets down range.

 

[WAB]

Nice setup!

 

[375er]

I like the bench set-up! Did you engineer that yourself?

 

[Altitude sickness]

Of course Mark‘s double rifles were fun to shoot and I was happy to get to shoot some of my rifles. but that Vektor 450 Rigby of Marks is something special

 

[Altitude sickness]

Mark, your new camera produces great pictures.

 

[AZDAVE]

Nice way to spend a few hours with a buddy!

 

[Mark A Ouellette]

I like the bench set-up! Did you engineer that yourself?

My portable standing bench includes the flat top from this MTM HLST High-Low Shooting Table;

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAPIUIW?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_10

and a surveying tripod. Check Craigs List or Facebook Marketplace and you'll probably find one for $50 or less.

The MTM tripod was okay but the surveyors' tripod is more stable.
One could make their own bench top from thick plywood.

 

[skydiver386]

Mark, you could always embrace your inner "Radar O'Riley" with an M1941 Jeep cap.

 

[Altitude sickness]

We need to consider a location, time and date for a Michigan shoot this summer.