Today's Mosin Shooting

[Josh Smith]

Hi All,

I did a few more tweaks to my favorite Mosin and took it out to verify the sights.

Turns out it was shooting a little high, so I settled down to get it about 1/2" high at 50 or 60 yards. This will put me on at 100 yards.

After trying to figure out why I was shooting high no matter what I did, it occurred to me that I'd been predominately shooting at humanoid targets most of my life, and that I was, in my attempt to shoot COM, actually shooting the bottom of a color transition on the target. I made a new target and ended up with this:



I need to get out and see where it's at at 100 yards, now. I have a feeling I'll have to lower the front sight, but at this time of year long shots on anything are rare, so I'm not overly concerned. Coyote season doesn't start for a bit, and I might try a scout 'scope from Brass Stacker for that this year.

I've read that the average engagement distance in WWII was 50 yards, anyway, and that was part of the reason the assault rifles came to be.

I'm out of match bullets for loading and will have to get more before I go about doing much more testing.

Speaking of which, does anyone know what the terminal effect(s) is of a Hornady BTHP match bullet? I know it's not designed to expand, but I figure it will either shatter or pencil on through.

Thanks!

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[vintage hunter]

I have'nt a clue to what the terminal effects of the Hornady BTHP match bullets are but may be able to provide some information shortly. I expect them to mirror their Nosler and Sierra counterparts, that being erratic and unpredictable. They seldom behave the same way from one shot to the next.It's been my experience that the Noslers and Sierra's will do 1 of 3 things when shot into a deer or hog, either they will go to pieces and not fully penetrate, will bore straight through with no expansion at all or they will yaw and produce a large permanent wound channel and elongated exit wound around 1 1/2-2'' in length. The ones that went to pieces seem to have struck the shoulder bone dead center on entrance and the ones that yawed either hit bone at an angle or else penetrated about 6'' before it started to show signs of destabilizing. The downside to using this type bullet for hunting edible game is that if the animal does'nt fall over dead on the spot and the bullet does'nt yaw and leave a good size exit wound blood trails will be light to non existant and one could very easily end up loosing the animal.