A Shooter's Journal

General Operational Tips

2009-05-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

I have been busy with other commitments the last few months and have not been able to get out to the range. I have been keeping up with questions and comments made regarding my YouTube videos, though, and will post some information here that may be useful.

The following is copied from one of my comment replies for one of my YouTube PU sniper videos comment replies:

"Commercial Sellier & Bellot 180gr FMJ and 174gr HPBT Match ammo will follow the PU BDC (bullet drop compensator or range drum) to essentially MOA precision. Zeroed for either of these rounds, you dial in 7 on the PU BDC and you will be on at 700M for elevation, dial in 5 and you will be on at 500M, dial in 8 and you will be on at 800M, dial in 3 and you will be on at 300M, etc. That is the real beauty of it, you don't have to hand-load or do anything special and you can get these results. Of course, you may have to compensate slightly for atmospherics/altitude."

The following is an answer in response to a question from a YouTube viewer and fellow M91/30 (PEM) shooter regarding fine POI adjustment:

The elevation and windage adjustment knobs are mechanically the same, so a given amount of movement of either knob is going to give the same rate of reticle adjustment in either the vertical or horizontal plane. The windage scale has graduations in mils. One mil is 10cm at 100M (3.94 inches), 20cm at 200M, 30cm at 300M, etc. To get 1 inch of windage impact adjustment at 100M, just move the adjustment knob a 1/4 mil. So correspondingly a mil movement of the elevation adjustment knob should get you roughly the same type of vertical change in POI (point of impact). The trick is that there are no mil markings on the elevation adjustment knob, so you should make one (or two) for reference (see pic below). This will give you a means of making precision elevation adjustments rather than just guessing or using hold-over. What I do is scribe a thin line 1 mil distant on either side of the existing line that is on the fixed base of the turret (the line which you would turn the knob setting to line up with). Use calipers to measure a mil mark from the windage scale and then transcribe it to the elevation turret base. I figured this out on my own, but when I was looking through my PU scopes I found one that had been marked as such! I had probably seen the mark early in my collecting years but had no clue to what it was until almost 10 years later and had extensively and seriously shot these rifles.

An important operational item:

Always adjust out mechanical backlash error when moving your windage or elevation knobs, and do it in the same manner each time. This instruction is actually from one of the Russian/Soviet PU sniper manuals. For example if you are adjusting to 300M from 100M elevation setting, go past 300M to about 500M and then come back to 300M setting. So always rotate down to your setting, and you will be adjusting the backlash out the same way each time. This is critical for accuracy repeatability at different ranges for this type of scope with gear and friction adjustment turrets.

Safe shooting, John

Range Session 25NOV2008

2008-12-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

I couldn't wait to get back out to the range after my session on 21NOV, so I made a quick trip out after work on 25NOV2008 and got some of it on video (see top video at side bar). It turned out to be a good day to go because at one point the wind dropped off to near zero, just when I was setting up for the 800 meter shots. I brought both the laminate stocked, SVT scoped 1944 Izhevsk M91/30 PU sniper rifle and the 1953 Hungarian FEG M52 PU sniper rifle with the Chinese code 833 scope. As I had both of them shooting and hitting on the previous outing, I decided to concentrate on one at a time this session for fine tuning to achieve maximum precision. I ended up shooting only the Russian this time out.

In my videos after the shots I look through the spotting scope to see my hits. Often this takes a bit of time because i'm trying to see and figure out where I hit. A lot of the time I cannot tell. I have a bit of a hard time seeing some of my hits, especially if they were in the white painted part of the metal plates. It seems I picked out some pretty good white spray paint as it does not chip away upon bullet strike. Rather the bullet makes a small silver mark where it hits and then there is a grayish splat pattern, especially at the 6-800 meter ranges. The little silver mark does not make much of contrast with the white. The orange paint seems to chip away better leaving a bit of dark or black looking strike mark where paint is removed around the strike. I will try something different next time. I know I am hitting because I can hear the metal strike sound but it is a bit frustrating not to know exactly where the shot hit. I can see my shots hit to a limited degree through my 3.5x scope because it does not move to far off target upon recoil. Mostly all this is good for is if I miss the target completly and can see a dirt or rock puff of dust on one side, infront of, or over the target. Keep in mind through that 3.5x scope an 8 inch square at 800 meters looks just like a 1 inch square at 100 meters. Often I cannot see exactly what was happening until I go home and view the video at high resolution. I may set something up where I can use the video camera as my spotter by bringing my laptop out with me to get high resolution playback right after I take the shot. I'll place the laptop and camera right next to me at my shooting position so I can stop and rewind the 50x video and see playback on the laptop screen.

More to come.

Safe Shooting, John

Target Placement 5,6,7,800M 21NOV2008

2008-11-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

I placed the targets at 500, 600, 700, and 800 meters. See below video. This took much time as I could trek out with only one target at a time. These metal plates weigh 65-85 pounds each. I did add a waist belt to my load carrying "A" frame which helps to distribute some of the load to my hips. I had done some preliminary ranging from the shooting site and had picked out landmarks for each distance. I started with the 800 meter target, and on the way back from setting it I went to the 700 meter landmark, ranged back to the shooting site, and marked the spot so I knew right where to go when I came back with the heavy target on my back. I repeated this for each target location. For the most part I am pleased with the target positions. This range location allows me to double the distance I was able to shoot at on the other side of the valley. The targets at 700 and 800 meters on the north slope are in the shadows after noon making seeing the bullet hit marks a bit difficult, but sighting on the target is no problem. The sun is close to its lowest path in the southern sky. Those targets will stay in shadow longer through the next month up to winter solstice, but illumination will gradually improve as the sun moves higher in the sky and will be best through the spring and summer months.

After all the labor of setting the targets, I couldn't wait to get on them. I sure didn't feel like fooling around with the video camera, and it took all my will power just to take the time to film the target locations. I wanted some pure, uninterrupted, long range target shooting, and I got it. I had the 1953 Hungarian M52 with Chinese code 833 PU scope and a 1944 Izhevsk M91/30 PU sniper rifle with SVT scope and laminate stock and planned going back and forth between them at each target distance. This worked well because I could translate windage settings from one to the other. I shot 10 to 15 rounds with one then switched to the other, giving a chance for the rifles to cool off. Both rifles performed great, with shots following hold changes and scope windage and elevation adjustments.

Temperature was 68F under clear, sunny skies. Wind conditions were variable with an average of 7mph gusting to 12mph with ebbs going as low as 4mph blowing full value left to right (opposite direction of last session). These wind readings were taken with a handheld meter at the shooting location. I settled on making my initial windage corrections for 7mph full value.

Safe Shooting, John

Windage by the Book 13NOV2008

2008-11-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

On my last outing the wind blowing 10-15mph (5-7m/s) and gusting to over 20mph (9-10m/s) was intimidating. It put a bit of an edge on the range session and it shook my confidence. I had forgotten the advice an experienced long range shooter had once given me, “The wind is your friend; get to know it and it will treat you right.” I was estimating windage in a touchy-feely manner, dialing some in and then using changes in target hold to compensate for the rest that was needed to make hits. I was using instinct and experience to put the shots on metal. I didn’t want to lose the “bubble” (not know where I was in my applied windage corrections) and start chasing my shots around, especially without someone on the spotting scope to help me see where I was going wrong. What I mean by this is, being alone with no spotter to help me see how I was missing I wanted to set my self up to miss for cause of the wind, then it was a matter of just moving my hold-off a bit into the wind to bring the shot on. Though it worked, in reviewing this range session, I could have done a couple of things to improve my results and give me more confidence in the windy conditions.

First, when the wind wasn’t gusting it was fairly steady. So I should have just taken the difference between the steady wind and the gusts, halved that difference, and added it to the steady wind value to come up with my final wind value adjustment. That would be the difference of 12mph and 20mph which is 8mph and halved is 4mph added to the steady value of 12mph is 16mph or 7m/s.

Next, I should have referred to my copy of the 1942 Soviet PU Sniper’s Handbook’s windage chart. According to the Handbook, aim point shift for a 90 degree 7m/s wind for 400m is about 60cm. On the PU scope’s windage adjust knob scale that would be 1.5 mils in the “+” or right direction to shift the aim point right to counter the right to left full value wind. Each mil mark on the windage scale is 10cm at 100m. One mil at 400m is therefore 40cm, and another ½ mil at 400m is an additional 20cm for a total adjustment of 60cm right shift. For my 400m shots, I had dialed in a ½ mil right windage or 20cm and was using hold off right by another estimated 12 inches (6 inches from target center to right edge plus another estimated half a target's width right) or 30cm for a total of 50cm. So my actual hold off was fairly close to the Handbook’s recommended aim point shift. The point is, eventhough this post-session wind estimation and Handbook data hold-off may not have been perfect, it would have been close enough for me to adjust and take a hold on the target to make hits rather than having to take a hold on a harder to repeat imaginary spot somewhere off the target like I was doing.

Instinct and feel for what corrections should be made to make the shot is a good thing to have. Applying this experience from a solid base of reasoning and ballistic data has got to be even better. Next time I am not going to be daunted by the wind. I am going to come to terms with it by putting a number value on it and using all my knowledge assets to adjust and make that first shot hit.

Safe shooting, John

Ballistic Table for 400m conditions on 03NOV2008 calculated with Handloads.com online ballistic calculator (see link at side bar) :

Range Session 03NOV2008

2008-11-03T20:45:00.000-08:00

Went for a full day at the local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) shooting area by the Mexican border. Weather forecast was 46F low, 64F high overcast with winds 15-20mph. It was about 46F when we got out there at 0830 and it never went much over 65F. The sky was clear and the wind was as predicted. It was blowing around 10-15mph (5-7m/s) and gusting to around 20mph (10m/s) relentlessly throughout the day.

This was my third time out to a new-to-me section of this BLM area. The West side of the area, where I have been shooting for over 10 years, has been closed to shooting because of the construction of a border fence over the hill that acts as a backstop (more information here: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df9nfd5d_78gv2593cq). The East side is relatively rugged and does not have a wide, open, gently sloping hillside like the West. On my first couple outings to this area the intermediate ridges which run north-south between the access road and mountainside blocked target placement and limited shooting to between 2-300 meters. The mountainside visible beyond the intermediate ridge is around 700m away. Target placement at 200m and then skipping to 700m was not what I was ideally looking for. There is a creek bed that shows promise, though, as it looks to provide a cut through the ridges allowing long range shooting to 800 meters with target placement possible at 100m intervals. If this worked out that would allow me to shoot 400 meters further than I could shoot on the West side. I planned to check out this area and set out targets at 100 meter intervals to 500 or 600 meters.

I set up my shooting position on the left side of the creek bed looking towards the mountainside and began range finding to set target locations. 100m was easy to locate along the right side of the creek bed bank before the intermediate ridge cut-through. A 200m location was a little harder to find. Ideally I wanted to keep the targets somewhat aligned on a bearing all the way out to 800m, spread no more than 10-15 degrees so I wouldn't have to radically rotate my prone shooting position and spotting scope to line up on them. The lay of the land wouldn't cooperate for 200m. The creek bed cut through the intermediate ridge about 125m from my position. Beyond the cut through the ground fell away into a valley running north-south intersecting with the creek bed running east-west. 200m on my desired radial would have been on the creek bed floor, but the height of the cut through blocked this. On the left the next clear view of the creek bed bank was ranging at 280m. I had to range along the intermediate ridge line to the right (south) to find a 200m location. This would make my target spread about 20 degrees, and I would have to rotate my shooting position quite a bit to get on the 200m target location. 300m was easy, a relatively open area on the left (north) side of the creek bed bank, and a large boulder marked 400m exactly. I ranged spots for 5, 6, 7, and 800m but was running out of time to set up those targets, as I had spent more than half the day shooting handguns and siting-in rifles at 100 yards with friends who came out with me.

I packed my load-bearing "A" frame with metal targets, strapped it on my back and headed out. It was about 1445 and I knew I would only have a few more hours before the sun started to set. My friends were going to leave, so with no spotting help I brought out larger metal plates in addition to my swingers. These would allow me to make hits and see marks to make corrections. I set up the 4 and 6 inch round swinger frame and a 10 inch square at 300m and a 6 and 8 inch round swinger frame and a 12 inch square at 400m. I arrived back to the shooting position at about 1530 just in time to say goodbye to my friend. I had staked in an "Ivan" at 200m earlier in the day and had already made hits on it with my 1953 Hungarian M52 with a Chinese code 833 PU type scope using Sellier & Bellot 174gr HPBT Sierra Match Kings. I had swapped out the 2000m 14.5mm BDC range drum for a 1300m 7.62 x54R PU BDC and was eager to further test this setup. I had the Ivan at about 210m and was having to hold a loose 6 O'clock with a bit of gap to hit with the BDC set at 200m. I was holding a quarter target's width right for wind, keeping the windage setting at zero to feel out the conditions. I was dealing with a 90 degree full-value right to left wind blowing 10-15mph (5-7m/s) and gusting to 20mph (10m/s). It was never blowing steady or consistent-- this was going to be a challenge at the longer ranges.

I started on the 10 inch square plate at 300m. I set scope elevation at the 3 mark and dialed in a 1/4 mil right windage that would be 7.5cm or 3 inches and took a center hold. The first shot looked like it went over the top of the target on the left side. A bottom right corner hold gave a hit on the top left corner. I continued with a few more hits on the plate and then went for the 6 inch swinger. I did not make any more scope setting corrections, and just using hold adjustments made a couple of hits on the left edge of the 1/2 inch thick steel circle. It was difficult because I was trying to hold at an imaginary spot down and right of the target. In hindsight I should have went ahead and fine tuned the scope settings to achieve consistent hits on the 6 inch swinger and moved on from there. But I was running out of daylight and decided to push forward and try the 400m 12 inch plate. I dialed a bit more right windage in to a 1/2 mil, moved the elevation to the 4 mark, and held about six inches right of the bottom right corner. First shot was a hit just left of center and high. I took another shot and confirmed then made an elevation adjustment to just a line's width under the 4 mark. This brought the elevation to near perfect center height hits on the 12 inch plate. Feeling confident, I went for the 8 inch circle swinger, taking a loose 6 O'clock hold off to the right, and made 2 out of 3 solid center hits. I tried some more on the swinger but could not hit again with the wind playing havoc. Having such near misses I could not tell how I should correct, so I went back to the 12 inch plate and hit it each time. For a repeatability check I went back to the 300m targets and made more hits on the 10 inch plate and put a round through the hanger just above the 6 inch swinger. Time was running out and I had to put the rifle away and retrieve the targets while I still had some light.

Lessons learned: I should have given myself more time because while shooting I was feeling stressed about how much sunlight I had left to collect the targets. Also, my shooting position was sloped too much making me feel like I was sliding backwards away from the rifle and tensing my body positioning and affecting my steadiness. In addition I should have went ahead and made the small scope windage and elevation adjustments that would have given me a better visual target hold. These were all things I was aware of while I was doing them but feeling the time crunch I just "went with what I had" because I was making hits, but all the while feeling I could have done better. I am used to shooting at the longer ranges in places that are wide open such as across part of a valley and up a hillside-- with all targets exposed to the same wind. With my 300m target down between two creek bed banks and somewhat shielded to the wind compared to the 400m target that was up on the open mountainside slope I really need to evaluate and adjust windage separately from one target to the next. I am glad that I put out the larger steel plates. Having a target that is roughly three times the distance's hundreds digit is just about right for these rifles, especially without having a spotter. So a 10 inch at 300m, 12 inch at 400m worked so good that I am planning on placing an 18 inch at 500 and 600m and 24 inch at 700 and 800m (the metal supply store does not have them in 9, 15, or 21 inch sizes off the shelf). To challenge myself on these I will paint minute of angle size circles and strive to hit center on them. Also, I need to add a waist belt to that load bearing "A" frame because carrying all the weight on my shoulders is almost too much! I felt good about the performance of the Chinese scoped M52. The sight settings are consistent with my Russian PU rifles at the same ranges using the same ammunition.

YouTube video is up! See video sidebar to right-- it is labeled M52 Sniper Range Day 03NOV2008. I will also try to use the slideshow function to show some stills.

Safe shooting, John

Objective 01NOV2008

2008-11-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Russian/Soviet PU sniper rifle is the main focus of my curio and relic firearm collecting and shooting interest. I have shot the PU type sniper rifle regularly for over 15 years in the manner I have demonstrated in the following video (or see side bar and click on video with targets):

I have shot these rifles in this practical manner up to a distance of 900 meters. This type of shooting tests the entire sniper rifle system, not only the accuracy and consistency of the rifle, but also the precision and repeatability of the optical sight.

I have every expectation that the rifles in my collection will be able to perform to the highest standards of what a PU sniper rifle would be able to do when it was in service. The Russian/Soviet PU snipers I have collected are from the original transit/storage cases from known real PU sniper rifle import batches. None are restored ex-sniper, replica mount, importer/dealer put together or replica scoped rifles. These are all real, already set-up, adjusting-screws-staked-in-place-from-the-armory rifles. Many are in their original wartime dated and arsenal marked stocks with a soft, thick, dark lacquer preservation coating, every rifle part with the correct arsenal marking, and with the scope lenses carefully desiccant paper covered as prepared for long term storage.

Owning a number of original PU snipers and having extensively studied and shot them has given me insight into the "how’s" and "why’s" of PU rifle set up and has unveiled clues to unlocking the legendary performance of its over twenty year military history as an issued optically sighted sniper system. I shoot these rifles in the sincerest manner to the utmost of my ability with the best new production and surplus ammunition that is available to me. Through my interest in collecting and shooting the Mosin Nagant PU sniper rifle, I seek to answer the question: “How good was it?”