Trigger Time

Qualifications are coming up, and I've carried this pistol for a year and I've been remiss in my practice, so today I carried it to the range to make sure the grease hasn't hardenend and frozen the slide shut. So, I set up a target at 10 yards and loaded some magazines with range ammo.

That's 35 rounds total. 32 of them gouged the 10-ring out. 3 flyers in the nine-ring. That'll do.

Then, I got out the Remington 760. I wrote about it earlier. I've mounted a Simmons red dot sight on it. You can see the first three shots on the 10-yard target in the upper right quadrant.

After getting the sight roughly aligned at 10 yards, I went out to 25 yards and fired three shots, adjusted again, then moved the target out to 50 yards.



That's three groups at 50 yards. The top one was the sighter group, the middle one is the adjustment group, the bottom one is five shots, offhand, as fast as I could recover.

First impressions - If you've ever loved a pump shotgun, you'll love a pump rifle, and there are very few examples available. The Remington 760 is a fine rifle for hunting or patrol and it should be extremely accurate. The barrel is floated from the chamber all the way out to the muzzle. It comes in serious calibers. Mine is the ancient and honored .30-06. Yet a good number of calibers are available in some fairly serious chamberings.

The load functioned just like I wanted it to. I used the Lyman 311041 bullet in a standard Remington case over 2.2 cc's of my surplus 4895. I didn't put it over a chrony, but I estimate that it is moving somewhere about 1600 fps. If those figures are accurate, then sighted dead-on at 50 yards, it'll be down 3" at 100 yards. That gives it a Taylor KO of 12, which should be good deer medicine out to 100 yards. It's virtually recoil free, inexpensive, and fun to shoot. It'll make a good qualification load, and a good kids load.

The Simmons red dot sight worked just as advertised. The 42 mm tube was like looking through a barrel and the red dot just hung out over the end of he muzzle, pointing the way for the bullet. The dot was sufficiently bright that I didn't feel the need to use the highest settings, even in the bright Louisiana sunlight. The simple 4 MOA dot wasn't obtrusive in the sight picture, but was plainly visible. Adjusting the point of aim to the point of impact was simply done. It adjusts just like any other scope. Click detents were easily felt and counted. I need a couple more of these sights. I can see having one on a .22 pistol and I can see having one on a .22 rifle. It'll help in teaching the grandkids.

So, now a slide-action rifle is about to become qualified as a patrol rifle. I think it'll make a good one. The only hesitation about the rifle I have is the lack of magazine capacity. The normal capacity is 4+1, even for Remington's newest, sleekest cop rifle, the Model 7600 in a law enforcement variety, but the magazine capacity is limited. I've gotta admit that five rounds of .30 caliber goodness should be plenty, it'd be comforting to have a couple of 10 round magazines at hand. Remington made one rifle, the 7615 to take M16 magazines. It would be nice if the 7600 series took BAR magazines. Or M14 magazines, or some other magazine that had additional capacity.

Still, this will make a fine patrol rifle.