I mentioned yesterday that I got a new gun for Thanksgiving. Not on Thanksgiving Day – even for me, that would seem a little crass. And certainly not on Black Friday. I don’t go anywhere near retail establishments on the day after Thanksgiving. The point is, I got a new gun over the weekend after Thanksgiving, and that left me with a brand-new rifle, several hundred shiny bullets, and almost two whole days with no work I had to do.
It was all a perfect recipe for sighting in that new gun.
I took my new rifle and headed down to the backyard range. I bought this gun specifically to be used with iron sights, so my usual sighting in system wouldn’t work. That was OK, because I really just wanted to shoot that new rifle, and not having it bore-sighted or locking it into a vise for a one-shot sighting gave me more opportunities to pull the trigger.
There’s not much that beats sending that first round down the barrel of any new gun. It doesn’t matter if it’s a shotgun, a rifle or a pistol. That first shot is always the best. You have no idea how it’s going to feel – will it kick hard, or will it be gentle? You don’t know what it’ll sound like – will it roar like a dragon or clap like thunder? And unless you’ve had it bore-sighted, there’s no telling whether it’ll be dead-on out of the box, or if you’ll put that first round several feet outside the paper.
My new gun felt great. It was more of a gentle caress than a kick. It sounded like a grown-up gun should sound. But when it came to putting holes in paper, it needed some work. But again, that was fine by me. I ended up getting to shoot about 200 rounds through it before it was sighted in the way I wanted.
Now that it’s sighted in, I can’t wait for next weekend, when I can check to see if it’s still hitting where it should.
