Was out at the lease today. There is no official range so I had to improvise. I had other rifles to zero so I decided on 100 yards even though this hornet will be an open sighted short range gun, probably max 100 yards. I didn't have a bench rest so I set my shooting box on top of a 5 gallon bucket and sat on the ground behind it. Not perfect but better than sitting with elbows on knees.
Anyway, I started with the peep sight at its lowest setting and took a couple off hand sighter shots at clay bird remnants at a lasered 58 yards. Elevation was about dead on and windage was a little left so I made a small adjustment to the peep and took another shot, barely hi and dead on for wind at 58 yards, perfect. I then sat down on my improvised 100 yard range (lasered) and fired 5 shots at the target. I went down and took a look and the 5 were in 3" with 4 in just under 2", with the 4 shots centered near my aiming point. For a wobbly rest and iron sights at a scope sight target (meaning the aiming point was not really big enough for a non magnified sight) I was extremely happy. I will of course try it again on a decent bench rest with a good black on beige aiming center and fully expect even better results.
I then had a great time shooting off hand at small targets in the 50-75 yard range some stationary and some floating down the river. To say I am happy with the results of this project is an under statement. Larry you have helped bring me back to the days 20 years ago walking the woods with my low wall hornet that I foolishly sold.
Here is a pic of the rifle along with my 16" 44Mag and the BC barrel that interchanges with the hornet. I will make a new forend for the hornet similar to the 44mag forend.
