Almost made a BIG mistake with my 03-A3

[hardertr]

I was about a week away from trading in a Springfield 03-A3 I bought a few years ago for $200.  I shot it ONCE a while back, and didn't really care much for it.  I was shooting from a fence post, with a 100 mile an hour cross wind....no shoes...etc.... and got somewhere close to a 12" group at a little under 100 yards.  I assumed the barrel was shot out.

I decided to take it to the range again today..."just in case".  Off a sandbag, I got a 1" 5 shot group at 100 yards :eek:  And that was with a really crappy foreign made scope that is so clouded I can barely see through it.


Needless to say, this gun is not going ANYWHERE.

[jh45gun]

Yea when I first got my Swede Mauser I was not impressed with the groups using Milsurp ammo and that was at 25 yards but then I hate Mauser sights and my 50+ year old eyes do not help that situation either I could have done the same thing and traded it off but decided to scout scope it with a permenant mount and cut the barrel to 20 inches. Yea that may be heresy to some but that short stiff barrel really shoots and the scout scope setup does not hurt either. I have only shot it once after the conversion so far but sighting the scope in gave me a 5 shot one 40 cal size hole group at 25 yards. I will be doing some more reloading and shooting to see what she does at 100 yards but if the 25 yard group is any indication groups at a 100 should be under 2 inches and that is being generous on the large side. I expect the groups to be smaller than that. But like you said if I would have went with the first impressions I would have lost out on a fine shooting rifle. This one will be my companion in the deer woods this year and maybe my K31 as well. Jim