I did manage to get to the range yesterday with my Sweetie, who’s still on Injured Reserve. I decided to just focus on .22s, since the Colorado State Ruger Rimfire championship is only a few weeks away. I’ll be shooting the match and we’ll be filming if for SHOOTING GALLERY, as well as a Ruger Rimfire class taught by Tim Norris. I was very very pleased with my iron-sighted Ruger Mark III Target as overhauled by Majestic Arms. It’s not a balls-to-the-wall custom target pistol, but it shoots extremely well. I added a red fiber optic front sight, which is a help for the old eyes.
I’m not so sanguine on my rifle. As you may remember, last year I shot my old 10/22 Target fitted with AR-15 style sights in the iron sight division. I’d previously shot the same rifle with a Tasco Pro Point red dot in open class and been very pleased with he performance. The AR sights and I didn’t get along well…my right eye’s retina is permanently damaged from the shingles attack several years back. I can get a clean sight picture off my left eye (both lenses ahem been replaced), and an adequate sight picture with a fiber optic front sight off my right eye. So I replaced the heavy hammer-forged Ruger barrel with a Green Mountain fluted stainless barrel fitted with Williams Fire Sights. I was faster with this iteration of the rifle, but not as fast as I need to be. I’m hoping to get in another range session or two before the match, and I think I’ll focus strictly on the rifle.
Maybe I should just suck it up and shoot open with a red dot on both the rifle and the pistol. My rational for shooting irons has been that my primary competition is cowboy, where everybody shoots iron sights!