Range Reports

This is plural because there were 2 ranges involved. First off I was shown a nice place to shoot in the Pike National Forest near Monument CO. As you enter the area, the map shows areas off limits, Non shooting, and shooting permitted along with the rules on that.

On the weekends the best spots, on the little dead end roads off the dirt roads are used as campgrounds and tend to be full of campers. Places to shoot are necessarily rare. During the week the place is pretty much deserted. Where we were shooting, we saw 1 bicyclist and heard 2 cars pass, all well behind us.

The brand new Marlin .22 with the Tasco 3-9 scope shot just fine. Very little adjustment was required to get it properly zeroed. The problem was the trigger, which seemed to me to need both hands and a foot to pull, and the mag release which seemed sticky. Here is a great set of videos showing how to soften up the trigger on a Marlin 795. There are 9 of them as the author covers all the details one small item at a time. I watched them once and did the whole job without having to go back for anything. I don't have a trigger pull scale, but I'll tell you it's a whole lot lighter now than it used to be.

The magazine is hard to extract as it fits overly tightly in the retainer. The retainer is cast zinc and can be polished on the obvious wear spots, and the mag has a strip on the rear side with a retainer feature on it. The strip has a ripple where this feature was added on either side of the retainer bump. The ripple can be smoothed out with a file. Leave the bump alone. The mag goes in and out much easier now.

I built a rail and mount set that fits the Hi Point 4095 that attaches directly to the barrel rather than the action shroud. It mounts the scope rather far forward, but using a pistol scope with its greater eye relief allows it to work. This eliminates all the loose connections between the existing rail and the barrel of the gun. I got 2-1/2 MOA groups at 25 yards out in the woods. It seemed to be working well at the club range on Saturday as well, but it certainly doesn't help to forget to bring the spotting scope. No matter how much I wish it were so, neither a 4X scope nor my cheesy binoculars can accurately distinguish a .4" dia hole at 100 yards. Most conservative estimate is that the gun is shooting 3 MOA at 100 yards.

Parts have not been painted/anodized yet. The white part is to replace the barrel shroud which locks into the forward part of the stock. Accuracy/repeatability is greatly improved. Further info as it is developed.