Sunday, March 26, 2017

Just What I Needed

Another rifle...

Me with the Recon. Shooting from sitting has never been my favorite position. Still isn't.

Took my new Recon Scout out for a test drive Saturday. It was built by Steve Bons at Granite Mountain Tactical in Prescott. Steve builds them on a Mossberg Patriot Bantam model. He shortens the factory barrel, threads the muzzle for accessories, and installs a sturdy front sight housing an AR15 front post.  The stock comes with a one inch thick insert for a 12 or 13 inch length of pull. I'll be running it short. Mine has the standard 18 inch tube (16 or 20 inches are no-cost options), sniper grey Cerakote, and a rounded heel on the butt pad. On Mr. Bons' sage advice I upgraded to the steel rear sight base. I want serious irons on a working rifle so I'm giving some thought to modifying a Weaver-style extension ring to protect the very clever flip up rear sight. The good Mr. Bons installs Weaver-style bases on the receiver - for conventional scopes, and on the barrel - for scout scopes.  As another added value, lapped Weaver quad-lock rings are provided with the finished rifle. I also had a 3rd socket installed so I can use a military sling, CW, Ching Sling, or Rhodesian. Wearing a Leupold 2.5x scout scope in the Weaver quad-locks and a biothane Rhodesian sling, my 18 inch Recon Scout comes in at a hair under seven pounds four ounces.  

We were sans bench so it took a few more rounds than usual to get my new rifle on the steel, but after that any misses seem to have been the result of my decrepitude and lack of practice. The handy little Mossberg seemed light in recoil; maybe as a result of the cushy pad, or because the well-fitted short LOP suits me, or because we weren't all hunched over it at the shooting bench. I really like the heavy duplex reticle on the Leupold scout scope. Didn't try the irons, a Vari-X II 1-4x, or the Swarovski 1.5x today. I used only the Ching Sling this time out.  

We used my new 10 inch steel gong targets and target stand from Shooting Targets 7.  The set-up is modular yet sturdy.


I'm only 40 rounds in, but I'm very pleased so far.