Confession of I jumped the gun. Literally.
Last year a few of us met up in Texas to chase hogs and turkeys and generally have a good time which we did. A few weeks before leaving I pulled out a few guns to take on the trip and shot them to make sure they were zeroed. One of the guns I planned on taking was my Bisley Hunter .41 Magnum. The gun has been a death ray. All of the sudden it was spraying. 12" groups at 100 yards were totally unacceptable so I blamed it on the scope and switched it out. Same thing. Tried another scope. Same thing. Tore the gun apart. Changed base pin, took out the free spin pawl, pulled the trigger spring and basically anything else that I had done to the gun. Nothing changed. Tried a different load that had also shot well. Zilch. My .44 Bisley Hunter had been shot right before I started shooting the other guns and was fine so I grabbed it. Of course the one thing I didn't blame was my new glasses. That also turned out to be the culprit. Fast forward and I am readying guns for this year. It is then that I remember that I put the .41 up and hadn't shot it since. I pulled it out the night before last, not even remembering which scope it ended up with. The scope is a brand new Weaver 4X pistol scope. As I began to examine the gun and scope I realized the the scope is mounted several degrees out of level. That too was probably a product of my new glasses. Now I need to find the original scope which I feel sure is just fine and re center the reticle. I will straighten this one up and sight it in. Sometimes the answer is right in front of your face. Literally.
I can relate to your struggles.
Sometimes I end up way down the rabbit hole trying to dissect “the issue” I’m having with a particular gun/scope/load. Maybe it’s just being hard-headed but I feel like I have failed if I can’t get everything dialed in to “perfection”.
I have to remind myself occasionally to take a breath and remember that this sport is FUN and not to take negative days at the range or in the field too seriously. Most of the time if I just set the gun aside and come back later, the solution becomes more obvious. 9 times out of 10 I misdiagnosed the problem the first time and the solution becomes more easily apparent when my frustration level is lower.
Great post Roy, thanks for sharing. 👍