The afternoon, well, that was time for a little putting the Demesne to the purpose *I* had in mind when we bought it last summer - a place to exercise the Arsenal of Argghhh!

I tootled over the creek to put up the target stand about 100ft away. I brought out the L1A1 (Brit parts kit built on an Israeli-made inch-pattern reciever), the M1A (which sits in beater wood and currently has the grenade launcher on it, since that's how I display it), and the O.R.C. (Bushmaster Optics Ready Carbine, an M4 clone, which SWWBO got for Christmas, but has yet to pull a trigger... no reason to let it sit idle, besides the scope needed some tuning to the rifle). For some fun plinking at the spinners, I brought out the Arsenal's wartime-capture P38 and the Castle's Luger, a pistol which served the Imperial, Weimar, Nazi, and East German governments.

First up was the L1A1. I knew it was going to shoot low, the front sight post was extremely high, and I was right it shot low and to the right. More disturbingly, out of six rounds, at least three bullets tumbled, as you can see in this pic. I quit firing at that point. Milsurp weapons are always a crap shoot, and some, shoot crappy. I was using remanufactured ammunition, too - but it was the same ammo I was shooting in the M1A, however. I'm going to have to slug the bore and do some tweaking on the L1A1. Anyone with similar experience is invited to share their collected wisdom on the subject.

Since the center of the target was still available, I used it for the M1A. Shooting standing, supported, iron sights. Have I mentioned I *like* the M1A? If I were going to go shoot in the competition in Colorado in May, this would be the rifle I would take. Nine rounds, no flyers. The one in the lower right is one of the flyers from the L1A1. The M1A and I are tuned together.

This is from the Bushmaster ORC. I was aiming at the center of the cutout in the picture. 100 ft, standing, supported, with 2 power scope. 1st group is to the right. I adjusted the scope, yielding the center group. Adjusted again, and the 3 shot small group went where I wanted it, if by then I was getting a little impatient with my trigger pull. The 25 degree temp may have had something to do with it, too.

The pistols were just for plinking. I've not shot the P38 since I bought it. If it didn't shoot any better for it's previous owner than it did for me... I understand why it got captured. The Luger shot just fine, as it always does.