Continuing Saga of My New Old Rifle

[MountainDon]

I like my Czech VZ.24 but I've had one problem; my eyes and the the factory Mauser sight don't get along well. I hit the target in the black mostly but it's been a bit of a guessing game mixed in some some crossed fingers (eyes at times) and prayer. I bit the bullet and decided to (gasp) scope it.  I did not want to drill any holes in the receiver and I did not want to bend, cut or otherwise change the bolt to clear a scope in the conventional position.

I found a "scout" mount made by S&K Scopemounts that looked like a good choice. There are some cheaper, but these are milled from quality aluminum bar stock in PA. The rings are honed in sets to fit the scope tube.

This called for a long eye relief scope, a handgun scope in other words, to be able to focus with the scope mounted way forward ahead of the bolt / receiver. No danger of developing scope eye.    After much dithering I settled on a Bushnell Elite 3200, 2 - 6X with 32 MM objective.

So tonight I installed the mount. A real piece of cake really. It slipped into the space vacated by the original rear sight. When I removed the Mauser sight I found more cosmoline as I had not removed the sight when I cleaned it up before.



After cleaning that out, here's the scope mount itself in place. No new holes are required. The rifle can be converted back to original by replacing the parts and no one will ever know that there was a scope at one time. There's a machined lip that slips under the tang of the Mauser mount (on the right) and then two 6-32 machine screws secure the front where the original mount used a driven pin.



I marked the rings with colored tape before disassembly.



These flash pictures are not the best, but they give you an idea of what it's like, Here's the nearly completed installation. I have to torque down the screws once I'm sure I have it located correctly. That'll be tomorrow in the daylight. Maybe a better photo then too. The rear ring is adjustable for windage. It and the front ring are locked into place with two set screws per ring, left and right side.




A side note: S&K shipped the order the morning after my evening order. It arrived in 2 days. Alas the post office handling was a little too rough and the package was torn and the mount missing. The next morning I contacted them and without any hesitation they said, "that happens from time to time", and they shipped a new order. It arrived intact in 2 more days. Great service. They make a wide variety of military and other mounts; well worth your consideration.

Now I need to get to the range. Maybe next Saturday AM if all goes well.

Oh, I have plenty of ammo. For now.    680 rounds of Romanian surplus 8MM came a couple days ago too. Delivered at 27.5 cents a round.

[pagan]

How accurate is that rifle?

[MountainDon]

That's a good question. It/I can make most shots within a 4 to 5 inch circle. BUT the killer is that with the stock sight and my troubled vision I'm never really certain what part of the circle I'm aimed at. So now I'll be able to better determine what the VZ.24 can do. Shooting my 10/22 with a scope I'm usually happy enough with my groups. If I can do comparable with the scope on the VZ.24 I'll be happy.

I feel better all ready, just being able to really see what I'm pointing at via the scope.

[pagan]

What ranges are you shooting?

[peternap]

Darn good choices Don. I'm still resisting, but it's coming. I do have one true Scout setup but with a zero magnification red dot. The original idea of a Scout was to allow close range fighting with both eyes open and still retain some long distance sniping ability.

Little did he know how useful it would be to those of us that are getting older.

[MountainDon]

pagan, that was out to 100 yards. Some were wider spread but I'm pretty sure it was my inability...

Thanks, Peter. This combination is more "scout-like" than a true scout; the rifle is too long, too heavy to be a real scout. But so far, aiming it down the house, through the windows at the neighbors, etc. it seems to be the answer. It IS cool the way one can sight with both eyes wide open, seeing the general field of view plus the cross hairs on the target.

[OlJarhead]

Don't make me go buy another rifle! 

I need to look at getting scope for my M1A Scout Squad.  My eyes aren't what they used to be and while I've held 3" shot groups at 200 yards with it, doing so was a chore!  Considering I used to coach marines how to shoot and rarely dropped a round out of the x in slow fire with the A2 holding 3" at 200 yards seems pretty awful....ahhh to have 20/10 vision again and to be able to SEE the dang front site clearly would be nice.

Anyway, inspiring!  By the way, nice price on the ammo!  200 rounds of 7.62x51 cost me around $180! Nearly $1/rnd...I reload so that helps but I wish I could get 1000 rounds for $500 or less!

That reminds me, I need to go see what the local shop has

I've seen a lot of nogants for around $90 and must admit I've been tempted but my wife would kill me!  Besides, the safe is kinda crowded as it is

[MountainDon]

RE: the ammo price. Yep that is good cheap stuff!  When I told my son the price he responded with something like..."everything I shoot is a buck a round" (308, 30-06...)

cheaperthandirt.com on the 8MM Romanian ammo. Best price/shipping combo I found. If anyone is looking for 8MM there's also Yugoslavian around in many places. A little more $$. I've tried both and there doesn't seem to be much performance difference at the ranges I'm interested in.

Romanian: steel case, steel core 150 gr. FMJ bullet, Berdan, corrosive, crappy laquered steel stripper clips. So crappy I'm stripping the bullets out at home and boxing them. The cartridges stick in them. I don't really need the clips; not in a war. Or I may load them into the 20+ Yugo strippers I have.   

Yugo: brass case, lead 196 gr. FMJ bullet, berdan, corrosive, nice S/S stripper clips. The brass cases slide out very nice, the laquered steel Romanian rounds not quite so nice.  But both go boom with 100% reliability so far.

[pagan]

Pretty good for surplus everything and open sights.

[NM_Shooter]

C'mon already.  Take that thing to the range and tell us how it does. 

[MountainDon]

.... hoping for this weekend.   

[MountainDon]

Camera shot from behind the receiver a ways. Cool view. The camera auto focused on the rifle/scope, but to the eye everything seems clear all at the same time.

[pagan]

That is a cool photo.

[NM_Shooter]

Your neighbors and my neighbors have something in common.

[MountainDon]

Uuuuh.... Birch trees?    

Not too many of them around here.


Not important but the camera was zoomed in some so they're not quite that close. I was hoping nobody noticed what I was doing... guess they didn't... no Cops came by.  


PS: EER scope test will be postponed... taking off for the cabin and then UT next week... too much to do to take Sat AM off for that.   

[NM_Shooter]

I am waiting with breathless anticipation of the range report.

-f-

[MountainDon]

After next Saturday I hope.

[MountainDon]

My son and went to the gun club range today. It took about 7 rounds to find the paper.    

And another 4 or 5 to the scope crosshairs and bullet point of impact to coincide.  

50 yards...  (rings are 1 inch wide)



100 yards...

[NM_Shooter]

Yuck.  (No offense meant... for an old military shooter it's not terrible)

You got any dies for that thing yet?  It would be interesting to see if handloads help it out any.  How does the crown look?

Get some dies and projectiles and I'll roll up some reloads for you to test if you want.  (Has you son started reloading yet?)

[MountainDon]

71 year old gun, 38 year old ammo.    No reloading yet here.  I forgot to take the factory loaded S&B ammo that I bought months ago.     I should try some of that before buying dies.  I'll keep that in mind. The S&B brass is reloadable boxer. I was thinking of pulling some of the bullets out of the Romanian surplus ammo to try as a reload.

The crown looks good.

The other thing I should do is have Jason fire off 5 - 10 rounds to see what his younger eyes produce. Both old and new ammo.  I do not have very good accuity. Bummer. 

[peternap]

The other thing I should do is have Jason fire off 5 - 10 rounds to see what his younger eyes produce. Both old and new ammo.  I do not have very good accuity. Bummer. 

I do the same thing Don. We all like to believe we're Daniel Boone but the truth is, the older I get, the more my shooting suffers, I take my son to test new loads and then I at least have a reference of what they can do.

[OlJarhead]

The other thing I should do is have Jason fire off 5 - 10 rounds to see what his younger eyes produce. Both old and new ammo.  I do not have very good accuity. Bummer. 

I do the same thing Don. We all like to believe we're Daniel Boone but the truth is, the older I get, the more my shooting suffers, I take my son to test new loads and then I at least have a reference of what they can do.

I'm younger then Don by a year or two but I have this problem.

I was out trying to zero my M1A again (Open Sites) and while my target at 100 yards looks kinds like his target (maybe worse) I cannot seem to focus on the Front Site Post any longer and certainly have difficulty maintaining a proper site picture.   I used to keyhole rounds at that range without trouble and could put 10 rounds in a 6" circle at 500 yards but now if I can maintain 6" at 200 I'm probably bench resting.

I will likely get a scope and give up my quest of shooting open sites like I used to but I love to shoot so it's all good -- just have to accept that my eyes are aging.

Now, one thing I will tell ya though is that I can still see my Kimber sites (arms length away) and can more then keyhole rounds with it   I should upload my latest endeavor (to remove all the black from a used targets bullseye hehe)...

[NM_Shooter]

NO!!!! don't scope that M1A... put in a diopter... it will work wonders, I promise :

http://www.bjonessights.com/SR.html

I still shoot across the course matches and this has helped my aging eyes.  I can still clean 300 rapid with a diopter (and it is legal).  For both 300 and 600 I hold a sliver of light under the target.  If I push black at all I string vertically.  Without a diopter i am hosed.

[OlJarhead]

NO!!!! don't scope that M1A... put in a diopter... it will work wonders, I promise :

http://www.bjonessights.com/SR.html

I still shoot across the course matches and this has helped my aging eyes.  I can still clean 300 rapid with a diopter (and it is legal).  For both 300 and 600 I hold a sliver of light under the target.  If I push black at all I string vertically.  Without a diopter i am hosed.

Wow!  How do you know what magnification to use?  I use 1.5:1 reading glasses and that's it (I had 20:10 vision when I was younger) and today can't seem to keep a clear front site post without straining seriously -- at which time I lose it's position in the rear sight....grrr

Any idea? 

Thanks again!!!

By the way Don, this thread had me cleaning things yesterday   First I dragged out the 870 and the extra barrel.  I cleaned it nicely and then when I put it away I couldn't help but pull out my Ruger Vaquero and give it a serious overhaul!  Gun Scrubber took out some of the deposits I couldn't get with CLP and q-tips so now it's cleaner then it has been in years...my son then did his Mini14, 30-06 and Super Blackhawk.  It was a grand day!

Maybe I'll strip the M1A today and the Kimber too

[NM_Shooter]

Bob is a pretty easy guy to work with.  He let me swap out a lens when I was trying to get it right.  Here is a link to get the right size :

http://www.bjonessights.com/power.html

If you have no clue, try a +.25 first.   Remember that this works in conjuntion with whatever prescription shooting glasses you already use.

Note he is travelling to matches fairly soon. 

Good luck!

-f-