Mauser M03 Accuracy - The First Shot

For hunters, it's the first shot that matters.

Sure, I'm also interested in the ability of my Mauser M03 rifles to shoot tight groups, but what I care about most will always be how repeatable the first shot is, from a cold, clean barrel. Last weekend I was scouting on a farm for fresh sign of pigs, looking for the tell-tale signs of brown, ripped up turf. Given all of the rain we've had lately, the fields were like an undulating bowling green, but here and there I found scattered scratchings made by a wandering boar. A sow or two with offspring tend to make more concentrated damage, although, a big boar that settles in a place he likes can make the surrounds look like a war zone in no time.

After driving slowly over a crest and through a gap I scanned the paddock that opened up in front of me. Perhaps the fox that the farmer had seen sitting in the open every afternoon during the week would be there. It must have heard the different sound of my vehicle coming - it had already slipped away. After checking the broad bowl of land thoroughly with binoculars, to see if he was sitting quietly and watching me from a patch of bracken, I decided to fire a test shot with my Mauser M03 30-06, to prepare for spotlighting after dark. I lowered the Landcruiser's tailgate to make a table and removed the Zeiss Victory HT 1.5-6x42 and fitted a Victory HT 3-12x56. It would provide me with the brightest view possible with the spotlight. I found an old tree stump and stapled in place the piece of card I'd used a couple of months before with the same combination of rifle, barrel, scope and ammunition. In the meantime the scopes had been switched in and out and the barrel had been removed for cleaning.

Firing a calibration shot with a 30-06 and 180gn bullet, on sandbags over a Landcruiser's engine compartment, is not what I call fun. The Mauser M03 set trigger made it easier. When the riflescope settled after the shot I didn't know what to think. The only hole in the card was the one from last time. Where had the new shot gone? From a hundred meters I couldn't make out a bullet hole in the cracked grey wood of the tree stump. I walked over, picking my way through the puddles and soft patches. The pigs would make a mess of this area if they found it. As I got near to the stump I still couldn't see a hole in the weathered grey wood. Surely I hadn't missed the whole stump? I got my head down to the angle of the shot and looked for where a bullet had hit the ground around the stump. Nothing to see. I looked again at the card, with its one hole. Surely not. I lifted up the card and found a bullet hole in the wood underneath. When I lowered the card the hole in the wood lined up with the hole in the card. Holy crap! It went through the same hole!

That'll do. :-)