Mauser M03 - Zeroing at 300m

I was looking at Google Maps to hunt around on a farm for a nice level stretch of 300 meters where I could fire a few shots with my Mauser M03 barrels, to check where the bullets were going at that range. I was measuring the distance with the ruler tool in a paddock I was familiar with when I noticed a tight group of black lumps where I knew there should only be grass. That has to be a mob of pigs!

By the time I got out there the pigs were gone, so I set up a large piece of really stiff waste cardboard to shoot at instead. The barrels had been oiled for storage and then patched out, so the first shots at 300 meters would be a bit loose. I figured it would take three shots to get the scope turrets adjusted for each barrel. In the end that's pretty well how it turned out, although with the 270 Winchester barrel I only fired two shots, as I have only a handful of rounds remaining of the two boxes of Norma factory loads I bought to make fire formed cases. I wanted a magazine full for walking around later. These Norma rounds have been good ammunition to start with.

Here's the video, with the shots shown as I fired them, changing between rifles. I'm fiddling with the turrets between shots, so there's no tight grouping to admire.

Edit - Look at the video in the next post to see where the first shot from each barrel went, in a test the following weekend.

In the soft evening light just after sunset I scanned through my binoculars and picked up some rabbits on a hillside at 150 meters. I selected the 243 Win and brought the elevation turret back to a 200 meter zero. I'd knocked over three of them when I looked further up the creek line and saw a fox sniffing around on the ground at about 250 meters. It was directly ahead of the Landcruiser so I couldn't rest over the engine compartment. I moved the front and rear sandbags to the ground and settled behind the Mauser and its Kahles 6-24 scope. The first shot slipped just over its back and it ran 50 meters before starting to sniff around again. I aimed a little lower and didn't miss the second time.