The wind was still about 10 mph today, but dropping a handful of grass confirmed the direction was better at 30 degrees into the muzzle. For a better defined aiming point, I stapled a picnic bowl on Osama’s gizzard. Three shots at roughly 120 yards landed toward its left side and given the conditions, I’m comfortable with the zero.

Never one to quit while I’m ahead, I moved the works back to the edge of the field, about 192 yards according to Google Earth’s yardstick. Right on schedule, the wind picked up. In case you’ve ever wondered what an Osamazoid with a bowl stapled to his belly looks like at that distance, it’s that little white speck above the front sight.

I resisted the urge to fiddle with the sights and fired five shots, hoping they wouldn’t drift off the plywood backer. My wish was granted and I located an eleven inch group, just off bottom-left corner of the target.

Just a couple of thoughts… those .54 ball were taking about ¾ of a second to get to the target and making a THWACK I could heard with earplugs in. All made clean holes through ¾”plywood and all buried in the old oak logs behind it. Also, the old rifle is keeping 2/3 of its shots real close together and I’m certain the flyers are mine. I am getting real tempted to install a finer front sight and a good aperture sight on the rear. Those additions would make it easier for me to shoot well- and this long-distance round-ball shooting is getting addictive.

If there are 101 uses for a dead cat then dead terrorists ought to have some utility, too. I stapled OBL up in front of the logpile, held on his do-rag and let a few rip at about 120 yards. There was about a 10-12 mph crosswind from right to left, so I expected a little drift and wasn’t disappointed. I’m running a 230 grain patched .530 ball over 90 grains of Triple Seven, for a chronographed 1810 feet per second from this particular gun. The group is six shots in about six inches and it includes one right adjustment between the 3rd and 4th shot. The old gun got moved & stored over the summer and I'm certain in was dead on the money last fall. I’ll have to shoot it again on a calm day and see if I need to adjust it a tad more.

While I haven't cornered the market on accuracy here, it is sufficient to put some venison on the ground at the ranges at which I'll be hunting.