what kind of matches can you shoot with iron sights?

flintyboom

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I just picked up this Swedish target rifle in 6.5x55 over the weekend. I'm hoping to get out and shoot it in some matches, but I don't know what kind of matches it would be appropriate for. It should be able to shoot 100-600M with the aperture sight on it. I'd love to hear suggestions. Maybe some prone shooting with a sling? Oh, and I'm in Northeastern BC.
 
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I am pretty sure that is a CG63 rifle - a fair bit written about them in the "Crown Jewels" book. I think most often used as "club" rifles by FSR in Sweden - might want to look up on U-Tube, etc. about their various courses of fire - what they were made for - in 1963 or so.

I think many were made by the Carl Gustaf arsenal for FSR. A very short list of individual gun-smiths and the Norma company, were "approved" by FSR to build privately owned Swede rifles to meet FSR competition rules - I think all the parts were sourced through the CG Arsenal. Was superseded many times over the years - CG80 rifles, various German brands, like some Sauers, got approved. I think about 4 or 5 brands of aperture sights were "approved" for use in the FSR competitions - they look to have similar mounting patterns, but as I found out - a mm or two difference in width or length of the spacing for the screw holes for the rear sight - some brands of sight that I recall include Soderin, Pramm, Elite, etc.

Was at a time when the concept was most all competitors used the same gear and the same ammo - idea was you were not supposed to be able to "buy" our way to a win by using special gear or special ammo - had to actually be the best shooter (or "wind reader"), instead. To this day, I do not think hand loading or similar is too common in Sweden.

Ammo, I think, was initially supplied to FSR by the Swede military (?). I think most of their shoots these days use various Norma factory ammo.

Is my impression that many FSR courses of fire are VERY different than North American "target shooting" - for example, there is (was) a timed event - three targets at different distances, fired at from three different shooter positions - standing off hand for closest target, then seated on ground for middle distance, then prone for furthest target - as I recall from seeing on U-Tube, was type of target that you either hit it or not - only "hits" counted - did not matter how many times that you fired. Another event - how many holes into a target within so many seconds - again, only the holes counted - did not matter how many times that you fired.

The CG63 that I have here, has cheek rests on both left and right side of butt stock - as if meant to be used by either left hand or right hand shooter. Is various markings on it to show it was built by Norma - not CG Arsenal - so had to have been a privately owned rifle at some point. As per that Crown Jewels book - none were made from new actions - all were conversions from previously existing m96 or other Swede Mauser rifles. As per that book, a bog standard ordinary Swede m96 is still "approved" for FSR competitions - if you want to use it. But, for example, I do not think a Winchester Model 70 Target rifle is approved (?).
 
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The author is Dana Jones. "Produced and edited by R Blake Stevens" The ISBN is 0-88935-283-6 on the copy here. Copywrite appears to be to 2003 Collector Grade Publications Incorporated.
 
Author was Dana Jones. Collector Grade Publications. Out of print. Amazon lists for about $150.


No idea what sort of matches might be held by clubs in your area.
Provincial Rifle Associations/Dominion of Canada Rifle Association do hold matches for iron sighted target rifles fired prone with sling - but in .308 only. 300m to 900m.
 
At our club up here we have irons categories for our steel matches , and we allow any iron sighted rifle , same as our target matches, and many rifle rodeos have irons categories.
You pretty much will have to start something within your own club if you want to shoot that CG63 in a competition however, because there are not a lot of irons competitions these days, compared to matches using optics.
They sure are fun to shoot though!
Cat
 
Author was Dana Jones. Collector Grade Publications. Out of print. Amazon lists for about $150.


No idea what sort of matches might be held by clubs in your area.
Provincial Rifle Associations/Dominion of Canada Rifle Association do hold matches for iron sighted target rifles fired prone with sling - but in .308 only. 300m to 900m.

Don't forget the Mouse gun ( .223) for TR., Tiriaq! LOL:dancingbanana:
Cat
 
At our club up here we have irons categories for our steel matches , and we allow any iron sighted rifle , same as our target matches, and many rifle rodeos have irons categories.
You pretty much will have to start something within your own club if you want to shoot that CG63 in a competition however, because there are not a lot of irons competitions these days, compared to matches using optics.
They sure are fun to shoot though!
Cat

Where is your club located?
 
Thanks. It seems that all the shoots that would be suitable are 9-11 hours away. Prince George is close, and they do High power silhouette, so I might try that.
 
flintyboom - I do not know where you are or what is possible for you - before going "public" at a competition, might be in your interest to find a safe area in the boonies to try it out first - get some shells - a good, knowledgeable coach is invaluable to have along - maybe you can discover why the underside of that trigger guard loop is (or should be) serrated or "dimpled".
 
Depending on what disciplines you are already into shoot the irons against the scoped guns. With some practice you may be surprised how competitive they are. Can really be true when there's a significant mirage.

It can also take the pressure off from trying to be competitive and make it easier to just have fun seeing what you are capable of doing with them.
 
flintyboom - I do not know where you are or what is possible for you - before going "public" at a competition, might be in your interest to find a safe area in the boonies to try it out first - get some shells - a good, knowledgeable coach is invaluable to have along - maybe you can discover why the underside of that trigger guard loop is (or should be) serrated or "dimpled".

I'm a pretty good shooter. I've done black powder cartridge silhouette, and muzzleloader shooting. I can shoot out to 400M on my range here, so I can get my sight settings at 200, 300, and 400M before I go to a shoot. I could probably estimate 500 and 600 pretty close from that data. The trigger guard is dimpled, and I was curious about that. Seemed odd.
 
I’d get a turner match sling for it. While it wont be the same as a single point, you’ll still get fairly locked in.

How many apertures did you get for it?

Start with that, switch to a 308 eventually and join the darkside……TR
 
I have a good match sling from my high power competition Ar-15, that I can put on it, I have 3 circle apertures and one post insert. I think I could look around and find more inserts too.
 
I'm a pretty good shooter. I've done black powder cartridge silhouette, and muzzleloader shooting. I can shoot out to 400M on my range here, so I can get my sight settings at 200, 300, and 400M before I go to a shoot. I could probably estimate 500 and 600 pretty close from that data.

It may be cheaper on the 6.5 reloading budget if you get a .22 rifle with similar stock feel, and hammer away in lightweight practices. Find your technique weaknesses and address those before touching off a fullsize cartridge. Sling tension, cheek position, eye relief, aperture selection, do the drills of looking down at the scorebook, load the rifle, look out at the flags, adjust the sight, come up on aim, hold and squeeze. You've got only so long per exposure to get the shot off in match conditions.

The trigger guard is dimpled, and I was curious about that. Seemed odd.
Some position shooters will rest the rifle on the support hand fingertips and thumb under the magazine floorplate.
 
Excellent rifle, very accurate. I can hit 4" gong at 300m with my reloads all day long. Here is my hunting, long range and target shooting configuration CG63.

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