I took my M1916 Spanish Mauser that's fitted with a long eye relief scope to the range today to see how well the new 174 grain round nose bullets I reloaded performed. I fired a few rounds from a rack to zero the rifle at 25 yards, made a few windage and elevation adjustments to the scope and placed the final shot close to the target center. Encouraged by the last shot, I moved out to the 50 yard target, fired a few more rounds and hit close to the target center with only one minor windage adjustment required. The accuracy of the next few rounds fired deteriorated slightly with bullets began hitting to he right of the target center by several inches. Altogether, I fired 11 rounds. The barrel was warm but not overheated. I decided to allow the scope settings to remain where they are and I will return to the range with a cold barrel to see where the bullets hit the target and what happens as the barrel temperature climbs.

Merc