Thursday, July 14, 2011

2TACTICAL4U, Sucka!

Yeah, I got this "tactical" thing down.


This is a beat-up, rusty Marlin Limited Edition Model 6081. It happens to be the only .22 rifle I own. It was in fine shooting condition (except for being beat-up and rusty) until I lent it to my son-in-law a little over two years ago. He wanted to kill a rabbit during their visit. Got one, too.

But Son-in-law carries a curse. Two times in my life I've lent him a gun, and two times the sights have been screwed up when I got it back. The first one was definitely not his fault, just one of those bizarre things. This time he lost the little wedge that goes under the rear sight, and I kept meaning to find some way to fix that. So it sat in a closet for quite a long time.

Lately I've been jonesing for some rifle shooting, but I still haven't gotten around to cooking up reloads. So I dragged out the Marlin this afternoon and took it to the wash. At twenty-five yards:

Yeah, that's a little low I think. So I tore the cardboard cover off a package of tactical cigarette papers, folded it up, and shoved it under the sight.

Way too high at first, but I expected that. I just kept pulling the cardboard out until the bullets walked down to where I wanted them to...

And of course the job isn't done until the Tactical Duct Tape has been applied.

...Okay, so it's kind of hillbilly tactical...

5 comments:

Mayberry said...

Whatever works. That phrase is becoming a lot more common these days, and will only increase in popularity by my estimation...

Matt said...

Had a tactical matchstick wedged under the rear sight of an adjustable sight missing the elevation screw. It worked and was hardly noticeable.

If the cardboard fails, whittle a wedge to act as the elevator.

Anonymous said...

Practical tactical.

Anonymous said...

If it looks stupid but it works, then it isn't stupid. Marlin 60's are like Timex's man, they just keep on keeping on . . .

Fred said...

You can make an approximate replacement for the original elevator by grinding an old sawzall or jigsaw blade to the needed ramp shape. The pitch of the saw teeth can be course or fine to suit your accuracy needs. No tactical duct tape required.