Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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The barleycorn front sight gave me trouble with elevation, though. It would fade out at the point no matter how hard I concentrated on it and would give me vertical changes that I did not experience with the more visible flat top front posts. It was also more difficult to define the point of the barleycorn so as to level it with the top of the rear sight notch. For me, a good sized rear peep and 8 minute wide flat top front post seemed to give the best results in both bright and dim lighting. It was easier to see the sights and take a uniform picture with a peep and flat top post.

All that said, I used the 48A and “Munich Match” to cull a spike buck out of my “Range Ravine” at about 350 yards in the dusk just before dark one evening as I was gathering up my gear. The 8x57 is a powerful cartridge and gives away little in terminal ballistic effect to the 30-06.

As a photographer friend of mine once said, “You take the picture with the camera you’ve got.” Much the same is true of rifles: the handier the gun, the more likely you are to have it in hand. Such is the case with the 23.6 inch-barreled Model 48A. It is relatively light and quick to the shoulder with a better than average stock shape for a military rifle. The trigger pull was pretty good, a two-stage generic Mauser military type, and a pull weight very close to 4-½ pounds. The general impression was quite favorable, probably one of the best all-around bolt rifles for a soldier to carry day in and day out.