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Yup, here it is.

One of my favorites, a 1942-built HVA 46 in 9.3x57. I started with a barrelled action and stocked it with an old beatup Model 46 stock from off a worn out 6.5x55 and then freefloated the barrel, epoxy bedded the action, reshaped the stock to eliminate the castoff and to allow left shoulder shooting, crispened up the trigger and most recently had a Limbsaver recoil pad added. Weight now is about 6 lbs. It is a cobblejob extraordinaire. Since the original 6.5 had a side mount, there was a gaping slot in the stock next to the action so I epoxied in two Pop-Sickle Sticks to take up the room.

By now Dons is cringing and probably throwing things and Nitro is preparing to notify me that my posting priviledges have been rescinded and I am banned from the Forum...

But honest, I like it. Very light, very handy. Nice to carry in the mountains while after bear.

Anyway, my favorite load is the 285 grain Prvi Partizan bullet over a charge of Accurate 2230C milsurp powder which tosses out the potato at factory speed, about 2060 fps. Cases are Remington 8x57's.

Today I was rezeroing the rifle as I dropped it a while ago and the front sight went agogga. Also, I just got it back with the new pusspad on the behind. I used it for some years without, then decided I wanted the pad merely and only so it wouldn't slip and fall when standing on a slick wooden floor. Honest...

I do not zero these sorts of rifles from the bench. Al Miller noted in his piece in Big Bore Rifles that the 9.3x62 he was shooting went skyward with each shot. I have noticed that zero changes, sometimes pretty significantly with these light rifles when they are zeroed on the bench, then shot from field positions or standing. I do all zeroing from my sitting position which is this:

Here is my 3-shot zero group at 100 meters 1 1/2 inch high, 1 inch center-to-center farthest shots:

And here are 5 shots on the Norsk government shooting test target. No aiming point, asymmetrical target. There is an invisible circle, too.

This 5-shot group was shot at 200 yards from sitting as above, about 5 1/2 inches c-to-c. It's about as good as I can do. Hold was just above what I saw as the center of the invisible circle.

All in all, the old mule is back in the traces, and ready for bear season if my buddy's dogs are up to it.

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