Range Trip Today

I got to the range today with my Keltec RDB 17 rifle and Ruger GP-100 revolver.

I've had the RDB for about 4 years. It’s a neat rifle in that it’s an almost fully ambidextrous bullpup semiauto chambered for 5.56mm. Some of the early production RDBs had teething troubles but mine was made after they were worked out. I have at least 500 rounds through it with no malfunctions.

Anyway, I put a new scope on it this week and wanted to zero it. The scope is a Primary Arms SLx 2.5x compact. For a defensive rifle 2.5x with a wide field of view is very fast on target at close range while still providing a little magnification for distances out to a couple hundred yards. Since it’s a prismatic optic, I am able to see the the reticle clearly even though I have astigmatism. The reticles in most red dot sights are not perfectly clear for me due to that.

The scope has a range finding reticle usable out to 600 yards. I doubt I’ll shoot this rifle any further than 250. The instructions say to zero at 50 to get a point blank range of 300 yards.

Even though it was daylight I used the reticle illumination feature because I was shooting at black targets. The illumination lights up the reticle in red, so it had nice contrast with the targets.

My initial impressions of the scope are favorable. It has clear glass, tactile clicks on the adjustments, and a nice reticle. One thing I failed to do beforehand (and I should know better) was to tighten and Loctite the two screws that hold the scope to its base. Naturally, they loosened up after about 40 rounds. I had to dismount the scope, Loctite and tighten the screws, and remount it on the rifle. Luckily, I had both Loctite and the correct tools in my range bag. I was able to rezero the scope in 6 shots (two 3-shot groups).

After finishing up with the Keltec I went to the 25 yard line and put 50 .38 wadcutters through the GP-100. I recently replaced the trigger and hammer springs with reduced power springs from Wolff so I needed to verify it was working properly. I used my handloads of a Hornady 148 grain HBWC on top of 3.0 grains of Bullseye sparked with a CCI small pistol primer. CCI primer cups tend to be harder than other makers’, so if it reliably ignited them I know the gun is dependable. All 50 rounds went off as expected.

I was pleased to see a fellow club member teaching a couple younger guys who were out for their first time shooting. (By “younger” I mean teens or early 20s.) They were shooting a suppressed S&W M&P .22 pistol. The guy instructing was a Russian Jewish immigrant and it’s always good to see a fellow MoT at the range, especially when he’s introducing new shooters to the sport, and especially with an NFA item.