John,
WOW!, what a similarity of our past with the exception that I wasn't in the military. And I do believe in your shooting expertise, Great! There was nothing going on when I was 18 and was married and had a child, and not even the Draft asked me,
.
When I was a young boy around ten yrs. old, I used to shoot for hours on end with a BB rifle for a couple of years. I would shoot ants, flies, and any bug around our home. I used a cardboard box as a back-stop, when I could, to catch my BB's so that I could use them again and again, etc. And believe me, I used to love to see, the little critters vanish when I picked them off.
Then in my 20's and up I was using a German Mauser 7.65 sporterized. One time shooting at this common area in the mountains I was shooting around 150 yds. at little brown jugs (empty beer bottles), and this guy was there with his rifle scoped. And I hit 3 out of 5 bottles and he came over and asked me if I was in the military or something because he couldn't believe of how I was shooting w/ no scope and hitting the bottles. Heck, he said you shoot better than me and I have a scope.
That Mauser was one heck of rifle too bad I had to give it to a guy in lieu of a debt. But, a few months ago, I just bought another one, not sporterized. Had it drilled and tapped and mounted a scope. It shoots great but not the same as my original. I just started shooting again a couple of years ago, one to two times a week.
You say: "Man I wish I could still shoot like that! "
I certainly understand about the eyes, I'm 71. And this is what I use:
1. ---300 magnification for reading and doing close work;
2. ---250 mag. for using at the computer and shooting sometimes to 10 yds. I think maybe a 225 would work better but I figure my eyes will only get worse so I left it at 250 and I'll fit right into them,
;
3. ---1.75 mag. from 25 yds. to 300 yds. --This one works great for me!
When I was experimenting the magnification, I had up to six pairs of glasses (from Walmart
. I had several guys and rangers ask me 'if I had enough glasses, and I would answer 'not yet', lol. And finally I settled with the three I mentioned above. With the 1.75 the sights sometimes get real fuzzy, so, what I do is move off the target to some other background so that I have a better contrast then smoothly come back to the target.
Oh, try this. At the store pick something, an item that might be 10 yds. away and try glasses that you feel comfortable with to that distance. ---50yds to the same, then find a pair for across the store to something on wall or roof. Then take them to the range and see what happens, Good Luck.
Manuel
PS.--Great gun, nice choice!