Impatient as I am, I spun on the barrel, loaded up some rounds, and went and shot it today. UPS man hadn't come yet, so I put the 4x32 Bushnell scope back on it. The crosshairs cover about 1.5" at 100 yards.

I was experimenting with some reduced recoil rounds (youth loads) using 4895 and 125 grain Hornady V-max. These all seemed to shoot about 1.5". I then tried "the load" that was working well before I cut down the barrel. The last group I shot before all of this measured about 1.5". To my delight, the 3 shot groups are running about an inch with this load. I did go from 2550 fps to 2450 fps, but this was expected with 4" less barrel. This load was downright obnoxious to shoot with the muzzle blast. I think I'll stick with the youth loads, which is what I had planned on in the first place, when I'm not shooting subsonic.

When I got home from the range, I had a box waiting for me, so I went ahead and mounted up the Vortex Strikefire that I plan on keeping on this rifle. It definitely looks odd, but I think it will work well, as I don't plan on using the rifle past 100 yards anyways.

4x32 Bushnell
[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03232.jpg[/img]

[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03236.jpg[/img]

[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03237.jpg[/img]

[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03238.jpg[/img]

[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03239.jpg[/img]



As it currently sits
[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03233.jpg[/img]

[img width=600 height=450]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f159/ddsr5/DSC03235.jpg[/img]