Yesterday, my Farrow shot in a Schuetzen match, probably for the first time since WW 1. My thanks to Terry Buffum for shepherding the restoration, to J.D. Steele for the excellent advice from another forum "With a Farrow, proceed slowly", and to John Mitchell of Classic Rifle Company for the restoration work. I shot a 273x750 and the match was won with a 473x750. That rather poor showing is my fault. I practiced the day before, but got rained out. Another 50 rounds of offhand would have improved things.
I'd like to tell you that the Farrow is a tack driver, but that is not the case. It's a 22 Long Rifle rimfire with a 16" twist and an original 12-groove barrel. But the barrel is kind of frosty, the steel is soft and I am very reluctant to scrub any more. The rifle will shoot an 8-inch group at 200 yards, but that's about it. Any suggestions that will gently improve the accuracy would be greatly appreciated.
My problem now is sights. Farrow used Winchester front sights and the front sight is original. I purchased inserts and a retaining clip from Axtell. The inserts fit correctly and with a bit of file work, the retaining clip fit also. So the front sight is now restored to original form. The front sight dovetail is 0.405" and the front sight looks as if it has been tightly installed since the rifle was made.
The rear sight was missing. Farrows have a built-in tang sight base and need a windage-adjustable tang sight. I used a Parts Unknown version of a Stevens-Pope tang sight. It fit into the Farrow mount. The windage works fine, but the whole sight is just too high. I filed down the elevation screw until the base of the top frame contacts the main body of the tang sight. I can get on target at 200 yards, but not at much closer ranges. With the rainbow trajectory of 22 match ammunition, the rifle shoots about 3 feet high at 100 yards when on target at 200.
Any suggestions? Does anyone make reproduction Farrow sights? Should I try to find a replacement front sight that is higher?
Waterman
