What did you do at the range today?

[Formidilosus]

Great shooting! I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. Where do you place your off hand when you are prone over your pack when shooting a heavier recoiling rifle ( unbraked or un supressed). I shot my .30-06 for the first time in a while after shooting my 223 all winter and found it quite squirrely off a pack. I could see initial impact on the plate so I don't think my npa was off. But I ended up placing my hand on top of the scope to keep it down a bit. Also, what sling is that on your .300? Thanks.

Sling is an old adjustable. Closest thing now, maybe the same thing, is the Allen Quick Adjustable 1.25” sling. I don’t really use slings on hunting rifles anymore though. That rifle is just old and is setup exactly as it was 15 years ago.





As for my offhand and control, it’s the same as any other rifle- under the buttstock. Recoil and muzzle jump are “controlled” through a neutral body position. Putting your hand on top of the scope and holding it down just introduces torque that you now have to account for; and, it changes with every shot. I can spot about 90% of hits through the scope with this rifle at 6-7x from 300’ish and out when prone.


But no matter what, rifles that recoil more are harder to shoot regardless of who you are.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

@Formidilosus how do you shoot offhand with your support hand under the buttock? Are you supporting the forearm on a tripod or something?

It seems impossible to control a rifle with no contact points forward of the trigger guard, and I thought offhand meant just the shooter touching the gun while standing, whereas standing supported meant shooter standing but braced or supported by some other object.

 

[Moose83]

Sling is an old adjustable. Closest thing now, maybe the same thing, is the Allen Quick Adjustable 1.25” sling. I don’t really use slings on hunting rifles anymore though. That rifle is just old and is setup exactly as it was 15 years ago.


View attachment 541974


As for my offhand and control, it’s the same as any other rifle- under the buttstock. Recoil and muzzle jump are “controlled” through a neutral body position. Putting your hand on top of the scope and holding it down just introduces torque that you now have to account for; and, it changes with every shot. I can spot about 90% of hits through the scope with this rifle at 6-7x from 300’ish and out when prone.


But no matter what, rifles that recoil more are harder to shoot regardless of who you are.

That's great info. Thanks! Does stock design and barrel length factor into this a bit? My .30-06 is a tikka battue with a 20" barrel which definitely is more jumpy than my old husqvarna with a 24" barrel. I also find the tikka buttstock to slide around a bit on my shoulder in the prone the way my shoulder is shaped. Is this why you and others have raised the butt pad on your rifles?

 

[Formidilosus]

@Formidilosus how do you shoot offhand with your support hand under the buttock? Are you supporting the forearm on a tripod or something?

Haha. He was asking about prone. The standing shots were with snag on top of a tripod and crossed hiking sticks.

 

[Formidilosus]

That's great info. Thanks! Does stock design and barrel length factor into this a bit? My .30-06 is a tikka battue with a 20" barrel which definitely is more jumpy than my old husqvarna with a 24" barrel. I also find the tikka buttstock to slide around a bit on my shoulder in the prone the way my shoulder is shaped. Is this why you and others have raised the butt pad on your rifles?

Absolutely stock design matters. Barrel length just really effects balance. A longer barrel makes the rifle more weight forward which helps with muzzle rise. A heavier barrel and/or suppressor does as well.

Yes, the raised butt pads help immensely. The recoil pad/your shoulder being below the boreline just helps the muzzle rise even more. Keeping it inline with bore, helps the rifle move straight to the rear.

 

[Lawnboi]

More nrl hunter prep today. Moved my scope a hair back, to make it more forgiving between prone and standing. Cleaned some carbon chunks out of my chamber and shot a few for zero. Little adjustment, a few to confirm, can’t argue with that.



Proceeded to do some tripod deployment drills, focusing on kneeling today.



Still trying to figure out how I want to load for the match. Whether I fill the box or single feed.

 

[Formidilosus]

303 rounds today. 300 rounds of positional shooting with an AR. Prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing. All unsupported.




First time shooting 400pt Agg in a couple of years.




Three rounds on another rifle to check zero.

 

[id_jon]

NRL Hunter prep for me too.

Frankenstein Tikka, started as a 300wsm, then got a new factory takeoff 6.5prc barrel and dropped into a CTR stock. Took a slight bit of bending to get prc rounds to feed, but they do pretty well now, I can cram 7 in there.




12 round kraft drill, I think I shot probably 9 or so different positions. Standing clipped in, standing with a bag, bipod with tripod rear at a couple different heights, bipod with bag rear on the stump, single bag on the stump, prone double bag, kneeling clipped in, kneeling with a bag on tripod.
Pint size and shmedium game changer, both with sand. Though in the match I'll probably do sand shmedium and git lite pint size. Harris 13.5-27" bipod.



Tested a couple different charge weights with 144 bergers and n565. 53.5gr shot great but was kinda slow, ended up at 54.5gr. No pressure signs, only 2730, but I can live with that for now, need to load up 200 for the match next weekend and hopefully get another range trip between now and then to get some confirmation shots at distance.




If anyone is considering the Without Warning TMB and is on the fence, it is worth the money. It is insane how much it reduces recoil.

 

[Lawnboi]

NRL Hunter prep for me too.

Frankenstein Tikka, started as a 300wsm, then got a new factory takeoff 6.5prc barrel and dropped into a CTR stock. Took a slight bit of bending to get prc rounds to feed, but they do pretty well now, I can cram 7 in there.
View attachment 542537



12 round kraft drill, I think I shot probably 9 or so different positions. Standing clipped in, standing with a bag, bipod with tripod rear at a couple different heights, bipod with bag rear on the stump, single bag on the stump, prone double bag, kneeling clipped in, kneeling with a bag on tripod.
Pint size and shmedium game changer, both with sand. Though in the match I'll probably do sand shmedium and git lite pint size. Harris 13.5-27" bipod.
View attachment 542535


Tested a couple different charge weights with 144 bergers and n565. 53.5gr shot great but was kinda slow, ended up at 54.5gr. No pressure signs, only 2730, but I can live with that for now, need to load up 200 for the match next weekend and hopefully get another range trip between now and then to get some confirmation shots at distance.
View attachment 542536



If anyone is considering the Without Warning TMB and is on the fence, it is worth the money. It is insane how much it reduces recoil.

Sand schmedium is almost cheating. Really want to try one with git lite for hunting.

For the match I plan to use sand, that combined with the cheap ass tripod table I got off the hide, makes for a pretty stable setup.


Just very easy to get sloppy and not put enough input into that rifle.

 

[Lawnboi]

Cheated on my tikkas again. This 3006 is quickly becoming one of my favorite rifles to shoot. 10 round zero confirmation/velocity check before the weekends match.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Sights in a new scope, verified muzzle velocity, and then got humiliated by the switching winds while a storm blew through. 300 yards with my inline, 1800 fps and .2 bc.

 

[SouthPaw]

47 rounds of 223 and 42 rounds of 6.5CM, mostly positional practice 100-552yds. Prone over pack with/without micro bag, seated/kneeling upright pack.






And from a couple weeks back. 60 rounds of .223, positional shooting at painted steel and boulders 317-608yds with some par times sprinkled in. Wind variable 5-15ish mph as a front came in.

 

[Marshfly]

Really wanted to make a higher BC bullet work for my old as dirt Rem 700 but it just keeps loving Federal loaded TSX. Also my first time working with 10 shot groups. I know. I know. Excluding the flier. But when you KNOW 100% it was your fault, zero use blaming it on the gun or ammo.

 

[Ewnrules]

100 yd range, I usually get some commercial match ammo and see how my rifle likes them. I keep track of this info and usually assign my various ammo to the rifle that likes them. Then, next rifle!

 

[id_jon]

Good way to find out you suck worse than you thought.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I shot my new Tikka Lite 6.5 Creedmoor yesterday morning. I’m in the process of working up a load for it. This is with the 143 grain eld-x over StaBALL6.5 powder.

The 140 grain Accubonds shot very well in it, too. Probably gonna go the AB route.

 

[Lawnboi]

16 round standing, seated, kneeling, prone with the tripod. Breaking in the new 223 barrel. Nice to have a 223 that shoots good again. Had a couple of crap trigger pulls.

Getting back to doing some shooting with life normalizing a little bit.

 

[ShootOkHuntWorse]

Shooting from trekking poles at 150yds. Need to figure out a better technique to stay on target while racking the bolt. Flips the gun to the left if I’m holding the poles, or the poles move too much if I’m holding the gun.

 

[wyosam]

Shot pressure ladders on a couple new bullets, did a bunch of positional (off hand, standing supported, sitting and kneeling on top of the bench to stay above the snow banks).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jimbee]

Looking to improve....