What did you do at the range today?

Took the thermal off the Ranch Grendel, tossed an Arken scope on, and took it out to 800 yards. Then put the thermal back on and resighted.....
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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.
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Hold the yoke of the sticks in your weak hand with your index finger over the barrel, pull back into shoulder and work the bolt with your strong hand.....
 
Rainy afternoon. Replaced crappy subfloor in a guest bedroom we’re renovating, made lunch and hung out with the wife for a bit, and decided to take a quick trip to the range to blow off the stink.

Shot a “Form drill” 2x, once at 50 yards with a 22lr set up for prs-type shooting, and once with a hunting rifle at 100 yards. Never shot a form drill before, but I believe I did it per “regulation” (grin): 7moa target standing unsupported, 5moa target sitting unsupported, 3 moa target sitting off the top of my pack, and 2moa target prone off pack/no bag. 2 shots at each with no time limit, 2 shots within 20 seconds at each, and then 1 shot at each as a set, within 60 seconds.

Scored a 12 on both rifles, which afterward Im a little disappointed in because I know I can do better when I’m a bit more practiced, especially offhand. My offhand shooting I lose fast, I knew that, but had one shot go 6” low on the 20-second stage and one off paper a bit high. Sitting unsupported felt the most “unfamiliar”, its not a position I use or practice much, and it showed. Sitting off a pack I scored the best of all 4 positions, hit all 5 on that with both guns. Prone I missed several even though its within the cone of the gun in both cases, including one in the un-timed stages…I claim “new drill jitters”. Nothing wild, but in both cases a misses just outside the circle.

Takeaways:
1) I suck, as always. But I knew that.
2) Im going to try this drill a few more times and see how I like it. Several of the positions are abnormal for me (prone shots ive taken I generally have a lot more time and Ive mostly used a bipod, sitting unsupported is not a shot Ive used hunting more than once or twice hunting) so I want to play around with the drill a bit and maybe also change it up for myself to also include some other positions I use more in the field.
3) I was surprised how easily it went shooting sitting off my pack, not just from a stability standpoint, but also time. This position felt comparatively easy and unhurried next to all the others. I may have to play with this a bit and see how far I can push it.
4) the pocket on the back of my MR Popup pack makes a convex surface that sucks to shoot prone off of. It did not feel anywhere close to as stable as I wanted. Need to figure out a better pack-position for this—possibly with the back-panel of the pack facing up.
5) 20 seconds goes fast when you are futzing with a new position/support. I can already tell I’ll have noticeably more time for the prone stage when I do it again simply having found a more stable way to position the pack.




😖
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Lots of positional shooting- sitting, kneeling, standing, both supported and unsupported. Those were with both rim fire and 7-08. Verified (for the 100th time) zero on my 338-284 for spring bear.


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Shot this group today from sitting position supported with sticks in front, pack in rear with back against ATV. Kimber Adirondack 6.5cm, NX8 1-8, 147 ELD-M's. 10 rounds at 100 yards. Fired 3, broke position, fired 3 more, broke position, fired 2, broke position, fired last 2. There always seems to be one that ruins the group. 10 shots into 1.580" with 9 into .870".


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Took the .223 CTR to the range. Got a match coming up and wanted to knock the rust off. Shot a 10 round group to warm up then did some positional shooting at steel out to 500.
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I didn't include the other 2 shots on the right side since my wife shot those two. Still happy with the results.
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So, I went out today with the .308 and played a little bit. Goal was to see if I could get 1st round hit at my maximum allowable range for this ammo. The load is a 168gr Sierra Tipped Match King at 2707 MV. I decide the maximum allowable range based on the minimum impact velocity for reliable bullet expansion, in this case about 1800 fps, but I like a little fudge factor, so I’m calling it 1900 fps.

My 600 yard target is the 12” diameter round plate. The square plate with the black aiming point is my 800 yard plate. There’s three rounds on each plate.

I relied on my Fury AB 5000s for my ballistic solutions, and I am very pleased with the data they gave me, but as you can see, the windage isn’t perfect. Probably dead critter good, but not as good as I would like. The binos called for .4 mils left and that is what I held. Even though I had a good wind reading at my shooting location, down range the mirage was actually moving in the opposite direction and I should have taken out a little of my wind hold to compensate. I did apply that lesson learned on my 700 and 800 yard plates and did much better.

I have found, that > 600 is where things start to get difficult when attempting 1st round impacts on deer sized vitals. This was all from the prone off the bipod. From less steady positions, that range is less.

I saved my last two rounds for sitting unsupported at 300. Got impacts from both of those.

John





 
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