What did you do at the range today?

[260madman]

Last night 90 degrees and 10 mph winds from 10 o’clock.
Targets


weapons



Portable benchrest. If you want the plans for it I can fwd them to you.


Proofed out some rifles last night. Put my 20” Grendel upper on and proceeded to hit steel 9 for 9 just putting a scope from my 18” 5.56 on the upper and shooting. Going to actually shoot for groups next time out with it. My 16” Criterion pencil barrel and 1-5 XTRII did it’s thing and was no issue.

Brought out the 9” twist Salvages and shot 75gr Amax (remember those?) and 77gr TMK. 20” Hog Hunter and Helos combo handled those just fine and the 26” XTRII 5-25 shot them as expected. The difference in impact of a 75-77gr from the 26” and a 16” barrel is extremely noticeable with a large cloud of white stuff when impacting at 350 yards.

My nephews PSA pencil barrel upper wouldn’t cycle last night. Looks like the gas block is pushed back to the end of the journal so I’ll strip it down and check out if it’s restricting the gas port.

Burned up about 150 rounds of .223 of various weights and charges and 50 rounds of blue dot and NBT plinked loads along with almost 200 rounds of 9mm. M&P 2.0 5” is my favorite. Smooth and stacks them very nicely. Not bad for a sub $500 gun.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I still have about 5 or 6 more months before reloading and range season starts.

 

[Lawnboi]

Back to normal after a 3 day throat soak in boretech c4.

 

[id_jon]

Got a new tripod. Holy smokes the difference is insane. Shots with a line through are before scope adjustments for a different load. All shots were fired standing with my Bergara HMR 6 creedmoor clipped into a Jim White panhead on a Leofoto LM-323. Went from a tripod with an 11lb weight rating to 55lb, there's no going back, and the new tripod is only 8oz heavier.

 

[Lawnboi]

Got a new tripod. Holy smokes the difference is insane. Shots with a line through are before scope adjustments for a different load. All shots were fired standing with my Bergara HMR 6 creedmoor clipped into a Jim White panhead on a Leofoto LM-323. Went from a tripod with an 11lb weight rating to 55lb, there's no going back, and the new tripod is only 8oz heavier.


View attachment 432577

So much easier focusing on a good trigger press when you don’t have a 3moa wobble.

You would shit if you shot off an rrs 2 or 3 series and an anvil head.

 

[id_jon]

So much easier focusing on a good trigger press when you don’t have a 3moa wobble.

You would shit if you shot off an rrs 2 or 3 series and an anvil head.

Lol I bet! That's part of why I stuck with my pan head for now, so that when I eventually get an anvil that will be another huge jump in stability

 

[Lawnboi]

Zero confirmation after a total take down, and reassembly.

.1 adjustment was all that was needed.

Can’t blame the rifle at this weekends match anymore.

 

[Southern Heritage]

Sighted my kids .308 in.

 

[Lawnboi]

Ha! I was just in the same spot a week ago. Precision dropped off on my volume rifle. Pulled suppressor, scope, chassis, gave it a decent cleaning with Boretech. Dry torque’d it back together, and checked zero the other day (Factory Hornady ELDM)
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Messing around today with another rifle. Just burning up some ammo scraps before I pull the barrel (factory Federal loaded Berger Target Hybrids)
View attachment 435926

Mine got real bad. I ended up jamming a big qtip soaked in bore tech in the lands then left for work for two days. Pulled it out and had big chunks of carbon. Went right back to a one big hole. Shot better than I could for the last match.

 

[woods89]

Working on sitting over a pack at 150 with a 4" steel gong.

 

[Lawnboi]

Getting re acquainted with a hunting weight rifle.

 

[id_jon]

Found a smoking deal on a Tikka Ctr 6.5 creed with a Timney 2 stage in it. Put it in a KRG bravo and put an swfa 3-15 on it. Finally got it to the range today. Zeroed with Berger factory ammo, 135gr classic hunter. Definitely happy with that 5 shot group. Adjusted up .3 and called it good.

Couple offhand shots at 100 yards at my 8" plate, top two are standing and kneeling, low is seated resting each elbow inside a knee.

Offhand standing at my ipsc at 490 yards. Impact on my one and only attempt

Backed up to 890 for data confirmation. Only got one on plate while trying to get my wind call right. Ended up having to hold 2 mils, got an impact on my last round left. Going to shoot at 890 (the farthest I can on this property) a couple more times before season to confirm data, hopefully on a calmer, or at least more consistent wind day.

This is a welcome change from my 26" barreled Bergara that weighs 14lbs with a mag in and can on. Chrono'd some hand loads, 140gr Barnes Match burners. They're safe pressure and decent velocity, so next step is to load up 10 and see how they group, worst case, they'll be practice ammo and I'll save my Berger factory ammo for hunting.

 

[Lawnboi]

Need to get back at it, been slacking. We have a newborn in the house now so had a little less free time.

Got my 3006 loaded up, for no reason other than I wanted to shoot it. It’s becoming one of my favorite guns to shoot. A little recoil is nice in an 11lb suppressed package. Almost makes me want to put down the 223 for WI deer season.

Loaded up a few buddies for hunting season. Got a couple guys shooting 77tmk and worked up a hell of a 130 eldm load in my buddies tikka.



Got an MDT ACC for my game gun. Holy crap I didn’t know what I was missing. Still in the honeymoon stage with it, going to take a bit to get used to it.



Going to commit to some Kraft drills in the coming weeks, last match is in the beginning of October, reschedule allowed me to attend.

Only other is I’m really thinking of sending my 223 in for a rebarrel. I think Iv gotten to the point that I’m shooting better than the rifle most of the time and it’s frustrating shooting 1.5” Kraft drills with pretty much all my other guns then struggling to maintain 2moa accuracy with my 223 tikka which is easier to shoot than all of them.

 

[Lawnboi]

Man, that ACC is one of the best chassis on paper with how adjustable it is and how low the center of bore sits. I can’t really say why, but I had to get rid of the ones I had. Tried a couple different grips, and used them awhile on a couple different barreled actions, but I never could warm up to them. They are well thought out though.

What did you end up with?

I wanted an xlr but they are like 30 weeks out now. I couldn’t see waiting that when the ACC was here in a week.

Agreed on the low bore height. Surprising the difference, probably helps that I’m shooting a rifle of appropriate weight now for the task at hand. Spotting shots went from tough to easy from positional shooting.

Grip is a big deal for me, my biggest complaint with my manners was having to reach for the trigger, not sure if you have tried the latest generation of the ACC grip but it’s made me a believer in an adjustable vertical grip, enough that I hope they make a lighter one for their other chassis.

It stills feel strange to me coming from multiple thousand rounds on that manners. Lots of dry fire and some live between now and the last match of the year is needed.

Only complaint with it is it’s really rear heavy with the steel pad slider. I’d like an aluminum one. Struggling to balance it without going crazy on the weights. No idea how guys are running the butt weight on this thing.

 

[Lawnboi]

I had the latest generation ACCs and used the premier and elite grips on the ones I had. The adjustability in grip location should be standard now in all chassis. I had a single butt weight on one of mine ACCs. I had a Proof competition contour barrel with a suppressor up front. With the rear weight, it balanced about 2.5" in front of the mag well IIRC and was something like 22 pounds overall. Side note, I'll never have that heavy of a barrel again, LOL. I prefer a total weight of about 17 - 18 pounds for that kind of a rifle (including bipod, suppressor, scope, mounts, etc).

I agree that most of the Manners could benefit by choking-up on their grip-to-trigger distance. I know you used to be able to request that they set back the inlet, but that means you have to custom order and get in line. It's probably the only thing keeping me from trading my EH-1s for LRHs. The EH-1s I have fit my hands perfect, and I can just buy in-stock from Altus.

I've only messed around with the HNT26s, but they are pretty close to a good hunting set-up. The grip angle & palm swell sort of ruin it for me, and I don't really care to buy a couple dozen grips finding what's right for me (maybe I should though). I'm hoping that the upcoming lightweight vertical grip from MDT fits me well. I've also messed around with the XLR 4.0 magnesiums, and I like the feel a little better compared to the HNT26, but I'm not crazy about an all metal chassis that gets used in pretty cold & pretty hot temps.

I'm currently using KRG Whiskey 3 and XRay on the rifles that were previously in ACCs. They are not as adjustable and the center of bore sits higher. The ACC should be the superior chassis. But the KRGs are super comfortable to me, they fit my hand perfect, and I've noticed no difference in performance.

I like stocks and chassis, so I'll continue to try out new stuff, but I think the KRGs will stick around for a bit.

Manners 700 based eh1 fits me about perfect, the tikka version isn’t quite as good but I can deal with it. I’d like to get a LRH for my only 700 based gun, but that won’t be happening any time soon. If manners made a spacer system with a few grip angles similar to the lrh cheek piece I think they would have a winner.

I’d prefer 18-20 lbs on my match gun. Currently I’m above that, balanced still a little farther back than I’d prefer with a 26” MTU, brake, full internal weight, and one set of externals, with nothing on the rear end. Excited to shoot it at a match and see how I like it. It’s significantly heavier than my manners was.

The ACC has me wanting a hnt 26. I couldn’t get along with an all metal chassis with how I hunt. Excited to see what they put out for a vertical carbon grip.

I can get along with a bravo just fine but it sits in that middle ground of not heavy enough for a game gun and a little too heavy for a hunting rifle.

Adjustability is nice when your only 5’6

Also have a magnus coming and planning on going fully suppressed following its arrival.

 

[Formidilosus]

Only other is I’m really thinking of sending my 223 in for a rebarrel. I think Iv gotten to the point that I’m shooting better than the rifle most of the time and it’s frustrating shooting 1.5” Kraft drills with pretty much all my other guns then struggling to maintain 2moa accuracy with my 223 tikka which is easier to shoot than all of them.

To what end? Kraft drills aren’t a sport, so I wouldn’t base whether a rifle can hit a 1 MOA, or a 2 MOA off of the drill on whether or not the gun works for what you use it for?



To that end, I have shot a bunch of Kraft drills, but not in a while, so I shot one today. Swapped the NF back on the rifle and the Kraft was the zero check as well-



Needed an Up.1 and R.1 adjustment.

 

[Lawnboi]

To what end? Kraft drills aren’t a sport, so I wouldn’t base whether a rifle can hit a 1 MOA, or a 2 MOA off of the drill on whether or not the gun works for what you use it for?



To that end, I have shot a bunch of Kraft drills, but not in a while, so I shot one today. Swapped the NF back on the rifle and the Kraft was the zero check as well-
View attachment 454634


Needed an Up.1 and R.1 adjustment.

If I can bring them back to 1.5” on the 223 I think it will do what I require of it a little better. That’s deer, predators and prairie dogs out to 400. Little more wind budget wouldn’t hurt either assuming I’m doing my job.

Just frustrating making a 2” group and then picking up a theoretically harder to shoot rifle and shooting better.

I end up doing a lot of Kraft drills due to being confined to 400 yards close to home and shooting in a cut out lane of trees.

It dosnt help that I have a blank sitting on the shelf either.

Maybe I’m asking too much of the rifle.

 

[Formidilosus]

If I can bring them back to 1.5” on the 223 I think it will do what I require of it a little better. That’s deer, predators and prairie dogs out to 400. Little more wind budget wouldn’t hurt either assuming I’m doing my job.

Just frustrating making a 2” group and then picking up a theoretically harder to shoot rifle and shooting better.

I end up doing a lot of Kraft drills due to being confined to 400 yards close to home and shooting in a cut out lane of trees.

It dosnt help that I have a blank sitting on the shelf either.

Maybe I’m asking too much of the rifle.

I was just wondering. I’ve seen people getting obsessed with the Kraft drill using it as the thing that they do, instead of it just being a drill or barometer of current skill. It’s a decent drill, and certainly has helped people to understand that actually hitting a certain size target is the goal- but I’ve been where people want to drastically change equipment to get a better score on it, when the equipment they’re using is optimal or nearly so, for the actual job or task that they do, but they are willing to sacrifice what the actually need from the gun in the field- to make it better for a barricade.

Once someone is a 2’ish MOA shooter from prone/sitting/kneeling, and around a 3 MOA shooter from standing on the Kraft, I haven’t really seen benefits to field hits rates going up by getting it down to a 1 MOA shooter for instance. Outside of PRS that is.

 

[Lawnboi]

I was just wondering. I’ve seen people getting obsessed with the Kraft drill using it as the thing that they do, instead of it just being a drill or barometer of current skill. It’s a decent drill, and certainly has helped people to understand that actually hitting a certain size target is the goal- but I’ve been where people want to drastically change equipment to get a better score on it, when the equipment they’re using is optimal or nearly so, for the actual job or task that they do, but they are willing to sacrifice what the actually need from the gun in the field- to make it better for a barricade.

I see what your saying. I havnt been shooting as many as I was and try to remain using what I would in the field. It’s easy to shoot a better group off my 9 pound gamechanger.

I try to keep my hunting rifles with hunting equipment. And relegate the really steady stuff for my gun I do play the game with.

Iv been using the Kraft drill lately more to establish and check zero, rather than just shooting a few groups from my most stable positions.

The whole purpose of this thread was to push myself and maybe others to go to the range with a training plan and to get off the bench/prone. Lately has been too much tinkering for me.

Need to up the difficulty again, more timed stuff.

 

[Formidilosus]

The whole purpose of this thread was to push myself and maybe others to go to the range with a training plan and to get off the bench/prone. Lately has been too much tinkering for me.

Need to up the difficulty again, more timed stuff.

I wasn’t meaning that I disagree or anything. I was just curious. I wish more hunters would shoot more often and actually practice.