What did you do at the range today?

[waspocrew]

Pressure test with CFE 223 and the 95 TMK in my Howa mini. No stellar group worth posting, but got up to ~ 2815 (31 gr) in Starline brass with normal bolt lift.

Zeroed my 7 SAUM for the upcoming elk season. 145 LRX at 3040 should do. After this group, made a nice cluster on the steel at 300.

 

[RWT]

Tried 3 different stocks today in my 16” 6.5CM
RS, Mesa Precision, Bastion
3 different load with the new chronograph
ACC 140 black tips out of my Alamo
Cooper Creek 130 OTM in the Tikka and Alamo
Hornady 140 Bulk ammo in a tikka as it is my practice round

I’ll a full review of the 3 stocks soon. They all have trade offs of some sort.

 

[Chris in TN]

Tried 3 different stocks today in my 16” 6.5CM
RS, Mesa Precision, Bastion
3 different load with the new chronograph
ACC 140 black tips out of my Alamo
Cooper Creek 130 OTM in the Tikka and Alamo
Hornady 140 Bulk ammo in a tikka as it is my practice round

I’ll a full review of the 3 stocks soon. They all have trade offs of some sort.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of them.

 

[Chris in TN]

Spent some time working more on field positions with my daughter this morning before work.

She's struggling with using a pack for a rear rest. In any position. A full sized pack works better than our little day pack, but I'm trying to avoid hauling a full sized pack around just to use as a rest. I think there are better options.

So this morning we went back to ol' faithful, my rubberbanded arrows that I have used to kill deer from a seated position:



The orange fencepost wedged under my knee, was an attempt to figure out if it's worth bringing a third arrow. We always have a handful of those fenceposts in the SxS so I just grabbed one this monring instead of getting out a third arrow shaft.

I think a guy could make a cheap gadget - and sell it - that would clamp to a trek pole and hold an arrow shaft where it was adjustable up-down to make a third leg to convert trek poles from a bipod to tripod configuration. Or perhaps a mounting plate that locked to the trek pole and held the arrow shaft securely but not fixed permanently, so that the arrow (for seated you don't need more than 26" max) would be out of the way when not being used as a tripod leg, but the plate would rotate and allow the arrow (under tension) to slide in-out to adjust length quickly. The goal here isn't to make a tripod that'll hold a kettle of stew over a fire; it's just to make something that makes a worthwhile marginal improvement in front rest stability, and I think that would be worthwhile for the ~1.5 ounce weight penalty of a simple mount and an arrow shaft.

The rubberbanded arrows for a rear support are not perfect. But they offer a whole lot of stability for their costs (weight and money).

I'm not expecting to start a trend of everyone rushing to turn arrows into field rests, but I think there's worse ideas for making quick but steady positions.

 

[Chris in TN]

We continued with the theme of working with the trek-pole bipod up front today, but with a third leg - an arrow shaft shortened and zip-tied to the trek pole just below the handle, then the other end secured towards the bottom with a hair tie. When you need the third leg, pull the hair tie off the bottom of the arrow shaft and fold it out. Takes about two extra seconds, or less if you do it while getting seated.

It absolutely makes the front rest steadier and I was gratified by how well I could shoot from seated. My daughter hasn't quite got this all perfectly figured out, but she's getting there. She's already very confident prone to further than I want her to shoot, but I know that prone isn't always do-able in the mountains so I need to get her more comfortable from seated. What she did this afternoon would have easily worked to 300+, she was just a bit slow at actually getting shots off.

One thing I have noticed too late where I made a mistake this summer with her:

When I bought her 6.5CM I knew I had basically two months to get it up and running and find a load it liked and tweak whatever needed tweaking on it. That honestly didn't take that long, but I've been limited on time at the reloading bench and we've stuck to her shooting 1-5 shots per outing, most days, though we also still shoot a lot of .22lr. We even snuck out at lunch today (we homeschool the kids and I work from home) and shot some .22lr at lunch. But, with the focus on setting up a new rifle and getting her comfortable with it while I'm still trying to learn to trust it myself (I have, it shoots great, it's been a joy to shoot, I haven't had a single unexplained miss all summer when I sneak 1-2 rounds per week for myself), I completely fell off the wagon of letting the kids blast a lot of 5.56. So this afternoon we grabbed a couple boxes of AAC 69BTHP and I let her shoot most of it (seated w/ trek poles and arrows) and I finished of the rest.

 

[Chris in TN]

With a bit of tweaking we took our various trek poles and arrows back to the range today. We took the 6.5cm again and my daughter said it felt much steadier today. She shot 3 shots, well centered, under 2moa, at ~395 yards.

Saw some neighbors on our way down to repaint the target afterwards.

 

[justinspicher]

I did about 90 minutes of pistol work today. I’ll get the rifle out tomorrow and get into some position work, now that I have some time between seasons.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I checked zero at 200 yards with my "money" load and "money" gun (7x57, Tikka T3, Shilen barrel, 175 ELD-X over N555, 2535 FPS at the muzzle). I'd say any elk this year that gets close enough for me to see him, is in real trouble, LOL. That's actually the 200 yard reticle hash, my actual main reticle zero is probably around 145 or so.

 

[Austin Kaufman]

Shot 25 rounds through the 6 ARC this morning 100-600 yards. Then shot 50 rounds through the 223 100-600 yards prone, off the pack, and tripod. No wind and cool this morning. Great day to shoot. Really have enjoyed these howa minis thus far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris in TN]

I took some time this morning to load some more ammo so we can continue to practice between now and our leave date. I took a couple of shots before my daughter this afternoon. We had a windy day and actually got to shoot in a breeze. She outshot me.

 

[waspocrew]

Braved the rain to zero my DNT Zulus on my 300 BLK. The range only has 100 yard stands on the centerfire, which is a little too far for a good zero and subsonic ammunition. I’ll get it zeroed at 50 yards next week at the range on our ranch.

Lehigh max expansion subsonic should work well on whitetail does this season.

 

[Chris in TN]

More shots from ~390 today with my daughter. Spent a lot more time practicing getting into position, than we spent actually shooting, but the shooting we did was very gratifying and my daughter held 2moa on a breezy day and was able to get into position and shoot faster than a week ago, for sure.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I had a fun trip to the range today. I didn’t shoot as much as I planned, but I had fun and made good use of the beautiful weather and the available time.

I started off shooting a bench group with each rifle to check the zero since I was starting a new lot of ammo.

The 6.5 CM remains a joy to shoot and the new lot of Hornady 140-grain ELDM had the same average velocity (2559) and SD (11.2) as the last pile I had. In my opinion, it is superb ammo.

After shooting those groups, I got out the CZ 457 and fired offhand (50), sitting unsupported (25), and prone off the backpack (25) until I ran out of ammo (I only had 100 with me today).

Then I shot a Carl Ross drill with each rifle. I got a 17 with the .223 and a 16 with the 6.5.

After that, I went over to the 200- and 300-yard range and shot the 8” steel target from prone on the bipod with my jellyfish. I’d originally planned to shoot a couple of groups, but the light was too low for me to see the 1” black dots clearly. Shooting steel was very satisfying. I went 20/20 at 200 and 19/20 at the 300 with the .223. The 6.5 went 10/10 at the 200. Later this week I will go back early in the morning so the sun shines directly on the targets and shoot groups with each rifle at 200 and 300.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Shot my tikka 6.5 in an old gravel pit out to 500yds, mostly shooting rocks and a smaller gong I brought out. Also shot the 22 a bit. Scythe is holding. Together still with another 120 rounds through it today.

I sort of want that jellyfish rear bag, does anybody have it? How does it compare to the LS Wild 2.5?

 

[Mike D Texas]

Went to the NRA Whittington on Thursday. Dialed in zero on the 33XC, then walked it out to a mile. First round hit at a mile, followed by 5 more consecutive hits. Plate is a 36” plate and all 6 shots were in the low/left corner of the plate.

Unfortunately the public can’t access the mile target so I could only go by what I could see through the scope and spotter.

Got my wife’s 6.5x47 dialed into 1560 yards.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Started break in of the new barrel and printed some solid groups with no real load development.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Shot my tikka 6.5 in an old gravel pit out to 500yds, mostly shooting rocks and a smaller gong I brought out. Also shot the 22 a bit. Scythe is holding. Together still with another 120 rounds through it today.

I sort of want that jellyfish rear bag, does anybody have it? How does it compare to the LS Wild 2.5?

I cannot compare it with the LS Wild 2.5, but I do like the Jellyfish. It’s very light and flexible. Easy to scrunch it up in a variety of different ways. It weighs basically nothing so it is easy to attach to a pack, stuff in a dump pouch, or whatever.

 

[mtnbound]

Shot my tikka 6.5 in an old gravel pit out to 500yds, mostly shooting rocks and a smaller gong I brought out. Also shot the 22 a bit. Scythe is holding. Together still with another 120 rounds through it today.

I sort of want that jellyfish rear bag, does anybody have it? How does it compare to the LS Wild 2.5?

I prefer LS Wild's 2.5 because it can be made in waxed canvas, which I prefer.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I prefer LS Wild's 2.5 because it can be made in waxed canvas, which I prefer.

I have a 2.5 already, not a waxed one but I’ve been using it for a few years. I like it a lot, just trying to figure out if a jellyfish is an upgrade at all.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I have a 2.5 already, not a waxed one but I’ve been using it for a few years. I like it a lot, just trying to figure out if a jellyfish is an upgrade at all.

If you already have a similar lightly-filled bag that works well for you, I don’t know that any other bag is a worthwhile upgrade. But it’s your money.

I have a Jellyfish and a Midway one that is more stuffed. Each has its uses in different situations. I personally can see the virtue in having two different bags more than two similar ones.