What did you do at the range today?

[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.

 

[Chris in TN]

It's raining today and we are packing to leave shortly. We had 3 rounds of practice ammo left so we used them up. First shot was a center hit at 225, then she dialed to 395 and sent the last two practice rounds. Seated, off trek poles and arrows.

A-huntin' we go.

 

[justinspicher]

Yesterday was a good day. Checked zero and then did grouping drills from the bench at 100 and 200 yards. Did a stress shoot from 200-25yds as well. Finished up with alternate firing position practice at 100-300yds.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I had an abbreviated, but very fun, session at the range today. I took both Tikkas over to the 200- and 300-yard range to check my adjustments. My adjustments were calculated using Shooter and the closest bullet I could find.

The deer on the range barely reacted each time I shot, which probably speaks more to their familiarity with living on the rifle range than the virtues of suppression. But it was funny how they never once looked my way, but started every time the bullets went past them.

The 200-yard line wasn’t great this morning. I think the 1” dot was just a bit too small to be a consistent aiming point on 6x.

The .223 is normally a .9-1.2” 10-shot group at 100-yards.

The 6.5 CM consistently produces 1.3-1.5” 10-shot groups at 100 yards.

The 300-yard line went quite a bit better. I could see that aiming point better. I didn’t observe any wind this morning.

Now I just need to put this on the dope card.

I wanted to shoot steel from field positions for a bit, but I had to hurry off to couple of medical appointments.

 

[Hondo64d]

Went out with my hunting rig today to validate data. My hunting load is currently 168gr TMKs @ 2730fps. Shot at 400, 600, 700, 800, and 900. 900 is as far out as I can shoot on my place. The 400, 600 and 700 yard plates are all 2 MOA plates. 800 and 900 are larger, but I’ve never got an exact measurement on them.

I have noticed over the years, that after 600, 1st round hits are always considerably more difficult. Provided I’m able to build a good position, I am comfortable on critters out to 600, but not beyond. That’s fine, because with this load, 600 is getting close to my desired minimum impact velocity. Had good hits at 400 and 600 but missed at 700, so went to my 800 yard steel, which is a bigger target, to get things sorted out. After that, I came back to 700 and then 900. Data lined up well at 400 and 600, but finally figured that data was .1 mil low at 700, .2 low at 800 and .3 low at 900. Can’t say for sure the reason yet. Could be scope or could be BC. Atmospherics were current. Load was chronoed with a Garmin, so I doubt my velocity is off. So that kinda narrows it down to BC or scope. I need to do a tall target test on my scope and bounce the BCs off Litz’s numbers. I have been using Sierra’s banded G1 BCs with this bullet thus far.

John

 

[waspocrew]

My dad was wanting a rifle to keep in his truck on the ranch. He was checking out my Sig Cross 6.5 and said he wanted that, but a 22 Creed. I bought the rifle, installed a Proof 18" 22 Creed barrel and mounted a scope.



Took it out for a spin yesterday and was able to shoot fairly well right out of the gate with Texas Ammunition 80 Gr ELDM and 77 Gr custom comp.

First 5 round group at 100 yards after bore sighting with the 80s:



5 round group at 200 with the 80s:



5 Round group at 200 yards with the 77s:




10 round group at 200 yards with the 77s:



Overall, happy with the rifle - should be perfect for the skunks, coyotes, etc that are running around.

 

[DB29]

Fire forming brass, testing 77grTMK loads and trying out the SSS pillow instead of the molinator for a front rest.

The SSS was great!

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I had a wonderful day at the range. I met up with a good friend of mine who is still on AD and two of his kids. I had a good chuckle when they showed up with two Tikkas (.270 and 6.5 PRC) and one SWFA scope ( the .270 had a 30-year old Leupold).

We started off on the 100-yard range, where he and his son checked the zeros on their deer rifles. While they did that, I shot a Carl Ross drill with my .223. I managed an 18/20. I dropped one of my seated unsupported shots way low when I touched off the trigger just a bit too soon. I also put on other seated supported shot just a touch low. Practice is paying off.

After that, my friend gave his daughter (age 10) her first shooting lesson. She did really well.

Then we went over to the 200- and 300-yard range. Started off shooting the .223 at the 8” steel at 200 yards seated and then prone over pack (no rear bag) at the 8” 300-yard steel. I managed to impress the cocky 17-year old with 20 straight “pings.” So then I let him shoot it. He wants one now.

Then I let his sister shoot it. She nailed the 12” steel on her first shot at 200”. The look of pure joy and amazement on her face was priceless. She ended up getting quite a few hits at 300 yards as well.

Then they went to shoot pistols on the steel range next door and I shot 10-shot groups with my Mauser .270 and Tikka 6.5 CM at 200 and 300 yards.

After that, I ran some drills going from standing to prone with the .223 at 300 yards using my Spartan bipod. I managed another 10/10 on the 8” steel doing double taps (shot and immediate follow-up).

 

[Q_Sertorius]

My last two 300-yard groups have been unexpectedly off to the right. My 100- and 200-yard groups appear dead on for windage see posts #96 and #106 in this thread). Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Or why I am seeing this drift to the right at 300 (two separate days, no apparent wind either day). Is this just some error I am making that is only apparent at 300?

Day 1:

Day 2:

Edit - I haven’t seen this with any other rifles in my 300-yard groups. I assume I just need to set the windage .1 mil left.

 

[DB29]

My last two 300-yard groups have been unexpectedly off to the right. My 100- and 200-yard groups appear dead on for windage see posts #96 and #106 in this thread). Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Or why I am seeing this drift to the right at 300 (two separate days, no apparent wind either day). Is this just some error I am making that is only apparent at 300?

Day 1:

Day 2:

Edit - I haven’t seen this with any other rifles in my 300-yard groups. I assume I just need to set the windage .1 mil left.

Spin drift? I know it would be minimal at 300yds.

 

[Chris in TN]

Took the girls to shoot today while my son was in his gym class.

The tikka/NF SHV/sportsmatch rings combo was still zeroed perfectly after 3000+ miles of roads, including hundreds of miles of forest service washboard road use in the last 2+ weeks. Shots fired before and after the trip superimposed exactly at 225 and 395 yards. Youth deer season is this weekend.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I had a nice trip to the range yesterday. As is typical for this time of year, the 100-yard range was full of hunters checking zeros and sighting in rifles. Not a one of them was shooting from field positions. With the 100-yard range full, I took my T3 .223 over to the 300-yard range. I was the only one there, although one very chatty old fellow came over to watch me.

With an audience, I decided to start off easy with 10 shots prone over my backpack with no rear support at the 8” target. I promptly watched the steel move ten times and heard ten very satisfying “pings”.

I then did the same from seated with my trigger sticks, using my grenade/compass pouch for my rear support. Another 10/10.

Then I switched to setting up my Spartan Pro Lite bipod and shooting prone without a rear bag. I shot 9/10 that way.

Then I repeated the seated-supported drill with the trigger sticks, but dropped two shots the second time around.

Still fairly happy with my performance at the 300-yard line. The only way to stay perfect is to stop shooting. The only way to get better is to keep shooting.

Since I now had to reload my magazines, my audience departed.

Then I decided to shoot at the 200-yard target. This is where things started to go wrong. I started with seated-unsupported. My broken leg is still tender and not fully healed. I broke the right malleolus, the “hammer” bone that touches the ground when sitting cross-legged. Distracted by that, I fired my first shot. High miss. Second shot. High miss. WTF! Oh… I forgot to turn the scope back down from 1.6 mils high to 0.8 mils high. Not sure that made all the difference, but I hit the next eight. Lesson learned? Check the turrets.

I don’t think I am quite ready to take offhand shots at 200, so I decided to shoot some standing-supported shots. I stuck my backpack upright on the table, leaned over it, and pinged the 8” steel ten times.

I wanted to shoot the Carl Ross drill, but with the 100-yard range being crowded, I decided I would have to modify it. I stuck a black dot in the middle of each to provide a better aiming point (is this cheating? Maybe?). I put 1 1/8” dots on targets 1 and 2 and 3/4” dots on 3 and 4. Then I set up the targets and decided to shoot “rapid-fire, controlled-pairs” (as rapid fire and controlled as possible with a bolt action). I wanted to practice a quick first shot and immediate follow-up shot.I prepared a timer on my phone and gave myself twenty seconds to fire each pair.

This went pretty well offhand with 9/10. I’m counting the one that touches the line as a hit. Cheating myself? Maybe?

The other one was just off to the right (it grazed the other target).

Of note, it doesn’t appear to have affected me too much, but I noticed after shooting this set that I was still set to 0.8 mils high. Apparently, I am a slow learner. I turned it down to my last-recorded dope of 0.1 mil high. More on this below…

Without pausing to check the targets, I went straight into the next position, seated-unsupported. This was a goat rope. With twenty seconds to go from standing to seated and fire two shots, sitting on top of my malleolus, and with the ten pounds of flab I put on since breaking my leg pushing into my diaphragm, I felt absolutely terrible. Shots all over the place, but generally very low due to how I was trying to time the shots. A 7/10. But this is why we practice, right?

Seated-supported was worse, 6/10. I am not adept at deploying the trigger stick. I got my shots off, but they were rushed.

My prone shots over the backpack without rear support were steady and felt great. The group is decent, but the elevation was clearly off. When I put away the rifle, the turret was still at .1 mil high. Not enough of a difference to account for the misses.

As I wrote this post, I reviewed my dope and realized I probably made an error in recording it. I think I meant to write that it was hitting 0.1 mil high at 100 yards. After reviewing my saved target, I see that my ATZ is actually “down 0.17 mils.” So… I think I was actually high by about 0.27 mils.

I need to keep a more careful shooter’s log.

 

[Chris in TN]

Over the course of the last few days I have confirmed zero on both smokeless muzzleloaders. Took the middle child to shoot the .45 this morning just to prove to her that it really doesn't kick that much, it's just louder than her suppressed centerfire, so she'll be confident with it. She did fine once she watched me shoot it first, and I think she'll be fine to hunt with it. I'm using the lightest load I think I can get consistent velocity and decent bullet expansion with, and we have no real need to shoot past maybe 150 yards where we hunt, most of the time.

It really annoys me that kids have to use muzzleloaders. Even the smokeless .45 with lighter loads is all my middle child wants, and muzzleloader season is the best time for us to hunt here. There is no biological reason to have a muzzleloader season in the southeastern US.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

There is no biological reason to have a muzzleloader season in the southeastern US.

Good on you for continuing to get the family out to the range.

There are still leaves on the trees, aren’t there? That’s a “biological reason” that is seen as a safety issue.

I do agree with you that “muzzleloader” season is pointless. My mentor gave me his Thompson Center inline. It is more powerful and has longer range than my Winchester 1886 .45-70. I would welcome a straight wall season or something similar.

 

[Chris in TN]

I would welcome a straight wall season or something similar.

Same. We still have the .350 Legend single shot and it has lower recoil and is perfectly sufficient for perhaps 200 yard hunting.

I shouldn't complain I guess. She gets to use a 200 grain bullet over 33 grains of N110. Growing up I used 400+ grain bullets over 100 grains of blackpowder with rifles that had steel or brass butts. As a bonus they didn't actually fire half the time, because none of us knew anything about keeping muzzleloaders going, back then.