What did you do at the range today?

[Q_Sertorius]

I took the Sauer 100 back to the range today. Still looking for a really solid load for it. I don’t think the Hornady Match 140-grain ELDM is going to work as well as it did in my Tikka, but it’s not horrible.

I also shot some more of the Sellier & Bellot 140-grain FMJ load. I did notice that I started to get a bit of anticipation as I got up past twenty rounds from the bench. I think this load is actually more accurate than I was today.

I ordered another five cheap factory loads for it from Graf & Sons this past week. They should be here in time for next week’s range session.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Hiked around ~ 6 miles, it was 5 degrees out but not windy. I climbed a mountain an shot one of my 6.5s out to 400yds.

Nothing serious, 40 rounds.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

Experimenting with my grip, thumb on top vs thumb around the stock.

Always have fliers and horizontal stringing with my thumb around the stock



Vs thumb on top of the stock



Then I did 50 shots offhand at 100. I should have stopped at 20, I got 17/20 in 7moa circle, then my arm got tired and I tried to push it and only got 16/30 in the same circle. I can tell my offhand is getting better at 100 but I need to stop once I feel the shakes starting, having tendinitis doesn’t help with that.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I spent the afternoon wandering around the farm, checking things out and looking for things worth shooting at. I didn’t see any coyotes or similar varmints, so I settled on shooting some of my steel targets. I wasn’t wearing a pack, so I used my Spartan javelin lite bipod and my binocular harness as rear support. I didn’t get first round hits, but I did manage to spot dirt and figure out my error. Ended up 7/10 on the 12” steel at 459.

Only 4/10 on the 8” steel at 425. I spotted the dust from my first miss, but misapplied the correction. There was also some wind involved at this range.

Lucy inspects the .223 trainer, just before Connie knocked it over. No issues, of course.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

Just some offhand 22lr stuff today at 100 yds

51/75 7moa = 68%

 

[Hondo64d]

Tested 168gr TMKs vs 174gr ELD-VTs from my .308 match gun today. The 174gr ELD-VTs shot like garbage at both 100 and 700. Unfortunate since they have the highest BC of any .308 bullets in that weight class, save maybe the 176gr ATip. The 174gr ELDs were lightly kissing the lands, but so were the TMKs. I’ll try them backed off the lands a bit and if they don’t do markedly better I’ll be done with them. Below target is 10 168gr TMKs at 700 yards.

John

 

[BLJ]

Below target is 10 168gr TMKs at 700 yards

I’d throw the VT’s in the ditch driving down the road.

 

[waspocrew]

Put 55 rounds through my new Tikka 6 ARC with 18” Preferred Hybrid lite barrel. Shot some 80 ELDVT, 103 ELDX, and 105 BTHP factory ammo and it looks promising (except for the 80s). Once I have 100 rounds down the barrel and have my Rokstok, I’ll see how it shoots with 95 TMK and other loads.

 

[ThunderJack49]

I’m all about convenience these days. 200 yards and an 8” gong, from the bedroom. I’m gone from dark to dark during the week but I am trying to shoot at least a few rounds any day that I’m not at work. It’s not the most exciting or challenging thing but I look at it like shooting free throws or hitting the heavy bag.
.308 168gr A-max

 

[justinspicher]

I knocked out some repeats. Started at the target run to 10/25yds and shoot two rounds, continue until empty.

10yds x 20 rounds with the pistol.
25yds x 20 rounds with the rifle.

I went 17/20 on both.

 

[BLJ]

I knocked out some repeats. Started at the target run to 10/25yds and shoot two rounds, continue until empty.

10yds x 20 rounds with the pistol.
25yds x 20 rounds with the rifle.

I went 17/20 on both.

Sounds like a good drill and looks like some good shooting.

What size targets do you use?

 

[justinspicher]

 

[DB29]

Shot a 30rnd group of a new load for my M70 .270. 16in barrel with a Reaper on it. 145eldx over 54gr of H4350, going about 2840fps.

Waiting for a rokstock to drop this into.

 

[justinspicher]

Shot steel today, worked off the tripod, mostly standing, a little kneeling and sitting. Shot at 425yds, 20rds.

 

[RifleJunkie]

Finally got a decent enough day to sight in the new Waypoint 7mm mag. 180 grain ELDms in the 1-8" barrel performed quite nicely at 2880 Fps. Also played around a bit more with a 110 Trail Hunter in 6.5 PRC

 

[KY_coop]

Been helping a friend learn to reload. He met me to shoot some of his first loads for a new rifle. I decided to try some 160 tmk's in the 284. We shot in a sloping bean field in some cold 20ish mph wind and i had one of my junky amazon bipods on the rifle( its terrible). May revisit the tmks later but will keep loading 162 eldm for this rifle this year.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Practice like you play. I drove to the farm yesterday afternoon and the weather wasn’t too bad. Woke up this morning to about an inch of snow, 15 degrees, and heavy gusting winds.

I took the .223 trainer and went for a walk. Went in a loop around the farm, covering about a mile over the rolling terrain. My dogs scared a doe up out of her bed in one of the bale yards and I felt bad for her.

Towards the end of the walk, I stopped and shot the 8” steel target from about 218 yards. I fired 20 rounds rapid fire prone, using the Spartan javelin lite for a front rest and my Sentinel SG binocular harness for a rear rest.

No issues with mirage today, but I did have to hold for wind. Not used to having to do that on an 8” target at around 200 yards.

The “ping” didn’t sound quite the same in the cold and with the wind howling, but I was happy to see the steel move 17 times and three close dirt splashes to the left or right of the target when I got the wind hold wrong.

I didn’t even bother shooting at the 425 yard target. There’s no way I would have attempted that shot in these conditions.

Today was definitely Type 2 fun. I don’t think I am ever going to attend the winter S2H course. A tip of the hat to those who do!

When I go back out this afternoon, I’ll practice seated shots.

 

[Chris in TN]

Today was definitely Type 2 fun. I don’t think I am ever going to attend the winter S2H course. A tip of the hat to those who do!

Like you - maybe much worse - I have near zero interest in being a cold-weather shooting guru. But your mention of type-2 fun hooked me.

I dug my trek poles out (the ones with the arrow shaft shooting sticks hair-tied to them) and took the kids' 5.56 - the pink-trimmed one with the old duplex Leupold on it - and, since there's been several discussions of 400-yard holdovers here in the last few weeks, I went to do exactly that.

I walked to my 100-yard berm and plopped down in the driest spot I could find in the grass. It's cold here today, upper 20's when I was out, and windy/gusty, but fortunately my range is oriented to just south of east, and the wind today is mostly from the NW - almost a straight tailwind.

16" AR, 77TMKs over 23.0 of Benchmark, zeroed (confirmed the other day) at 225 yards. From my dry grass spot it was 396 yards, per rangefinder, to the target at my 500-yard berm.

Weather a minute ago (it was earlier and slightly cooler when I was out):





First two shots are the low-center splotch. I think the first was to the right, second more to the left, and the second obscured the first. Third was higher and right. The smaller splotch further low/left is .22lr from a week ago. 16" plate.

The duplex thick/thin intersection on the older Leupolds (3.5-10x set to 10x) is roughly 3moa. The steel plate is 16", so from the top of the plate to the center is roughly 2moa in this case. Drop, per my app, for this scenario is about 5.9MOA. Or, in short, use the bottom of the duplex as an aiming point and put it more or less 1moa above the top of the steel plate. Or 3+2+1=~6moa.

Easy enough on nice painted steel. Much more complex on an animal. To be completely honest I was expecting a larger cluster and the 'group' you see here exceeded my expectations. I do *not* want to attempt this on game. I simply have better options now. Three shots into MOA-ish, but to be clear this load over several dozen shots in the last six months has been ~1.75moa, so anything less than that is chance, not skill, and I'll be clear about that. But, yeah, it's do-able and in better light conditions (today I was more or less facing the sun which played heck with my eye focus) I'd do it *if I had to*. I'm glad I don't have to. We use this rifle almost entirely for hunting inside of ~300ish yards. Once in a while I'll let the kids shoot it beyond 300 but teaching them holdovers is fairly low on my list of stuff to do.

At 450 yards this particular setup would require another ~2moa of holdover. Heck no. I'd be lobbing them at that point.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

It’s been a couple weeks since I could get to the range

Offhand 3.5” circle at 50 yds. I was 83% in the circle with my first 40 rds and should’ve stopped there but didn’t so ended up with 67% in the circle



I’ve been working on a 10 shot cold bore group with my 25-06 just because I feel like it, halfway there

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I went out on my skis and took my 6.5cm along. I have a spot near my house where I have a 5” steel plate hanging, I just worked on shooting off my pack at around 300yds. I shot 40 rounds, my scythe still didn’t blow up. It would have been a good place for it to happen since I was shooting over snow that hadn’t been tracked through. If the scythe went flying off it would be the only hole in the snow.