What did you do at the range today?

[Chris in TN]

I’d like to shoot on this nice snowy day but the cows are paying me back for feeding them ‘beef pellets’ that taste like cardboard:

 

[diverc18]

Ended up testing different ammo for my ar. Doesn’t seem to be very picky. All ten shot groups hovering around 1.5 inches from a below average shooter. 69 smk velocity was 2555, 73 eldms were 2618, and 77 smk was 2467 out of an 18 inch barrel. Gonna get my hands on some 77 tmk soon. In the mean time, I will hopefully put some 73 eldms into some axis deer.

 

[Chris in TN]

So over the last week or so I have finished off all the ammo I loaded for the kids' 6.5cm last fall. I'm using RL16 powder which is supposed to, among other things, be very consistent from lot to lot.

I opened a new pound of it last night and, given that my existing load was a full grain below where I'd found 'max' to be with this rifle, I gambled on this 'consistent from lot to lot' powder being the same and went straight to the same load I'd been shooting.

Over a dozen shots or more, the previous lot, with 1x fired brass and 42.0 grains/147ELDM had averaged 2609'.

Ten shots from the new bottle today averaged 2659' with a SD of 18.x. That's a bit disappointing. I don't mind the SD, but seeing a full 50' speed change surprised me.

I did, however, finally fire an actual 10-shot group:


l/r was dead on. Elevation is 1 click low to match my existing 0-500 data. Two clicks if the velocity had matched the previous bottle of powder. I'll add one click and call it close enough. I'll use the rest of this pound of powder and might switch to something else (H4350 or VVN550/555/560?) later. Alliant has priced themselves out of my market.

I recently rebuilt my 6.8spc AR with a new side charging upper. I had rough zeroed it the other day and shot a 10-shot group today to zero off of. Now I have to load more ammo to confirm it. Haven't had time to load much lately.

I *think* this group might have been a hair larger than indicated. I suspect that I skewed the photo just a hair and didn't notice until I was back home and I don't want to tromp back out in the snow to take another. Either way - this is a pretty typical group for this rifle. It's done better (even very slightly under MOA for ten shots) with Nosler Accubonds but I'd rather hunt with the Hornady v-max at 6.8speeds.

@justinspicher



ETA: the 6.8 is Starline brass but I shot some of the same load with S&B brass the other day and they fell within the same range as the ten I shot today (2655' average, SD of 11). I'm going to experiment and see if I can use both brands of brass interchangeably. I think I can.

 

[waspocrew]

I picked up a new thermal last week and quickly mounted and sighted it in (or so I thought). I had used a thermal target (basically a sticky hand warmer). Initially, it appeared great, but as time went on, the target created "thermal bloom" in the scope and it was difficult to tell an actual zero.

I missed a coyote last night, so I figured the zero was likely off. Turns out I was right. I was aiming for the left bottom corner. Made the correction and fired another 3 on the bottom center target. Ranged the small gopher sized flapper target at 300 and went 3 for 3, so I shouldn't have any more excuses with a miss