What did you do at the range today?

Yes. The speed difference is typical for long-barreled guns. Once you get past maybe 18" or so (I have no way to know the exact predicted length) all the powder is burned and the expanding gases are adding less speed to the bullet than bore friction is subtracting. Or, it gets slower.

I shot some of it over the chronograph with my 27" 513T just now. Fifteen shots went 1040-1100 average 1081.5'.

(ETA: And 10 shots from the 513T after sunset at 40 yards with peep sights, went into 1.8", which is about as good as I get in low light. Better than the short 457 did).


As for why the two guns shot different....there's things that'll make a combo shoot artifically bad, not many things that'll make one shoot artificially good, so I suspect some quirk with the 16" gun. I'll figure that out when its can baffles are clean.


I’m tracking.
Congrats on the successful eye surgery BTW
That’s got to be the best feeling
 
All this week im out at our range instructing classes. In between I'm getting to shoot quite a bit of handgun and AR. Doesn't usually happen that way but so far so good.
 
I put 120 rounds through my new Springfield Kuna today as well as another 300 rounds through the Sig P211. I just got the Kuna but I already put the short stroke buffer kit in it and switched the polymer backplate for an aluminum one. The recoil was very tame and I didn't feel any concussion at all while shooting it.

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The P211 is now on 1,000 rounds and it's been flawless for the last 955 rounds after 3 FTRBs in the first 45 rounds during the break-in. Trying out some Mag-Mo edge grips for it right now and they certainly work well.

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And I'm still waiting another 4-6 weeks for my CZ Shadow to finish getting Cajunized. I predict my 9mm ammo budget is going to balloon.
 
Another group with the short CZ. It’s a 457 pro varmint, fwiw. Meopta 2-10pa. I only mention the scope because I butterfingered it this morning and it landed on my bench pretty firmly. Didn’t budge. Poi same as yesterday.

So, this is 15 shots with the rifle’s usual can (DAM). I suspect this ammo is just going to do what I expect cheap ammo to do - have fliers. For the price I can happily live with it. I’ve seen individual lots of CCI SV do the same. 1.5” outside but 12/15 in 0.75” at 40 yards. I’m buying another brick while it’s available.

Also, in fairness, shooting groups with the loose rounds that fell out of the box, might not have been the fairest way to assess ammo. IMG_0687.jpeg
 
I have a bunch of 140 grain FMJ Aguila 6.5 CDMR from when ammo was kind of hard to find. It shoots terrible.

I pulled bullets and weighed the charges to try and troubleshoot it. It was some type of ball powder, and it was between 41.2 - 41.6 grains. So whatever the problem, it's not the powder charge.

When I have decapped these cases, the flash holes are off center and primer pockets are crimped. I have no desire to fuss with the brass after shooting through these.

The bullets have open hole in base where lead was poured into the jacket. The bearing surface on the bullets was all scratched up. So maybe it's either a really crappy soft alloy, or neck tension is just too tight?

After just pulling bullets and reseating this group seemingly tightened up. I didn't take a control group to the range with me today to compare though. As far as I can tell, past problems, are likely some inconsistency with their neck tension or seating.
 

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I made it to the range for three days in a row this week, but none of the sessions was as long as I wanted.

Tuesday, I drove to my old SOT to pick up the Unknown Suppressors OG Prototype 6mm suppressor I got on Black Friday. I forgot my wallet, so I got to drive all the way back home and repeat the trip. On the way back, I stopped off at the range to sight in the stainless Tikka T3X .243 on which it is going to live.

It shoots well and sounds very nice. About like an OG 6.5.

After that, I shot steel with the Tikka T3 at 300 yards. I am focusing hard on drills going from all gear on, rifle in condition 1, scope zeroed out, to building a position and shooting prone over pack or bipod or seated over bipod.

Wednesday, I took the .243 back to the range and used it for positional drills, adding in the timer. I find it very tough to get more than one good shot off in 20 seconds. I am using the .243 for this because I want to get some rounds down the barrel before I start working up a load. And the Hornady factory ammo I have is very mild. It doesn’t shoot insanely well, so I have no reason to save it, but well enough to use for this purpose. And I hope to have the time to test and reload a pile of 116-grain TMKs this weekend.
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Today, I shot the Tikka T3 with some of the Frontier 5.56, using the AB Raptor 10 and my new Airlock Nano.
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I really like the Nano, but the mirage builds up very quickly and it gets very hot.

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The wife is out of town, I'm caught up at work, and it was dead calm this morning and I'm still getting to know this new .22lr ammo.

The kids and I shot a bit yesterday (.22s at 175-225 yards) and while we were out I painted my 225-yard barn target. So it was cleanly painted this morning. Or as close as it gets with cheap paint. I took the 24" CZ457 and dialed 28 minutes (this scope maxes out at 29.5 and I try to avoid the very end of travel) and held another 4moa in the reticle - that's the same BC as CCI SV but with the velocity adjusted to match the new ammo, and has worked perfectly thus far.

Anyway, I shot 15 shots with the Scheel's-Federal bulk ammo. Best I can tell, the group was about 3.9moa tall and 1.9moa wide. Given that I observed an ES of 44 to 60 with this ammo the other day, I expected to have 2+ moa of vertical spread over and above my horizontal at 225 yards, so the group was, in my opinion, for ammo of this price, pretty darned excellent. Of course, this is bench shooting, and my actual field position groups will likely be larger, but, the takehome point is, this ammo is a great value, IMO.

I halfway intended to go measure the group (instead of just estimating size using 2moa reticles hashes) but junior walks into the barn and asks if he can shoot a few shots, so, no photos, as the group grew a bit.

I ordered another box of this ammo last night. Two boxes is ~3804 rounds and will last a long time. :)
 
My new semi-custom Tikka T3X 6.5 CM w/ 20" barrel, wooden RokStok, SWFA 6x, AB Raptor 8 w/ 3" reflex. 10.0 pounds. 45.75" long.

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This rifle also experienced an unexpected drop test. The magnum rifle shooters interrupted my string to ask me to please go cold. Flustered, but not wanting to offend anyone since I literally joined yesterday, I left it on the bag. And it promptly fell three feet onto concrete. Zero did not shift (but the brand new AB suppressor took the brunt of the fall).

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Shooting AAC 140-grain FMJs (cheapest ammo I could find at the time). On the box velocity of 2700 FPS. Fired 54 rounds, got an average FPS of 2508 with Std Dev of 31.

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I had a bit of mirage, despite the suppressor cover, by the time I got to this group. That, and I suck.
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Geez, that's a really nice looking rifle. Funny enough. I bought a rikka super lite. I like it but don't love it. I am getting back into bolt guns. So in looking to build a 18" shorty tikka. But right now I'm looking to take my tikka out of the krg bravo it's in and place it in a bag composite
 
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