What did you do at the range today?

[Q_Sertorius]

I recently got my Tikka M695 and Sauer 100 9.3x62s cut down to 18”.

Today, I took the them to the range and abused myself through almost two boxes of Hornady 286-grain factory seconds.

The ammo is straight garbage. Inconsistent seating depths, two duds, dents, wild flyers out of nowhere. Some of the bullets seem to be so deep they appear to create some compressed loads. I definitely got pressure signs from a couple of the shots. But I got the two rifles sighted in and it was a productive day.

I forgot my chronograph, so I decided not to shoot any of the Prvi Partisan ammo. I’ll probably go back tomorrow with the chronograph and shoot a bit more.

This is basically exactly how Sauer shot before I had it cut down from 22” to 18”. Always a stack of bullets right on top of each other with a random flyer. I’m very curious to see what I can do with proper ammunition. This was the best group, but the other was quite good.

The Tikka shot pretty well too. My best group with it was 2.1” for 10 shots. I attribute this to a couple of extra flyers in its group. It weighs a pound more and is a lot more pleasant to shoot than the Sauer.

At the moment, however, it is having ejection problems due to brass hitting the windage knob. I think that is funny, because I was just saying I haven’t had those problems before… and the windage knob on the 1-6x isn’t nearly as large as on the 6x42. I don’t know whether the best solution is to get medium rings or try shifting the scope a bit.

The .375 caliber AB Raptor 10 was very nice as well. With the big bore, the rifle still sounds pretty loud, but the cranium-crushing blast is totally gone and the sound is muffled. Shortening the barrels to 18” makes the 7” of suppressor a lot more manageable.

When I go back with the chronograph, I will see how much velocity I lost.

In between sets, I shot my normal offhand and seated unsupported routine with the T1X.

After finishing up on the rifle range, I took my P365 over to the steel range and shot some of the game targets. That was good fun and I felt pretty good about my shooting. From now on, I’m going to make that a normal part of my range routine.

 

[justinspicher]

Finally got back out to the range. Shot about 60-65 rounds through pistol. Worked heavily on my drawing from concealed.

 

[Banana_Horn]

Verified zero on one rifle after swapping out rings. As well as some truing on data for that set up out to 1K.

As well as got to try out my new Tikka 6.5 PRC with NX8. Gotta say I’m really digging this gun and glad I went with it over the 300wsm I was considering. Also I really like the NX8.
View attachment 1053772

Sighting in, prc 2 shots, then adjusted down and left, 2 more shots, factory 147 Hornady shot great out of this gun. Almost makes me not want to reload for it.

View attachment 1053773
Then immediately took it out to 1100 and made a 3rd round impact. Grossly underestimated the wind, lol.

Is that a Zenith K suppressor? How do you like it?

 

[Shraggs]

I have been having some inaccuracy issues with my Tikka T3X in .243, 20” 1:8” twist OEM barrel, factory threaded 5/8x24. I currently have 150 rounds through it.

My best groups have all been around 1.6”, whether with Hornady American Whitetail 100-grain or hand loaded 107-grain TMKs.

This morning, I tightened the action from 45 to 60. It made no apparent difference.

One of the Hornady 100-grain groups from today:

The second group was the same size. The factory ammo seems pretty consistent.

Older groups with the same ammo shot essentially the same size groups.

Two groups with the 107-grain TMKs.

If [mention]B_Reynolds_AK [/mention] or anyone else has suggestions, I am all ears. Worth taking it apart and putting it back together again? Try a different scope? Accept it as rifle with a 1.6” group? I know it doesn’t need to be more accurate for how and where I hunt, but it annoys me that I can’t get better with it.

Edit - I don’t recall adjusting the windage, but it is interesting that in this group from last Tuesday, it was hitting slightly to the right. I need to check whether I adjusted it.

If I didn’t adjust it after this group (and I remember specifically thinking I would not touch the elevation because I am just going to use that ammo up), then if it is wandering left, that could be a scope or mount issue?

Edit #2 - nope, checked the DOPE and the scope. I definitely made the correction for the windage.

Edit #3 - the barrel seems to have sped up by about 50 FPS since the first session (as expected ).

I don’t recall your rate of fire but maybe mirage even with that cover. First half of your groups are pretty good. In your heat maybe try waterboarding the barrel, or battery fan over the suppressor or deliberately slow fire and see.

I wear glasses, but I do find my 3-15 is not as forgiving as the 3-9 from eye box and parallax.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I don’t recall your rate of fire but maybe mirage even with that cover. First half of your groups are pretty good. In your heat maybe try waterboarding the barrel, or battery fan over the suppressor or deliberately slow fire and see.

I wear glasses, but I do find my 3-15 is not as forgiving as the 3-9 from eye box and parallax.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have resolved those issues since I started loading my ammo to 2.91” instead of 2.82”. I do agree that mirage could have played a bit of a role, but I saw an immediate improvement in group size once I started loading longer COAL.

 

[Matt5266]

Went and shot the 107 tmk again today. Same load and about same size group. Just decided to roll with it for now. Was 15 out of 20 on steel at 610 yards. Wind was partially a factor.

 

[Chris in TN]

Took the two younger kids this afternoon. .22lr prone and off two crossed sticks. Trying to start teaching my middle child to choose a rest based on shot difficulty - two sticks is fine for elk at 200+ yards and still quite fast.

 

[Lorxus]

Sweet-looking Tikka. I'm envious of the can; I keep living in places where I can't have one.

 

[The_Yetti]

Spent time with my M700 Mountain Rifle clone in 7x57 shooting it out to 400 yards. It took a little bit to get used to shooting such a light rifle.

 

[PVHunter]

Snuck out over lunch to the range. 223 Tikka in a Bravo prone off rear bag. Set the timer app to 0:45 and try to get 20-30 rounds in between range breaks. I generally end up with a mean radius of ~ 1-1.1" with the 55gr Winchester target ammo. Decided to be less miserly with the 77gr TMKs I'm hoarding and ran a tight group of 10 with a mean radius just under 0.5".

 

[Austin Kaufman]

My new dauntless bipod came in so I tried it on a few guns today. Shot 35 rounds through the 6 creed and 15 through the 6 arc prone at all my far targets. Then I shot 40 rounds through my 223 doing timed NRL hunter style stages to finish off the day with a bunch of positions and distances 360-650 yards.


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[Chris in TN]

Happy day today - I got my old Tikka 595 back from having the barrel swapped.

It clocked within maybe 2-3 degrees of perfect alignment with good headspace. I brought it home, reassembled it, stuck the scope back on it, torqued everything, boresighted it, and then used my last little handful of 77TMKs to get a rough zero. My last three went into about an inch at 225 yards. Then three rounds of the kids' AR15 deer load went into about 2" at 225, then six rounds of AAC 69 grain factory ammo went into about 3" at 225 yards.

It'll be a day or three before I get to do any proper testing with it - I've never had a .223 that could shoot heavies at 2.4" so I have to redo load data almost completely - but the initial handful of shots was very promising.

While boresighting and rough zeroing I did a quick workup (one round at a time starting at 24.5 grains) to 25.8 grains of Varget in LC brass with a Tula SRM primer and a COAL of 2.4". The 25.8 load went 2775' but I'll need to test it more when I get more bullets. If it'll actually average 2775' or anywhere close to it I'll just stick with Varget.


As a bonus - I also got back my Ruger MKII. Like a lot of other guns, it hasn't been shot much since I started buying suppressors. So I had the front sight set back (to get out of the way of threads) and had it threaded. I screwed the DAM onto it, checked alignment, zeroed it, and my son and I ran maybe 100 more rounds through it with nary a bobble and he liked shooting it way more than he does the M&P22C. We turned several old bricks into red clay dust. That was fun. Like being a kid again.

 

[Matt5266]

I couldn't leave well enough alone. Dropped my charge to 40.5 at the recommendation of others. Shrank the group about half an inch. Ill probably roll with this load. (243 with 107 tmk.) Then shot about 30 .223 at 600 yards.

 

[Steve300xcw]

I have one of these drop-ins for sale right now. Was surprised at how good the trigger was. Unfortunately, it just didn't fit with the old custom gun it was intended for, but I definitely wish it had. How are you liking yours?

Bout 800 rounds now. Trigger will not reset unless you give the gun a good thwack each time. Need to open it up to see wtf

 

[RockAndSage]

Bout 800 rounds now. Trigger will not reset unless you give the gun a good thwack each time. Need to open it up to see wtf

View attachment 1057659

Super interesting. First suspicions would be friction - either a bit of something stuck in it, like a brass shaving, sand grain, or other bit of fouling, or some metal-on-metal wear that needs lube. These are kind of like a cassette trigger in ARs, having a housing, and those prone to similar problems in really dirty situations. Let me know if/how you are able to fix it.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Super interesting. First suspicions would be friction - either a bit of something stuck in it, like a brass shaving, sand grain, or other bit of fouling, or some metal-on-metal wear that needs lube

My thoughts as well. It was great up until it wasnt

. These are kind of like a cassette trigger in ARs, having a housing, and those prone to similar problems in really dirty situations.

Its acting exactly like that. Although with the AR's you can kinda finger the trigger forward to get it to reset. Not the case here.

 

[CMcCormick1805]

Nothing today but Yesterday did some combat/tactical shooting.

I personally see this as a chore. I never got the bug for tactical stuff despite being in that business as a part of my work.

I trained with 3 other shooters and worked a newer guy through a handgun qualification.

We did some transition drills and rifle handling to complement a course we attended involving “CQB.”

I will say I’m coming around to how cumbersome a 16 inch barreled AR is. Between bouncing it off door jams and the fatigue of holding the weapon pointed down range for extended periods of time I’ve decided to go with an 11.5 inch SBR in the near future.


I can’t tell if all this tactical stuff makes me miss shooting my hunting and bench-rest rifle or my bow more.

 

[RockAndSage]

Nothing today but Yesterday did some combat/tactical shooting.

I personally see this as a chore. I never got the bug for tactical stuff despite being in that business as a part of my work.

I trained with 3 other shooters and worked a newer guy through a handgun qualification.

We did some transition drills and rifle handling to complement a course we attended involving “CQB.”

I will say I’m coming around to how cumbersome a 16 inch barreled AR is. Between bouncing it off door jams and the fatigue of holding the weapon pointed down range for extended periods of time I’ve decided to go with an 11.5 inch SBR in the near future.


I can’t tell if all this tactical stuff makes me miss shooting my hunting and bench-rest rifle or my bow more.

Not sure if this will help you or not, in terms of making this less a chore, but...

Uncomfortable truth: There's no such thing as tactical shooting.

Shooting is shooting. It's foundational. At the individual level, the only difference between a hunter, a gamer, a defensive shooting, or tactical operations, is the speed, consistency, and accuracy of the shooting and weapons handling. But it's all the exact same stuff.

I'm sharing that as a way of helping delineate and order priorities, to make it less a chore. Too many instructors and organizations try to conflate shooting and tactics way too early in individual and team evolutions - and that often results in things feeling like a chore. Shooting needs to be a rote, semi-conscious capability before really hammering into tactics, cqb, movement, etc. Mixing in the tactical side of things too early actually hinders and slows both the shooting and the tactical competencies.

You can do the training in tandem, but go slow in actually mixing them. Salami-slice individual shooting skills (trigger press, draw, doubles, recoil management, etc) in an entirely separate lane from tactics and movement. Then, begin blending them in a crawl-walk-run order of increasing challenge and complexity. On the shooting side, find and implement drills that do this, with par times, and make them happen faster and faster under pressure, without any of the tactical $h*t mixed in. That helps keep it a good, engaging, and fun challenge, rather than a chore - especially when there are a good mix of fresh new drills and challenges added over time.

 

[CMcCormick1805]

Not sure if this will help you or not, in terms of making this less a chore, but...

Uncomfortable truth: There's no such thing as tactical shooting.

Shooting is shooting. It's foundational. At the individual level, the only difference between a hunter, a gamer, a defensive shooting, or tactical operations, is the speed, consistency, and accuracy of the shooting and weapons handling. But it's all the exact same stuff.

I'm sharing that as a way of helping delineate and order priorities, to make it less a chore. Too many instructors and organizations try to conflate shooting and tactics way too early in individual and team evolutions - and that often results in things feeling like a chore. Shooting needs to be a rote, semi-conscious capability before really hammering into tactics, cqb, movement, etc. Mixing in the tactical side of things too early actually hinders and slows both the shooting and the tactical competencies.

You can do the training in tandem, but go slow in actually mixing them. Salami-slice individual shooting skills (trigger press, draw, doubles, recoil management, etc) in an entirely separate lane from tactics and movement. Then, begin blending them in a crawl-walk-run order of increasing challenge and complexity. On the shooting side, find and implement drills that do this, with par times, and make them happen faster and faster under pressure, without any of the tactical $h*t mixed in. That helps keep it a good, engaging, and fun challenge, rather than a chore - especially when there are a good mix of fresh new drills and challenges added over time.

I guess chores was the wrong word. I agree where you’re coming from though! I would best describe it as fun and beneficial but I myself lack true passion for it.

The weapons systems feel like tool and not something I truly love. It’s more of a personal preference thing for me than anything else. I just prefer a bolt action on the side of a mountain over an AR on a flat range.

That being said a day shooting is more enjoyable than a day not shooting!

 

[Chris in TN]

So you never know what you’ll get when you buy a used barrel off eBay.

This one was sold as-is and I assumed it was lightly used based on looks, probably was 20” new then cut to 18” and threaded.

This morning I deprimed/resized/decrimped a batch of mixed brass, all LC headstamps but varying years. Primed with Tula SRMs. I reset my Uniflow measure then threw ~25.8 grains of Varget into 21 cases, then seated my last 77TMK to 2.398” or so then used the same die depth setting to seat 20 Hornady 75BTHPs to about 2.35ish, I didn’t measure.


First six 75s and the 77 were looking promising:


But Sam, aka next year’s hamburgers, took an interest in my shooting so I had to reset the target:



I poured out some minerals to distract him from chewing my target and finished the group. Not sure the target was clocked correctly for shots 8-11 after resetting it so the group might have artificially grew or shrank but this is what I ended up with:



Right at 0.9” for 11 shots at 100 yards.

I’ll take it. I’m loving the shorter barrel. I look forward to sitting in a deer stand with this one again. Now I have to decide whether to keep the antique scope with its duplex reticle or buy a proper dialing scope. I can do an awful lot of training with the kids inside of 300 and that would cover 100% of my eastern deer hunting needs.