What did you do at the range today?

[NWBLKTAIL]

Live target practice this evening. Tikka 223 CTR shooting 60 gr Vmax over TAC. Hustled down to the ranch and got 50 prairie dogs before the sun was starting to set. I have about 50 more rounds and I’ll be pulling the factory barrel. I’ve had a proof prefit ready to swap for two years

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how many rounds did you put on that barrel?

 

[waspocrew]

how many rounds did you put on that barrel?

Sitting at just a tad under 2700 rounds.

 

[waspocrew]

Awesome looking country and beautiful setup!

Thanks! I definitely enjoy Wyoming. I’m fortunate to live only a few hours north of my parents place, so we are able to get out quite a bit. My son just turned 12, so looking forward to getting him a lot of trigger time this summer before his antelope tag opens.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

Sitting at just a tad under 2700 rounds.

that's a lot of prairie dogs

what's your chamber specs on the proof?

 

[waspocrew]

that's a lot of prairie dogs

what's your chamber specs on the proof?

Yep, this rifle has accounted for plenty of prairie dogs, rock chucks, jack rabbits, steel, and paper haha.

I went with another standard 223. Per Proof, the freebore is 0.070”. That should be a little longer than what Tikka usually has. My CTR had a crazy short throat, so I actually never loaded anything heavier than 69 TMKs.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

Yep, this rifle has accounted for plenty of prairie dogs, rock chucks, jack rabbits, steel, and paper haha.

I went with another standard 223. Per Proof, the freebore is 0.070”. That should be a little longer than what Tikka usually has. My CTR had a crazy short throat, so I actually never loaded anything heavier than 69 TMKs.

.070" should get you out there plenty far, post up how the new barrel shoots for ya

 

[Steve300xcw]

Today, 5/17/2026 a prodigy had 400ish rounds ran through it without issue!

Also blew the dust outta the house/yard gun as it hasnt been used in quite some time @BLJ the PSA run flawless as expected........

 

[justinspicher]

Friday night the boys and I did a no lights shoot. Did a movement drill shooting in various positions at 100, 50, and 25 yards under nods.

Sunday Gunday was in full swing today, did a walk through of 15 targets between 200-500yds, in various positions shooting up and down hill.

 

[Billdoe]

Today, 5/17/2026 a prodigy had 400ish rounds ran through it without issue!

Also blew the dust outta the house/yard gun



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Nice range bag. Looks like mine.

 

[43.6N]

Today, 5/17/2026 a prodigy had 400ish rounds ran through it without issue!

Also blew the dust outta the house/yard gun



View attachment 1067614

If I remember right, you had done some work to the sear/disconector? Anything change to get it running now?

 

[Te Hopo]

A casual test this week with the 8" steel.
Howa Mini 223AI, 75ELDMs with the scope set at 8x.

At 50m and 100m off hand, then prone every 50m onwards.
Managed to make first round hits all the way to 300, 350 required a 2nd round to connect.

Thats about the longest clear shot on the farm, happy enough with how I did

 

[Steve300xcw]

If I remember right, you had done some work to the sear/disconector? Anything change to get it running now?

Been a love/hate thing with that stupid gun since day 1.

The gun has always had issues hanging up on the disconnect. I'd swapped out parts and did some polishing and while better, was never good. I tossed a Nighthawk drop in trigger set into it. With the new trigger it runs better than ever. But as it got dirty, the reset got sticky unless you give it a thump.

So cleaned and oiled up, now just seeing how many rounds before the trigger starts acting up again.

 

[43.6N]

Been a love/hate thing with that stupid gun since day 1.

The gun has always had issues hanging up on the disconnect. I'd swapped out parts and did some polishing and while better, was never good. I tossed a Nighthawk drop in trigger set into it. With the new trigger it runs better than ever. But as it got dirty, the reset got sticky unless you give it a thump.

So cleaned and oiled up, now just seeing how many rounds before the trigger starts acting up again.

That’s what it was. Thanks for reminding me.
Hope it keeps up with you now!

 

[Steve300xcw]

I hope so. As I'm about done messing with it

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I convinced myself, yet again, that H4350 hates me and I still don't know why.


First up, H4350 and 162 ELD-X's out of my Tikka/Shilen 7x57. This gun with this bullet at this seating depth with this brass and these primers with N555 will drill 30 rounds into a 1 MOA group with a mean radius in the .25 range. So while some people may go "yay, 1.5 MOA, go hunting", I go "WTF is this trash?"




Second up, 168 SMK's over H4350 in my 30-06 (a manually composite of 2 x 5 round groups). This one was not nearly as dramaticaly bad as the N555 vs H4350 in the 7x57, but, it was definitely not on par with what I was getting with Varget. On the one hand, a 10 round group not much over 1MOA seems pretty good, TBH, and I'm sure a lot of people would be going hunting without shooting another round... but again, this same bullet/brass/primer/etc with Varget is drilling me .31 mean radius and all-rounds-touching with a couple of fliers stretching it to 1.1 MOA (and I have suspicions the couple of fliers with Varget are my bad, as the 06 does have a pretty healthy amount of recoil).




See this post for what these two guns do with other powders.

So the 7x57 gets some more of what it's been getting (N555 under 162 or 175 ELD-X's), and the 30-06 experiment continues until I find a hunting bullet that it rocks with. Next (3) thing(s) I'm going to try in the 06 *(probably not all on the same day):

1. Varget and 165 TGK's
2. Varget and 165 AccuBond's
3. Varget and 178 ELD-X's

Really, number 3 would be about perfect, maybe I should start there - in my 25 inch barrel, that'd be a 500 yard hunting load, even at a modest 2725-ish FPS muzzle velocity, if accurate.

 

[Chris in TN]

Several days combined into one post: my youngest and I have shot .22lr in the yard from 40-70 yards seated off sticks several times in the last few days. This afternoon I took my oldest and youngest and we checked the 6.5cm at 550 yards since it hadn’t been shot in a month. Two solid hits. I’m growing to like that rifle.

Moved closer and switched to the .223 tikka. We shot at 250, 430, then 220 and 400. All three of us, off sticks. I’ve got my oldest experiment with holding the rear sticks like scissors and using her left hand to hold the rifle against the sticks but not cradled by them. It’s faster but less stable.

We’ve also been experimenting with abandoning the trek poles altogether and going to a 3-legged arrow cradle front rest. Not thrilled with it just yet. Going to switch for longer arrows to see if we like those better.

It takes time to shorten trek poles for a stable rest. Only seconds, but seconds count. And if you leave them extended in summer on hard dry ground they slip, which takes time to fix. They work better when you shorten them before trying to make a position.

The good news: the kids are adapting to everything I throw at them. They grasp that it takes experimenting to figure out what works best and they’re all three pretty much to the point that they conform to whatever; everything doesn’t have to be perfect for them to shoot. And that’s half the point anyway.