What did you do at the range today?

Hiked 4,000 ft on the night of the 13th to camp and shoot the Cold Bore Challenge over the course of the night/morning. Dinner as the sun set at just before midnight.
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Then the next morning after shooting my second round, came off the mountain and drove to a different mountain range to meet up with @cronsman. Hiked another 2,000 ft to do some high angle shooting shooting. @cronsman didn’t realize that a fast twist 223 shooting 88 TMK’s was missing from his life, until now. He’s smiling, under the obligatory work required face blur.


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Hiked 4,000 ft on the night of the 13th to camp and shoot the Cold Bore Challenge over the course of the night/morning. Dinner as the sun set at just before midnight.
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Then the next morning after shooting my second round, came off the mountain and drove to a different mountain range to meet up with @cronsman. Hiked another 2,000 ft to do some high angle shooting shooting. @cronsman didn’t realize that a fast twist 223 shooting 88 TMK’s was missing from his life, until now. He’s smiling, under the obligatory work required face blur.


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You had no business making me this jealous 🤨
 
Yesterday: peep sighted R513-T with my son at ~190 yards. The original dialing sight system. IMG_1980.jpeg

Today: while the kids swam in the pond I shot .22lr (scoped) at 190 and 225 yards. Hitting an 8” plate at 225 most shots (maybe 17/20?) is gratifying.

That rifle’s scope has a SFP reticle. It has about 60moa of elevation in the reticle but at 10x only about 45 moa is really clear.

(Scope is a Meopta optika5 2-10, with the z-plus reticle. I love the center dot. Hate the rest of the reticle because it disappears in low light, but it’s a very useful plinking reticle).

Ballistic app said I needed ~69moa at 390 yards. That’s ~1.5x the 45moa I had available at 10x, so……..crank the scope down to a guesstimated 6.6x.

Pop……………ting!
Pop…………..ting!

I stopped at 2 shots. No use pushing my luck, and those were pure luck. Realistically with that ammo I’m looking at 6moa at that distance, mostly due to the velocity extreme spread. And there’s no way I could have spotted a miss with the target slightly shaded.

But yes, I went 2/2 at 390 yards with a .22lr.

Two tiny splashes at 9 and 12. 16” plate:
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Backyard pack drop to prone drills.
Well until my neighbors started milling around lol. Last thing I need is the cops showing up asking why I'm dry firing.
Did pretty good though. Around 16 seconds from "target" to the shot.
 
Tested 8 rounds of 2 different loads in my Rem78/Shilen 30-06. This is a continuation of my seemingly never-ending quest to get H4350 to not suck in one of my guns. The new thing this time around is Federal 215M (Magnum+Match) primers, which are (in theory) a lot hotter than the CCI LR or BR2 primers I've been using. In backyard chrony testing, I got actually substantially lower velocity with the 215M, but vastly lower ES and SD.

180 Sierra GameKing (the old school soft point boattail)
H4350 (an apparently extra-fast lot, given that I get a lot more than book velocity out of my loads)
Lapua Brass
Federal 215M primers (new for me)
3.244 OAL (.050 off the lands in my gun)

Group one was 53 grains of powder; did not chronograph, but GRT has been pretty dead on for this load, and so almost certainly in the very low 2700-something range (2715 or so) This looks kinda promising actually. 8 rounds does not a proof make, and .42 mean radius is mediocre, but it's not awful either, so that's good. Hasn't fully finished off being a round group yet, but looks like that's what it wants to do.

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And this one is 55.3 grains, i have chrnoy'd this one, and it's right at 2827 FPS (+/- 4.5 FPS - yes, 9 FPS ES). This is a composite of a 5 and a 4 shot group overlaid - I had one flier (upper right), that I honestly didn't feel like was me, so I'm counting it. Mean Radius isn't as tight either, so this looks a bit too hot. If I tweak my Ba value in QuickLoad to get it to match my velocity at 53.3 grains, it says I'm up around 64 KPSi range, which is hotter than I'd want to leave it anyway.

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I finally got some time to put some rounds through a new 6 GT project. Testing two different powders at five different moderate charge weights each. Here's one 10-shot group. 6 rounds one day, then 4 today. Then I remembered that I shifted 0.1 mil left between the two sessions. Still, I think this is a good place to start.
 

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I was just putting some round count on two 6.5CM rifles to make sure they're at 200 round count and have finished speeding up (if they're going to). I did 60 rounds through my Lone Peak rifle and 20 rounds through the Mausingfield. Weirdly enough even though it was inexpensive ammo ($25/box) not one of my 10 round groups was over an inch which was nice. Just placed the order for another 100 rounds and will have more of a purpose next time I go, outside of just shooting.
 
I sighted in a new-to-me Tikka T3X with a 20” 1:8” twist barrel, in a KRG-E chassis.
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And had to do the same for the T3 I took to S2H. Form and Mike warned me that it needed to be wallowed out and bedded to shoot consistently. When it’s on, it’s on…
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Put some rounds down my new hunting Dasher. Shoots leftover 108 VLDs from my last Dasher really well. Also shot a pressure ladder with 69 and 87gr Absolute Hammers. Didnt have enough to get pressure with the 87, topped at 3160 for now, topped out at 3560 with the 69gr. Both with benchmark. Not bad for an 18” tube.


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Shot the Carl Ross drill with a new tikka .223 didnt feel like buying a new stock so I decided to pick up the full frame outdoors tikka set. So far I like it.

As far as my positional shooting goes I still suck. My worst hit rates are in seated and seated supported. Gave up way to many points on missed par times that over confirmed on. I ended up squeezing the shot anyway on the missed part times just to get the rep in. 73 eldm/varget/starline brass. Rifle weighs 8 lb 15 oz and might get a lighter suppressor some day.

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Went out wandering to take some Cold Bore Challenge style shots (I forgot the phone adapter and 5-20x scope needed to view hits when I drove to the farm).

First shot was 550 yards. I forgot my binocular harness (it was in the same bag as the other necessary items), so I didn’t have my rangefinder. I knew that a certain rock was 454 yards, but I ended up using On-X to confirm the range.
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The pasture I was in is next on the grazing rotation, so the grass was too deep for traditional prone. So, I climbed on a rock pile, cleared off some blackberry bushes, and set up a position. I started off with Molinator in front and Jellyfish in rear, but swapped them out.

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Wind was blowing from right to left near me, but I could see it was gusting from left to right further up the hill. So, figuring that the nearer wind would have more time to affect the bullet, I held a mil to the right, this turned out to be a lucky guess.
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The view back down.
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After shooting that shot, I headed down the hill. I have one target that I’ve never shot. It’s in the lane by the barn and it’s supposed to be for a quick 300-yard confirmation shot from the field next to the house.

I decided this time I would go down past the house and shoot from the tree line by the creek. It’s convenient that the fields are roughly 200 yards from bottom to top.
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My view through the fence line. This was a shot I would probably only take on a coyote. There’s too much terrain and concealment to have to shoot at a deer from here.
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I went for seated on a log, with hiking sticks for front rest, and assault pack for rear rest.


The wind was coming from my right at my position, but I knew it was strongly left to right further out. I misjudged, however, just how strong it was. I held center, instead of left. I missed just well enough to hit the steel post!
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The view back down.
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Sighted in the Tenmile 3-18x44. Got rid of a couple of scopes from a different brand that may or may not have cost me a black bear last year. What a great scope the Trijicon is, especialy for the price. Feels good to have a reliable optic.
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