offgrid -- interesting match. Sounds like a more challenging format than I'm used to, especially the time constraints. Thanks for the feedback, as I will eventually enter a PRS match. Ya dun good against the big boys, homie.

T3 went fairly well for me. It's easier score higher in the pecking order when you aren't there.

I finally hit both of the 1200+ yard and the 1300+ yard targets in the match, although with second round hits -- 4 points on that stage. Our squad practiced on that stage after the match was done -- I got two first round hits and five second round hits, for an effective score of 9 points. I would have liked that to be my real score in the match. The winner scored 12 (gulp!) on that station.

But the highlight of the day was when both Anthony and I went 10/10 on the mover, cleaning the station. Paul watched us, then stated both of us would have to shoot at a smaller target next month. Uncertain, but it sounds like we were the first to clean the station in competition.
The wind was perfectly stable then -- 2 MOA from the left during our whole squad's shoot. FWIW I held off instead of dialing wind, and almost compensated for the wind the wrong way.

****
It's been a good few weeks of shooting for me. I recently tied for fourth in a sporting clays tourney and tied for third in a 5-stand competition. Last year I really struggled to transition from rifle to shotgun within a week. This year there may be a glimmer of hope that I can be somewhat effective in both disciplines.

I know for certain you and Antony are the first to get 10/10. Nice work fritz!

Great shooting offgrid and fritz. The guy that won that PRS match is on fire. Two or three in a row now I think.

I'll get to go practice movers for a day in a couple weeks. Hope to get better at it and learn from guys better than me.

I'm in my 4th week after "1 week from completion" on my Manners stock for the Atlas action gun. Was hoping to take it with me then but not looking like that will happen.

Wanted to post a quick mini review for those that may be interested in something similar. I decided that this year I was going to attend some additional training classes. My one requirement is that it needed to be a drivable distance. I won't fly with my toys so Rifles Only was unfortunately eliminated. Some searching lead me to Tom Sarver of Thunder Valley Precision in Ohio. I just returned from three days out there and had a blast. Here is my mini review of what went on. Unfortunately photobucket is giving me fits right now so no pics at the moment.

Day one was basically a data class. After confirming the rifles zero it moved onto shooting from 200 yards out to 1 mile gathering the bullet drops at each range. The main range itself has steel targets at 100 yard increments from 200-1200 and then at 1 mile. The plates are all 12" square,circle or round, with the exception of the 600 which is 10" and the 1 mile at 24". The distance plates were tough due to size and varying wind conditions. All three days were windy, I believe out of the 300 rounds fired I could count on one hand the calm shots.

Once accurate data was in hand the next two days were spent driving around to various shooting positions around the range. One course of fire called the eliminator consisted of 5 targets of various ranges over a 45 degree arc. For instance stage one was 563,950,1165,938 and 1650 yards. There were 5 different stages of this. The second course of fire was called headhunter. This also consisted of 5 targets and 5 stages over the same arc. On this course the targets were head sized and shaped steel on spring reactive mounts. Most all the targets were partially obscured. Perhaps peering from around a tree or just over a tree stump. Stage one was 342,370,403,526 and 566. Some shots were at extreme angles that made a rear bag impossible. Others were no bipod using a fallen tree as support.

Finished up the last day on the regular range engaging the long targets. As I won't have the opportunity to do so back home. Glad to say the rifle and optic shot wonderfully. Very happy with my load and performance. The crowning moments for me was seeing a bullet plate strike at 1 mile 3 seconds after pulling the trigger. Also making two first round hits well in excess of 1000 yards. I learned a ton and really got to se how difficult wind reading is. I missed a lot but also hit a lot. It was very satisfying and now the term "send it" is music to my ears

jlemmy: What did you shoot and in what caliber?

Great AAR.

Thanks,

RMD

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
jlemmy: What did you shoot and in what caliber?

Great AAR.

Thanks,

RMD

Was shooting a .300 Win Mag, 26" Bartlien'd barreled Stiller Tac 300 in an AI stock. Optic is a Steiner military 5-25 x56 and throwing the Berger 230gr. hybrid OTM.

Oh....

Expect an inbound email on this today or tomorrow!!

jelrod1, cool you're going to shoot movers, lots of fun.

There's a few ways to go about shooting movers. I prefer to ambush the target opposed to tracking. Get ahead of the target, time to calmly set up, up against the 2nd stage of my trigger.... Couple guys I shoot with will "bracket" the target between two points on their reticle. What works for me is breaking on the leading edge of the target, more define point, easier for me to focus on a single point of the reticle. Mover I shot at NM was 600yds, 12" wide target, 5mph. Lead for the 6.5x47 3.2 MILS to the center of the target, (.3 MILS per .5 mph, good to know that!). I broke on the leading edge at 3 MILS. I always dial the wind. Shot at lower magnification, 12-14 power.

I agree with Frank about shuffling a little to keep natural point at the speed of target shown in the video, 3mph. I don't agree with shuffling if target is moving faster, no time. Align myself in the middle of the track.

In the Utah video, note how quick and how far most of them are getting off their rifles after a shot. They're waisting precious time getting back on their sight picture. Are they seeing impacts/misses? Suggest dry-firing on a target practicing staying on your rifle/keeping the sight picture while sweeping it/cycling your bolt in prone, off of bench.... This drill will transfer over to positional shooting, staying on your rifle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM3NAKSuitg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4pWUCyknxY

jlemmy, congrats on attending the school. Sounds like a blast. Shooting at mile, that's a challenging poke for sure!

Thanks offgrid for the tips. I'm going to try that ambush approach. These targets are impossible to tell where you hit, just that you hit or miss. They are electronic and fall when hit. There is a set running 45 degrees at around 300 and a set just like it around 600. Getting farther or closer screws with you too on the 600 one. Electronically controlled to vary speed I think from 3 to 6 mph and it varies along the pass. I tried more of a shotgun approach last time I was there and that didn't go as hoped. Tried the ambush and worked better. I just have to get better with the lead and judging speed. Focusing on the edge may help.

Sounds like a fun time jlemmy.

quote:

Originally posted by rbdub474:

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:
You cnc your foam?!

Jealous.

My brother owns a custom motorcycle company and a machine company. He has everything from manual Bridgeport knee mills to new Mazak VMCs and lathes and pretty much everything in between.

That includes a Wardjet 5 axis waterjet machine that has a 20'x40' bed and 5' of travel on the Z axis.

So I take advantage of that as often as possible

Once we get the design finalized in Mastercam, cutting it will only take a couple minutes.

I'll post some pics up once I get it done. Only obstacle is trying to work around my work schedule and the machine time that actually makes him money.

Finally got it cut. I think it turned out pretty well. It all fits nice and tight. I'm going to get some spray adhesive and glue the cut foam to the bottom layer of foam though.

I finally was able to upload a pic of the main range to photo bucket. Starting in the left lower corner you can see the 300,400 and 500 yard steel. The black berm has the 600 on the center with the 700 just behind. The 3 large squares are the 1000 yard paper hangers. The 1000 yard steel is inline to the right of the wind flag.Then there are the 1100 and 1200 on a diagonal toward the mile targets. There are 2 at 1760 and can bee seen on the green strip on the next hill to the right.

jlemmy,

how did the wind change as you went from 1100/1200 up to the 1760?

Curious on their philosphy getting on the 1760 plate, quick follow up shot before the wind changes?

Your 10mph wind hold at 1760?

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
jlemmy,

how did the wind change as you went from 1100/1200 up to the 1760?

Curious on their philosphy getting on the 1760 plate, quick follow up shot before the wind changes?

Your 10mph wind hold at 1760?

Yes, the wind did change between the 1200 and 1760 targets. Which was different from the 1000 yard wind flag and different again at the shooting position. The only successes I had at hitting it was to dial best guess wind, spot the hit and hold the amount of the miss and send a second shot before the condition changed. I also tried to spot the miss and redial, then wait for what felt like the same condition of the original shot. Was less successful this way but landed a few just off the plate.

Took me 17.4 mills of elevation to get there and a 10 mph full value would be 3.1 mills

If my math is right, your bullet is drifting about 19.5" per 1 mph at 1760, challenging shot to say the least hitting a 24" plate.

Did you try while the bullets in the air, racking your bolt, get back on target, finger on the trigger as the first shot hit, adjust wind hold, send another? Guessing about a 3 second flight time? The local T3 match fritz and I shoot, I'm able to do that at 1350 with the 6.5x47. That's really my only hope of hitting it, follow up shot shooting as fast as I can before the wind changes. If I'm able to get a 1st round hit, no doubt luck is on my side.

Fun stuff!

Yes, I would shoot, rack the bolt, spot, hold and fire again. The elapsed time from first trigger pull to the second strike was about 10 seconds. Never was lucky enough to get a first round hit out there. Ran out of ammo on day 3 or I would have taken a few more tries at it. Planning to go back out in the fall and try again. Had an absolute blast !

Entropy, drop a note anytime. I'm going to bring this rig up to the Wisconsin shoot and your more than welcome to take it for a spin.

If I could pick your guys brain again. My range here doesn't have any wind flags. I would need something portable to use and take down when finished. Any solutions out there as far as store bought or homemade ? If homemade, what did you use ?

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
Did you try while the bullets in the air, racking your bolt, get back on target, finger on the trigger as the first shot hit, adjust wind hold, send another? Guessing about a 3 second flight time? The local T3 match fritz and I shoot, I'm able to do that at 1350 with the 6.5x47.

Offgrid has the skilz to do this; I don't. Due to my (bad) habits from gobs of sporting clays tourneys, I must force myself to follow through on rifle trigger pulls by pinning the trigger to the rear for, oh, 2-3 hours after breaking the shot to avoid slapping the trigger. I have found that cycling the bolt too quickly often results in my slapping the trigger. As a result I don't get my second shot off as quickly as offgrid does.

But camping out on the trigger does allow me to look for my own bullet trace, although in Colorado's (often) dry air it can be a challenge seeing trace.

quote:

Originally posted by jlemmy:
My range here doesn't have any wind flags. I would need something portable to use and take down when finished. Any solutions out there as far as store bought or homemade ? If homemade, what did you use ?

I practice on rolling prairie, with my only down-range wind feedback being grass movement. I have considered putting survey tape or some kind of cloth on poles -- fence t-posts, dowels, bamboo sticks, old golf club shafts, tomato stakes, etc. I suspect anything would be better than zero feedback.

I am getting a little better using a either my rifle scope or my spotting scope, then dialing parallax or focus to see the effects of mirage & grass movement at various distances between me and the target.

firtz,

my other secret for stage 1 at T3 (you promise not to tell Scott!) my drop with 6.5x47 is .3 MILS between the 1st and 2nd target, 9.3/9.6. I will not dial the eleavtion for the 2nd shot, simply hold on the top edge of the target which is close enough to .3 MILS to the center. Guessing your dope is about the same between the two? If I don't have my head up my rear side, I'll get those 4 shots off in about 20 seconds. 3rd/4th shot 10.4/11.1, next match I'll dial the 10.4 and hold .7. See how it goes? I have this fantasy I'm going to clean that stage!

Zach with his faster 60 degree bolt throw Badger action can get back on his trigger on all the targets and watch impacts.

offgrid -- my elevation dope for target #2 is also just 3 clicks (.75 MOA) more than for target #1. Interesting, as I hadn't thought of holding the difference. For some reason I struggle finding target #2 in the transition from #1. Moving over to 3-5 don't seem as bad for me. I've heard the course record for stage 1 is 13/15 -- held by Scott -- is that true?

FWIW, Paul stated that the next T3 match will likely have the same targets (or most of the same targets), but expect things to be different after the Sniper's Hide Cup.