Yesterday confirmed what I already know. A load that shoots well at 100yds does not guarantee it will shoot well at distance.

On my recent chambered 6x47 because of life, work, crappy weather, was not able to shoot it further than 100yds before the steel match yesterday. Load shot very well at 100yds. Good chrono numbers, 10 shots ES 17, SD 7. 115rds on the barrel.

The location of this new match is where this years SniperHide Cup will be held. Opportunity to shoot this match, get a feel for the terrain, wind, is a huge advantage I believe. Plan on shooting it 2-3 times before the Cup. Knew some of the shooting positions were going to awkward, weak side, standing, off of rock out croppings.....fun stuff! I waffled on shooting my braked 7SAUM with its proven load at distance, just didn't think I could stay on target. After shooting the match, no way I could have stayed on target with the 7SAUM, got to spot my misses/hits to score. Not sure I could have posted a better score with the 7SAUM?

Shot 25rds on the practice range before the match, nice comfy prone position. About 1.5 MOA steel targets at 300, 410, 500, 630, 720. Felt very solid, some days get myself more still than others. Shot a round at each target walking up. Then shot 20rds at the 720 yd plate, 10" square hung from a single point/corner. Crap!!! Lots of vertical on my impacts, a few misses because of the narrower target at the top/bottom of the diamond. Wind 7-12mph. Shooting at diamonds/rounds holding a tight vertical allows a wider window for wind holds. I believe the F-Class crowd calls that holding the water line. Oh well. Even though my load wasn't spot on, learned some things about how the wind channels through that valley, not a complete bust. Shot with two good friends.

I won't shoot this rifle again in a match until I've fine tune my load on paper at distance. My other 6x47 didn't care how much the Berger Hybrids were jumped, .020-.050 shot equally well. I'll start with seating depth, maybe this barrel is more sensitive to that?

Rifles get dirty shooting these types of matches, this is mild seeing how the ground was somewhat frozen. Put a couple good gashes on the bolt handle knob when getting into position to shoot off the rock out cropping, got that out of the way on this new action. My rifles ain't safe queens.

Really like these Bighorn actions shooting in dirty conditions, bolt body clearance to tolerate muck, yet the floating bolt head is always perfectly align to the action lugs.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: offgrid,

Nice looking place to shoot sacox31s.

offgrid, didn't your last barrel speed up after a couple hundred rounds or so and had to change the load? That sounds like a challenging match you shot. Can see why the lower recoil rounds help with those position changes.

Got the single shot AICS mag for the Sentinel rifle. Single loading works well. Won't be able to shoot as fast as those right bolt/left port/right eject actions, but hopefully can ring them off fast enough before the wind changes. Supposed to go next weekend and shoot a simulated match. Should be fun. Curious to see how the load holds vertical since the brass has a firing on it. Hoping as good or better, and hoping last groups at 1000 on paper weren't a fluke. Probably simulate a relay and a shoot off.

The rest of the goodies will be in tomorrow for the XLR rifle and will send things off Tuesday. Probably leave it setup for benchrest for the season and the Sentinel will be back to steel banging after the first match.

quote:

Originally posted by jelrod1:
Nice looking place to shoot sacox31s.

offgrid, didn't your last barrel speed up after a couple hundred rounds or so and had to change the load? That sounds like a challenging match you shot. Can see why the lower recoil rounds help with those position changes.

Got the single shot AICS mag for the Sentinel rifle. Single loading works well. Won't be able to shoot as fast as those right bolt/left port/right eject actions, but hopefully can ring them off fast enough before the wind changes. Supposed to go next weekend and shoot a simulated match. Should be fun. Curious to see how the load holds vertical since the brass has a firing on it. Hoping as good or better, and hoping last groups at 1000 on paper weren't a fluke. Probably simulate a relay and a shoot off.

The rest of the goodies will be in tomorrow for the XLR rifle and will send things off Tuesday. Probably leave it setup for benchrest for the season and the Sentinel will be back to steel banging after the first match.

sacox31s, that indeed looks like a great shooting spot. Ya, the first time shooting at steel I was hooked. Bang......target swings......ding. Dial your dope, repeat at different distances. Fun stuff.

jelrod1, the other 6x47 barrel sped up around 200rds, most of my previous barrels sped up as well at 150-250rds. If the match had been a bigger one, bigger payout....would have never shot a rifle with just 115rds on it. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot where this years SniperHide Cup will be held. I know of one guy who won't shoot a big match unless he has at least 500rds on his barrel. I'll mess with the seating depth, shoot at distance on paper and re-chrono. Shouldn't take long to tweak the load a bit. The vertical was about .2 MIL spread at 720yds, need to cut that in half or better. Go high/low on those diamond plates, now a very narrow target to get the wind right in one shot. Even with my belly aching about the vertical, managed a 3rd place finished

Good luck shooting the practice match. I've watched a couple videos of guys shooting those types of matches, right bolt/left port/right eject, they fly. Take your time, focus on fundamentals. Maybe practice dry-firing with dummy rounds, same round count as the match. Get yourself in a breathing cycle, exhale pull the trigger, inhale as opening the bolt/loading, exhale closing the bolt...... guessing you could get a quality shot off every 8-10 seconds? Look forward to your match report, matches are a whole new level of shooting for sure. Have fun!

It was a fun challenging day at the range. Colder than four feet up Frosty's butt. Certainly a learning experience. My rest was waiting on me at home when I got back so was of no use while there. I just used the bipod. Here was the setup after the first practice relay.



Here's the target area. Hard to see but clay targets are lining the lower bank and also in between the the targets on the upper bank and used for sighters.



The guy running the range walked me through a comp and did I did a relay and a shoot off simulation. DA was -250 and I used the Zero DA card I had made. Was spot on with elevation and I missed a clay on the lower bank by 8" or so right with cold bore. I had dialed 2.5 mil and corrected to impact. In the last minute of the sighter period I shot three shots. Last one before record busted the clay before moving over to the paper for record. Shot those five as fast as possible and is the lower target pictured. Measures right at 4-3/8" but low and left. After he saw that and gave me pointers on which clay to shoot the last sighter I did the second run. Wind had changed to a strong head at 500 and still to the right at the further ones. He said I'd hit low on the first sighter and I couldn't believe how much. I was dialed 8.2 mil for the first group and had to move to 8.7mil to get the same impact. Never dealt with that much vertical due to headwind till now so it was a learning experience for sure. After the sighters and my first two shots on records the wind fell off and I had to pick. Didn't do the best and I was a little disappointed but he said it wasn't bad and that everybody is in that boat when it happens. All in all had fun and shot steel afterward from 500 to 1000.

The targets. Top is 8-3/4 and the bottom 4-3/8.

Nice targets at that range!

What stock is that on your rifle?

It's a KMW Sentinel stock. McMillian makes the raw stock for Terry and he finishes it out.

http://kmwlrs.com/SENTINEL_Combat_Stock

I'm only planning on using this gun for the first comp and won't do that if the other one gets back in time for load development. It'll be set up with proper bag riders for the front and rear and a longer barrel.

On another note I'll probably stick a different scope on the other rifle with 1/8 moa adjustments. It makes it tough with a .1 mil change especially when the last clays on the high bank you are shooting at are 2".

The guy said there's interest by several to start holding steel matches there. I told him I'd be all over that with this rifle. I hope it happens.

quote:

Originally posted by jelrod1:
It's a KMW Sentinel stock. McMillian makes the raw stock for Terry and he finishes it out.

http://kmwlrs.com/SENTINEL_Combat_Stock

I'm only planning on using this gun for the first comp and won't do that if the other one gets back in time for load development. It'll be set up with proper bag riders for the front and rear and a longer barrel.

On another note I'll probably stick a different scope on the other rifle with 1/8 moa adjustments. It makes it tough with a .1 mil change especially when the last clays on the high bank you are shooting at are 2".

The guy said there's interest by several to start holding steel matches there. I told him I'd be all over that with this rifle. I hope it happens.

Interesting.

How do you like it compared to an AICS?

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:

quote:

Originally posted by jelrod1:
It's a KMW Sentinel stock. McMillian makes the raw stock for Terry and he finishes it out.

http://kmwlrs.com/SENTINEL_Combat_Stock

I'm only planning on using this gun for the first comp and won't do that if the other one gets back in time for load development. It'll be set up with proper bag riders for the front and rear and a longer barrel.

On another note I'll probably stick a different scope on the other rifle with 1/8 moa adjustments. It makes it tough with a .1 mil change especially when the last clays on the high bank you are shooting at are 2".

The guy said there's interest by several to start holding steel matches there. I told him I'd be all over that with this rifle. I hope it happens.

Interesting.

How do you like it compared to an AICS?

He doesn't have the AICS, I have it on my 6.5x47, but of course I dropped the AICS sides and use viper skins. His stock is great, but weighs a bunch too. I'd take a sentinel stock every day over a stock AICS, but I also like the vertical pistol grip from the viper skins more too.

Don't have enough time behind an AICS to compare. The Sentinel is a solid stock though and I like that the cheek piece has a stop that makes the setting repeatable. I mostly shoot this one prone and it's easy for me to get comfortable.

The repeatable stop is why I got a 2.0 - so I don't have to move the cheek Weld for cleaning - just flip it out of the way.

jelrod1, nice write up on your first time shooting that format. Looks like you're going to be dealing with tough, switching winds, fun stuff!

Is it up to you to spot your impacts when sighting on the clays?

How fast were you shooting for record?

If you continue to shoot this match, will be fun to look back at yesterday a year from now and compare, and maybe you'll be walking a new guy through a simulated comp.

exx1976, AICS vs Sentinel. As you probably know I use AICS stocks. A couple fellow match shooters have Sentinel stocks. Similar feel other than the grip on the Sentinel is a little different. If you have either, see no reason to switch to the other.

Got a confirmation I got into the Steel Safari, no doubt it will be challenging!

http://demigodllc.com/articles/steel-safari-2010/?p=1

Playing with dummy rounds I got to where I was at 7 or 8 seconds per shot to feel comfortable with fundamentals. I ran the first group and looked at the timer and was 41 seconds. Guy says most are in the 3 to 4 seconds per in LG so it'll be a crap shoot with conditions whether I'm competitive. Starting to fully realize why certain tools are for certain trades regarding these rifles. He said the big HG guys always have one in the air. That's fast. Even pulling the trigger with the left hand. Of course that may be a 100lb gun and totally different circumstances.

Not sure if you're allowed to have a helper spotting sighters. Think you're on your own the whole time though. Not bad though and had no trouble spotting hits on clays or misses. The bank is friendly for that as long as you're behind the gun correctly.

Gonna plat with the rest here and will use it next time out. I think I can speed up my shots with it and not go lax on fundamentals.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
Got a confirmation I got into the Steel Safari, no doubt it will be challenging!

http://demigodllc.com/articles/steel-safari-2010/?p=1

That's cool. Congrats and good luck. Looks like fun.

Got rid of my vertical issue with the new 6x47. Guessed right, seating depth. Goal is to have .5 MOA or less vertical at the distance shot today.

First shot 3rds at 100yds from the load left over from the recent match. Then 2rds of each load on a 10x16 plate at 500yds, made sure I was on target. Bad mirage day, full sun, snow covered ground. Forgot to bring paint to freshen up the steel target, couldn't see impacts on the steel. Moved over to the paper after the barrel cooled. Shot the upper left group 1st and walked out, oops, .1 low, .2 right, must have been just catching the right edge of that 10x16 plate. Going on my foggy memory for the drop. The other groups, shoot 5 walk out.... Had the range to myself, beautiful day.

Know of another long time 6x47 shooter who swears by 4831. loaded 41/41.5/42, slight stiff bolt lift on 42, didn't shoot it on paper.

Glad to see very little difference between jumps of .050 and .080, won't have to pay too much attention to the throat erosion/movement. Varget/.050 jump is what I'll load for an upcoming match.

From reading jelrod1 post about him shooting the practice benchrest match and timing his 5 shots, I tracked the time for the groups, 48 seconds the fastest, 54 slowest. That's about as fast as I can shoot with what I feel are good fundamentals trying for a decent group. I don't see how those guys can shoot every 3-4 seconds in those benchrest matches or shoot while one is in the air.

Ended the day on a good note, bowling pin size steel target at 1020yds, 1st shot left about .2 MILs, 2nd just right, third a hit My memory came through on that drop. Packed up after that hit.

Good shooting offgrid. Thanks for sharing. Looks like you have the vertical where you were hoping now.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
That's about as fast as I can shoot with what I feel are good fundamentals trying for a decent group. I don't see how those guys can shoot every 3-4 seconds in those benchrest matches or shoot while one is in the air.

7 or 8 seconds is as fast as I can do it with a bipod and still pretty quick. With rests and rear bags and a stock made to ride them correctly that can speed it up though for the benchrest game. Throw in a RB/LP/RE action and it gets down to 3 or 4 seconds. Those guys in Heavy gun with one always in the air have rifles that are unique to say the least. Here's a video of Rodney Wagner that shot the 600 record group at a range near me. He shoots a group in it similar to the speed of the record.

Fun video to watch, how fast he pulls the trigger once he's on the scope, drops/tosses the round in the action....

Remember reading about his .349 group last year, unbelievable. Makes my groups look HUGE! Different game for sure then what I'm playing.

The stuff you recently picked up from Kyle allow to ride your rifle like that?

Bench rest shooting is an amazing game of precision. Long distance records continue to be broken at a mind-boggling rate. Lessons learned from BR have trickled down to all shooting disciplines. But it's not my game.

The BR gun is locked into a device which effectively points the gun, keeps it in position all the way through the recoil cycle, and completely isolates any action of the shooter (other than pressing a trigger with a weight that's likely measured in ounces) from the gun. The "sled" drives the gun -- the "shooter" is along for the ride. The "heavy" class guns can make a Ma-Deuce machine gun a one-man firearm by comparison.

Personally, I like tactical-type steel matches. Offgrid's entry into Steel Safari is just about the pinnacle of the game, IMO. Move, figure shit out, deal with rapidly changing conditions, give it your best dope, shoot once at one target, move on. Repeat as necessary.

Offgrid -- you go dude. Kick ass at the Steel Safari.

Holy crap.

I'm lucky I shoot my pistols that fast.