quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

quote:

Originally posted by jlemmy:
All, thanks for the thoughts on dope solutions. I'm going to give the Sunrise board a try for shooting courses. I've tried to do business with 3gun gear but it didn't pan out. I like the idea of the white board for prone as this would probably be the most used of all the solutions. I'm going to have to look at picking up or creating one.

http://www.3gunstuff.com/?page_id=899

Owner of 3gunstuff is a local shooter. Good guy!

Thanks, order placed. I wasn't remembering correctly. It was 3 gun gear that I had issues with. It's too bad my shooting days are numbered this season. I really need to relocate south. Going to have some fun stuff to play with next year tho

quote:

Originally posted by jlemmy:
Thanks, order placed.

I think you'll like that dope board. It's pretty well built. I was surprised at strength of the magnets that hold the clear cover to the white base. Offgrid's use of string to keep the market with the board is a wise idea

Sort of last minute, but if anyone has Outdoors Channel, Shooting USA's coverage of the Bushnell Brawl is on in 30 minutes...

So, I still owe an AAR from day 2 of the GAP Grind. Here it is!!


Woke up early, 6:00ish. Got my morning cup of road tar, went to the office to borrow some more sugar. Still barely palatable, but better than no coffee.

Beginning at 6:45, the first stage was put up. It was a self-service stage, cold bore shot at 100 yards at one of those playing cards with the ace of spades and the crosshairs in the middle. Shoot it at 100 yards.

Now, normally my cold bore shot goes high and left. Not a lot, but it does. At least, with a can on it. This was the first cold bore shot I'd ever taken and paid attention to with the brake.

Turns out it went RIGHT where I aimed it. Nerves? Psychological? Can? No idea, but it seems with a brake the rifle is just dead nuts where I point it. I didn't even come close to winning that one. But, I did get 1 point (hit the black, get a point. Get within the circle around the crosshairs, get 3 points. Miss any of the black ace of spades logo, or off the card, no points).

I was in squad 2 for Sunday, so our first stage was actually 2 stages combined - the two new skill stages for the 2016 season. These two stages will be at every PRS match this year (check the rule book for specifics - you can build your own prop to practice, they give all the specs). The first was prone. 400 yards, 12" square, 90 seconds, unlimited round count. Your first target was on your left. 2 hits, then move to the next target (same distance & size) 25 yards to the right of target 1. Two hits, then move to the third target (same size & distance) 50 yards to the right of target 2. Four hits on this target, then back to the middle target, two hits, then back to the first target, 2 hits. Begin 10 yards back of the starting position, rifle in hand, unloaded.

The RO for this stage SUCKED. I couldn't hear him say "impact" at all. I hit the first two targets no problem, but when I Transitioned to the far right target, I didn't take my time in correcting my position (my fault; I should have). As a result, when the rifle recoiled, I hopped off target. The targets were on posts, they didn't swing, so feedback was nonexistent if you didn't see the impact. I fired at that target 6 or 7 times before I heard the RO say "What target are you shooting at?" It was only then that I realized I had made the required number of hits and transitioned back to the center target. Then time was called. I scored 8 our of a possible 12 points here. When I got up I made sure to let the RO know, in no uncertain terms (though politely) that he needed to speak the fuck up. He apologized, and I moved along.

The next stage was the other 2016 skill stage - 10" circle at 400 yards, shot from a barricade. 8 rounds, 2 from the bottom left, two top left, two top right, two bottom right. Same starting position, 10 yards behind the prop, unloaded. This was my only goose egg of the day. I rushed. Bad. Double dumbass on me.

Next up was "Ride Along Gone Bad". The same Louisana State Trooper car as Saturday was used (no idea why there was an LA car in TN, but whatever), but this time, you had to fire a total of 9 shots - 3 from the hood, 3 from the roof, and 3 from the trunk. The doors could be open or closed as desired, and staged prior to time starting. I chose the rear door open, as I'd seen other shooters have success with this method.

I had my spike feet on my Atlas, and was advised to not put any holes in the sheet metal. Dammit, that was seriously my plan! Oh well.

Targets were at 600 yards, and were a full size IPSC for 1 point, 66% IPSC for 2 points, or a 45% IPSC for 3 points. I put 3 hits on the 66% from the hood, then transitioned to the roof. My rear bag, which is on a lanyard hanging by a flush cup, got trapped between me and the roof of the car. I struggled with that for much longer than I should have, then put 3 shots on the 66% again. Moved to the trunk, closed the bolt, and time was called. 12 out of a possible 27 points there.

Next up was "Hoodlums on the Street". Boy, did I fuck this one up. Engage up to 8 rounds from the prone position on 6 targets. Targets were hostage/headshot targets, hidden around, in, and behind cars. 2 targets at each car: 403 yards, 459 yards, and 500 yards. Each target is worth 2 points. Hit a hostage, and lose 1 point. Start on your rifle, bolt open. I cleaned it in 6 shots in 34.74 seconds. So how did I fuck it up? Immediately after the RO called impact on my last shot, he said "You're the fastest one so far!" I looked to my left, and saw the owner of PDC Customs standing there. This was a prize stage - fastest amateur with the highest points on this stage won a free chassis. Ugh. I easily could have done this 4 or 5 seconds faster, as I really dawdled on some of it. Damn. Turns out the winner did it in 30.xx seconds. Oh well. That'll teach me to pay better attention to the ENTIRE page in the range book, instead of just targets and yardages. Better luck next time... At least I got my 12 points, right?

Next up was the Copper Creek Shoot House. This was the huge shoot house again, with stairs going up to the roof. 8 rounds to be fired from 4 designated positions on the shoot house. They were all at roughly the same height. Target was 66% IPSC at 500 yards. 90 seconds. I scored 8/16 points.

Next up were the rocks. 5 ugly, sharp, busted-ass boulders, half buried in the ground, looked like landscaping. These were your rests. They went slighly uphill, left to right. Start 10 yards back, and shoot one shot from each rock, left to right (uphill) at a 66% IPSC at 450 yards. 2 points per hit, I got 6/10 points.

Field Fire - 5 rounds prone. Targets were at 600 yards. 1MOA circle for 3 points, 2 MOA square for 1 point. NO idea what happened to me on this stage. You were shooting at roughly a 40 degree angle across the range, there was a bit of wind. In any event, I only got a single point. That will teach me - just shoot at the big targets, get your 5, and move along. Dumbass. Again, 90 seconds. Start on your rifle even. Oof.

TYL rack - Up to 10 rounds prone. 515 yards. 12, 10, 8, 6 and 4" targets. Max of 8 points (.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3). I ran straight across in 4 shots and took my 5 points. Didn't trust myself on that 4" one after missing the 1MOA target, prone, on the previous stage. If I had missed, I would have had 5 more rounds to do it again, but I felt my confidence would have been too shaken that I wouldn't have done well the next try. Again - the psychological part of the game I need to work on.

LUNCH BREAK!! Thank goodness. Lunch was once again pulled pork and baked beans and potato salad and coleslaw, and once again provided by Trace Bartlein from Bartlein Barrels. Outstanding!

500 yard urban mover. 10 rounds prone, 3 passes of the mover. There were windows on the path now. Target was a 12" circle. A hit was 2 points, a hit in the window was 3 points. Max was 30 points if you somehow managed 10 window hits. The Amateur winner managed a whopping 26 points. I got 9. Ugh.

Mover shoot house. Yes, this sucked as bad as it sounds. It was a two-story shoot house, and the target was a 66% IPSC mover at 300 yards. Begin 10 yards from the stairs. when your 90 seconds begins, run up the stairs, and fire 3 rounds from the railing, then run back down, fire 3 shots from the window, then 3 shots (prone if you want) from the bottom window. I got the 3 shots off upstairs, came down, got the three shots off from the window, and just as I Was about to break my first prone shot, time was called. All that work for 1 lousy hit. Ugh.

The Deuce and a Half. Fuck this stage. Start 10 yards back, rifle in hand, run up to the back of the 2.5, climb into the bed (holy CRAP are those things high off the ground!), fire two shots from the right corner of the bed (which had a wall on it JUST high enough to make a prone shot not possible and JUST low enough to make it more uncomfortable than hanging upside down by your toenails in a hurricane), then get up, transition to the back window (which was slid open) and fire through the front window (which was missing), then transition to the roof. 3 rounds per location. The three rounds had to be shot in order, each at a 45% IPSC at 324 yards, 363 yards, and 477 yards, near to far. I got two hits, and never made it to the roof.

Speed drill - 100 yards prone at 1MOA paper targets. Start off your rifle, 25 seconds to fire 5 shots. I had a feeding issue, only fired 3 shots, and got 2 hits. Better than a lot of guys who got zeros.

Hostage targets - 100 yards, prone, at paper hostages. They were about MOA-ish, maybe a bit smaller. Hit the bad guy, 2 points. Hit a hostage, -1 point. I DRILLED two of my hostages SQUARE in the forehead and still got 2 points. Oh - this was 5 targets, 5 shots, 90 seconds again. That 90 seconds for 5 prone shots felt like an ETERNITY. I could have easily done better, but I rushed. No idea why. Probably because of the previous stage (which was shot in the exact same location - the paper targets were printed one under the other).

My final stage of the day was the long ball. Sponsored by Manners stocks, the amateur with the fastest time and highest score wins a Manners stock. Prone, targets at 800, 900, and 1000. 3 rounds on each. First round hit worth 3 points, second and third worth 2 points. 3 shots per target, hit or miss. 800: impact, impact, impact. 900: Impact, impact, miss. 1000: Impact, miss, impact. 17/21 points. There were 2 guys that cleaned it, with the winner doing it in 32 seconds. Oh well.


I ended up tied for 28th (Same as my team standings) out of 73 shooters, with 89 points. Coincidentally, I tied Ryan Hey, a pro shooter, who is sponsored by, among others (Magnetospeed and a few others I don't recall), J Allen. His 89 points got him a 56th place finish, out of 73 guys. So at least I would have beaten SOME of the pros! Cool!


After awards, I went looking for the brass to see what I could find. After sorting through it all Saturday night and only finding 2 pieces, my hopes were high, but since I hadn't seen it out yet, I thought perhaps I could get to it early and get my brass that was (accidentally?) being stolen by the guy shooting 6x47 that had marked his brass exactly the same way I had. After asking 3 or 4 guys about it, I finally found a guy that said someone had STOLEN the fucking brass. "Yeah, I Saw him grab the bag of brass (a full sized leaf bag), and said something to him. He said 'well they just threw it away yesterday', and kept on walking". I was beyond pissed. Had I seen that, that dude would have been wondering why he was looking at the ceiling and why his jaw and his balls hurt. Fucking thieves.


In any event, it was fun, regardless the 30-some-odd% brass that I lost.


On the way home, I was chatting with Lisa from JAE on Facebook, talking about the match. Turns out, I picked up a sponsor. Very excited to get my JAE team chassis. Just need to pick out a custom color for it. Look for it at Shoot for the Green, as that's the next PRS match I plan to attend.


I do have some pics, but they aren't online yet. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon.

That sucks about your brass. Many of these events could easily plan for every squad to collect their brass after each squad is done with their station, and before the next squad starts or during their breif. That's what we did at the Walker Draw match.

So, what was your partner shooting as far as Action/Caliber/Scope???

Yeah, I barely lost any brass at the draw. Like 1 piece I think.

Partner was shooting a GAP in 6.5 Creedmoor with a Schmidt & Bender on it. He actually brought a spare rifle for me to use because he was scared his amateur would have an ADL or some other bullshit. Lol boy, was he relieved when he saw not only I had a good rifle, but I was a halfway decent shot.

Also, I may not do shoot for the green now. It's in TX this year. The LRSE is that same weekend, and is also a PRS points race match, and is MUCH closer, in KY. I could drive there in less than a dayday. TX would be 2 days each wayway, or airfare & associated bullshit...

Heading g out the door to a local/regional match in IA this morning. Capped at 25 competitors, not sure what prizes will look like. I know they have a few things. It's the inaugural shoot for the IA precision rifle club.

Just got home a little while ago from the IA match.

It was the inaugural match for the newly formed Iowa Precision Shooters group. Indeed, 25 shooters.

6 stages, nothing too fancy. It was held on private land.

Stage 1 was a speed rack. 440 yards, 12" plates, prone. 3 plates, shoot left to right, one shot each, then repeat. Time limit was 1:00, but the stage was also timed in case of a tie-breaker. I cleaned it, and had the 3rd fastest time (had a feeding issue - damn AW mags!). Wind hold was 2.75MOA (10MPH)

Stage 2 was To Your Limits, prone at 762 yards. Max of 8 rounds. 3:00 time limit. Engage targets large to small. If you miss, re-engage the target you missed, no need to start over. Targets were 16", 12", 10" and 8" rounds. If you hit all 4 targets, you got an extra point for each round left that you didn't fire. Target values were 1, 2, 3, 4. Max possible score of 14. I missed the first shot, but got a good wind call out of it (7 MOA - I was holding 5). Got 13 points - high score of the day on that stage.

Stage 3 was also prone, and was a 10" round at 340, a 12" round at 440, and a 16" round at 762. Put three shots on each. 3:00 time limit. I dropped a couple due to switching winds, and took 6 of a possible 9.

Stage 4 shot from 55 gallon drums, one tipped on it's side and one standing. Target was a 12" square at 380 yards. 4 shots from each drum in 2:00. I took 5 of a possible 8.

Stage 5 was a 12" square at 330 yards, shot from a cattle gate that had 6 possible shooting heights. Shooter's choice of 5, 2 rounds per, for a total of 10 shots in 3:00. I took 7/10.

Stage 6 was shot from tires. 3 of them, to be precise, all laying on their sides. Two right next to one another, and the third stacked in the middle to make a tiny pyramid. 3 shots from the left tire, 3 shots from the center tire, three shots from the right tire. Target was a 12" square at 433 yards, 2:30. I took 7 of a possible 9.


I won the match, beating Jim See by 1 point - 44 to his 43.

I still need to work on my positional stuff though. I didn't time out on anything, but I certainly used up all the time they gave me.

It was a fun match, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they get put together for next season.

Tomorrow I'm going to pull the barrel, send the action to Beanland, and send the chassis back to J Allen for the team stripe. Need to have it all back together by New Year's day for the Hangover 420 (the start of the local winter matches).

Exx, nice shooting !

That 3gunstuff dope board is proving pretty elusive. I'm told discontinued from the manufacturer. They are trying to possibly find a stray but I may be back to fabing one up.

Thanks!

Check out Armageddon gear. They make a dope board with velcro straps for your arm (as opposed to elastic) - I think it stays in place better, and allows your arm to breathe a bit better in heat, too.

The boards have a full velcro backer, so you can remove them from the arm band to write on them. The kit comes with 2 boards. They look like dry erase boards, but they give you a "permanent" marker to write on them with - and another marker, alcohol based, to "erase" them with. The fact that they are NOT dry erase means you won't accidentally wipe off your dope for a stage. I really like them. Picked up a set at the grind, used them all weekend, and used them yesterday as well. At only $20, I think they were a bargain.

I like the two pen idea to keep from accidental erasures. I'm still going to hold off a bit before picking up another body mount. I do have a wrist board that works for me. I will keep it in mind if I can't source something bigger. The larger board was going to be for those days shooing from one position for an extended time. These days the bigger the writing the better. Either that or I need to start putting reading glasses in my range bag.

Received two 6 Dasher barreled action yesterday jelrod1 chambered for me. Had him re-chamber my 6BR barrel to a Dasher, cut the heavy palma barrel down from 28" to 24", thread for a brake. Had 1800rds on the barrel. Plan to fire form on that barrel, train with it....

Other Bighorn action Hawk Hill Medium Palma 26".

FF'd 15 rds today. Used the false shoulder method, worked great, cases look nice and sharp. Simply used my 6BR load, 29.5/H4895/Hybrids. Took a few rounds to get the scope back on track, easily kept the rest at 1/4"! I'll shoot two local steel match FF'ing. Once I FF a bunch will start working up a load for both barrels. Will update after I work up loads and get on paper at 1000yds.

Thanks again jelrod1, great working with you.

Awesome offgrid. That's nice shooting for a fire forming load. Look forward to seeing how the full power formed loads do at distance. I've enjoyed working on your rifles.

Some good shooting going on the last couple matches exx1976. Nicely done.

Before jelrod1 chambered the Dashers he ran his Dasher reamer through a barrel cut off and sent it to me. With so many different options for reamers, freebore... this allowed me to check the freebore with the bullet I intended to shoot, 105 Hybrids. The freebore is perfect, puts the bottom of the boat tail junction right at the neck/shoulder junction. Appreciate he did this for me. Also after shooting the FF loads yesterday, I dropped a bullet into a fired case/neck, dropped freely to the bottom of the case, shows the neck clearance is good to go. I suspected the next clearance was going to be OK based on the loaded neck OD vs reamer neck spec, I checked anyway. Not enough clearance, bullet doesn't release, won't tolerate dirt in the chamber....

Interesting.

I asked my smith about the reamer for my Dasher build. He said his reamer is a .272", designed for no-turn chambers. We'll see when it gets here.


In other news, I'd just like to let everyone know what a stand-up company Precision Reloading is, in Mitchell, SD.

Last night I ordered 6 boxes of Lapua 6BR brass from them. Didn't specify anything on the order form, just bought it and gave them payment & shipping info.

I got a call this morning from them. They had a total of 9 boxes in stock, but apparently they are only able to do 5 from one lot, the others are from a different lot. But rather than just blindly ship it that way, they called to let me know.

Since this brass will actually be for two different rifles, I asked that they send 4 from one lot and 2 from another. No problem, it'll be on the way shortly.

Great price too. I've ordered from them before, good bunch of folks.

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:
Interesting.

I asked my smith about the reamer for my Dasher build. He said his reamer is a .272", designed for no-turn chambers.

jelrod1's Dasher reamer also a .272 neck. Loaded neck OD .268.

With .004 neck clearance, I've never had a problem with rounds that have been dropped in the dirt, shooting in very dirty/dusty conditions....

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:
Interesting.

I asked my smith about the reamer for my Dasher build. He said his reamer is a .272", designed for no-turn chambers.

jelrod1's Dasher reamer also a .272 neck. Loaded neck OD .268.

With .004 neck clearance, I've never had a problem with rounds that have been dropped in the dirt, shooting in very dirty/dusty conditions....

But didn't you just say "Not enough clearance, bullet doesn't release, won't tolerate dirt in the chamber...."

?

I'm confused.. There were a few typos in that post that made it difficult to figure out what you were trying to convey..

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:
Interesting.

I asked my smith about the reamer for my Dasher build. He said his reamer is a .272", designed for no-turn chambers.

jelrod1's Dasher reamer also a .272 neck. Loaded neck OD .268.

With .004 neck clearance, I've never had a problem with rounds that have been dropped in the dirt, shooting in very dirty/dusty conditions....

But didn't you just say "Not enough clearance, bullet doesn't release, won't tolerate dirt in the chamber...."

?

I'm confused.. There were a few typos in that post that made it difficult to figure out what you were trying to convey..

Moving forward I should call fritz, tell him what I'm trying to convey, have him post it

Bottom line, through my experience I feel .004 neck clearance is perfect. Hope that helps you as well as anyone else reading this who is having a rifle chambered.

quote:

Bottom line, through my experience I feel .004 neck clearance is perfect. Hope that helps you as well as anyone else reading this who is having a rifle chambered.

Perfect, that's the important part that I needed to be sure of.

How do you guys carry ammo, mags, range finders, and other gear during matches? I see lots of you posting about packs, is that all you use?