Yesterday has got to be the best day I have ever had at the range. There are not many places to shoot long range in my area so I made the hour drive to Bradford Sportsman Farm to qualify on their 850yd range.

I had never shot past 200yds with a scope on a static range and my longest was 500yds open sights on the Marine rifle range. I was a little nervous even though I am a fairly decent shooter.

Qualification consists of 1 shot on target at 400,500,600,700,800 and 850yds. You then dial back and do the same in reverse. Next you do holdovers at 400, 600, and 800. Finally you have to place 3 shots on target at 850 on a 24x24 target.

The day was perfect. Temp was 55 degrees with no wind or mirage to speak of. I set up my gear which was inspected by the instructor who was absolutely wonderful and full of knowledge. He set up his gun and spotter and class began.

My instructor had me dial up to 850 for a cold bore shot. My heart jumped as I was not thinking we would start out at that range. I had already plugged my data into the Hornady ballistics App and printed out little cheat sheets so I dialed up 7.36 mils and fired a shot. The instructor yelled impact. I was hooked at that moment and the rest of the class went extremely smooth. As a matter of fact, it did not feel like a class at all. The instructor is just that good.

I was extremely impressed with my GAP 6GT using Hornady 108 ELDM’S. By the time I left, I was hitting 8” plates at 850 with ease. Same with the Sig Cross using Hornady 123 ELDM’S. I left extremely confident in my shooting abilities, my rifles, optics and especially my reloads.

I have to give a shout out to my lovely wife. She got me an annealing machine for Christmas and I was able to keep my 6GT and 6.5 Creedmoor SD’s in the single digits. This no doubt helps when trying to shoot consistently at longer ranges.

A great report. Congratulations!

So the Sig Cross was close to the GAP rifle in accuracy? That is impressive.

There are few things in the shooting sports more rewarding than hearing 'Impact!!' on targets out beyond 7-800 yards.

Have you considered dabbling in PRS or NRL Hunter matches? Your GAP would be great for PRS and the Sig Cross for NRL Hunter.

quote:

Originally posted by usncorpsman:


I have to give a shout out to my lovely wife. She got me an annealing machine for Christmas and I was able to keep my 6GT and 6.5 Creedmoor SD’s in the single digits. This no doubt helps when trying to shoot consistently at longer ranges.

She sounds like a keeper!