"Get out and SHOOT!!!"

EMC45 said:

Keep pulling that press handle.

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Funny thats what dad said too......

Well, we made it out to 800ish today. I couldnt hit the 10" plate with the RF even braced, but the bush behind it lasered at 850 and it was about 25yds farther forward.

It was hot, and the wind was blowing pretty good. We ended up having to take down our popup tent before it got launched. Still I noticed more vertical misses than we had last time.
We were shooting off a plastic table today mostly as opposed to the ground, and I think that contributed to some of the consternation as well, but again it still took me 6 shots from prone to get the hold right.

Dad did well after getting on the plate as well, but again I think were getting to the point where shooter consistency is becoming more critical, sloppy form, or not recognizing a slight wind shift was rewarded with a just off plate miss.....Kinda makes me wish id taken the big chunk of road cover I have up there, its probably 16" wide by 30" tall, that would have caught more/most of the bullets.

I made some interesting observations today as well. The 28 Nosler isnt necessarily any easier to hit with, but DAYUM does it hit, and this is with a new load of 168ABLRs as opposed to the heavier 190 or 185s I was shooting (clean out of those, which means im about 1/8 thru the life of this barrel)
I noticed that It was all but impossible to center up the 10" plate when using the 8x Leupold on the 7-08.
Also the Z-lock cds turret only give you 12moa of up adjustment, which meant I was still stoopid low at 800. To compensate I zoomed out to 5 power and used the point of the post as my hold over reference. I made exactly one hit and called it quits.......

Truck hoods arnt the most stable platforms to shoot off of, especially when someone wont quit digging in the cooler........

Anyway, another fun day on the mountain, and I do have some video of dads shooting, and a short snippet of my shots, but mostly spent the time goofing off lol.

troy fairweather said:

Tables can be hard to shoot of off especially cheap ones lol. Same with hoods. Even on the ground with a bipod helps to load it up. The wind up there is probably crazy, it just looks like it goes back and forth with that terrain.

Slowing down properly will help keeping the ammo temp consistent should help, even the round in the chamber could get heat soaked trying to make a shot. Big 7s do not hard and are fun on steel for sure.

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Yeah heat can definitely be an issue, especially after the wind steals your pop-up.
I picked up shells that were sitting on the table and immediately dropped them again because they gotten hot enough to be uncomfortable.

I'm going to need to order more heavy 7 mm bullets, Most of what I have right now I really meant for my hunting guns and only go up to about 162 grain.
With the 28 I don't think there's really any advantage to shooting anything under 180 though it's 1 and 9 twist may not handle the 190s fantastically. Going to have to get some more and actually see.

I've had good luck shooting off the hood of my truck but it's a good 6 in taller than the 4Runner is, And generally I don't use a bipod I just use them rolled up whatever I can find in the cab which probably doesn't bounce nearly as badly. And yeah plastic tables are probably the worst things in the world to shoot off of, but lazy today lol!

Odd Job said:

Wish I could have been there with you guys, looks like a great day all round!

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If you're ever out here you're welcome to join us!

SPS is out right now, next time they have either the ABLRs or the RDFs on sale I'll probably grab some more. Dell can get the 190s for a reasonable price so I'll probably have him go ahead and order another box or two.

I shot a couple of things off of fence posts mostly because I was trying to hide behind them as they walked up the fence towards me. Lol

Chuck R. said:

We were out practicing for an upcoming antelope hunt on Thursday. Rancher says to expect shots out to 300, so we're stretching it a bit further. I set 4 pieces of steel out at unknown distances, then we practice lasing and shooting from different field positions while wearing the kit we'll hunt with. Basically a rehearsal & practice. Makes for a great way to "test" out the stuff you're planning on using, before finding out the hard way. Thursdays episode a good friend of mine learned that "when shooting kneeling and resting on the UTV bumper it's important to maintain your I relief distance, at least when using a .300WSM".

Luckily it only usually takes one repetition to sink in, and the blood didn't start to flow immediately.

Last rendition I learned that securing my tripod to my backpack in such a way that it takes an extra 5 minutes to get your 1st shot off, just isn't going to work...

Loonwulf,

You might want to look into something like my MSPA1 (Mobile Shooting Platform, A1 modification added plywood) which doubles as a utility trailer to fly under the wife's radar. here it keeps us out of the ticks/chiggers, there it will help with the rocks. It gives you about 18" of shooter height while prone to see over chit.

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It will also free up some space in your rig.

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I actually just bought one! Gonna take some cleaning and a drop in floor mat (mostly used at work to haul green wast), and a bigger truck to pull it up Saddle, but I wanna use it for exactly that.

FlSwampRat said:

I have heard people talk about MOA in the store, people I'd bet a good bit that they didn't know what MOA meant in the real world. Had one guy say "MOA" so many times I thought I'd choke. So I asked him, if he was one degree off target and his target was 100 yards away, how far apart would his POA and POI be. He had no clue what I was talking about so we moved on to other topics. You start talking 500 yards + and hitting that steel is such a great feeling. Love that smile on his face.
Reminds me of one time my dad and I went to the rifle range at the old gun club with my Python and his .38 Official Police to do some 100 yard plinking. Problem was I'd grabbed a couple boxes of midrange match wadcutters I'd rolled up to take a newbie shooting (who chickened out on me, but that's another story) so we were sort of "howitzering" in those weak bullets, having to aim about a foot or more over our target. Got a lot of laughing done that day. Wish I'd taken pictures.

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"Bout an hour off"..........

In direct fire via handgun sounds like alot of fun. I just got more bullets for the handfuns, so those will be making more of an appearance soon.

Cell phones with decent cameras are a real game changer, quite honestly it and easy quick access to information are all i really like about them lol......tho ill admit i much prefer texting to talking on the phone, i absolutely hate phone calls......

South Prairie Jim said:

View attachment 1024377cool that you get to shoot with your dad, I missed that opportunity. A friend told me recently that long range success is sometimes knowing when not to shoot. Wind has cycles like the waves, predominant and secondary, get a flag and time the cycles. Oh yeah here's a wind chart givin to me by short range WR holder Rick Graham

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Ment to thank you earlier for rhe wind chart....but i forgot.....
THANKS!

I was actually trying to use it this last trip.....still much more learning to do....

Chuck R. said:

Loonwulf,

Based on your terrain, I'd probably be painting my steel black. That's some tough conditions for white. I use predominately white, because I'm on a darker background. Lately I've been using black and white, but use the black to represent a "kill zone", white's "technically" a miss. Went out back again this morning with one of our hunting party to practice. He's going to have to change up his rig....results were not good. He said while dry firing in his basement it looked like the way to go...

White on black:

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4 steel out to 600 (a little beyond what we expect to see on our hunt)

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Sitting with bipod:

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He's going to change it up, more dryfire, and we'll go out again WED after work, Friday we drive out to hunt. It's another one of those, "you're never as ready as you'd like to be" things. $500 a day and a $380 tag, so I'd rather not screw it up. Spending time sitting, either bipod or tripod really, really, makes me appreciate prone!

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Hope you guys get it all worked out, and best of luck on your hunt!

You're right I should have used a different color, I don't generally have too much issue with the white on that background but I managed to put it directly in front of a grayish plant, And with the mirage and the greater distance, I know I took a couple of shots at the plant before I realized I was actually aiming off plate.

That bright pink splotch in the middle was actually pretty easy to see except the mirage moved it around quite a bit.... Next time I'm out I'll take some black as well as the white and pink.

I actually need to spend more time practicing from a sitting position. One of our forum members gave me a really nice tripod that I've been jonesing for a chance to use, It's actually a buddy of mine's house since he tends to hunt back home on Molokai more often than I do and it's actually a more use there, But I think I'll pick it up the next time we go up to shoot.