208gr A-MAX + chrony + Hornady ballistic calculator = 1st shot, 9 ring at 600 yards!

[MCMXI]

First shot at 600 yards was 1.25" high and 3.5" right. Now THAT'S impressive ... not the shooting ... the fact that the comeups were on the money. I've only shot this .300 Win Mag at 100 yards so using chronograph data and Hornady's ballistic calculator, I printed out a cheat sheet and headed off to my first match yesterday. Prior to this match, I'd never shot at anything beyond 200m .. well, not at targets that can be scored. I had zeroed the rifle for 200 yards at our 100 yard range using a -1.5" point of aim and Hornady's 208gr A-MAX with 71.7gr of Reloder 22. At the match, the first sighter at 200 yards was a 10 and the second sighter was an X. At 300 yards, Hornady wanted a 2.2MOA comeup so that's what I dialed in. First sighter was a 9 and the second sighter was a 10. At 600 yards, Hornady wanted a 10.3MOA comeup, so once again that's what I dialed in. First sighter was a 9 and the second sighter was a 10. At 600 yards with a 5mph wind, the correction was 1.5MOA. I had 1.0MOA dialed in for the first shot but added 0.5MOA and decided to leave it there since the wind was variable and based on my "extensive" experience of ZERO, I wanted to keep it simple. Anyway, I'm just thrilled at the accuracy of the comeups and the fact that they were basically dead nuts on. That was a BIG surprise to me.

I figured out that I REALLY need sunshades on my Mark 4 scopes. The sun was creating some big glare-related problems for me in the morning.

 

[Walkalong]

Excellent start. You sound excited, as well you should be.

 

[MCMXI]

Walkalong, yep ... I'm still excited about yesterday. It was a thrill to shoot at 600 yards for the first time and I'm already looking forward to the next match. I've got a lot to learn and there's plenty of room for improvement. I shot for score on two of the stages, both slow fire, 10 rounds in 10 minutes at 200 yards and 20 rounds in 20 minutes at 600 yards. I scored a 98/100 and a 176/200. I shot two sighters and 6 rounds for the 300 yard rapid fire stage (10 rounds in 60 seconds) ... I was kind of worried about my barrel getting too hot. The 8 rounds that I shot on that stage gave me a 76 out of a possible 80. I'd always hoped that I could shoot MOA out to 600 yards but that would mean keeping most of the shots in the 10 ring which measures 0.75MOA (4.5" diameter). The 20-shot group shown on the target below is right at 1.69MOA so not too good but it's a start.

I should make a correction/clarification to my post above ... my Mark 4 scope has 0.25MOA adjustments so I chose the closest adjustment for the given comeup e.g. for a 10.3MOA comeup I dialed in 10.25MOA.

Just for the heck of it, here's my first ever 600 yard target with an arrow showing my very first shot at 600 yards.

taliv ... don't laugh ... I'm just getting started in this game.

 

[1858rem]

could you post your chrony results? i need some acceptable tolerances to shoot for an yours would be a great starting place, currently im weighing charges down to the last granules, no...oh well, thats close enough... seating primers uniformly as i can, trim, chamfer, dont weight bullets, but dont suppost those make up my 100+/-fps im getting with my rifles(308,204) and would like to know how tight your tolerances are.

good shooting too

 

[MCMXI]

1858rem, here's my chrono data for the .300 Win Mag ... and thanks for the kind words ... the groups WILL get smaller with practice.

 

[1858rem]

wow...looks like my chrony will be getting a major workout friday, well i guess ill be off to scrub my barrels clean and begin testing, hopefully get no more than +/-50fps


cci250 is a br primer? im using federal and cci standard primers in the 204 and 308 respectively, maybr i need to buy a few more brands or test the ones i have better,win,cci, and federal so far, but all std or std/mag types.

do rayovac low draw batteries work in a chrony ok? i got a 2 pack for $1, but am using the alkaline type now, but think i will kill a few in the next few days lol

 

[MCMXI]

1858rem, the CCI 250 are magnum rifle primers. Something's up with CCI's website ...

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/default.aspx

... they're not showing any product information other than rimfire ... government intervention maybe?

I use Duracell batteries generally and have no idea about the batteries that you mentioned.

 

[Hutch]

1858, I had my first and only dose of really long range shooting last summer. It's a looooong way out there, ain't it? Mine was a little club match shot at 600, 800, 900, an 1k.

What sort of competition were you in?

 

[MCMXI]

Hutch, to be honest, 600 yards wasn't as far as I thought it'd be (how the targets appeared at that range) ... I'm really not very good at judging distances though. As for the match, here are the details ...

The matches are at a Marine Corp range and the tactical competition is run at the same time as the really skilled folks shooting National and Regional matches using the AR platform and service rifles. I'm not entirely sure as the specifications or requirements for them but they sure are good shots though. They shoot the following matches:

National Match Course is:

* 10 shots slow fire Standing at 200 yards in 10 minutes with 2 sighters
* 10 shots rapid fire Sitting from Standing at 200 yards in 60 seconds with 2 sighters
* 10 shots rapid fire Prone from Standing at 300 yards in 70 seconds with 2 sighters
* 20 shots slow fire Prone at 600 yards in 20 minutes with 2 sighters

Regional Course is:

* 20 shots slow fire Standing at 200 yards in 22 minutes with 2 sighters
* 2-10 shot strings rapid fire at 200 yards each of 60 seconds from Standing to Sitting with 2 sighters
* 2-10 shot strings rapid fire at 300 yards each of 70 seconds from Standing to Prone with 2 sighters
* 20 shots slow fire Prone at 600 yards in 22 minutes with 2 sighters


The Tactical Course that I shot was ...

* 10 shots slow fire Prone at 200 yards in 12 minutes with 2 sighters
* 10 shots rapid fire Prone at 200 yards in 60 seconds with 2 sighters
* 10 shots rapid fire Prone at 300 yards in 70 seconds with 2 sighters
* 20 shots slow fire Prone at 600 yards in 22 minutes with 2 sighters

... supposedly the tactical targets are quite a bit smaller but they weren't THAT much smaller!

I only partially shot the rapid stages since I didn't want to cook the barrel. Next month I'm going to bring my AR with a 24" heavy fluted barrel and use that for the rapid stages (200 and 300 yards) and the .300 Win Mag for the slow fire stages. The "tactical" rules only limit the caliber, not the number or type of rifles used.

Your match sounds even more interesting ... the range here only goes to 600 yards.

So how did you do? Did you hit the target first time at 600, 800, 900 and 1K. Any rapid fire involved?

 

[Hutch]

Ooops. Sorry I lost this thread.

The match is quite simple. The targets are steel plates 2 to 3 feet in diameter, but they're not knockdown targets. Each plate has a 1moa black bullseye, and a 2 moa circle around that. There are 5 plates at each range, 600, 800, 900, 1k. Hits are scored by the bullet splashes, and the targets are repainted between relays. A hit in the bull counts 10 points, a hit outside the bull but within the 2moa circle counts 5 points. Nothing else scores. A competitor fires exactly 20 shots, no sighters or alibis, 1 at each target at each range. The competitor gets 20 minutes to seat himself at the bench with whatever he can carry with him in 1 one trip. No bench rests or shooting sleds allowed. No coach or spotter.

Simple match, but very tough. Because of the targets, magnum rifles, 50BMG, etc. are not permitted. There is a class for .223, 1 for 308's, and another for "run what you brung", subject to the rule above. 6.5-.284 and .260Rem seem to real popular in this last class. Buddy of mine emailed me a picture of is beautiful 5-shot, 6" group at 1k, shot with a custom .260Rem. Too bad only one shot scored...