First time shooting 500 yards

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Magichelmt

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North Alabama
I tried my hand at 500 yard shooting Saturday. This was great fun. My friend took me to Maple Ridge in Cullman AL. After sighting in at 100 went on out to 300 and then 500. It is $15 for the day and you get targets and a golf cart to use. The 500 yard group was with an IMR 8208 load.

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You have a small bench to shoot from and you have to shoot through some tires. I guess they had an issue with a bullet leaving the range and had to adapt. The bench is narrow.

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My friend put this together for me.

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And then the plain target.

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I cannot wait to try out some new loads and practice some more.

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That's some sweet shooting!

Caliber? Rifle?

The tires do two things- as noted, they keep the rifle pointed downrange, and they attenuate the retort considerably.
 
Nice job!

While it would seem that sitting in a partical board box and peering through a small porthole might take a bit of the pleasure out of a nice day at the range, the benefits for noise reduction and range safety would be undeniable!

That's a pretty decent set-up!
 
Thanks guys. The rifle is a custom Mauser action in .308. I am told that the barrel is a surplus Israeli machine gun barrel that was cut down. I can believe that because the gun with no glass is 16 pounds! I bought it from a friend who got it from a guy in Pennsylvania who was making custom guns. I put more than 40 rounds down range and the barrel was warm, but not uncomfortable to hold at all. I was not bothered by the tires after a few shots. I have a lot to learn and cannot wait to try it again. I had never shot anywhere close to 300 let alone 500.
 
Awsome shooting at that distance. My first time shooting distance (600 meters) I couldn't hit the paper. Thankfully I've improved. BTW the smith that built that gun wouldn't happen to have been named Judd would he? I'm about an hour and half from Cullman if you don't mind could you PM me the address I've got to try this, I've never shot down a tube of tires like that.
 
Nice!

I saw the powder used, sorry but maybe I missed it, but what caliber were you using?
 
CountryUgly, PM sent.
BP it is a .308 and I was shooting 168gr Sierra MK HPBT with 42.8gr IMR 8202 loaded to the lands on my rifle. I also tried a varget load, but it had a spread of 12 inches and was hitting low and to the left quite a bit off the point of impact that the IMR did.


Does anyone know the size of the 10 ring and X ring on a NRA 500 yard target? Also is there a good place to buy those big targets? I have some large cardboard I will bring with me next time, but those I can put some orange dots on it.
 
not offhand, but the NRA 600 yrd target has a 6" x ring, and the F-class center has a 3" x-ring so I'm guessing if there's a 500 yrd target it would have a 5" x ring. (shooting off bipod or rest, you would use the f-class center)
 
OK I found the book that came with the gun. The place was in Virginia not PA. So much for my memory. It was built by a company called Guntek. From what I read it was started by a guy named Tom Kivlehan who according to the internet was at one time the chief armorer for the Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable. That is just what the internet said. All I knew was that I shot the gun and liked it. The price was more than fair and I jumped on it.
 
Hey man, that's a nice rifle and some nice shooting. I like that range, but I have to wonder if you might have done better if you could have gone prone, or had more room to spread out a bit.

Anyway, I'm in south Louisiana and my buds and I (all .308 shooters) have had really good luck with Reloader 15 and Sierra 168 SMKs. We're running Winchester brass and Federal benchrest primers. We've had very good results in several .308s, to include two semi custom jobs wearing Krieger barrels and one stock Remington 40X.
 
Awesome shooting! Sounds like a decent deal at $15/day. I'm working my way to 200yrds at my gun clubs range then will be in search of something up to 500 or so in my area near Bangor ME. I've heard of there being an abandoned air strip that people use. Have to check it out. Keep up the great work!
 
Somebody or something would have a bad day if they were in your crosshairs.:uhoh::D
 
I have never shot more than 275 yards at a range. There is no place to shoot near me longer than that. I would love to shoot at a 500 yard range and would just drool for 800 yards or more!!!

Nice shooting especially for the first time at those distances. Well done!
 
what kind of scope? i wonder if i can even see the target at 500
 
Thanks! I am busy this weekend, but hope to get out next weekend and try a few more loads. I am going to look at building a table that is the same height and bring a stool to sit at a comfortable level as well. The chair bothered me the most. I just could not get comfortable. I think I can dial it in a bit. I am going to try adjusting the OAL on a few shells and keep the powder charge the same. After that I am going to try a few higher and lower charges as well. I have an excellent 100 yard load. Now I need to work on this new addiction.

NS66: It is a Nikon 6-18 mil-dot that Midway had on sale for $324. I need to find good rings still. The ones on there are the cheapest in the world, but they clear the Mauser bolt. The "High" rings I tried did not clear the bolt.


Anyone got any recommendations on a good set of extra tall rings?
 
going to look and see how far i,d have to drive to get there. been wanting to try 600. only thing around here is 100.
the tires may be for downrange inpact control, but they also act as a big silencer. cut down on bothering the locals
 
One nice thing about living out west; lots of open space. There's a parcel of state land near me where myself and a friend can set up long range targets out to maybe 1k yds. I've only shot out to 440yd myself, but that's because we were shooting irons. 8" circles are TINY out there!

Nice range setup there, OP, and good shooting. The bench setup looks like a pain, but scores high on the "pretend you're Vasily Zaitsev shooting from a bombed-out tractor factory" quotient. LOL
 
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