Good day at the range.

[Hugger-4641]

Had a great day with my two Sil's and a friend of thiers.
Took them to my club's range and we had it to ourselves all afternoon.
Was able to help them all get hits out to 650yds with thier rifles and a few of mine.
None of them are extremely gun savy, but my youngest Sil (youngest daughters husband) is an avid Coyote hunter. None of them were accustomed to shooting past 300yds and it showed when they moved to the 400yd target.
So my oldest Sil (my oldest daughter's husband) is in for the week from New Mexico, brought his Axis II 30-06 and his new 110 in 300wsm.
He bought the 300wsm on a whim and didn't realize how hard ammo is to find for it. So I found some brass and dies at LGS and had to work up a load for him the other day. Fortunately I found an accurate one pretty quickly with H4831sc and 178eldx. We zeroed his rifles 1 1/2" high at 100yds just like I normally do mine and my other Sil's.
So he starts on the bench with the 30-06 using his factory Precision Hunter and gets out to 300yds fine, but struggles at 400, which I knew was coming because he didn't want to try dialing in, he just wanted to hold over. So after figuring out his hold over at 300 and 400yd, I advised him to let the 30-06 cool and try the 300wsm. Of course, same story with it.
While this is going on, my other Sil is pretty much going thru the same thing with his M&P Sport II and Axis 22-250 . He's a couple benches over with the friend spotting for him. So I've set up my tripod in between thier benches and convinced them to take a break and let me and the friend shoot a couple times while their guns cool. So I get out my X-Bolt 300wm, which I've already doped out to 600 and have written on back of my lense cover. I proceed to stand behind my tripod and nail each gomg out to 300, then start dialing and ringing each shot out to 600.
They suddenly were interested in learning how to do that.
So we spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out thier dope for each of thier rifles and a couple of mine.
To top it all off, we had to stop occasionally and let deer get out from in front of the targets. Drove them nuts that they couldn't shoot one, but I made sure they knew they weren't getting me kicked out of my club over a deer.
Wish I had video of some it, but it was a great day I know they're gonna remember it for some time.

 

[Riomouse911]

Very cool! I love reading when folks are exposed to a new gun or facet of shooting. There is so much more to the sport than just standing (or sitting) still and punching holes in paper over and over again.

There certainly is an art to finding your ranges and dialing the scope in to hit at extended distances. I don’t have any experience shooting beyond 300 yards or in dialing in optics to avoid having to hold over. In fact, the only times I was shooting at the 300 yd range was just before, and during, a week-long patrol rifle instructor course, using an open-sighted Mini-14 no less.

I was hitting the silhouette in the torso area, but it wasn’t anything like a pretty group by any stretch!

Stay safe.

 

[Hugger-4641]

Very cool! I love reading when folks are exposed to a new gun or facet of shooting. There is so much more to the sport than just standing (or sitting) still and punching holes in paper over and over again.

There certainly is an art to finding your ranges and dialing the scope in to hit at extended distances. I don’t have any experience shooting beyond 300 yards or in dialing in optics to avoid having to hold over. In fact, the only times I was shooting at the 300 yd range was just before, and during, a week-long patrol rifle instructor course, using an open-sighted Mini-14 no less.

I was hitting the silhouette in the torso area, but it wasn’t anything like a pretty group by any stretch!

Stay safe.

We aren't down to pretty groups yet either. We were shooting 10" swingers out to 300 and then ISPCA steel silhouettes from 400 to 650. Maybe next time we'll get to fine tune things a little more or get to a 1000yd range. But they already figured out the scopes they have aren't ideal much past 600.

 

[41 Mag]

I have been to a few ranges even in suburbia where there was an immediate cease fire call on behalf of the local deer who are quite used to the gunfire and blatantly walk right out in the middle of the ranges.

I have shot out to 1200 yards with a friend at some property he once had. I never really got the dialing thing down. Well I got the dialing up to hit the further plates, it was the dialing back down I always had issue with. Mostly to remember to actually do it....

 

[Hugger-4641]

I have been to a few ranges even in suburbia where there was an immediate cease fire call on behalf of the local deer who are quite used to the gunfire and blatantly walk right out in the middle of the ranges.

I have shot out to 1200 yards with a friend at some property he once had. I never really got the dialing thing down. Well I got the dialing up to hit the further plates, it was the dialing back down I always had issue with. Mostly to remember to actually do it....

That was an issue with a couple of thier scopes. The rifles I brought had turrets with adjustable zero lock. So going back to zero was just a matter of turning the turrets back until they hit the stop. One of thier scopes had Mil turrets, so I had to do some quick math for each target as I'm used to thinking in MOA.

 

[LoonWulf]

Good on ya! Its alot of fun banging steel, especially the first time the bits and pieces click!

That was an issue with a couple of thier scopes. The rifles I brought had turrets with adjustable zero lock. So going back to zero was just a matter of turning the turrets back until they hit the stop. One of thier scopes had Mil turrets, so I had to do some quick math for each target as I'm used to thinking in MOA.

I missed my first shot on a nice buck when we were home last year, because id dialed my .375 out to our 900yd target a couple weeks previously and forgot to re-set my turret.
I didnt really care for the rev limiter/ zero stop on the new Leupolds, but having that happen does make me appreciate it to a degree......wish it was a more traditional zero stop instead of a stop/lock tho.

 

[Turkeytider]

Having a lot of fun shooting my 1:7 .223 Savage Model 12 LRPV out to 500 yards ( max range at my club ). Putting rounds into 4", 5" and 6" steel targets is a challenge, at least for me, not for the rifle. Learning how to dial in is interesting. Scope settings for a given factory load that have you on target one day doesn`t necessarily mean you`ll be on target with the same load and settings the next range session. Lots of variables in mid to long range rifle shooting, I am learning.

 

[KansasTrapper77]

Having a lot of fun shooting my 1:7 .223 Savage Model 12 LRPV out to 500 yards ( max range at my club ). Putting rounds into 4", 5" and 6" steel targets is a challenge, at least for me, not for the rifle. Learning how to dial in is interesting. Scope settings for a given factory load that have you on target one day doesn`t necessarily mean you`ll be on target with the same load and settings the next range session. Lots of variables in mid to long range rifle shooting, I am learning.

I’m looking real hard at a used Savage 12FCV .223 on a Scheels rack for this very thing. Learn to read the wind and use dope on a budget. Learn how to get the most out of a decent scope as well. I have a Nikon FX1000 4-16x I’d throw on it. The bummer is this older FCV most likely has a 1:9 twist. My uncle has a similar one and the heaviest .223 he can get to group is a 69gr bullet.

 

[Turkeytider]

I’m looking real hard at a used Savage 12FCV .223 on a Scheels rack for this very thing. Learn to read the wind and use dope on a budget. Learn how to get the most out of a decent scope as well. I have a Nikon FX1000 4-16x I’d throw on it. The bummer is this older FCV most likely has a 1:9 twist. My uncle has a similar one and the heaviest .223 he can get to group is a 69gr bullet.

While my LRPV will shoot 75 and 77 grain just fine, it loves 69 grain SMK bullets in ADI factory loads.

 

[Turkeytider]

Very cool! I love reading when folks are exposed to a new gun or facet of shooting. There is so much more to the sport than just standing (or sitting) still and punching holes in paper over and over again.

There certainly is an art to finding your ranges and dialing the scope in to hit at extended distances. I don’t have any experience shooting beyond 300 yards or in dialing in optics to avoid having to hold over. In fact, the only times I was shooting at the 300 yd range was just before, and during, a week-long patrol rifle instructor course, using an open-sighted Mini-14 no less.

I was hitting the silhouette in the torso area, but it wasn’t anything like a pretty group by any stretch!

Stay safe.

The learning process is, at least to me, the most fun. I really enjoy watching swinging gongs bounce around at 500 yards. The problem was, if you can`t see your misses, how are you going to correct your dial ins? Because of the makeup of our berms behind the targets, I couldn`t see them. Talk about shooting blind! Then I did a forehead palm slap, cut out some circles of appropriate size out of cardboard, and started painting target circles on larger white background targets. Voila!! Also helped to get a nice pair of lightly used Bushnell Forge 15X56 binocs to see bullet splashes on target.

 

[Hugger-4641]

The learning process is, at least to me, the most fun. I really enjoy watching swinging gongs bounce around at 500 yards. The problem was, if you can`t see your misses, how are you going to correct your dial ins? Because of the makeup of our berms behind the targets, I couldn`t see them. Talk about shooting blind! Then I did a forehead palm slap, cut out some circles of appropriate size out of cardboard, and started painting target circles on larger white background targets. Voila!! Also helped to get a nice pair of lightly used Bushnell Forge 15X56 binocs to see bullet splashes on target.

We had that issue with the .223 and the ISPC targets. Our berms are dirt covered in tall grass. 223 often didn't spray up enough to see the impact. But we had no issue seeing the 6.5 or 30 cal hits, especially the 300's.

 

[Turkeytider]

We had that issue with the .223 and the ISPC targets. Our berms are dirt covered in tall grass. 223 often didn't spray up enough to see the impact. But we had no issue seeing the 6.5 or 30 cal hits, especially the 300's.

.223, while certainly one of, if not THE, funnest rounds made to shoot, definitely has its limitations. I know it`ll make it to 1,000 yards, but being able to tell where it hits may well be quite the challenge. If/when the club where I shoot expands its range out to 1,000 yards, probably 6.5 Creed here I come. Shoot the .223 out to about 600.