Follow up, third time out.
While waiting for the six different brands of "match ammo" I'd ordered from PSA to arrive, I was hot to get out and shoot it again, so figuring I could get in and out between thunderstorms I went out again yesterday.
When this ammo finally comes in, I'll be waiting for near "perfect" conditions for trying them out, my question is would y'all prefer I start a new thread, or append to this one?
Had the range all to myself, seems I was the only one foolish enough to give it a go. Went straight to 300 yard line and set up my targets. By time I was ready to shoot there was a bit of a head wind, 5-10 MPH but looked to be clearing.
Here are the results, followed by some comments:
EDIT: I shoud say for those not familar with these targets the rings are 2"(red) 4" 8" 12"(black)
First thing I did after cleaning the RPR after the second time out was adjust the scope so I'd aim with the the tip of the chevron -- 300 yard zero. I moved 10 clicks UP to compensate 1 MIL correction I was holding last time out, and another 3 clicks UP and one click RIGHT to compensate for the POA/POI of target 4 from the last time out.
The blue tape speck marks the first shot from the cleaned, cold barrel. I'd have to say the tracking on this PA scope is pretty darn good and I mounted it pretty darn level
Not quite as good as last time, but considering the conditions I was plenty happy with a 4.5" 10 shot group, and particularly with the scope adjustment tracking.
Second target is a story. Its the PPU 175 gr MATCH ammo shot as two 10 shot groups (would be targets 2 & 5 if I'd setup five), didn't do very well again. The conditions had improved dramatically and I though I was a genius for getting out between the storms, but results for the first 10 shots were pretty terrible, four shots were off the paper high and one in the red meant the group was going to be large again, wind seemed nil so I can't claim it was headwind accounting for the large mostly vertical spread (you have to take my word for what I saw in the spotting scope as the last ten shots were more horizontally dispersed than the first ten). I will tell the story of the last 10 shots in a bit, to match the order of the shooting.
Third target, About when I finished loading the mag with ten more rounds of the steel match, the wind picked up and the rain came pouring down. Moved everything as far back under the range cover in an attempt to stay dry, mostly worked. I went from weather Einstein to Idiot in a matter of minutes :banghead:
After about 10 minutes the rain stopped, wind was 5-10 mph variable, and I shot another nice group with the steel match, 4.3" waiting to shoot when the wind seemed most calm. I think this ammo is going to be hard to beat at ~$0.85 per round in 50 round boxes until my skills improve dramatically.
Then the skies really opened up, raining so hard I could hardly see the target board at 300 yards, but there appeared to be almost no wind. Since I was stuck I thought why not try that PPU under these bad conditions. So I loaded up ten rounds, folded down the bi-pod and removed the sand bags for a more field-like shooting experience (at this point I was standing in 1/2" of water, so prone wasn't happening). These ten shots put 9 of them solidly in the black, but I threw one up in to the barcode at 1-o'clock. Measuring the composite 20 shot group, counting the 4 off the paper I got 7.8", surprisingly little net effect from the driving rain (this was the kind of rain that makes the freeways slow to a crawl). I don't see myself looking to buy any more of this ammo. The 165 gr PSP-BT from target 2 last time out at a closeout price of $0.65 per round and 4.2" I'll be ordering more of if its still in stock.
Finally the rain let up and I reset the sandbags and fired target 4 with Hornady 168gr BTHP Match. At $1.20 per round and 4.9" 10-shot group, I'm not all that impressed. But if I do like a lot of gun magazine review writers and call it an average of two 5-shot groups throwing out the worst shot of each group its shooting MOA!
The drive home was through a couple of gully-washers, the worst of the rain was clearly not where I was shooting.
