So a few weeks ago I posted about the new Howa 1500 .223 I got with a 20" heavy barrel 1:12" twist and a Nikko-Stirling Gameking 4-16x44 scope, and I said I'd post a range report when I got it out. Well thankfully today I got it out.
Now, bear in mind that I suck at shooting. I've come to realize and accept this. This means no dime-sized groups, so if you were hoping for those sorry I suck so much. That'll be my next goal, I was kinda being rushed when doing my 5 shots with various ammo because they wanted to close up the range, so I couldn't really take super long to take the shots.
Anyway, breaking it in was a pain in the ass. The first relay I only fired 2 shots, and I only got 4 in the next 2 relays because I had to clean the gun in between each shot. It went a bit faster after that because I could fire 2 shots, but it still took a good 2 hours or so to break it in with 20 shots. I never really realized how dirty a gun can get after only 1 shot. Anyway, surprisingly the gun was on paper at 100 after only boresighting, so it wasn't too hard to adjust it while breaking it in. I broke it in with 50 grain Remington UMC HP. Here's the target of the 20 break-in shots.
You can probably tell where the first 2 shots were, they're the major outliers. First shot was the one top-right.
After the break-in I got to shoot 5-shot groups of the various other kinds of ammo I brought, here's that target.
The 45gr UMC HP I was actually aiming at the bullseye, so it was still a bit to the right. For the 53gr Hornady V-Max in the top-left I brought it in another 3 clicks to the left and it was shooting pretty much where I was aiming, unless I jerked the trigger, which happened for basically every group here at least once. The 75gr Hornady Super Match in the top-right surprised me. It's keyholing, but still hitting basically where I'm aiming it at 100y. However, I learned that jerking the trigger really accentuates any errors with a keyholing bullet, but I'm just surprised it even hit. Bottom-right is 55gr Remington Core-Lokt. Nothing to write home about, but like I said, I was being rushed. Bottom-left is 55gr Chinese 5.56mm bulk. Noticeable difference in the report of the gun firing this, it was much louder.
So I still have at least another 15 rounds of each of these, and another 20 of the 50gr UMC I used to sight it in, so some other day when I'm not being rushed to pack up and go home I'll have to really take my time and line up shots with noticeable things to aim at (aiming at blank space can be hard) and see if I can't shoot better. But as it stands now, I'm confident that this gun is sighted in, and the only problem with my groups is me.
Now, bear in mind that I suck at shooting. I've come to realize and accept this. This means no dime-sized groups, so if you were hoping for those sorry I suck so much. That'll be my next goal, I was kinda being rushed when doing my 5 shots with various ammo because they wanted to close up the range, so I couldn't really take super long to take the shots.
Anyway, breaking it in was a pain in the ass. The first relay I only fired 2 shots, and I only got 4 in the next 2 relays because I had to clean the gun in between each shot. It went a bit faster after that because I could fire 2 shots, but it still took a good 2 hours or so to break it in with 20 shots. I never really realized how dirty a gun can get after only 1 shot. Anyway, surprisingly the gun was on paper at 100 after only boresighting, so it wasn't too hard to adjust it while breaking it in. I broke it in with 50 grain Remington UMC HP. Here's the target of the 20 break-in shots.
You can probably tell where the first 2 shots were, they're the major outliers. First shot was the one top-right.
After the break-in I got to shoot 5-shot groups of the various other kinds of ammo I brought, here's that target.
The 45gr UMC HP I was actually aiming at the bullseye, so it was still a bit to the right. For the 53gr Hornady V-Max in the top-left I brought it in another 3 clicks to the left and it was shooting pretty much where I was aiming, unless I jerked the trigger, which happened for basically every group here at least once. The 75gr Hornady Super Match in the top-right surprised me. It's keyholing, but still hitting basically where I'm aiming it at 100y. However, I learned that jerking the trigger really accentuates any errors with a keyholing bullet, but I'm just surprised it even hit. Bottom-right is 55gr Remington Core-Lokt. Nothing to write home about, but like I said, I was being rushed. Bottom-left is 55gr Chinese 5.56mm bulk. Noticeable difference in the report of the gun firing this, it was much louder.
So I still have at least another 15 rounds of each of these, and another 20 of the 50gr UMC I used to sight it in, so some other day when I'm not being rushed to pack up and go home I'll have to really take my time and line up shots with noticeable things to aim at (aiming at blank space can be hard) and see if I can't shoot better. But as it stands now, I'm confident that this gun is sighted in, and the only problem with my groups is me.
