I've been wanting to do this for a pretty long time now, I've just never really have enough drive to do it for one reason or another. There was always an excuse ranging from "I don't have the time" down to "I don't have the right vehicle.". It was literally whatever reason I could think of not to do it, even though I've wanted to forever and a day.
So here's the scoop. Like most people, specially those in their earlier years of shooting now days, I've wanted to hit out to 500+ yards, but do it with a better hit then miss rate. However I'm to cheap to actually buy/building a fancy rig to do the job. I also feel like that would kill a lot of the fun since there wouldn't be near as much a challenge if a guy knows it'll be a sure thing every time.
My plan? That's rather simple. Now that I have the time, some what of a better income and a better vehicle to haul gear back and forth, I'm just going to dive into trying to hit 500yrds with a small budget. I was initially going to pick up a Ruger American in 6.5CM since I seen alot of people having good luck with them, but then I thought maybe I would pick one up in .308 since it would be easier to find components and have a better bullet choice. Then I made the choice to go with something a little less main stream right now. I was looking at getting a Mossberg Patriot (.308) for this challenge and putting a fixed power scope on it and then going from there. I was also going to change the stock out since I've never been a fan of the plastic/synthetic stuff.
Now I'm the type of guy who just looks at for sale ads to kill time, I actually do it rather religiously to be honest......it's a bit of an addiction. Anyways, I just so happened to see an ad for a Mossberg 100 ATR where buddy had already changed the stock out for a nice looking Boyds and he still had the 4-16X50 Barska Varminter on it, so that meant half my work was done and I wouldn't have to buy the stock. The only thing I have planned for the stock is to maybe widden the barrel channel a little bit since it seems to be rubbing on the one side ever so slightly. I also want to widen it just for peace of mind too. I'll stop rambling now and get into the more interesting stuff.
I was able to get the rifle out to the "range", which is just a farmers field whose son I grew up and went to school with. It isn't the best spot for doing this test, but it's more of a realistic situation as to where I would normally be shooting since 9/10 times I'm here shooting gophers during the summer. The goal for today was to sight the rifle in, which I did with a cheap box of Win 150gr softpoints, then test some handloads out. Now I don't have all the fancy kit to say how far from the lands I am or anything like that, so I did it this the only way I know how. When loading I did a dummy round and put some marker on the bullet. I kept pushing the bullet into the case a little further until the lands stopped rubbing the marker off and then gave it a little bit extra just to make sure I wasn't jaming the lands.
The bullet of choice is a 168gr BTHP from Nosler in thier Custom Competition line. The reason I chose this is because talking to the rifles previous owner he said that he was having good luck with Hornady's 165gr Superformance loading, but the shop I went to didn't have the 165gr SST in stock and I figured going a little heavier wouldn't hurt. He never said what size groups he was getting, but I just assumed it was averaging 1" at the very least. The brass being used is also from Nosler as well.
The powder of choice is Hodgedon CFE 223, purely because that's just what I had on hand when I got home. Same rule applied to the primers, I had some Federal Champions from when I was loading for a different rifle, so that's what I'll be using. I started these loads right down at the minimum, purely because I was hoping to get lucky and have the rifle shoot good there and it'd be cheaper on powder haha.
I won't lie, the 168gr kicked a bit more then I was expecting compared to the 150gr Win factory loading. The conditions where also a little on the poor side for shooting, but I was tired of being stuck in the house and needed something to do. Here's a screen shot of the weather where I was shooting.
It doesn't show what my weather app was showing that day, but the winds where gusting up to 40k/m. the Only reason I was even remotely okay with doing a load test was because it was a tail wind for the most part and wouldn't have to big an effect on the bullet.
This is the first load, which did no go at all how I was hoping it to go at all. I was rather cold at this point and I was starting to shiver. However even with that, it seemed more like it was a problem with my breathing since there's a huge amount of vertical stringing going on here. I was orginaly going to do 2x 5rd groupings, but the gun holds 3rds so I just went with that.
The shots are numbered, then the circled number is the point of aim for each group. I was actually thinking of just tossing this target, but then decided to keep it.
This was the last target I shot, I was still cold at this point, but I was going in and out of the truck to warm up a little between loads. This is the same story as the first set, my breathing was a little off, other then that it would have been some fairly tight looking groups. Of course they could use some improvement, but I also think it's because I'm not use to shooting this rifle still.
Of course I saved the best target for last. This was with a charger of 47.1gr, I've no idea if this was the rifle or me, but it was the best luck I had that day, so I think I'm going to stick with this loading until two things happen. The first is until it gets warmer and a guy can actually do a proper testing with out chattering. Secondly I'm going to hold off playing with the charge wait until I'm more comfortable with the rifle and feel like I've gotten as much accuracy out of this loading as I can. That's the point where I'll change things and see if I can get closer to a node and reduce the groups further.
It also doesn't help that I didn't have the greatest of shooting position. I was laying on a couple of door mats that I grabbed off the deck as I was leaving the house in case the ground of wet still......it very much was. I also didn't have the best way of holding the targets in place. I was using the frame of a 9.5" gong that I've yet to shoot.
Here's a couple extra pictures from the day.
I'm not sure if I'll keep this updated on a regular basis, but I think if it gets enough interest I will for sure. It's also as easy way to keep records. haha
So here's the scoop. Like most people, specially those in their earlier years of shooting now days, I've wanted to hit out to 500+ yards, but do it with a better hit then miss rate. However I'm to cheap to actually buy/building a fancy rig to do the job. I also feel like that would kill a lot of the fun since there wouldn't be near as much a challenge if a guy knows it'll be a sure thing every time.
My plan? That's rather simple. Now that I have the time, some what of a better income and a better vehicle to haul gear back and forth, I'm just going to dive into trying to hit 500yrds with a small budget. I was initially going to pick up a Ruger American in 6.5CM since I seen alot of people having good luck with them, but then I thought maybe I would pick one up in .308 since it would be easier to find components and have a better bullet choice. Then I made the choice to go with something a little less main stream right now. I was looking at getting a Mossberg Patriot (.308) for this challenge and putting a fixed power scope on it and then going from there. I was also going to change the stock out since I've never been a fan of the plastic/synthetic stuff.
Now I'm the type of guy who just looks at for sale ads to kill time, I actually do it rather religiously to be honest......it's a bit of an addiction. Anyways, I just so happened to see an ad for a Mossberg 100 ATR where buddy had already changed the stock out for a nice looking Boyds and he still had the 4-16X50 Barska Varminter on it, so that meant half my work was done and I wouldn't have to buy the stock. The only thing I have planned for the stock is to maybe widden the barrel channel a little bit since it seems to be rubbing on the one side ever so slightly. I also want to widen it just for peace of mind too. I'll stop rambling now and get into the more interesting stuff.
I was able to get the rifle out to the "range", which is just a farmers field whose son I grew up and went to school with. It isn't the best spot for doing this test, but it's more of a realistic situation as to where I would normally be shooting since 9/10 times I'm here shooting gophers during the summer. The goal for today was to sight the rifle in, which I did with a cheap box of Win 150gr softpoints, then test some handloads out. Now I don't have all the fancy kit to say how far from the lands I am or anything like that, so I did it this the only way I know how. When loading I did a dummy round and put some marker on the bullet. I kept pushing the bullet into the case a little further until the lands stopped rubbing the marker off and then gave it a little bit extra just to make sure I wasn't jaming the lands.
The bullet of choice is a 168gr BTHP from Nosler in thier Custom Competition line. The reason I chose this is because talking to the rifles previous owner he said that he was having good luck with Hornady's 165gr Superformance loading, but the shop I went to didn't have the 165gr SST in stock and I figured going a little heavier wouldn't hurt. He never said what size groups he was getting, but I just assumed it was averaging 1" at the very least. The brass being used is also from Nosler as well.
The powder of choice is Hodgedon CFE 223, purely because that's just what I had on hand when I got home. Same rule applied to the primers, I had some Federal Champions from when I was loading for a different rifle, so that's what I'll be using. I started these loads right down at the minimum, purely because I was hoping to get lucky and have the rifle shoot good there and it'd be cheaper on powder haha.
I won't lie, the 168gr kicked a bit more then I was expecting compared to the 150gr Win factory loading. The conditions where also a little on the poor side for shooting, but I was tired of being stuck in the house and needed something to do. Here's a screen shot of the weather where I was shooting.
It doesn't show what my weather app was showing that day, but the winds where gusting up to 40k/m. the Only reason I was even remotely okay with doing a load test was because it was a tail wind for the most part and wouldn't have to big an effect on the bullet.
This is the first load, which did no go at all how I was hoping it to go at all. I was rather cold at this point and I was starting to shiver. However even with that, it seemed more like it was a problem with my breathing since there's a huge amount of vertical stringing going on here. I was orginaly going to do 2x 5rd groupings, but the gun holds 3rds so I just went with that.
The shots are numbered, then the circled number is the point of aim for each group. I was actually thinking of just tossing this target, but then decided to keep it.
This was the last target I shot, I was still cold at this point, but I was going in and out of the truck to warm up a little between loads. This is the same story as the first set, my breathing was a little off, other then that it would have been some fairly tight looking groups. Of course they could use some improvement, but I also think it's because I'm not use to shooting this rifle still.
Of course I saved the best target for last. This was with a charger of 47.1gr, I've no idea if this was the rifle or me, but it was the best luck I had that day, so I think I'm going to stick with this loading until two things happen. The first is until it gets warmer and a guy can actually do a proper testing with out chattering. Secondly I'm going to hold off playing with the charge wait until I'm more comfortable with the rifle and feel like I've gotten as much accuracy out of this loading as I can. That's the point where I'll change things and see if I can get closer to a node and reduce the groups further.
It also doesn't help that I didn't have the greatest of shooting position. I was laying on a couple of door mats that I grabbed off the deck as I was leaving the house in case the ground of wet still......it very much was. I also didn't have the best way of holding the targets in place. I was using the frame of a 9.5" gong that I've yet to shoot.
Here's a couple extra pictures from the day.
I'm not sure if I'll keep this updated on a regular basis, but I think if it gets enough interest I will for sure. It's also as easy way to keep records. haha
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