So, after being shut out so far by late snow, horrible bugs, too few days off etc., RTCommando and I decided to finally get out and shake the dust off our rifles, and see if the scopes had held zero over the winter.
Went out to the local gravel pit (no ranges around here longer than about 75yrds) and set up some paper at 100m (to check groupings and zero), a steel IDPA-style torso at 225m, and 10" and 6" gongs at 275m (about the longest distance we can get at this particular spot). Was about 24C, light winds almost head on, and mercifully few bugs today (though we did get a few bites... nothing like having a deer fly dig it's mouth into your arm just as your about to squeeze the trigger...)
This was a chance to try out some of my loads I had made over the winter, and to also try the new LabRadar chronograph. The labradar worked quite well once we had it lined up properly. The little sighting notch on the top isn't terribly good at getting it lined up - a little trial and error, but we finally got it. It would have helped a lot to have the flat base plate for it, I just had it mounted to a low, cheap, spotting scope tripod, but I found that kept it too high above the barrels of the rifles while prone, so we had to try and lay it out lower to the ground. I may try and rig up a flat, low base plate for it.
RTCommando managed this group with his Savage FT/R
0.431 moa, and most of that spread horizontal. I'd say that load shows promise in his rifle.
I did a little worse with this one, from my Tikka T3 Sporter
0.479 moa, with more vertical.
We then managed to ring both gongs consistently at the 275m distance.
Took out my recently built Breda Garand in 308 (shout out to Nick at Vulcan Gun Refinishing, who did an amazing job at assembling this from a receiver and parts kit I had!)
Both RTCommando and I were hitting 5-6 out of 8 shots on the steel torso at 225m consistently. We thought that was pretty good, since the color of the target wasn't far off the color of the sand it was on, and we could barely make out the darn thing at that distance! I suppose for those that trained with this type of rifle back in the day, this would have been pretty run of the mill, but for us "younger" guys used to optics, we thought we were doing well with iron sights!
Then, a little bit of rimfire fun before packing it in.
Chiappa Little Badger I bought to keep out at the camp, for pest control.
Pietta PPS-50 with Wildcat stock that my cousin bought recently (he was kind enough to let us borrow it, even though he couldn't make it out today). If I was buying one myself, I would have been tempted to get the wood stocked one, more "classic" look, but this one was pretty fun shooting at the gongs from about 50m.
50 round drum for the PPS-50, loaded up and ready to go.
Had one double feed during the 50 rounds out of the drum, otherwise no issues except we had only brought about 60 rounds of .22, so we each got half a drum before packing up for the day.
Next time: paper targets out to 250-275m to see what kind of groupings we can get at that distance, because even the 6" gong was a bit too easy at that distance... Here's to hoping to get out again in two weeks or so!
Went out to the local gravel pit (no ranges around here longer than about 75yrds) and set up some paper at 100m (to check groupings and zero), a steel IDPA-style torso at 225m, and 10" and 6" gongs at 275m (about the longest distance we can get at this particular spot). Was about 24C, light winds almost head on, and mercifully few bugs today (though we did get a few bites... nothing like having a deer fly dig it's mouth into your arm just as your about to squeeze the trigger...)
This was a chance to try out some of my loads I had made over the winter, and to also try the new LabRadar chronograph. The labradar worked quite well once we had it lined up properly. The little sighting notch on the top isn't terribly good at getting it lined up - a little trial and error, but we finally got it. It would have helped a lot to have the flat base plate for it, I just had it mounted to a low, cheap, spotting scope tripod, but I found that kept it too high above the barrels of the rifles while prone, so we had to try and lay it out lower to the ground. I may try and rig up a flat, low base plate for it.
RTCommando managed this group with his Savage FT/R
0.431 moa, and most of that spread horizontal. I'd say that load shows promise in his rifle.
I did a little worse with this one, from my Tikka T3 Sporter
0.479 moa, with more vertical.
We then managed to ring both gongs consistently at the 275m distance.
Took out my recently built Breda Garand in 308 (shout out to Nick at Vulcan Gun Refinishing, who did an amazing job at assembling this from a receiver and parts kit I had!)
Both RTCommando and I were hitting 5-6 out of 8 shots on the steel torso at 225m consistently. We thought that was pretty good, since the color of the target wasn't far off the color of the sand it was on, and we could barely make out the darn thing at that distance! I suppose for those that trained with this type of rifle back in the day, this would have been pretty run of the mill, but for us "younger" guys used to optics, we thought we were doing well with iron sights!
Then, a little bit of rimfire fun before packing it in.
Chiappa Little Badger I bought to keep out at the camp, for pest control.
Pietta PPS-50 with Wildcat stock that my cousin bought recently (he was kind enough to let us borrow it, even though he couldn't make it out today). If I was buying one myself, I would have been tempted to get the wood stocked one, more "classic" look, but this one was pretty fun shooting at the gongs from about 50m.
50 round drum for the PPS-50, loaded up and ready to go.
Had one double feed during the 50 rounds out of the drum, otherwise no issues except we had only brought about 60 rounds of .22, so we each got half a drum before packing up for the day.
Next time: paper targets out to 250-275m to see what kind of groupings we can get at that distance, because even the 6" gong was a bit too easy at that distance... Here's to hoping to get out again in two weeks or so!
