Need help

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RoscoeP

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Well I am going to my first bench rest shoot the second week in May with my own gear(rifle etc) I have been once but was loaned everything and didn't even have to adjust the scope when we changed distance, my friend did it all for me. We only shot as far as 300 yards and I thought I did pretty well, I shot a 30BR with a 36X scope.

I will be shooting my Savage 12 BVSS in .223 with a 20X scope. I am working on loads now and just loaded up another batch to test before I load a bunch.
The main problem is that I can only shoot at 100 yards right now and we will be shooting as far as 500 yards at the shoot. I am not expecting to win anything, just want to learn and have a good time.

My thought is try and figure out the velocity(don't have a crono) in theory then figure the drop out to 500 yds, then figure out how many clicks to give the scope and hope to be on paper with my sighters. Hope I am on track here, I know it would be better if I could shoot out to 500 yds before, but I havn't even figured out my load yet although I have one I am hoping on.

Another problem is I don't think I will be able to see the bullet holes past 3-400 yds. I have a spotting scope but it always seems to move between shots and a pain to realign.
Any suggestions to help me have an enjoyable time at the shoot. Any ideas much appreciated. Thanks Roscoe
 
Look at my website for tuning tips. Without testing further, you are flying blind on what will happen at 500yds.

You will not see the fine tweaks needed at 100yds.

75gr Berger VLD, Varget, CCI 450, Win cases. Load to around 2900fps. Keep your vertical to zero - you want all shots to only cut a flat line at 100yds.

Add the data into JBM and hope for the best.

If this is bench rest, unless they spot your sighters, you are in for a rough ride

Jerry
 
My first outing at the range I shot 10, 3 shot groups, five were with Hornady 52 gr bullets and five groups were with Hornady 68 gr bullets. I fired 2 shots with factory ammo to start and cleaned the rifle after the first five groups. All groups were .5 gr different.

I fired 2 more foulers before starting with the 68 gr bullets. The 4 factory foulers fired at the same target measured 3.434" (Win white box) The groups with the 52 gr bullets measured between 0.521 and 0.797"

I had my best group with the 68 gr bullets at 0.158" but the other 4 groups were between 0.653 to 1.539 which was the only group over 1"

So this afternoon I loaded 15 rounds the same as the 0.158 group and will see if they repeat. I also loaded 5 three shot groups the same as the first time with the 52 gr bullets but moved the free bore to .010 off the lands(they were .020 the first time)
All of the first 52 gr groups had 2 holes touching and one just off abit so thought they may have promise as I am pretty new and need to figure which shooting style works best for me. Seemed the longer I stared at the reticle the blurier it became.
Also I have not done anything to the trigger yet, so I may try and lighten it abit soon and the stock is not glass bedded.
Thanks for the comments Jerry and tigrr, like I said just doing this because I like to shoot and want to learn more, may take a few shoots to get better but you can always learn more.
Thanks for the help. Cheers Roscoe
 
With good (i.e. $1000-class) optics, it is difficult to see bullet holes at 300; if the bullet is in the black, or if lighting conditions are poor, or if there is a fair bit of mirage, it can happen that even with good optics you won't be able to see bullet holes at 300.

Beyond 300, it can be difficult to impossible to see bullet holes (sometimes you can see the bullet holes, especially with exceptionally good optics, and if the lighting conditions are favourable, etc). Interesting though that may be, it's useful to plan on the basis "can't see bullet holes at 300 and beyond".

If this is a match that is being run on a conventional highpower range, it will probably be arranged that you are shown the position of each shot you fire.

If you don't have a chronograph, you can make an educated guess as to your muzzle velocity, and work out a drop table (here's another vote for "JBM"). What you want in your drop table is not how many inches at how many yards..... the *important* information you need is how many MINUTES OF ANGLE of scope adjustment are needed for each of the distance increases you are making (e.g. from 100 to 200, from 200 to 300, 300 to 400, etc). Your scope's adjustments are graduated in minutes (in most scopes, 4 clicks gives you one MINUTE OF ANGLE adjustment).

Keep a small notebook for your rifle - at every distance you shoot, every time you fire, you should record your sights settings, the ammo you used, etc.
 
Well the shoot didn't go to bad except for the 500 yd relay. We shot at 100 yds then jumped to 500 yds. I had figured my moa adjustments from a balistics program but they were approximate as I did not have the use of a cronograph.
At 500 yds we had a large 2'x3' approx. piece of green cardboard with an orange bull approx. 4" for sighters then a decent size gopher target with a bull and were supposed to shoot 5 shots for score and group size.
Well my first shot at the sighter target I could not see any holes even with my 45 power spotting scope.(my rifle had a 20x) which was probably the lowest power scope there.
So I shot holding on the top of the target then the bottom, nothing. So I stated using the milldots as reference points for hold over etc. Well after 8 shots and nothing I talked to my buddy who introduced me to the sport and he had a look down range with his scope. After a minute or so of looking he said there is a bullet hole about 4" to the right of the bull. So I took a look and sure enough perfect height but I had no clue which shot I had made that with of the last eight. The relay was winding down so I didn't shoot any more, I couldn't even remember the 8 different aiming points I used.
I really want to get on paper at 500 at the June shoot so I am going to try and get some help while I am there and keep notes. I used 12.8 moa adjustment for the scope at 500 yds. I believe I used 2700 or 2750 fps as my velocity with the 68 gr HPBT. I am going to look a lot more carefully at my targets this time.
Any ideas of what I could do better next time around? When we moved back to 300 I used 5 moa and was pretty close, same balistics program. Thanks for the help. Cheers Roscoe
 
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