The Hunter Marksman Challenge - use your hunting rifle!
- Thread starter Brobee
- Start date
This is an awesome challenge, and not like we need an excuse to get out to the range, but it gives a bit a of incentive. I am waiting for a new one-piece base for my Savage (Axis 30-06 basic model) to get here, and once I get it set up, I will be trying this. I can't remember if there was a time frame, hopefully in the month. My only concern is how much my bullets might wander once my barrel warms up. There could be a lot of fun to be had with SKS's and a challenge like this, some type of war scenario shooting. I do like the accuracy vs time ratio scoring system.
I was at the range yesterday, only rifke I had that was suitable was a Mossberg Patrol in .223,with 10 round mag!I hunt yotes with the .223 so figured why not? I'll probably repeat with my 300,303 and 375
Range was wet and muddy so I didn't want to sit or lie in it. Decided to do 2 offhand and 4 each of kneeling and kneeling supported. I actually did 3 of supported which is why you see me tilt the rifke for last round-checking if there was still ammo in it!
Shot at a 8" gong which you hear clank when hit. This doesn't help with Brobees project but I had fun.
http://youtu.be/EZl3DxceM5M
Cool! Looked like 64 seconds, and I'll have to wait until I get home and can turn up the volume to count the hits. Love that you got out and gave her a whirl, and would LOVE to see you in the exercise with your 300, 303, and 375. Hope your range dries up a bit so I can get some more data for my project, and also hope that in the meantime your awesome .223 fills your stretchers with fur!
Cheers, and thanks!
Brobee
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You are not alone in expressing concern about the length of the string of fire, and I'd be interested to hear how folks think their final two prone rounds were influenced by barrel heat/POI shift. I'll make sure that future exercises in the challenge use strings that are two to five rounds in length with non-measure time for cooling in-between.
Personally, I'd be surprised if your POI shifted enough to cause a meaningful penalty.
Anyway, I can't wait to see how you make out with your new 30-06 Savage!
Cheers, and thanks!
Brobee
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Well...I also have to juggle the highly significant variable of "happy wife, happy life", so I can empathize with your position and respect your very wise choice! I've budgeted 3 or 4 weeks for the collection of the first part of the data set, so hopefully that will work for you.
Appreciate your effort to get out and try the exercise!
Cheers,
Brobee
My buddy DM texted me up this afternoon to see if I wanted to do an impromptu shoot...woohoo!
He came and picked me up so we could chat on the drive out, and we had a blast as we both ran the HMC Baseline and then test-drove the next exercise I'm going to post in a week or two. He shot his Norinco M305 Scout built as well as his Ruger Scout Rifle, both in .308, and I had another go with my 30-06 Ruger No.1.
He had a bit of trouble with the magazine in his Ruger Scout (plastic) that ate his time for that run, and I think the zero for his M305 was a bit to much to the right with the factory ammo we bought on the way out of town. For my run...I think I was feeling some performance anxiety as I really wanted my single-shot to beat out his bolt gun for time, and as I was concentrating on hurrying I threw two...D'OH!
He expressed some anxiety for not ever having shot standing before, and was dreading the walk up to the targets after his first bout. When we got there and started counting hits, that anxiety lifted quite a bit as he did better than he thought he did and is now all keen to do dry-fire positional practice in the basement with his M305 so I set him up with an M1A dry fire device I had made many moons ago. He also expressed interest that he'd never run his bolt gun under stress before and was surprised at how much grief his magazine had given him. He's going to try some metal magazines for our next outing.
Felt like we both learned some things about how we shoot our guns, and overall had a total blast. Can't wait to get out with him again soon. He's a bit shy, so the only way I could convince him to let me post his pics was with a promise to go wild with redaction...
Cheers,
Brobee
He came and picked me up so we could chat on the drive out, and we had a blast as we both ran the HMC Baseline and then test-drove the next exercise I'm going to post in a week or two. He shot his Norinco M305 Scout built as well as his Ruger Scout Rifle, both in .308, and I had another go with my 30-06 Ruger No.1.
He had a bit of trouble with the magazine in his Ruger Scout (plastic) that ate his time for that run, and I think the zero for his M305 was a bit to much to the right with the factory ammo we bought on the way out of town. For my run...I think I was feeling some performance anxiety as I really wanted my single-shot to beat out his bolt gun for time, and as I was concentrating on hurrying I threw two...D'OH!
He expressed some anxiety for not ever having shot standing before, and was dreading the walk up to the targets after his first bout. When we got there and started counting hits, that anxiety lifted quite a bit as he did better than he thought he did and is now all keen to do dry-fire positional practice in the basement with his M305 so I set him up with an M1A dry fire device I had made many moons ago. He also expressed interest that he'd never run his bolt gun under stress before and was surprised at how much grief his magazine had given him. He's going to try some metal magazines for our next outing.
Felt like we both learned some things about how we shoot our guns, and overall had a total blast. Can't wait to get out with him again soon. He's a bit shy, so the only way I could convince him to let me post his pics was with a promise to go wild with redaction...
Cheers,
Brobee
Sherlock Gnomes
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- St.Catharines
This will be my next challenge. I will have to dig up some time to reload some brass.
Took the GSR out this morning coyote hunting so I could try the test on the way back from the field.... I have to admit that it was harder than I thought it would be.... I haven't fired multiple rounds after switching positions since I was in the military and I forgot how tough it could be..... I only brought enough rounds with me to do one string as I had to go to work afterwards, so I decided to go for accuracy versus speed, while taking advantage of the ten round mag.... Yardage was measured out using my GPS....
Some observations:
-Sometimes the rifle was ready when I wasn't... I was able to cycle the next round in while changing positions but found I had to steady myself before firing
-Shooting sitting unsupported sucks, I must have spent at least 10-11 seconds on this alone...
-Ejected cases go really far when you are working the bolt under duress..... lol
Anyhow, I managed to get all ten rounds on target (barely) in a time of 51.2 seconds.... Could likely have been faster, but for the sitting supported I had to grab my monopod and I screwed around a bit trying to get it in place.
Some observations:
-Sometimes the rifle was ready when I wasn't... I was able to cycle the next round in while changing positions but found I had to steady myself before firing
-Shooting sitting unsupported sucks, I must have spent at least 10-11 seconds on this alone...
-Ejected cases go really far when you are working the bolt under duress..... lol
Anyhow, I managed to get all ten rounds on target (barely) in a time of 51.2 seconds.... Could likely have been faster, but for the sitting supported I had to grab my monopod and I screwed around a bit trying to get it in place.
You bet! If its attached to your gun when you shoot the unsupported positions (kneeling, sitting. standing), then by all means open her up and shoot prone & sitting supported off your bipod.
Can't wait to see what you do!
Cheers,
Brobee
Sweet! An awesome time, but even more impressive is 10 rounds all in, especially that one which was by-the-skin-of-your-pants. Would be curious to see your time using the 5 round mags (1 reload) as well as a standard blind box top-loading internal mag (like what I imagine your .243 might be).
Thanks so much,
Brobee
...and as a general note - I had a suggestion on another forum about modifying the scoring system to discount the time variable a bit. While for the purpose of my experiment I'm treating time and hits as separate variables and as such I am less interested in score, his suggestion was quite interesting.
The problem with the scoring system the way I have it proposed is that it disproportionally rewards fast time by comparison to hits. His suggestion was to use the square root of the time in seconds. I think this is an awesome suggestion that still makes time important, but not more-so than hits. I think that in the final presentation of scores this would be the way to go.
Cheers, and thank you all for getting out to try! Can't wait to see what you all come back with.
Brobee
The problem with the scoring system the way I have it proposed is that it disproportionally rewards fast time by comparison to hits. His suggestion was to use the square root of the time in seconds. I think this is an awesome suggestion that still makes time important, but not more-so than hits. I think that in the final presentation of scores this would be the way to go.
Cheers, and thank you all for getting out to try! Can't wait to see what you all come back with.
Brobee
Thanks.... I think my .243 results are going to be much different.... It's top loading, hinged floorplate... What I found with sitting unsupported was that it was very hard to keep the rifle steady windage wise... I can imagine how hard that is going to be with a lighter compact rifle....
One thing I did have going for me is that I have practiced the other three positions extensively at the range... and also have practiced racking the bolt and taking multiple shots with the rifle never leaving my shoulder, so was able to take the first 4 shots (two standing two kneeling) and never take the rifle down.....
One thing I did have going for me is that I have practiced the other three positions extensively at the range... and also have practiced racking the bolt and taking multiple shots with the rifle never leaving my shoulder, so was able to take the first 4 shots (two standing two kneeling) and never take the rifle down.....
Would love to read about your .243 experience in contrast to your GSR (suspect this will sound like the ultimate Ruger ad
), and maybe if we're super-lucky we might get to see a pic of your rifle in the setting of your range? I think my favourite thing about these types of threads is seeing pics of other people in the setting where they did the challenge.My buddy ran one of his challenges with his GSR...he had mega-grief with his mag and it cost him a lot in the time department (I think it flustered up his hits too)...neat to see that you have yours totally ironed out and were able to just crank away on the bolt. Also liked reading about your multi-tasking position changes...
B
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