Many of us have plenty of rounds down range under controlled conditions, from the bench or prone shooting paper at known distances, but it can be hard to quantify just how easy it may be to shoot the Grendel at real world targets under field conditions.
In the process of working on a problematical 7mm WSM, I was talking with a gunsmith who mentioned that there was a field match about 70 miles from my home. I havent shot a match of this type, so I thought it would be a good experience. Eastern Washington has had its mildest winter in years, and the last two weeks have seen temperatures pushing 60 most days, so I thought it would be a good chance to get a little fun trigger time.
However, February and March are my traditional "annual tear down and clean" months, particularly as I get ready for Boomershoot the last week of April. In that process, I had returned the Nikon scope off the LRRPF52 masterpiece "Viper Grendel" as it had failed and an inner O ring was visibly detached and falling into the field of view. Nikon had been unable to repair it, and had sent me a replacement scope, but I had returned that in exchange for another, more desirable scope. That meant that my scopes had been playing a bit of "ring around the rosy" as I decided what worked best where, and combined with the cleaning regimen none of my suitable rifles had a zeroed scope on it.
This group http://sportsmanschallenge.weebly.com was doing their monthly shoot, and it was scheduled to be a small game match, meaning distances out to 600 yards and limited to "non magnum" cartridges, so the Ulfbehrt and WSM were out of the running.
I pulled out the 28" GSR, but since it had no scope mounted, and I didn't find out until late Thursday about the match, it was going to be interesting. I got home from work Friday after dark, and dropped my 5.5-22 Nightforce NXS onto the upper, and then bore sighted it by setting the upper on the roof of my wifes car and focusing on my across the street neighbors front porch light, all the while wondering exactly what I would say when the SWAT team showed up because someone had reported me! I had lasered the light in the past and knew it was exactly 70 yards away. This rifle shoots the factory AMAX really well, so I was comfortable taking it, even with a clean barrel and no zero.
That done, I planned on arriving an hour early and zeroing it at the match. Best laid plans of mouse and men...........Saturday morning dawned clear and bright, but with temps at freezing and winds at 15-20 MPH! I arrived, only to find that the information I had was an hour off, and shooting started at 0800. I was assigned a group and jumped in, knowing it would take me a few targets to get close to an actual zero.
The competition was 3 stages of 5 targets each, 1 point for first shot hit, 1/2 point for second shot. I knew that I could hit the coyote at 213 yards, even with no zero, but that all the rest of the targets would be a real challenge. I was able to get on the coyote simply dialing up from my boresight, but the rest of the targets were steel rock chucks and rabbits at ranges from 220 to 525 yards. I was happy to get close enough to them to actually be able to see impacts! But each target was a little closer, so I knew I was on the right track.
Second set was better, but the targets were tough, with rock chucks at 388, 425, and 218, and bobcat at 457. The rabbit at 438 was way out there and protected by a gully. Everyone was having some difficulty with that one. This time I got onto 3 of five, with a hit on the 218 chuck, the bobcat, and the chuck at 425. The other two I scared, but didn't hit. By the last two targets I knew that I was getting really close to a good zero.
The final set of targets was with a 3/4 value wind, averaging 18 MPH, but with gusting up into the 20's. The rabbit at 197 proved tough for the early shooters, until they figured out it was downhill AND protected from the wind by its location. I got a first round hit, then moved to the coyote at 464, running the bullet right into his head after I dialed in 2 MOA of wind and held the wind side of the target. The Chuck at 288 took two shots, with the first just missing the wind side edge. The bobcat at 255 was also a windside edge miss, but second round hit. At this point I knew that the wind was up and down, so I waited on the strong winds and babied the trigger onto a first round hit on the 220 yard crow. The bonus target was an Easter egg at about 255 yards above the crow, and I burned the bottom edge, missing because I didn't add back in enough elevation, but nailing the windage.
It was a great chance to practice wind shooting, even though very cold, and I was really happy with my adjustments, after not having shot any long range since Boomershoot last year.
What made me the happiest is that I now know I am competitive in the group. I had the only autoloader there, all of the other competitive rifles were bolt guns, and there was a lot of money there wrapped up in the systems. Some of the shooters were exceptional and well known in the long range field. I won't probably ever beat them, but shooting a relatively low power cartridge against .260's, 6.5 Creedmoors, 6 Creedmoors, etc. I didn't feel like I was out of the running once I got a zero. Rangefinders included some military grade stuff, with Vectronix well represented, as well as one which could range out to 30,000 yards!
It was a lot of fun, and I'll try to make that shoot a lot more regularly!
d
In the process of working on a problematical 7mm WSM, I was talking with a gunsmith who mentioned that there was a field match about 70 miles from my home. I havent shot a match of this type, so I thought it would be a good experience. Eastern Washington has had its mildest winter in years, and the last two weeks have seen temperatures pushing 60 most days, so I thought it would be a good chance to get a little fun trigger time.
However, February and March are my traditional "annual tear down and clean" months, particularly as I get ready for Boomershoot the last week of April. In that process, I had returned the Nikon scope off the LRRPF52 masterpiece "Viper Grendel" as it had failed and an inner O ring was visibly detached and falling into the field of view. Nikon had been unable to repair it, and had sent me a replacement scope, but I had returned that in exchange for another, more desirable scope. That meant that my scopes had been playing a bit of "ring around the rosy" as I decided what worked best where, and combined with the cleaning regimen none of my suitable rifles had a zeroed scope on it.
This group http://sportsmanschallenge.weebly.com was doing their monthly shoot, and it was scheduled to be a small game match, meaning distances out to 600 yards and limited to "non magnum" cartridges, so the Ulfbehrt and WSM were out of the running.
I pulled out the 28" GSR, but since it had no scope mounted, and I didn't find out until late Thursday about the match, it was going to be interesting. I got home from work Friday after dark, and dropped my 5.5-22 Nightforce NXS onto the upper, and then bore sighted it by setting the upper on the roof of my wifes car and focusing on my across the street neighbors front porch light, all the while wondering exactly what I would say when the SWAT team showed up because someone had reported me! I had lasered the light in the past and knew it was exactly 70 yards away. This rifle shoots the factory AMAX really well, so I was comfortable taking it, even with a clean barrel and no zero.
That done, I planned on arriving an hour early and zeroing it at the match. Best laid plans of mouse and men...........Saturday morning dawned clear and bright, but with temps at freezing and winds at 15-20 MPH! I arrived, only to find that the information I had was an hour off, and shooting started at 0800. I was assigned a group and jumped in, knowing it would take me a few targets to get close to an actual zero.
The competition was 3 stages of 5 targets each, 1 point for first shot hit, 1/2 point for second shot. I knew that I could hit the coyote at 213 yards, even with no zero, but that all the rest of the targets would be a real challenge. I was able to get on the coyote simply dialing up from my boresight, but the rest of the targets were steel rock chucks and rabbits at ranges from 220 to 525 yards. I was happy to get close enough to them to actually be able to see impacts! But each target was a little closer, so I knew I was on the right track.
Second set was better, but the targets were tough, with rock chucks at 388, 425, and 218, and bobcat at 457. The rabbit at 438 was way out there and protected by a gully. Everyone was having some difficulty with that one. This time I got onto 3 of five, with a hit on the 218 chuck, the bobcat, and the chuck at 425. The other two I scared, but didn't hit. By the last two targets I knew that I was getting really close to a good zero.
The final set of targets was with a 3/4 value wind, averaging 18 MPH, but with gusting up into the 20's. The rabbit at 197 proved tough for the early shooters, until they figured out it was downhill AND protected from the wind by its location. I got a first round hit, then moved to the coyote at 464, running the bullet right into his head after I dialed in 2 MOA of wind and held the wind side of the target. The Chuck at 288 took two shots, with the first just missing the wind side edge. The bobcat at 255 was also a windside edge miss, but second round hit. At this point I knew that the wind was up and down, so I waited on the strong winds and babied the trigger onto a first round hit on the 220 yard crow. The bonus target was an Easter egg at about 255 yards above the crow, and I burned the bottom edge, missing because I didn't add back in enough elevation, but nailing the windage.
It was a great chance to practice wind shooting, even though very cold, and I was really happy with my adjustments, after not having shot any long range since Boomershoot last year.
What made me the happiest is that I now know I am competitive in the group. I had the only autoloader there, all of the other competitive rifles were bolt guns, and there was a lot of money there wrapped up in the systems. Some of the shooters were exceptional and well known in the long range field. I won't probably ever beat them, but shooting a relatively low power cartridge against .260's, 6.5 Creedmoors, 6 Creedmoors, etc. I didn't feel like I was out of the running once I got a zero. Rangefinders included some military grade stuff, with Vectronix well represented, as well as one which could range out to 30,000 yards!
It was a lot of fun, and I'll try to make that shoot a lot more regularly!
d
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