05-02-2014, 12:59 AM
All finally had the opportunity to take the Grendel out to 1100yds today. IT WAS AWSOME!!! I have been trying to find a day to go out to Bangsteel (http://bangsteel.com/) and spend the day with Dan Newberry for the last several months. Dan is a great guy, very knowledgeable about ballistics and long range shooting. Prior to today, the farthest I had been able to shoot my Grendel was 300yds. While I was confident in my gear, the only time in my life I had shot at farther than 500m was with a scout sniper on my shoulder firing a Barrett .50 (2 shots) or a M 40A3 (10 shots) on a sniper training range. It has, unfortunately been a very long time since I was able to do that. (Sorry, no pics!)
Gear Used
AA 19.5 Grendel with Leopold MkIV 4-14 with Burris A-PERP. Lower is AA with an AA Tactical Blade trigger, carbine length buffer tube with Magpul CTR stock and Enidine buffer. El Cheapo bipod, stock bag, and factory Hornady 123gr A-max.
About the course
I did a one day private clinic with Dan. We spent about an hour going over the finer points of shooting at long range, including talking about mils vs MOA, angle cosine, and the effects of wind and how to adjust for the wind, and range estimation. Dan is a firm beliver in keeping it simple, and I appreciated several of the tricks he showed me, as well as reminding me about a lot of things I had forgotten since I was a range coach 25 years ago. Then it was off to the range.
The range is right outside of Bland VA with steel targets ranging from 200yds to 1100yds with live cows spread throughout (they stayed away from the targets, so no veal). After confirming the rifles 100yd zero, we started working our way out to 1000yds. The steel targets varied in size from 12 to 24, with some animal silhouettes at unknown distances. Dan served as my spotter and we talked about the data to put on the rifle, and he helped me make changes as needed. Once we got on steel at 1000yds, we decided to see if there was enough elevation on the rifle to hit 1100, and there was barely! We then went back and confirmed the data at each range.
We did not use any wind anemometers and the wind was tough to judge. Never got very strong, but varied in speed from about 8 to 15mph, and would switch from a full value to a half value. It was also swirling in the gullies where some of the targets were, so there were more than a few missed shots.
We then moved to range estimation on some of the animal silhouettes (no laser range finder, based ranges on size of animal silhouette/what the animal was). I was about 50% for first round hits here, so I have some work to do.
Overall, it was a great day and I am glad I went. Dan is a great guy down to earth as well as knowledgeable and I would recommend his courses if you want some good training or going to the competitions he puts on for anyone who wanted to get some 1000yds steel shooting in.
Gear Used
AA 19.5 Grendel with Leopold MkIV 4-14 with Burris A-PERP. Lower is AA with an AA Tactical Blade trigger, carbine length buffer tube with Magpul CTR stock and Enidine buffer. El Cheapo bipod, stock bag, and factory Hornady 123gr A-max.
About the course
I did a one day private clinic with Dan. We spent about an hour going over the finer points of shooting at long range, including talking about mils vs MOA, angle cosine, and the effects of wind and how to adjust for the wind, and range estimation. Dan is a firm beliver in keeping it simple, and I appreciated several of the tricks he showed me, as well as reminding me about a lot of things I had forgotten since I was a range coach 25 years ago. Then it was off to the range.
The range is right outside of Bland VA with steel targets ranging from 200yds to 1100yds with live cows spread throughout (they stayed away from the targets, so no veal). After confirming the rifles 100yd zero, we started working our way out to 1000yds. The steel targets varied in size from 12 to 24, with some animal silhouettes at unknown distances. Dan served as my spotter and we talked about the data to put on the rifle, and he helped me make changes as needed. Once we got on steel at 1000yds, we decided to see if there was enough elevation on the rifle to hit 1100, and there was barely! We then went back and confirmed the data at each range.
We did not use any wind anemometers and the wind was tough to judge. Never got very strong, but varied in speed from about 8 to 15mph, and would switch from a full value to a half value. It was also swirling in the gullies where some of the targets were, so there were more than a few missed shots.
We then moved to range estimation on some of the animal silhouettes (no laser range finder, based ranges on size of animal silhouette/what the animal was). I was about 50% for first round hits here, so I have some work to do.
Overall, it was a great day and I am glad I went. Dan is a great guy down to earth as well as knowledgeable and I would recommend his courses if you want some good training or going to the competitions he puts on for anyone who wanted to get some 1000yds steel shooting in.
