What Did You Shoot Today?

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
As a follow-up to my F-Class report, I am dubiously proud to announce that I came in DEAD LAST in the F/O class. I had set a very modest goal of not coming in dead last and failed to achieve it. On the bright side, next match can't be any worse.

All seriousness aside, I suspect that I lost my focus. I was shooting much better in practice sessions where I was not rushing. I think I rushed to shoot and not run out of time and lost my focus as a result. Not an excuse. A reason. Understanding why I shot as I did is key to getting better. Needless to say, I will be shooting in the June match if for no other reason than to confirm that I suck at this.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Probably so but then I've never heard of anyone anywhere in the shooting sports acing it their first time out.
I know. I'm at a point in life where nothing bothers me anymore. And at 70, my dreams of being a child prodigy are probably over. :sigh: I'm content with how I did for my first time out. It's like anything else, if were easy, everybody would be doing it. Most of the shooters on the firing line have been doing this for years. When you consider how much of an effect even the slightest amount off-target has at 1000 yds, hitting the target, Hell, hitting the berm should be cause for celebration. Then throw in wind and mirage and... yeah, I'm content with my results. But, just to be safe, I may change my name for future shoot entries.;)
 

MW65

Wetside, Oregon
...I'm content with how I did for my first time out. It's like anything else, if were easy, everybody would be doing it. ...
This right here is what's important... when I shoot, I'm challenging myself, and trying to beat my old score. Always try to do my continuous improvement, understanding where I can improve during practice, and trying to accomplish it when I'm shooting for score.

Keep it up!!
-Andy
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Over the last 3 days I've shot more RF than I have in probably 10 years .

I finally got to shoot Dad's 917 Marlin , I've never shot a 17 cal anything . I can see what the excitement is of those tiny little rockets is . We shot up most of a half box of the 17 gr 2550 fps advertised 17 HMR .

Had Dad's 67A Winchester out and a 67 he bought about 15 years ago . His 67A he bought with wages pulling ice in Walker Brothers Ice house in Ridgecrest Ca when he was 14 , circa 1953 .

I'd have to say it shoots as well now as it ever did , it doesn't seem to be too fussy about ammo either . I was shooting up left over bench/truck/boxes . Squibman , Super X HP , and Peters repop I bought for the box . The Squibman was made in the plant that is Armscore Precision now .
I got my granddaughter shooting Dad's pretty well with the solids on some spinner steel . And switched her to HPs and had her blowing up pop cans full of water . Funny I think us old guys enjoyed watching the cans blow up as much as she enjoyed blowing them up .

She wanted to shoot the 17 so I moved her out 50 and 75 yd on qt Gatorade bottles and 20 oz aluminum bottles . Pretty spectacular hits . It's not hard to make good hits with a 3 point rest and 12x optics .

Papa doesn't have gear like Ben's but we have a lot of fun .
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Today is the re-scheduled first Bullseye 900 match of the season!!

Wife and I are gonna try to get there hour early so she can test fire a couple new rounds thru her guns. Last minute decision in what she will shoot.

CW
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
.22 Long Range match yesterday. Decided to shoot iron sight on the 52C. Smallbore silhouettes set at 50, 100, 150 and 200 yds. Cleaned the chickens and pigs. Missed one turkey. Fell apart on the rams. Conditions were strange as I had a very high flyer (shooting Norma TAC so not an ammo issue) and two other shooters experienced the same. We suspect headwinds hitting the small berms at shorter yardages were creating updrafts mid-range. Three of us shot together. One shot a very rare Stevens .22 military trainer with Vaver sights. He and I shot exactly the same until we got to ram, where I went to Hell. He shot at 38, which was the highest score for the day and that included guys shooting modern match rifles with scopes. Our prez shot a 37 with irons as well. I shot a 33. I realized that my partner had starting using a different wind flag to call the conditions. By the time I realized it, I was down 6 targets. When he used the flag I wanted him to use, I cleaned the rest. Regardless, I think that high flyer would have bitten me anyway. Jay, the guy who shot 38, had a high flyer too. We thought both of ours had nicked the target and flown high. But I checked the target after and no nicks to be found. Schitt happens, right?
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Head or tail winds will give you high shots over berms from my experience also. A 220 .311” at 1450 fps can go half inch at 200 and 1 1/2” at 300. FWIW
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Head or tail winds will give you high shots over berms from my experience also. A 220 .311” at 1450 fps can go half inch at 200 and 1 1/2” at 300. FWIW
Yeah, those .22 LR SV rounds are just poking along and don't weigh squat. It is amazing how well they do in the wind. When I was spotting the conditions were changing (wind speed, direction and mirage) so much that I sounded more like I was calling a horse race.

We have flags set at 50, 100, 150 and 200 yds and they more often than not, do not agree with each other. Deciding which flag to use is the challenge for most. Even my partner who is a life-long rifle shooter sometimes picks the wrong flag because the right one is out of his line of sight. I have always followed Carlos Hathcock's policy of using the wind reading closest to me as it has an effect for a longer period of time. We still have guys at the club that think that the wind and mirage have zero effect on the bullet. You can lead a horse to water...
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Yeah, those .22 LR SV rounds are just poking along and don't weigh squat. It is amazing how well they do in the wind. When I was spotting the conditions were changing (wind speed, direction and mirage) so much that I sounded more like I was calling a horse race.

We have flags set at 50, 100, 150 and 200 yds and they more often than not, do not agree with each other. Deciding which flag to use is the challenge for most. Even my partner who is a life-long rifle shooter sometimes picks the wrong flag because the right one is out of his line of sight. I have always followed Carlos Hathcock's policy of using the wind reading closest to me as it has an effect for a longer period of time. We still have guys at the club that think that the wind and mirage have zero effect on the bullet. You can lead a horse to water...
I have flags with bearings at 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150. The last 50 yards to the 200 rail is sheltered by trees. My spotter Charlie, sits behind my and has a bunch of dried lawn clippings in the cup holder of the chair he was sitting it. He kept sprinkling those to make his calls for me. The flags are often in non agreement.
 

BBerguson

Official Pennsyltuckian
Sighted in my 17 Fireball (Rem 700) after mounting a different scope on it. A cheap 6x24 Tasco but it’s been reliable on everything I’ve had it on, poor sight picture, but reliable… And I was shooting into the sun which wasn’t helping so it was a short session.

Bore sighted it the old fashioned way (looking through the barrel) and my first shot at 50 yards was 2” right and 2” high. Adjusted and shot two more to make sure and then shot a three shot group at 100 yards to see where I was. I didn’t have my target high enough to clear the grass so I was shooting through the grass, but I could see the bullseye. Shot a 1/2” group that was 1” higher than I like and just a 1/2” left. Fairly windy today so I called that good for now and will get a little more serious on a calm day. Need to shoot in the morning too so the sun will be at my back.
 
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Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Sighted in my 17 Fireball (Rem 700) after mounting a different scope on it. A cheap 6x24 Tasco but it’s been reliable on everything I’ve had it on, poor sight picture, but reliable… And I was shooting into the sun which wasn’t helping so it was a short session.

Bore sighted it the old fashioned way (looking through the barrel) and my first shot at 50 yards was 2” right and 2” high. Adjusted and shot two more to make sure and then shot a three shot group at 100 yards to see where I was. I didn’t have my target high enough to clear the grass so I was shooting through the grass, but I could see the bullseye. Shot a 1/2” group that was 1” higher than I like and just a 1/2” left. Fairly windy today so I called that good for now and will get a little more serious on a calm day. Need to shoot in the morning too so the sun will be at my back.
For those looking for a really nice scope for small money, I highly recommend giving Mueller consideration. They make tactical/target scopes with side focus and they stand behind their products. They are dirt cheap when you consider what you are getting. I have one on my 541S. And with quick detach mounts, you could use it on more than one rifle. I remove the scope after every match as my rifles will not fit in the rack with scopes. I put it on for a match and my setting are right on the money.
 

BBerguson

Official Pennsyltuckian
I just bought a Vortex (my first) for my 350 Legend and am really liking it so far.

That’s a good idea (quick detach scopes) for getting rifles in the safe. I have the same problem…
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Big fan of QD mounts. All of my firearms have QD mounts, except for my Ruger Mark II LH bolt. I use Leupold, Warne and Kimber. All successfully repeat POI. Not a issue of saving space in a walk in vault. I like to have multiple sighing systems. Prefer to have one scope sighted in for jacketed and another for cast, for applicable firearms.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Today was our silver bullet match. We buried the match creator's ashes in the 300 yd berm and played taps.

Round gongs set at 300, 400 and 500 yds. 4 MOA diameter at 300 and 400 and 5 MOA at 500. Shot my 03 with the 20X Unertl. We started at 300 and both my partner and I made exactly the same mistake, too few sighters. I only shot 3, all hit the target and so did my 4th, which I converted for score. The next went high. Made a correction and the next went high. Grrrrrrr... did not shoot enough sighters to properly warm up the gun. Made another correction and drilled the rest of the targets and shot clean at 400 and 500. We both know better. But I'm sure we'll do it again.

Conditions were worst than last week. The day was gorgeous. We started a bit late to let the sun get a bit higher. Black targets in the shade were invisible and we had several shooters using irons sights. Mirage was cookin' as the sun got higher and the wind came and went all day, plus changed direction regularly. I wear Walker electronic muffs so I can hear the banter from other shooters and spotters on the line, and more than one had rounds move way off target with no explanation. There were obviously things going on out there that we could not see.

Match was halted twice when the same deer kept coming out to graze at 300 yds. Second time they chased her off with an SUV and actually charged at her and she got the message and did not return.

Been helping another shooter and it's a challenge. He's 78 and does not always get what I and others are telling him. He's a smart businessman and very successful. But he struggles with grasping some of the concepts we are sharing, or forgets and goes back to old bad habits. He was also shooting a mixed bag of reloads and that to me is just wasting ammo. When you have to adjust your POA for just about every shot, you can't add another variable like different bullet weights to the equation.

A couple of us concluded that the 5 MOA targets are really too big for guys shooting scopes. Not sure what the plan is for the next match using that format.
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
The boy and I just took out the Heritage Rough rider. Shot up about 60 rounds of .22lr Watching the spinner go round..
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
I swapped a 69A for a Model 72 even up. The 72 is grooved for scope and I really need a scope to do head shots on squirrels in the woods reliably. This afternoon I mounted a Leupold Compact 2x7 on it and zeroed for 25 yards with Federal Auto-Match. I am unsure how any ammo could shoot much better as my 3 shot sighter groups were just elongated holes. Once dead center I ate the X out of the target. They by holding 3" high at 80 I hit all the prairie dogs I shot at off hand, (5), and to finish up I tried a 4" square and got that too! Splendid little rifle. Darn it but the old American manufacturers used to be able to build an attractive, accurate, functional rifle.fullsizeoutput_80c.jpeg
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Well, the Henry 308 is a keeper. A few sighters to zero the scope with Amax loads, the 3 shot group (50 yds). The 4 psp 150 coreloc. Had a problem with some of the amax not chambering, though I got them pushed back far enough. Guess not.
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edit: cleaned it today, have a new hammer extension coming from henry, couldn't get the other one to hold.
Got to get used to this scope, really fine reticle so I had to really concentrate on vert and IMHO missed on horiz.
Guess the guy who wrote GRT passed so NO more updates.
 
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david s

Well-Known Member
Have a planned gopher shoot this weekend as long as the weather forecast (rain) is wrong. We walk a logging road that goes thru a bolder field, shots aren't very long so instead of a scoped rifle or 22 L.R., lever guns. Just to confirm sights they get shot. Now to look for gophers up on rocks. I'm taking a Winchester 92 in 25-20 and a pair of Browning recreations of the Winchester 53 and 65. Have the 32-20 case family (32-20, 25-20 and 218 Bee) covered. Also shot the little CZ 7.62X39 Carbine.