Sorry about that goofy post. My phone did not seem to play well with the website last night. I just fixed it.
Went to Wilton today and threw 40 rounds at 150, 200, 300, 400, and 500 yds. The gun will shoot!! Load was 11.8 gr of 2400, which was the smallest group from yesterday's testing.
Since I already had a 100 yd zero, I started at 150. I cranked the scope up 8 minutes and hit just to the left of center on a 12 inch plate. I put several more all using a center hold. Here's the target with an MOA grid overlaid. There are 3 shots on the target. High left was the first with a clean bore. Next 2 are on top of each other. If you look at the plate, you can see that it is clocked to about 1:00 for how it actually hung by looking at the hanger that is just barely visible. So, the vertical displacement is not as much as it appears in the photo. In all the testing I've done with this rifle, the first shot thru a clean, cold bore always goes left of the following shots.
Here is the 500 yd target. 26 inch round plate. Again with MOA gride over laid. What you see are sighters as well as corrected shots. The wind started to pick up. I made correction under the same conditions and started drilling the center. I stopped making corrections and did not hold off for the wind to see just how far the wind would push the round. It pushed it off the target at 3:00 during a strong 9 to 3 blow. You can see the hole in the dirt at about 3:30. But otherwise, with both 9 to 3 and 3 to 9 winds, I stayed on the target. I suspect we had some winds that came at an downward angle over the berm and pushed a few rounds down. Note that none were pushed much higher than the group in the middle. As you can see, that group in hte middle has a number of rounds within 1 MOA and a greater number within less than 1.5 MOA. It was the 2nd to last shot that got blown off the target at 3:00 and for the last round, that same wind continued to blow. So, I held at 9:00 on the end of the target and put the last round in the center. Needless to say, I'm very pleased with how this rifle and bullet shoot.
I did not shoot all the rounds over the chrono. Other guys were shooting today and I did not want to be a PITA by making them rack their rifles every time I wanted to move my chono to the next target. It is sure making me want to buy a Lab Radar. I need to look at them and see if they send the numbers to your phone. I did put 11 of the 40 over the chrono. I deleted the first shot as it was thru a clean bore. ES for the remaining 10 rounds was 54 fps and SD was 17. Not outstanding numbers. But not bad either. Some of the vertical displacement might have been from those velocity differences. I should have been watching the chrono after every shot to see if a change in elevation lined up with an appropriate change in velocity. I had 5 guys watching me and asking questions, making comments, etc. Hard to stay focused when that happens. Might go back on a nice calm day when I know there won't be anyone there and get a lot more anal about what is going on. It may also be a waste of time and it is purely a conditions thing.
Let me try to give you guys an idea of what can drive conditions at Wilton and makes this range both fun and challenging.
Here is the view of the range taken earlier this year when there was snow on the ground. I put a yellow circle where that 26 inch plate is at 500 yds.
Now let me zoom in closer to the 500 yd berm. On the left side of the range is a .22 BPCR course of fire. The yellow arrow points to the last line of target stands, which are at 300 yds. You can see the 200 yd stands in front of those and to the right. You cannot see it due to the snow, but behind those black beams are short berms. When we shoot at the 500 yd targets, we shoot over those berms. We suspect that headwinds coming over the 500 yd berm, and towards the firing line hit those .22 berms and create updraftd that push the bullets up and right or left depending on the angle of the wind. You cannot see it from the firing line and those winds have made more than one shooter go "WFT???!!!" after sending a round downrange. I keep threatening to put a flag at the 300 yd .22 BPCR berm. But so far, I haven't done it.
Well, that's it for now. Rifle will get tested in 2 weeks at the next silhouette match.
