Who: My 18 y/o and I
What: Steel targets from 800 to 1200m
Where: Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex, on the backside of Fort Carson Range 17. It is south of Colorado Springs, just off the I-25, take exit 132 at Fountain, Colorado (the same exit you'd take for Fort Carson's gate 20 entrance). After exiting I-25, turn as you would entering post and the left turn to CMSC is at the Fort Carson entry turn-around. It is an excellent facility and staffed by an outstanding, knowledgeable, shooter friendly crew.
When: 1/31/21
How: Badger M2008 SA, AIAX Chassis, Lawton Precision barrel chambered in 6.5x47 Ackley Improved, firing hand loaded 139 Lapua Scenar OTM over 38.5gr RL17 in 6.5 x47 AI, Lapua brass with ff shoulder.
We planned to shoot the steel targets on range one at CMSC. The targets are described in the website as being at 800 and 1000 so we figured they’d that’d be challenging and allow us to get some rifle handling and trigger mechanics practice in. I’d fired this gun a couple years ago at the long range on Peacemaker in WV so I knew it and my handholds were capable. I’d tall tested the scope, confirming it would track at distance as well. The gear was tested and verified, were we?
After years of service rifle competition, I tired of holding the weighted beast up and peering through irons at 600M. All while slinged (strapped) into what felt like a straight jacket. Eventually, I sold my Kowa spotter. Due to shooting the known distance ranges on Quantico and other modern mechanical ranges, I never really needed a personally owned LRF. All that to say once we hit range-one on CMSC we were told the steel targets get moved around for match shooting so there is no telling what actual distance they were sitting at up to 1200M. Attemting to shoot over 1000M without solid ranging? We figured we were buggered. Yes, they have 100 yd paper stands and even some steel between 500 and 800 but we were ready to test ourselves at 1000M. Rather than quit and shoot paper, we agreed to try estimating the range and call corrections. As anyone who’s tried it knows, it’s easier said than done.
It was a beautiful, clear day with forecasted visibility to 10 miles. It was warm, 51 degrees, a nice southerly breeze at 4-6kts, altitude there is 5660 ft and the barometer was holding at 30.13. Range one shoots east to west. As it happens we arrived there around 1500. The sun was beginning to drop which caused the outermost containment berm to cast a shadow on the target line.
It appeared to us that the furthest line of steel targets were just below the rearmost berm, easy to call since we were told the berm is at approx 1200m. The targets weren’t far below the outermost berm rise. Since we didn’t have an accurate range and wanted to be careful to avoid sending any projectiles off range by, we wanted to shoot short. We started with range corrections for 1100m distance. I plugged it into AB mobile app on my iPhone, already populated with the gun and bullet/load velocity profiles. I dialed the corrections which seemed like an eternity counting little up-clicks.
We were relieved to see the rounds spot short but it was a bear to estimate the needed ‘add’ range for corrections considering our lack of optics and the sun in our eyes. My 18y/o did a great job calling adjustments from the table and we methodically walked the round up to the target in the next few rounds. Once we got into that shadow, we had such difficulty seeing the shots land that I went into rent a spotter at the counter.
After six total rounds fired we made range and I hit the target with 1200m of correction on the scope. I fired four more landing 3, apparently pushing one over the right shoulder.
Now it was my 18 y/o chance to apply his marksmanship and rifle handling to the test. This kid had a ruger 10/22 in a cut down youth stock when he was six. He graduated to a youth rem 700 in .243 (he called it the elephant gun when he was ten) and eventually we bedded it into a magpul hunter when those hit the market. I’m saying all this so you know, he was taught all the fundamentals by me and some very well known military service rifle shooters over the years. Still, as you all know - ELR is something altogether different than shooting a 5 rd sub MOA string at 100 yds. As happy as I was to have made hits, I was nervous to see if he would be crushed by the “mindfucker” or distance. He’s a math major, did 2 years in the math department at GMU while in high school and is already taking graduate level math at a well regarded Colorado engineering school. I want him to continue to love shooting and even more - to love ELR.
He took his time getting set behind the gun, he calmly nailed five straight shots. We’d said on the way to the range that if we hit the damn target at 1000, we weren’t going to shout like little girls. We kept it together when I hit, but we were ecstatic at his hits. We’ve had many fine times between deployments as father and son on the shooting range, shot thousands of rounds together from the time he could hardly hoist his little ruger rifle. I’ve always been proud of his skill and ability to take coaching. As I write this gentlemen, it’s brought tears to my old eyes.
In summary, we fired 15 rounds at a man-sized, upper silhouette target at 1200M and scored 9 hits. Given our challenges, and all the things we needed to do right for success we were pretty stoked. Needless to say, we’ll be going back to CMSC very soon to see what we can do with a new LRF.
Edited for grammar.
What: Steel targets from 800 to 1200m
Where: Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex, on the backside of Fort Carson Range 17. It is south of Colorado Springs, just off the I-25, take exit 132 at Fountain, Colorado (the same exit you'd take for Fort Carson's gate 20 entrance). After exiting I-25, turn as you would entering post and the left turn to CMSC is at the Fort Carson entry turn-around. It is an excellent facility and staffed by an outstanding, knowledgeable, shooter friendly crew.
When: 1/31/21
How: Badger M2008 SA, AIAX Chassis, Lawton Precision barrel chambered in 6.5x47 Ackley Improved, firing hand loaded 139 Lapua Scenar OTM over 38.5gr RL17 in 6.5 x47 AI, Lapua brass with ff shoulder.
We planned to shoot the steel targets on range one at CMSC. The targets are described in the website as being at 800 and 1000 so we figured they’d that’d be challenging and allow us to get some rifle handling and trigger mechanics practice in. I’d fired this gun a couple years ago at the long range on Peacemaker in WV so I knew it and my handholds were capable. I’d tall tested the scope, confirming it would track at distance as well. The gear was tested and verified, were we?
After years of service rifle competition, I tired of holding the weighted beast up and peering through irons at 600M. All while slinged (strapped) into what felt like a straight jacket. Eventually, I sold my Kowa spotter. Due to shooting the known distance ranges on Quantico and other modern mechanical ranges, I never really needed a personally owned LRF. All that to say once we hit range-one on CMSC we were told the steel targets get moved around for match shooting so there is no telling what actual distance they were sitting at up to 1200M. Attemting to shoot over 1000M without solid ranging? We figured we were buggered. Yes, they have 100 yd paper stands and even some steel between 500 and 800 but we were ready to test ourselves at 1000M. Rather than quit and shoot paper, we agreed to try estimating the range and call corrections. As anyone who’s tried it knows, it’s easier said than done.
It was a beautiful, clear day with forecasted visibility to 10 miles. It was warm, 51 degrees, a nice southerly breeze at 4-6kts, altitude there is 5660 ft and the barometer was holding at 30.13. Range one shoots east to west. As it happens we arrived there around 1500. The sun was beginning to drop which caused the outermost containment berm to cast a shadow on the target line.
It appeared to us that the furthest line of steel targets were just below the rearmost berm, easy to call since we were told the berm is at approx 1200m. The targets weren’t far below the outermost berm rise. Since we didn’t have an accurate range and wanted to be careful to avoid sending any projectiles off range by, we wanted to shoot short. We started with range corrections for 1100m distance. I plugged it into AB mobile app on my iPhone, already populated with the gun and bullet/load velocity profiles. I dialed the corrections which seemed like an eternity counting little up-clicks.
We were relieved to see the rounds spot short but it was a bear to estimate the needed ‘add’ range for corrections considering our lack of optics and the sun in our eyes. My 18y/o did a great job calling adjustments from the table and we methodically walked the round up to the target in the next few rounds. Once we got into that shadow, we had such difficulty seeing the shots land that I went into rent a spotter at the counter.
After six total rounds fired we made range and I hit the target with 1200m of correction on the scope. I fired four more landing 3, apparently pushing one over the right shoulder.
Now it was my 18 y/o chance to apply his marksmanship and rifle handling to the test. This kid had a ruger 10/22 in a cut down youth stock when he was six. He graduated to a youth rem 700 in .243 (he called it the elephant gun when he was ten) and eventually we bedded it into a magpul hunter when those hit the market. I’m saying all this so you know, he was taught all the fundamentals by me and some very well known military service rifle shooters over the years. Still, as you all know - ELR is something altogether different than shooting a 5 rd sub MOA string at 100 yds. As happy as I was to have made hits, I was nervous to see if he would be crushed by the “mindfucker” or distance. He’s a math major, did 2 years in the math department at GMU while in high school and is already taking graduate level math at a well regarded Colorado engineering school. I want him to continue to love shooting and even more - to love ELR.
He took his time getting set behind the gun, he calmly nailed five straight shots. We’d said on the way to the range that if we hit the damn target at 1000, we weren’t going to shout like little girls. We kept it together when I hit, but we were ecstatic at his hits. We’ve had many fine times between deployments as father and son on the shooting range, shot thousands of rounds together from the time he could hardly hoist his little ruger rifle. I’ve always been proud of his skill and ability to take coaching. As I write this gentlemen, it’s brought tears to my old eyes.
In summary, we fired 15 rounds at a man-sized, upper silhouette target at 1200M and scored 9 hits. Given our challenges, and all the things we needed to do right for success we were pretty stoked. Needless to say, we’ll be going back to CMSC very soon to see what we can do with a new LRF.
Edited for grammar.
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