I did come up with a awesome idea last night for a one of a kind match that would bring out the best of the best ? We could call it the 2022 Mega Money Match kinda like a Super ARA match target would be simular but scaled up, 3 sighters with 25 scoring shots any position with a 30 minute time limit.... ...The 1st day would be a meet and greet ie. Bar B Que and rifle zeroing. Now heres the catch you bring 26 $100 Bill's with you 1 is the entry fee due the 1st day the other 25 will be attached to a ARA simulated target 600 yds down range. Their your Bullseyes scoring will be any bill that has been touched by any number of rounds may be removed and put back in the shooters pocket this is what you've retained for your skills. Whatcha think?
Interesting idea. If? this takes wings, I have a proposition. I have at our club access to a 600y range which could support the event. We would need club approval for its use but it is here in KY so accessible from many parts of the country. We also have a pretty darn good Southern BBQ restaurant owned by one of our marksmen who could cater the BBQ for us with some fine porcine cuisine. I for one am more of the 50y Benchrest crowd and have never shot my 22's past 300y. Not sure I could hit a car door or a barn door for that mater at 600y but am willing to try. The thought of using Benjamins for the bulls is pricey for my taste. Am fine with the $100 entry fee but am thinking that we might get a few more takers if we were using $20's for the tgts, just sayin, lol.
As for adding to the anecdotal BS on the internet. I shoot ARA Factory BR matches and off and on have had some limited success at it since the new class began last year. I had to obtain a new rifle for the 2021 class which is a CZ457 with the varmint precision bbl profile bbl which is reported by the Mfg to be of the hammer forged type. Mine is 24" and the claimed twist as far as I know is 1:16" which is std. It has a pronounced choke at the last 2" of the muzzle but I have not slugged and measured it.
Early in the 2021 season I was shooting slower ammo in the 320-323M/s range with good results in both warmish (65 deg F) and cold weather (sub freezing) and recorded two perfect scores in non-sanctioned practice matches and four in sanctioned match play. Later in the year, I ran out of that ammo and switched to 325M/s published velocity (all Lapua CX or Midas). Results suffered slightly but still recorded a few 2500's with it. I had access to 326, 327 and 328 speed ammo as well as some Polar Bi ammo that was marked 335M/s. The Polar ammo shot brilliantly in the early spring with temps running 30-45 deg F. Point being that the rifle was not very ammo sensitive.
I had some 327 ammo that would not shoot in anything well in the winter but now that summer is almost upon us it is shooting great. In one recent match, I had to shoot three cards in a downpour and found that my usual 325 spd ammo was not longer stable. I theorize that the random dispersion of the projectile was coming from both actual rain drops impacting the projectile and the cooler, moisture laden air was causing POI dispersion in all directions and thus was not possible to adjust my POA to compensate since one shot would go low right and the next might go low left, then high, etc. The wind was calm at the time so the flags were of little value. After making a mess of my 4th card, I changed ammo lots to the faster 327 spd. (~1073 fps) hoping to see an improvement. The slightly faster ammo seemed to stabilize better in these unstable atmospheric conditions. Result was two 2450 scores and the one dropped shot on each was so close that it was only visible under lighted magnification. The use of the slightly faster ammo in this case resulting in better performance.
When there is either natural or artificial backlighting of the range, I can sometimes see my bullets as they travel downrange. They arc up and curve to the right most of the time, just like a pitcher's curve ball. The arc at only 50y is significant. Even on a good day, it seems to wobble significantly along its path and appears to be only marginally stable. But often when I am competing in matches with dead calm zero wind, I will see the bullet's path deviate into more of a screwball path where it will arc up and to the right but then rapidly continue to curve in a clockwise manner and instead of hitting at the intended, zero'ed POI, it curves down much more and lands low in the 5,6,7 o'clock region of the bull. This is also painfully random in nature as sighters both before and after often hit the center dot of the bull. I am not claiming I know "Why" this is happening but would love to understand it better. Am also wondering if a faster twist bbl might eliminate some of this sort of random instability.
More old wives and old marksmen tales: I was just at the VA state ARA championships at Kettlefoot. The Triple Crown is today. In discussing this issue with some of the old heads of the sport, some claim that traditional twist 22bbls stabilize better with a little bit of wind. I have heard expert shooters say this often and have personally experienced it. A gun and ammo combo that is lights out with a slight steady breeze often goes wonky in dead calm conditions. Now I know that dead calm does not mean there is no air movement. Just watch the smoke from the muzzles to see that the air is moving. Small eddy currents are rising or falling depending on if the sun is out or not or moisture evaporating from a rain earlier, etc. But these dead calm conditions are diabolical to shoot in when the tgt is soooo small. Any of you ballisticians or Astro physics PhD's have an explanation? Or better yet, how can I control it?
MB - Love your razor sharp humor. Am proud of the work you and your colleagues are doing at VuDoo. Having worked in technical R&D in the past, I can appreciate the difficulty in performing design of experiments with a process that contains so many hard to manage variables. I am still looking for that ARA eligible Factory class legal VuDoo, so we can once more place an American rifle on the top podium. Maybe with a 1:9" twist on it too? Keep up the quality work testing and learning and pushing the envelope of the state of the art. People laughed at the Wright Brothers also. A quote overheard being mumbled by some old Calcified gunsmith at the range "If men were meant to shoot 22lr rimfires at 400 & 500y tgts they would have been born with fast twist barrels"
Irish