Re: 308 Win, 208 AMax, RL17
I had another match on Sunday where I used the 208's to good success. In a strange twist as compared to the last match where Exbal wasn't correct, I had extrapolated data from the last match to use for this match. I wasn't going to take my Palm with Exbal with me, but did anyway. It's a good thing. I had my 100y zero, and moved to 200, 2moa up and was spot on, moved to 300, dialed up 4 and hit 4" low, confused, I checked exbal, it called for 4.75 up, if I checked it, I would have dialed 5 and would have gotten all 3 shots in the bull (BTW, the shot group was 1.1" @ 300). Moved back to 400, dialed 8, exbal called for 7.75, hit 3.5 low (estimated group center) so I needed 9, moved to 500 and exbal called for 11.25, but I thought that after the 400 results that I was once again 1moa off, dialed 12. Turns out, exbal was right, 11moa would have been the better call. 600 called for 15 up, and it was correct, 700 called for 19.25, dialed 19 and was correct. Just when I had thought that Exbal was a bad move, it redeems itself.
There's something about that 400 yard results though, i'm thinking that I used ammo from the box that hadn't warmed up to the ambient temperature yet. When I arrived at the range it was 28 degrees according to the Kestrel, by the time we started shooting it warmed up to 44, it was likely in the low 50's by the time we got to 400, and i'm thinking that it's possible that I didn't give the rounds ample time to warm up, I don't know, it could have been the shooting position too. My 500 yard group was horrendous, however it was the same at the last match too. It's not a great berm to shoot from. My 600 and 700 yard groups were good (700 was a cool 4.75").
I really like the 208's, but I think that I need to get a break. I'm starting to get this strange idea in my head that I want to try out 240gr SMK's to see what they'll do!
Branden