[crossposted at M14TFL]
Took it to long range (finally) this weekend. Shot targets at 425 and 550 yards (according to google maps). I am a novice to long range shooting, but hoping to learn fast. The college-student budget has been a bit of a hamper to doing what I want.
Anyway, I've worked up a load at 100 yards that seemed to be working well. Groups were converging as I increased from 41.5 to 42.0 to 42.5 grains of H4895 behind a Sierra 168 SMK with a Wolf primer (non-magnum). There weren't any serious pressure signs with those loads so I bumped it to 43.0 grains and made a batch of 20 to try out. I used the first ten to get a chrono reading and zero my rifle. The following are two five-round groups (center bull is first group, second group is after scope adjustment - I then left the zero there). The second pic is the chrono data. I was going to just shoot five for a chrono figure and leave 15 for long range shooting, but the SD looked too low to be believable, so I shot another five.
Here is the group at 425 yards. All fit in a 3.75" diameter circle. No sighters, just adjusted 2.3 mils for elevation and no windage as per the G7 ballistics program. Conditions were poor, it was raining that day - I really couldn't be happier with the results. Can I assume that the ~2" right shift is due to spin drift? There wasn't much wind. Scope is a 3-10x Mildot Weaver Tactical Grand Slam. My dad had just got a Bushnell 20-60x80mm Legend HD spotting scope and we could very nicely see the holes in the target, even with the rain and haze.
Next up we moved it back to 550 yards - the longest range we could do without putting the shooting area in the rain. Unfortunately, I was out of my H4895 load, so I switched to FGMM168. I knew my zero would be incorrect, but I also know that this shoots at about 2615 fps average. So, I just doped it as if I had the correct zero with the different velocity, hoping to hit paper (it was about 4 mils IIRC). First shot I hit it, it was about ~0.5 mils high and ~0.2 mils left (maybe 12 inches high, 6 inches left). I adjusted dope and windage and went for the group. Below is the result, group is 5.25".
Anyways, this leaves me wanting more. Trying to think how I can stretch the range on our property, and what upgrades I should get first (all my money now I think will be going into a 260 bolt rifle project).
Took it to long range (finally) this weekend. Shot targets at 425 and 550 yards (according to google maps). I am a novice to long range shooting, but hoping to learn fast. The college-student budget has been a bit of a hamper to doing what I want.
Anyway, I've worked up a load at 100 yards that seemed to be working well. Groups were converging as I increased from 41.5 to 42.0 to 42.5 grains of H4895 behind a Sierra 168 SMK with a Wolf primer (non-magnum). There weren't any serious pressure signs with those loads so I bumped it to 43.0 grains and made a batch of 20 to try out. I used the first ten to get a chrono reading and zero my rifle. The following are two five-round groups (center bull is first group, second group is after scope adjustment - I then left the zero there). The second pic is the chrono data. I was going to just shoot five for a chrono figure and leave 15 for long range shooting, but the SD looked too low to be believable, so I shot another five.
Here is the group at 425 yards. All fit in a 3.75" diameter circle. No sighters, just adjusted 2.3 mils for elevation and no windage as per the G7 ballistics program. Conditions were poor, it was raining that day - I really couldn't be happier with the results. Can I assume that the ~2" right shift is due to spin drift? There wasn't much wind. Scope is a 3-10x Mildot Weaver Tactical Grand Slam. My dad had just got a Bushnell 20-60x80mm Legend HD spotting scope and we could very nicely see the holes in the target, even with the rain and haze.
Next up we moved it back to 550 yards - the longest range we could do without putting the shooting area in the rain. Unfortunately, I was out of my H4895 load, so I switched to FGMM168. I knew my zero would be incorrect, but I also know that this shoots at about 2615 fps average. So, I just doped it as if I had the correct zero with the different velocity, hoping to hit paper (it was about 4 mils IIRC). First shot I hit it, it was about ~0.5 mils high and ~0.2 mils left (maybe 12 inches high, 6 inches left). I adjusted dope and windage and went for the group. Below is the result, group is 5.25".
Anyways, this leaves me wanting more. Trying to think how I can stretch the range on our property, and what upgrades I should get first (all my money now I think will be going into a 260 bolt rifle project).
