Re: My First and ONLY Rifle -- Pictures Page 1 --
Thanks spartan and wkrut, wait no longer here are my two!
<span style="font-weight: bold">!!!!!!!!!!RIFLE UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!</span>
So we all known this has been a long time coming.
I'll start with my 50 yard indoor test:
I will talk about the 2 best results.
1. The first was using the Versapod that had recently been returned to me "fixed". Once sighted in and figuring out the zero leavers on the PR-H I managed to plant a 5 shot group measuring in at 0.3125", after applying the caliber (.308) that becomes 0.0045". That was measuring from the two furthest points of bullet impact. Don't believe it? I will happily post the proof later. No idea what this is in MOA.
2. The second was shooting off a pack as a means of comparison. Due to having not much ammo to work with (mostly due to trying to figure out the scope)... the next was a 3 shot group 0.5", after applying the caliber (.308) that becomes 0.192", so a little less then Half MOA.
Both were shot using $20 Federal Power Shock 150 gr.
Final conclusions: Versapod is much better now, and although it still hopped on a cement floor, it wasn't nearly as bad as it use to be. I would also consider it a better option then shooting off the bag.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Now onto the fun stuff, see below!</span>
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Went to Silverdale yesterday, was a beautiful day (was worried it wasn't going to be), nice and sunny about 0 Celsius.
My Rifle now has the Atlas Bipod on it, with proper scope, etc ,etc. I was so excited, everything finally put together and put together properly. Weather was nice with minor wind left to right(3-5 mph), sometimes dying all together. This would be my first time shooting 200 yards, and my second time shooting 100 yards (but first time with proper scope and bipod). I brought both my Atlas and my Versapod to test, but in the end didn't test the Versapod because I was so blown away by the Atlas. I also found that even though the Atlas was mounted to the bottom of the rifle and the Versa on the end of the rifle, I could actually get the Atlas lower then the Versa... pretty crazy!!
Anyway, today was the big day, would I succeed or fail? Was I still a good shooter or have I forgotten how to ride a bike? Will I be making excuses at the end of the day for the results I acquired like I was in the past? Could I live up to my Rifles potential? Could my Rifle live up to my potential? Did I waste a lot of time and money?
In short nope! What an awesome day, we started at 100 yards planning to zero it for 100... but decided against it due to the fact I ended up testing 3 different grains which included 155 gr HPS Target Master, 175 gr SMK GMM, and 168 gr SMK GMM. Unfortunately we were shooting off benches (I really hate bench shooting at Silverdale, half the rifle is off the bench, your chest is pushing into the bench, just very unpleasant and hard to be what I would consider stable, but I digress.
I started with the 155 gr using a VisiShot and aiming at the central diamond, this was a mistake (I'll explain shortly). First 4 shots were amazing all grouping within each other... I thought about leaving it as a 4 shot group since it looked so damned amazing! After debating it and getting out of position I said NO, a group is only a group if it is 5 shots or more at 100+ yards! Unfortunately that caused the final shot to go a little low, but still half touching the rest. The result? 0.625" - 0.308" (caliber) leaving me with a 0.317 MOA group! One Third MOA... nice. so far so good.
So lets try the 175 SMK's, well here is where things got challenging... I was now shooting at targets that were half the size of the previous target, this wouldn't have been a problem had I been able to see with illumination, but what I quickly learned was that illumination doesn't appear to work in direct day light all you end up seeing is the black reticule... at first I thought OMG something else had broke, but after returning home and testing it I was able to see the illumination. The problem was I was losing the reticule inside the black circle, and had no way to decern the center. Now you may say well Koshy use the hash marks and mildots to line up, DUH!! Well I would say sure... but half my rifle was off the bench and my rear bag hasn't come in yet (hopefully next week), so this left me unable to steady it to the point of perfectly lining it up... anyway sufficient to say I ended up with about 3/4 MOA for both of the bottom targets with the 175 gr SMK GMM's.
The 168 gr SMK GMM targets were even worse, getting about 1 MOA... now this could be due to the same problems as the 175's but it may have to do with the 168's not stabilizing properly at 100 with my rifle, which I was warned could potentially happen, and I believe there may be some truth to it (you will find out later why)...
So final reflections for 100 yards, 155 gr clearly have a lot of potential in my Rifle for 100 yards, 175 gr show some potential at 100, and I will save my reservations for 168 gr.
Things I learned: Use one standardized target for all shooting, especially for "tests". Make sure the bullseye is at least 1" in size. Try to use targets with white bullseyes or something other then black!
Now for 200 yards, my first time ever shooting 200 yards, damn am I excited or what!
So I asked Jeff, what ammo we going to use? 168 or the 175's, he said lets try the 168's. This time I was insistent on shooting prone I wanted ZERO EXCUSES after convincing Jeff to let his mat get dirty (bound to happen sooner or later) and the RSO's to let us shoot prone, we stuck ourselves between 2 benches. Setting up the rifle and myself was a chore as there wasn't much work to work with, I actually had to use the bipod tactically, and it worked great, the bipod was on about a 30-45 degree cant as there was a wooden panel on the right side and dirt on the left... it was just awesome
Once I got comfortable and all set up, Jeff was kind enough to help me zero in as we worked out how to communicate between MOA/Inches and Mils/CMs
At the end of it, had it down pretty damn good
Once all was said and done, I fired off 2 strings of 3 at the center... and all I can say is whoa... when we finally got to go down range and check it I did a couple double takes when he told me the numbers... I basically told him to double check it a couple times, because it just seemed BS.... the target to the left was about 0.35 MOA... the second was an astonishing 0.25 MOA (half inch at 200)... now I know what your thinking... and probably saying, well that was just 3 shot groups... well personally I don't care it clearly shows my rifle is a shooter, and I haven't forgotten all my training (big thanks Jack.), that was good enough for me today, there is still lots of time left to do more in depth testing! Unfortunately I didn't bother taking down the targets after, but I have 4 witnesses to those values, take it for what it is worth, I mean yes this is the Internet... but next time I hope to have photo proof
Now it was Jeff's turn! I loaded up 10 rounds in the HiCap mag since we wanted to do do a little practice for precision matches. So what we decided is we would call out a target (left or right) and a side (left or right) and after the call you would have 2-3 seconds to take the shot. Worked out great, he had fun even though he was left handed and the rifle wasn't really set up for him
It was my turn next, loaded the mag full again, and what a blast! Everything was smooth, the action opened and closed like butter, rounds feeding in the chamber smoothly, rounds ejecting back into the mat with a full throw, the bipod tilted and rotated with ease, after each shot I was back on target without having to move the rifle or the bipod (way it should be) between shots.
All in all, I had a blast, and cannot wait to get out there again and do some more testing!
Please note: The rifle performed flawlessly, with absolutely zero issues (no feeding issues either), scope also performed admirably, with zero tracking issues or anything else for that matter
. I found out the mounting solution for the bipod had moved forward a couple cm when I got home, but was quickly remedied and will be monitored... and hopefully isn't something I have to worry about.
Please note: All testing was done not taking the wind into account, although from my understanding 100-200 yards wind usually isn't a large issue.
Please note: No major proof reading as it is a looong post
Thanks for reading,
- Koshy
