My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

[XTR]

OMG, I stink, and wind is EVIL!

Practice is one thing. Matches where scores get tallied are a whole 'nother animal. Oh yea, as for size envy, yea, 24" just isn't enough in this game. It would be fine ringing 12 inch steel at 600, but keeping it in a 10" ten ring at 1000 is another critter. I definitely need to add 6" at some point in the not too distant future.

I'm having fun, shot 3 matched today, 2 more tomorrow. Forty seven shooters in the tourney, unfortunately I'm sitting 6th out of 6 F/TR, but I'm learning.

Did I mention that wind is evil?

 

[427Cobra]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

I think your wind reading and reloading skills need to improve, a longer barrel won't help there, Nesikabay will hammer the X ring with a 20 incher 308 all day long, he shoots F-T\R because its harder than F-Open.

 

[matchking]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

My F-TR rig wears a 25" Rock and I don't want any longer. It will be rebarreled soon and I don't see it getting a longer tube. I get plenty of velocity, I just get tight bore barrels.

 

[Tactical]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

I am just going to say what all the guys shooting at top level F TR use. They all use a 30" tube. Do what you want.

At Worlds a few showed up with shorter tubes and not one short tube made it to winners board.

With that said if I had a 24" tube it would stay ion place until it was burned out.

I would just use H4895 and 155 Scenars and be happy at mag length

 

[matchking]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

I would definately listen to what Tactical says. Mike knows his stuff when it comes to TR. Like he said, burn the 24" out before rebarreling; then you can get whatever length you want.

My 25" tube is faster than guys I shoot with/against that have 30" tubes. I also use my .308 for other stuff and don't want a longer barrel. If I was shooting F-TR only with it, I would probably use a longer barrel as long as it would make weight. With that said, I have never lost a match and thought I would have done better with a longer barrel.

 

[XTR]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

I agree that the driver is more of a problem than the rifle. I've got 2 more matched tomorrow.

Reloading, ehh, I'm doubtful of too much improvement there. I'm running Forster dies (and occasionally I play with a Lee collet) in a T7, and I'm pointing my bullets and I do brass prep, all the charges are weighted on a RCBS 1500. Maybe switching to Lapua brass from BH Match would buy me a little, and maybe weighing/sorting bullets. Not planning to switch to a triple beam anywhere in the future and I'll probably never neck turn.

I'm shooting 175 SMKs over 44.2 gn of Varget. It gets me there but w/o a lot to spare. (MV is about 2660 on my beta Chrony) My rifle has a Rock barrel that is creeping up on 2000 rounds. I know there will be new barrels in my future.

On the re-barrel thing I've got a second 308 a 700 VLS that has a factory 26" on it now. I've never run match loads in it. I'm thinking that in the next couple of weeks I may see what it will do with my SMK load. If it will group at 200 or 300 maybe shoot it at one of my clubs Monday 1000 yd shoots and see how it does. With my hunting loads it's barely a 1MOA gun, so I'm not confident. (I can shoot 1/2 MOA at 200 with the Rock barreled rifle, the rifle shoots well)


All of that said reading wind better would make more difference than anything else, I understand that.

 

[XTR]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

Way better reading wind today. Still had a bad string but all in all was a ton of fun. I'm hooked.

Anyone ever shoot 1000yds at ORSA? Everyone there was saying because of the geography it's one of the harder places to read wind. Do you hear that everywhere or is there truth to it?

 

[taliv]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

ORSA is my home range and I've shot many matches there. Great folks.

The AMU coach told me once that the HP range at ORSA has a lot of people's number, but it wasn't due to wind.

Still, I'd say it has some of the more difficult winds to shoot in as far as popular ranges that host NRA HP matches go. Definitely harder than Tullahoma (the other 1000 yrd range in TN) or Camp Perry. imho

I personally have a much more difficult time out West, as the winds are often too fast to read mirage. I don't ever remember winds at ORSA that were too strong to make mirage useful, just very complicated and they change quickly.

 

[9H_Cracka]

Re: My first F/TR match @ 1000 yds

Get a clue Mike - the guys that don't go to the matches and shoot side-side with the guys representing the US are always better shots. X's all day long as they say.