You heard that right. I just got whooped by my 19 year old girlfriend with my very own rifle. A rifle, I might add, that she has never shot before.
I bought a FN SPR A3G back about 10 months ago that I first introduced to the hide back in Feb. right here. I have put 540 rounds thru it since I got it. All HSM or BVAC 168 grain Amax or 168 SMK. This is as my previous post mentions my first precision rifle, but I do have about 20 range sessions with it under my belt. Its been a great gun, but do partly to myself, and possibly the HSM/BVAC ammo, the 1/2" MOA standard of the A3G has eluded me. No real shocker, I am new to precision shooting, for me to expect 1/2" groups every time would be extremely naive of me, but I have appeared stuck between 3/4" and 1.25" in my 100 yard, 5 shot group sizes. So I decided to order several boxes of Federal Gold Medal Match 168 grain SMK's. This is the standard ammo FN uses to test their rifles, and my A3G came with two nice little test targets that are both sub 3/8" shot with this ammo.
Late last week, the weather was good, the sun was out and there was little more than a slight breeze. I decided it would be a perfect day to try out the Federal Match ammo. I proceeded to load all my gear in my Jeep and my girlfriend drove up. I informed her I was headed out to go shooting and she asked to come along. "Sure" I said, "hop in".
She's not a prissy city girl by any means, she's from small town Utah. But she's not a real country girl either. Her dad owns guns, but she wasn't exactly raised shooting. She had shot a gun only a couple of times before she met me. Almost exclusively .22 caliber rifles, with the exception of a pistol now and then with a high school boyfriend. We've dated about a year and in that time I have taken her out to shoot 9mm's, .45's, .233 AR's, and my 12 gauge shotgun. She HATED the shotgun, she's not a fan of anything that kicks. And up to this point had never even tried my .308.
We get out to the range, I unload all my gear and she asks "What all guns did you bring?". "Just this one" I reply, as I pulled my A3G from the case. "Isn't that a big one?" she asks, which is her way of saying "Does it kick?" I explain to her that its not to bad, about like the shotgun. To which she exclaims "Like the shotgun!! That thing kicks too hard! I don't want to shoot!" I was fine with that, that would leave the whole 20 rounds to myself. So, while she watched, I proceeded to shoot my first two 5 shot groups. They weren't 1/2", but they were noticeably smaller than I had shot previously. My problem is I always get my first 3 or 4 shots touching each other, then get nervous or jittery because I am FINALLY gonna shoot a sweet group and end up with the last shot or two flung off from the rest.
With 10 rounds left, I felt bad with her just sitting there. So I asked again if she wanted to try it. "No" she said, "its to big" as she proceeded to roll a .308 round around in her hand and look at it. "Babe, its not bad, as long as you hold it firmly you really wont even notice" I said as I tried to persuade her. She's very competitive, and hates to lose at anything. So with a grin, I say "Tell you what, I'll shoot 5 rounds, and you shoot 5 rounds. If you can shoot a better group than me I'll take you out to dinner tonight". With that she was hooked, and she agreed to give it a try. Not only would this be her first time shooting my FN A3G. It would be her first time shooting any .308 or a gun with a scope bigger than a .22.
I went first. Shooting off a bipod up front, and a bag in rear. I was low and to the left. But my rounds where at least touching.... until shot 5. Which, as per my norm, flung off about a 1/2" below the rest. My Target:
Now it was her turn. She settled in behind the rifle and was obviously nervous. I gave her some tips, explained what to do, and how to adjust the rear bag to change the elevation of the reticule on the target. This is her doing just that:
She kept complaining the cross hairs were to high. She couldn't get it to aim low enough. I tried to explain how if you pull the rear bag back it will lower the barrel of the rifle and drop the cross hairs to where they need to be. For what ever reason, it wasn't working for her. Don't ask me why, it worked for me. "Can I put the other one up front, maybe that will help?" she asked, as she pointed to my second bag I had on the table. "Sure" I said, and handed it to her. She proceeded to flip the bi-pods legs closed and dropped the closed legs of the bi-pod right down on the second bag. "Babe, I uh.. umm..." I started to say, but she gave me that look of "don't treat me like I'm retarded" and said "its perfect now" so I shut my mouth. If that's how she wanted to shoot it, ok. I then explained how if she would grip the rear bag with her left hand she could squeeze it and fine tune where she was aiming the weapon. "No" she said, "I want my hand up front" so this was how she would be firing the rifle:
For the first shot she aimed for what felt like 5 minutes. Every time she was about to pull the trigger she would get nervous and be like "Is it gonna hurt?" and frown at me. "No" I said, "Just pull it in tight to your shoulder, hold it steady, and when your not moving aiming at the dot in the middle, slowly pull the trigger back". BOOM!! She fired off the first round and gave me a big smile that said "That wasn't so bad" and chambered another round. After another minute or two of aiming, adjusting, aiming, adjusting again, she fired off round two. I didn't bring binoculars, so after each shot, I had no idea where she was hitting. "Can you see them?" I would ask "Are they close at all?". To which she always replied "I don't know". After the 5th shot, she sat back kinda disappointed and said "I don't think I did that well. I can only see two of the shots". "Well, lets walk out and take a look" I said. So we walked out to the hundred yard line to check her target and this is what I find:
"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW!!!" I yell, as she jumps up and down giggling in triumph. Her very first time shooting my gun, let alone a .308. She not only beat me. She shot a smaller group with her first 5 shots than I have been able to do with the previous 520! Oh, I couldn't believe it. I just stood there staring at the target shaking my head as she danced up and down singing "I win, I win, la la la, you suck, I win.." It pains me to say this, but my girlfriend is either lucky or officially a better shoot than me
My target's on left, Her's on right
I bought a FN SPR A3G back about 10 months ago that I first introduced to the hide back in Feb. right here. I have put 540 rounds thru it since I got it. All HSM or BVAC 168 grain Amax or 168 SMK. This is as my previous post mentions my first precision rifle, but I do have about 20 range sessions with it under my belt. Its been a great gun, but do partly to myself, and possibly the HSM/BVAC ammo, the 1/2" MOA standard of the A3G has eluded me. No real shocker, I am new to precision shooting, for me to expect 1/2" groups every time would be extremely naive of me, but I have appeared stuck between 3/4" and 1.25" in my 100 yard, 5 shot group sizes. So I decided to order several boxes of Federal Gold Medal Match 168 grain SMK's. This is the standard ammo FN uses to test their rifles, and my A3G came with two nice little test targets that are both sub 3/8" shot with this ammo.
Late last week, the weather was good, the sun was out and there was little more than a slight breeze. I decided it would be a perfect day to try out the Federal Match ammo. I proceeded to load all my gear in my Jeep and my girlfriend drove up. I informed her I was headed out to go shooting and she asked to come along. "Sure" I said, "hop in".
She's not a prissy city girl by any means, she's from small town Utah. But she's not a real country girl either. Her dad owns guns, but she wasn't exactly raised shooting. She had shot a gun only a couple of times before she met me. Almost exclusively .22 caliber rifles, with the exception of a pistol now and then with a high school boyfriend. We've dated about a year and in that time I have taken her out to shoot 9mm's, .45's, .233 AR's, and my 12 gauge shotgun. She HATED the shotgun, she's not a fan of anything that kicks. And up to this point had never even tried my .308.
We get out to the range, I unload all my gear and she asks "What all guns did you bring?". "Just this one" I reply, as I pulled my A3G from the case. "Isn't that a big one?" she asks, which is her way of saying "Does it kick?" I explain to her that its not to bad, about like the shotgun. To which she exclaims "Like the shotgun!! That thing kicks too hard! I don't want to shoot!" I was fine with that, that would leave the whole 20 rounds to myself. So, while she watched, I proceeded to shoot my first two 5 shot groups. They weren't 1/2", but they were noticeably smaller than I had shot previously. My problem is I always get my first 3 or 4 shots touching each other, then get nervous or jittery because I am FINALLY gonna shoot a sweet group and end up with the last shot or two flung off from the rest.
With 10 rounds left, I felt bad with her just sitting there. So I asked again if she wanted to try it. "No" she said, "its to big" as she proceeded to roll a .308 round around in her hand and look at it. "Babe, its not bad, as long as you hold it firmly you really wont even notice" I said as I tried to persuade her. She's very competitive, and hates to lose at anything. So with a grin, I say "Tell you what, I'll shoot 5 rounds, and you shoot 5 rounds. If you can shoot a better group than me I'll take you out to dinner tonight". With that she was hooked, and she agreed to give it a try. Not only would this be her first time shooting my FN A3G. It would be her first time shooting any .308 or a gun with a scope bigger than a .22.
I went first. Shooting off a bipod up front, and a bag in rear. I was low and to the left. But my rounds where at least touching.... until shot 5. Which, as per my norm, flung off about a 1/2" below the rest. My Target:
Now it was her turn. She settled in behind the rifle and was obviously nervous. I gave her some tips, explained what to do, and how to adjust the rear bag to change the elevation of the reticule on the target. This is her doing just that:
She kept complaining the cross hairs were to high. She couldn't get it to aim low enough. I tried to explain how if you pull the rear bag back it will lower the barrel of the rifle and drop the cross hairs to where they need to be. For what ever reason, it wasn't working for her. Don't ask me why, it worked for me. "Can I put the other one up front, maybe that will help?" she asked, as she pointed to my second bag I had on the table. "Sure" I said, and handed it to her. She proceeded to flip the bi-pods legs closed and dropped the closed legs of the bi-pod right down on the second bag. "Babe, I uh.. umm..." I started to say, but she gave me that look of "don't treat me like I'm retarded" and said "its perfect now" so I shut my mouth. If that's how she wanted to shoot it, ok. I then explained how if she would grip the rear bag with her left hand she could squeeze it and fine tune where she was aiming the weapon. "No" she said, "I want my hand up front" so this was how she would be firing the rifle:
For the first shot she aimed for what felt like 5 minutes. Every time she was about to pull the trigger she would get nervous and be like "Is it gonna hurt?" and frown at me. "No" I said, "Just pull it in tight to your shoulder, hold it steady, and when your not moving aiming at the dot in the middle, slowly pull the trigger back". BOOM!! She fired off the first round and gave me a big smile that said "That wasn't so bad" and chambered another round. After another minute or two of aiming, adjusting, aiming, adjusting again, she fired off round two. I didn't bring binoculars, so after each shot, I had no idea where she was hitting. "Can you see them?" I would ask "Are they close at all?". To which she always replied "I don't know". After the 5th shot, she sat back kinda disappointed and said "I don't think I did that well. I can only see two of the shots". "Well, lets walk out and take a look" I said. So we walked out to the hundred yard line to check her target and this is what I find:
"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW!!!" I yell, as she jumps up and down giggling in triumph. Her very first time shooting my gun, let alone a .308. She not only beat me. She shot a smaller group with her first 5 shots than I have been able to do with the previous 520! Oh, I couldn't believe it. I just stood there staring at the target shaking my head as she danced up and down singing "I win, I win, la la la, you suck, I win.." It pains me to say this, but my girlfriend is either lucky or officially a better shoot than me
My target's on left, Her's on right
