Finished the 4 day XLR class in Arizona and want to share my experience and thoughts.
The class size was trimmed down to three students by late cancellations. My son and I sign up in June and were happy to hear that Cory was going to keep the scheduled class. We signed up in June and had a busy preparation schedule in making up all the required equipment and supplies.
Our first obstacle was to have two rifles meeting the minimum requirements and enough match quality ammunition to reach the 2000 meter target. I have wanted to attend this class for a few years and had started purchasing items I need. At the time my son agreed to attend the class we have enough Federal 215M match primers and Retumbo powder to shoot out a couple of barrels. I have purchased 2k 300 grain Berger, but after reading the bullet test and some of the exchange in SH I decided not to take any chance and went for the 285 Hornady match bullets. We were lucky to get 24 boxes of Hornady from Brownell when they were having their 75th Anniversary sale. I had collected a couple of 1 twist in 9.5", 28" finish length Bartlein 5R barrels from Grizzly Industry and a 1 twist in 9", 30" finish length Kreiger barrel from Bruno Shooting Supplies, all three barrels in Heavy Varmint profile. A Badger Ordnance M2013 was waiting in the drawer, and a new Remington 700 338LM that was killing my Lapua brass were sent to Marc Soulie of Spartan Precision Rifle to get the new barrels installed. It was a very long 6 weeks wait to start load development for the new chambers.
An extra 500 new Lapua brass were ordered for my son to meet the class required 200, plus extra for load development. We want to use new brass for the class for consistence and reload them after the class. The 285 grain Hornady were Ogive sorted in groups of .002", pointed with Whidden bullet pointer, then weight sorted into .3 grain groups. The first culls from standards, those that were on the long side, were used for test loads. The ones that were reserved for the class had 0 and -0.001" Ogive to bullet base variance. I have since learnt from Cory that I could have sorted them by the bearing surface length to get better consistence for speed, and achieve a better Standard Deviation. Our load Standard Deviation for the class load was @ 9.
We picked up the barreled actions from Spartan ahead of Marc's promised 6-8 weeks. The legacy AICS 2.0 long action with cip length magazine chassis and a new Badger modified AX AICS 338 Lapua cip length chassis were waiting at home for their new partners. I steel bedded both rifles with Brownell kit and it took only a couple of hours. The steel bedding was an afterthought after discovering metal fretting on the forward "V" block of the AICS chassis after only 40 rounds with the Remington 700 rifle. Both rifles sport a CG X-Treme 22 trigger. The trigger shoe is a bit on the narrow side and had sharp lower corners to remind me how much I like the trigger on my 40XC rifle. We set both of the two stage triggers around one and a quarter pound, and "bang" tested both rifles with a 3 pound dead blow soft faced hammer to verify safe holding. The sear on the two stage triggers held.
The two new barrels were chambered with Pacific Tool and Gauge's .338 Lapua Magnum Tactical Match finishing reamer; it has a slightly longer throat, but 250 grain Scenar Remington factory load shot well out of the CIP length AICS magazine. We decided early on to load the cartridge to a speed that reaches the 2000 meter target we are attempting and not worrying about fitting the loaded round in the CIP length magazine. The result of the load development, new Lapua brass, 96.0 grain Retumbo, and bullet seated to 3.050" base of cartridge to bullet ogive. I don't know the COAL of the cartridge, for those rounds will only be single loaded to the chamber. The base line speeds we had were 2930 fps for the 28" Bartlein 5R on the Badger M2013, and 2980 fps for the Remington 700 with 30" Kreiger. These numbers were corrected in the first 2 days of the XLR class and confirmed after shooting 1500 yard paper targets. The corrected speeds were 2980 fps for the 28" Badger and 3040 fps for the 30" Remington, under the shooting condition at Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona.
On the first day of the class we meet our instructor Cory. I have seen Cory's posts in SH and saw how he was able to help others in understanding and utilizing the Field Firing Solution software, and have confidence that he can help us gain the experience to enjoy this long distance shooting sport. Before this XLR class, long distance meant 300 yards for me. When Cory asked if anyone had taken a precision rifle class, both my son and I had no for our answers. I think Cory was a bit relieved after he saw what we did during the 100 yard zeroing session. Eli shot his brand new Desert Tac 338LM he picked up in the class room first time in the 100 yard zeroing session. Cory had set up his chron for the occasion, and helped Eli gathered his dope for the FFS portion of the class. We had our base line speed and did not need to shoot over the chron for speed. The sight correction was fast, and the scope's turret come up was verified on a whiteboard with mil and moa line marks on it. The whiteboard's distance was placed at exactly 100 yards from the shooter's table. The two Schmidt and Bender PMII mounted on our two rifles were dead on, but the Kahles on Eli's rifle needed a slight bit of offset adjustment on the FFS program.
The second day we learnt how to make correction with the FFS program, how to set up rifle profiles, bullet profiles, and how to obtain shooting solution plugging in different varibles. It was in these sessions that we discovered the pointed 285 Hornady match bullet had a higher BC then the published BC of 7 when shot out of our rifles. The corrected BC was brought up to 7.5, and that brought the Badger's muzzle speed up from 2930 fps to 2980 fps, and the Remington's muzzle speed from 2980 fps to 3040 fps. The corrections were later verified later with 5 shots group on the 1500 yard paper targets.
Cory was running the class by himself and he had to drive down range and retrieve each target after it was shot. I was a bit puzzled when he walked up to me and shook my hand, after retrieving my target, and said that I had shot a nine and a half inch vertical spread and 11 inch horizontal spread 5 shot group. I had absolutely no idea why Cory was so happy, for a 9.5" group was horrible in the usual range I shot; that is a 100 yard range. I didn't fully understand the result until I got the calculator out and found that the Badger had just produced a group that was a rch above 0.6 moa. I think that Cory offered to take that rifle off my hand and write Marc to tell him how bad a job he did on that barrel, for none of the bullet holes were touching each other. I think he might be joking.
The next two days we learnt what to look for in calling winds for the other shooter, and we started to make wind calls for each other. Cory's was unbelievably accurate for our wind calls all the way to the 2000 meters steel target. He was very patient in helping us finding telltale signs for down range wind speed, as well as using the FFS program for our wind calls. Each one of us had at least 3 first round hits and more second round hits from 1600 meters all the way to 2000 meters. The Applied Ballistic factory loaded 300 grain Berger with an eight rounds average muzzle velocity of 2750 fps had no trouble hitting targets to 2000 meters for the 1 in 9" twist Desert Tec rifle Eli was shooting. I hit the 1607 meter steel target with the first round just below the water line and again with a second following shot just above the water line closer to the center of the target. Cory was calling wind for me, he was phenomenal. It was a wonderful feeling to make a mile shot and hit the target with two consecutive shots from cold bore. I hope Cory keep his promise and take a picture of the target before he repaint over the marks.
The XLR class was a wonderful experience for me and my son. It was wonderful to see Eli made his first round hit with his brand new rifle on a 8" by 12" rock Cory had painted white and placed 1000+ yards from the shooting positions. Cory called the wind for that shot also. I realized on the first day of class that it was not a class to teach me the fundamentals of shooting, yet I got a few pointers in my trigger pull that made my shots more consistent. It iwas not a class to learn reloading, but I learnt important points in my loading processes that will help to produce speed consistence. It was not a class to learn what equipment to buy and how equipment work, but I found out what works in the real world and the limitation of the equipment I have. The best of all I gained the experience and the knowledge of how wind can be tamed and not afraid to make calls for other shooters. It was a wonderful feeling when Eli made a wind call for the 1700 meter steel target and my son made a first round hit with that call. All three of us made wind calls that produce 1st and 2nd shot hits. I am coming back next year for more of the same, next time I hope I can start with a lot more experience under my belt.
Thank you Frank, for keeping SH as one of the best source of information for long distance shooters and future extreme long range shooters like me and my son.
Thank you Gunsite Academy, for maintaining such high quality training staff and facility.
Thank you Cory, for so willingly share all of your hard gained experience, and your skilled instructions. The offer to trade my rifle for all of your experiences still stands.
Thank Eli, for attending the class and made our experience complete.
Thank you Marc Soulie and PT&G, for developing and installing the excellent cambers in our rifles. I received the .338 Yogi tungsten finishing reamer from PT&G already, and the other 28" Bartlein 5r barrel is waiting.
Thank you Blaine, for producing FFS, the tool that makes expectation of repeated performance under so many variables a reality.
Thank you Badger Ordnance, for the very smooth 6 lug rifle action with heft to hold the 7.5 pound barrel, and modifying the AX chassis to simplified my shooting experience.
Thank you Bartlein and Kreiger, for producing barrels that I can count on for repeatable results.
This is not a place to vent my frustrations, so I would leave the challenges I have with some very expensive equipment that did not deliver even a fraction of what I paid for. That will come in another post, after I get some answers.
I don't know how to post pictures, but I have the picture of the 9.5" by 11" five shot group. I'll try posting pictures once I find out how to.
The class size was trimmed down to three students by late cancellations. My son and I sign up in June and were happy to hear that Cory was going to keep the scheduled class. We signed up in June and had a busy preparation schedule in making up all the required equipment and supplies.
Our first obstacle was to have two rifles meeting the minimum requirements and enough match quality ammunition to reach the 2000 meter target. I have wanted to attend this class for a few years and had started purchasing items I need. At the time my son agreed to attend the class we have enough Federal 215M match primers and Retumbo powder to shoot out a couple of barrels. I have purchased 2k 300 grain Berger, but after reading the bullet test and some of the exchange in SH I decided not to take any chance and went for the 285 Hornady match bullets. We were lucky to get 24 boxes of Hornady from Brownell when they were having their 75th Anniversary sale. I had collected a couple of 1 twist in 9.5", 28" finish length Bartlein 5R barrels from Grizzly Industry and a 1 twist in 9", 30" finish length Kreiger barrel from Bruno Shooting Supplies, all three barrels in Heavy Varmint profile. A Badger Ordnance M2013 was waiting in the drawer, and a new Remington 700 338LM that was killing my Lapua brass were sent to Marc Soulie of Spartan Precision Rifle to get the new barrels installed. It was a very long 6 weeks wait to start load development for the new chambers.
An extra 500 new Lapua brass were ordered for my son to meet the class required 200, plus extra for load development. We want to use new brass for the class for consistence and reload them after the class. The 285 grain Hornady were Ogive sorted in groups of .002", pointed with Whidden bullet pointer, then weight sorted into .3 grain groups. The first culls from standards, those that were on the long side, were used for test loads. The ones that were reserved for the class had 0 and -0.001" Ogive to bullet base variance. I have since learnt from Cory that I could have sorted them by the bearing surface length to get better consistence for speed, and achieve a better Standard Deviation. Our load Standard Deviation for the class load was @ 9.
We picked up the barreled actions from Spartan ahead of Marc's promised 6-8 weeks. The legacy AICS 2.0 long action with cip length magazine chassis and a new Badger modified AX AICS 338 Lapua cip length chassis were waiting at home for their new partners. I steel bedded both rifles with Brownell kit and it took only a couple of hours. The steel bedding was an afterthought after discovering metal fretting on the forward "V" block of the AICS chassis after only 40 rounds with the Remington 700 rifle. Both rifles sport a CG X-Treme 22 trigger. The trigger shoe is a bit on the narrow side and had sharp lower corners to remind me how much I like the trigger on my 40XC rifle. We set both of the two stage triggers around one and a quarter pound, and "bang" tested both rifles with a 3 pound dead blow soft faced hammer to verify safe holding. The sear on the two stage triggers held.
The two new barrels were chambered with Pacific Tool and Gauge's .338 Lapua Magnum Tactical Match finishing reamer; it has a slightly longer throat, but 250 grain Scenar Remington factory load shot well out of the CIP length AICS magazine. We decided early on to load the cartridge to a speed that reaches the 2000 meter target we are attempting and not worrying about fitting the loaded round in the CIP length magazine. The result of the load development, new Lapua brass, 96.0 grain Retumbo, and bullet seated to 3.050" base of cartridge to bullet ogive. I don't know the COAL of the cartridge, for those rounds will only be single loaded to the chamber. The base line speeds we had were 2930 fps for the 28" Bartlein 5R on the Badger M2013, and 2980 fps for the Remington 700 with 30" Kreiger. These numbers were corrected in the first 2 days of the XLR class and confirmed after shooting 1500 yard paper targets. The corrected speeds were 2980 fps for the 28" Badger and 3040 fps for the 30" Remington, under the shooting condition at Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona.
On the first day of the class we meet our instructor Cory. I have seen Cory's posts in SH and saw how he was able to help others in understanding and utilizing the Field Firing Solution software, and have confidence that he can help us gain the experience to enjoy this long distance shooting sport. Before this XLR class, long distance meant 300 yards for me. When Cory asked if anyone had taken a precision rifle class, both my son and I had no for our answers. I think Cory was a bit relieved after he saw what we did during the 100 yard zeroing session. Eli shot his brand new Desert Tac 338LM he picked up in the class room first time in the 100 yard zeroing session. Cory had set up his chron for the occasion, and helped Eli gathered his dope for the FFS portion of the class. We had our base line speed and did not need to shoot over the chron for speed. The sight correction was fast, and the scope's turret come up was verified on a whiteboard with mil and moa line marks on it. The whiteboard's distance was placed at exactly 100 yards from the shooter's table. The two Schmidt and Bender PMII mounted on our two rifles were dead on, but the Kahles on Eli's rifle needed a slight bit of offset adjustment on the FFS program.
The second day we learnt how to make correction with the FFS program, how to set up rifle profiles, bullet profiles, and how to obtain shooting solution plugging in different varibles. It was in these sessions that we discovered the pointed 285 Hornady match bullet had a higher BC then the published BC of 7 when shot out of our rifles. The corrected BC was brought up to 7.5, and that brought the Badger's muzzle speed up from 2930 fps to 2980 fps, and the Remington's muzzle speed from 2980 fps to 3040 fps. The corrections were later verified later with 5 shots group on the 1500 yard paper targets.
Cory was running the class by himself and he had to drive down range and retrieve each target after it was shot. I was a bit puzzled when he walked up to me and shook my hand, after retrieving my target, and said that I had shot a nine and a half inch vertical spread and 11 inch horizontal spread 5 shot group. I had absolutely no idea why Cory was so happy, for a 9.5" group was horrible in the usual range I shot; that is a 100 yard range. I didn't fully understand the result until I got the calculator out and found that the Badger had just produced a group that was a rch above 0.6 moa. I think that Cory offered to take that rifle off my hand and write Marc to tell him how bad a job he did on that barrel, for none of the bullet holes were touching each other. I think he might be joking.
The next two days we learnt what to look for in calling winds for the other shooter, and we started to make wind calls for each other. Cory's was unbelievably accurate for our wind calls all the way to the 2000 meters steel target. He was very patient in helping us finding telltale signs for down range wind speed, as well as using the FFS program for our wind calls. Each one of us had at least 3 first round hits and more second round hits from 1600 meters all the way to 2000 meters. The Applied Ballistic factory loaded 300 grain Berger with an eight rounds average muzzle velocity of 2750 fps had no trouble hitting targets to 2000 meters for the 1 in 9" twist Desert Tec rifle Eli was shooting. I hit the 1607 meter steel target with the first round just below the water line and again with a second following shot just above the water line closer to the center of the target. Cory was calling wind for me, he was phenomenal. It was a wonderful feeling to make a mile shot and hit the target with two consecutive shots from cold bore. I hope Cory keep his promise and take a picture of the target before he repaint over the marks.
The XLR class was a wonderful experience for me and my son. It was wonderful to see Eli made his first round hit with his brand new rifle on a 8" by 12" rock Cory had painted white and placed 1000+ yards from the shooting positions. Cory called the wind for that shot also. I realized on the first day of class that it was not a class to teach me the fundamentals of shooting, yet I got a few pointers in my trigger pull that made my shots more consistent. It iwas not a class to learn reloading, but I learnt important points in my loading processes that will help to produce speed consistence. It was not a class to learn what equipment to buy and how equipment work, but I found out what works in the real world and the limitation of the equipment I have. The best of all I gained the experience and the knowledge of how wind can be tamed and not afraid to make calls for other shooters. It was a wonderful feeling when Eli made a wind call for the 1700 meter steel target and my son made a first round hit with that call. All three of us made wind calls that produce 1st and 2nd shot hits. I am coming back next year for more of the same, next time I hope I can start with a lot more experience under my belt.
Thank you Frank, for keeping SH as one of the best source of information for long distance shooters and future extreme long range shooters like me and my son.
Thank you Gunsite Academy, for maintaining such high quality training staff and facility.
Thank you Cory, for so willingly share all of your hard gained experience, and your skilled instructions. The offer to trade my rifle for all of your experiences still stands.
Thank Eli, for attending the class and made our experience complete.
Thank you Marc Soulie and PT&G, for developing and installing the excellent cambers in our rifles. I received the .338 Yogi tungsten finishing reamer from PT&G already, and the other 28" Bartlein 5r barrel is waiting.
Thank you Blaine, for producing FFS, the tool that makes expectation of repeated performance under so many variables a reality.
Thank you Badger Ordnance, for the very smooth 6 lug rifle action with heft to hold the 7.5 pound barrel, and modifying the AX chassis to simplified my shooting experience.
Thank you Bartlein and Kreiger, for producing barrels that I can count on for repeatable results.
This is not a place to vent my frustrations, so I would leave the challenges I have with some very expensive equipment that did not deliver even a fraction of what I paid for. That will come in another post, after I get some answers.
I don't know how to post pictures, but I have the picture of the 9.5" by 11" five shot group. I'll try posting pictures once I find out how to.
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