Thanks man,
I enjoyed my day with my dad watching. I did notice a few things and I think a few things can help you guys.
1. The wind at TVP is a mystery. You can have 15mph at shooters position and the opposite at target...with 5 wind changes in the flight path. When shooting at TVP you have to kinda discount the wind offset that your ballistic calculator is giving you. Take the 2333yd target. Everyone was dialing WAY too much wind. They were putting in 3-4 mils of wind. I dialed 0.5 Mils of wind....in the OPPOSITE direction and made a first round impact after sitting around for an hour. Was it luck?...probably...but the other 4 shots were very close and most of my misses all day were slight variations in wind direction change that you simply can't read very well at that distance...but atleast I was generally close if I wasn't hitting.
2. Once you see your miss hit in the dirt...or if you don't and the spotter is giving you a correction...you should be ready to squeeze the next shot off. If the spotter gives you a 0.2 up....right point 5....as soon as he says point 5...you should be squeezing the trigger. If you wait more than a second...that wind call is wrong....useless...time to go back to zero dope on target. If you noticed on the paper stage...even though I was hand feeding those non-mag friendly rounds...I shot extremely quicky. I shot 5x faster than anyone else. You have to get it while the getting is good. On the 2236yd target...when the LED went off...to me it was an ETERNITY waiting on the LED to stop flashing so I could send the next round. Those two hits almost looked like one continuous flash on the LEDs. So....shoot faster.
3. Wait? I gotta get on target and get my hold correct...I can't just shoot fast to be shooting fast.....and yes...you are correct. So, get your fundamentals dialed to where when that recoil rocks you...the scope stays on...or comes back on target quickly. You should be able to spot for yourself...you should be able to get back to your hold and ready to send another in like 2-3 seconds....no...seriously. How do you achieve that?
4. A lot of us have a problem with Sympathetic Squeeze. I believe
@lowlight did some lessons or podcasts on this subject. I have it, you may or may not have it. When I'm squeezing that rear bag and I'm squeezing that trigger...I tend to sympathetically squeeze the bag more...thus raising the rear bag and sending one in the dirt. I've done it way too many times to admit. I have practiced dry firing with focus on this problem . I have mitigated this problem somewhat...but I found, personally, the easiest remedy for the problem was installing an ABR...aka the Adjustable Bag Rider from
Long Shot Precision. I couple this with a
Phoenix Precision Bi-pod and joy oh joy...I can shoot with the big boys. The Phoenix allows me to quickly set coarse adjustments for height when I go from say 1k to 1 mile. The ABR allows me to fine tune the hold, very quickly and precisely. When used with a heavy sand bag...I could hold that plate at 2444 shot after shot with no problems of returning on target. Even though that target is 36" and looks like a postage stamp at 27x, I could easily keep my hold on that target precisely each and every time.
So, if you are shooting against me at a place where the terrain allows me to use a Phoenix with an ABR...and you aren't using an ABR....you are giving me an insane advantage. You can be a better shooter than me...using better equipment than me....and utilizing a better ballistics platform than me....and I should still hang or beat you....that's how good the system works together.
5. Don't use factory ammo
I hope you guys had as much fun as I did.