6/27/2011 - 1000 Yards - Yes... my Reloads shoot pretty well too

 Tonight after family home evening with the Karen and the kids, I headed over to the shooting spot.  The sun had just peeked below the mountain, and the conditions were almost ideal for shooting.  I say "almost" because I did have a little bit of the cool evening breeze going from right to left. Tonight I was shooting the Savage 308 with my personal hand-loads.  175 gr Sierra BTHP, Lapua brass, 45 grains of Hogdon Varget powder, along with CCI 200 primers. With the conditions that I estimated I would see upon reaching the shooting range, the ballistics computer suggested that I should use 120.5 clicks in the Vortex Viper Scope.  I dialed up 121 (even though 2 days ago, 121 wasn't quite enough) and took the first shot.  I was surprised just how much the wind had pushed me off to the left.  It was an entire Mil left, and a bit high to boot!  I took 2 clicks back out of the scope, held exactly 1 Mil to the right and fired the second shot.  From what I could tell, this one was just a bit high.  After taking one more click out of the scope (so now I was at 118 clicks), I produced some really good shots in the target.  I actually shot them at a faster pace than I have ever shot before, because  I didn't want to miss the window of what I felt was consistent wind.  I was also battling mosquitoes the entire time, which was pushing me along faster than normal.  I felt that it was really good practice, having to hold a wind correction, and focus on the shot with the pests flying in my ears and biting me everywhere. After having made that last correction in the scope, I was pretty sure things were dialed in, so I was blasting away at about 3-4 rounds per minute.  In total, I fired 8 shots, and 6 of them are in this picture.  The first two were the ones I used to get the shot set up.

 

 

6/24/2011 - Testing My Metal..(well, lead really)

Now, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking that these are pretty boring pictures.  I guess you're right, they are kind of boring.  I'll do my best to explain why I even uploaded them.  In the top picture, that is a "cold barrel" shot right in the bulls eye.  The next two shots decided to share a single hole together, and the fourth shot is the one off to the left.  This was shot at 100 yards with my newest hand loads.  They are Lapua Brass, with Sierra BTHP 175 gr bullets.  CCI 200 primers, with 45 grains of Hodgon Varget power pushing the 308 bullets.  I almost forgot to mention that this is the Savage 10FP rifle, with the Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44 scope.  This particular load is hotter than any that I have shot before from this gun, so I wanted to check the zero point.  As you can see it wasn't far off, but after making this 4 shot group I dropped the scope 2 clicks for good measure.

The Second picture is the target that I had set up at 1000 yards.  After checking my zero, I sent some shots down range.  I went shooting much later than normal (it was about 10 a.m.), and I was quickly reminded why I like to shoot either early morning, or just before dusk.  Yes, it was a little breezy.  So much so, that the bullets were being pushed 2 to 3 feet off the right hand side of the target.  Luckily with the time that it takes the 308's to get out that far, I can reacquire the sight picture most of the time to see some dust spray up.  I used a ballistics calculator online before heading out, and with the faster muzzle velocity (these are going about 2750 fps, see earlier post), the computer suggested using 121 clicks, so that's what I tried.  It was actually really close for 25.10 on the pressure, and about 75-80 degrees, with very low humidity. I shot about 6 shots, while trying to aim into the wind.  Although only one shot is actually recorded on the cardboard, there was a decent little grouping in the ground, off to the right of the target.  Some of those shots looked like 121 clicks was enough to reach the distance, but I think I might give use a couple extra clicks given the same situation.

6/11/11 The Chrony Results Are In

Today Konnor and I went to see how consistent my most recent 308 hand-loads are.  Here are the results.  It appears I have made a round that is 138-117 fps faster (taking my avg. speeds compared) than the Black Hills Match ammo (comparing today's two 10 shot strings against a string of 8 that was shot on 5/7/10), and more consistent (my Extreme Spreads today were about 40 fps, while the Black Hills Match was 60.99).  Obviously I would have to put more Black Hills Match ammo through the Chrony to confirm, but these results are promising.

10 Shots - 175 gr Sierra BTHP, 45 Grains of Varget Powder, CCI 200 primers, Lapua Brass

Low: 2731
High: 2770
Avg: 2751
Extreme Spread: 39.39
Standard Deviation: 14.03

2770
2755
2754
2745
2770
2747
2761
2740
2731
2732

10 More Shots - 175 gr Sierra BTHP, 45 Grains of Varget Powder, CCI 200 primers, Lapua Brass

Low:2716
High:2758
Avg: 2730
Extreme Spread: 41.47
Standard Deviation: 13.00

2736
2739
2723
2716
2739
2758
2728
2719
2725
2718


10 Shot of Lenny's Guns-n-Ammo - 175 gr Sierra BTHP Custom Ammo

I forgot to store the exact figures, but this is what I wrote down real quick from memory:


Low: 2642
High: 2692
Avg: 2670
Extreme Spread: 50
Standard Deviation: 17-19