End result was this:
Needs work, but not too shabby
All 13 shots in the black at 200 yards. First time shooting the rifle, first time at 200 yards, waning light, I'll take it. Wally put things in perspective by reminding us that Lon Hirouchi took his infamous shot at Vicki Weaver at the same distance and claimed that he missed - and here I am, never having shot at > 100 yards before, with a new-to-me rifle and an economy scope, putting 12 out of 13 shots into an area easily covered by a human head...
Big thanks to Wally for his time and assistance. He casually picked up his match AR at 100 yards and - using iron sights - made a nice little group of maybe 1/4". This is someone who knows his stuff. He took the time and a seemingly infinite amount of patience to help a noob get on target, and for that I am grateful. He also let us play with some of his works in progress (more on that later), but we'll just leave it that our Black Friday was spent with black rifles of all flavors...
I can see how long distance shooters get sucked in, I really can. There's a whole new level of calm you need to bring to your body and your shooting when the slightest movement can throw off your shot significantly. It took a good chunk of the afternoon to sight in the Savage (granted, there was a good deal of playing with full-auto belt-fed .22LR ARs and suppressed 9mm carbines in between), and over the course of the entire day I only fired 24 rounds. I've shot that in less than a minute on the pistol range.
Thanks again, Wally, and I'm looking forward to the next time we can get together!
That is all.
16 comments:
I can understand the thrill you had in hitting those shots. The first time I shot a pistol at 50 yards I had 6 out of 10 in the A-zone. I hope you are better at repeating your feat than I have been!
Love reading about other folks' days at the range. Thanks for sharing.
Jay, glad you enjoyed. We just scratched the surface yesterday, you are off to a fine start! And I trust you can find your way back as well!!
You were shooting consistently and in the black and using a mixed bagof non-match ammo.
I'd say settle into a load, and log some time behind that rifle, and I bet you can shrink those groups way down.
If you want to do what Wally did using iron sights, I imagine you'd need to murder a black rooster under a full moon with a silver dagger while nude and reading from the Necronomicon.
Thanks again to Wally for having us!
If you want to do what Wally did using iron sights, I imagine you'd need to murder a black rooster under a full moon with a silver dagger while nude and reading from the Necronomicon.
Really? I figured it just took a sacrifice of lead. Lots and lots of lead. And gunpowder.
The fellow who runs my local gunnie forum is an avid trapshooter, and he says he can't drink coffee the morning of a shoot. So fasting from caffeine may be in order too.
I agree with Weer'd. At 200 yds I've seen a change in the brass used in a standard load recipe shift the POI an inch or more.
You'll need to select a load that groups well in your rifle and zero with that and stick to it.
On the other hand I'm not surprised to see a match AR with match ammo shoot a group like that at 100 yds. If Wally shot that offhand then I'm impressed but you'll be able to do that with a lot of practice and some instruction from Wally.
If you want to learn to shoot a rifle with precision find a weekly indoor 50 ft. smallbore league. The technique you'll learn applies to any rifle shooting. It would also be a good way to get your son started if he's interested.
Yep, now you're going to start buying by lot #, and making sure you have the SAME bullets and weights, and, and... And when we get you to Blogarado, we'll put you down on the gun at 750 yards :-)
Dam*! That's great for first time.
Second the .22 rifle league as practice make perfect.
Precision rifle shooting sure is a different zen than pistol shooting. I find that you simply must have absolute faith in your equipment, and some of that faith comes from proving out what works and what doesn't work. Then it comes down to optimizing your equipment for the task and refining your portion of the work.
First time with a rifle and shooting mostly S&B ball, you did very well. And I have confidence that the S&B didn't help, and the waning sunlight didn't help either. At the end of the session, I had trouble even resolving the targets through your scope. Also, at 200, I probably should have been right with you on the line, helping refine your style a bit.
But you now know it can be done and I dont think you'll have any issue coming back for a little more! A minute to learn, a lifetime to master!
And yes Weerd, there is an entire religion based around the care and feeding of my AR. I don't know if it is warranted, but the results are worth it.
>murder a black rooster under a full moon with a silver dagger while nude and reading from the Necronomicon.<
Oh Gawds... now I've got the image of Jay nekkid under a full moon. Going to have nightmares about that!
And congrats Jay: you made it under a MOB... :P
That's what I was thinking; these results should put that "MOB" crap to bed!
Good shooting, Jay!
Long Distance, the next best thing to being there. Now comes 300 yards, then 400 yards, then Camp Perry down the road... : )
David,
This outing was a real change for me. I normally shoot pistols at 25 - 50 feet, and when I hit the rifle range it's most often using a red dot sight at 50 yards.
I learned a LOT from this outing, not the least of which is that it takes both proper equipment *and* technique to get even vaguely close. While my equipment was certainly up to the task, I know for certain my technique could use refinement...
I got a chance to shoot pistols at 100 yards last year at the Northcoast shoot. It's amazing was does - and doesn't - work. .22LR out of even a target pistol just doesn't have the oomph...
Wally,
I will definitely be finding my way back, no question about that. It's about the same time distance as the *other* sooper seekrit range, actually... :D
Weerd,
True point. Better ammo and technique would most likely have shrunk that group further.
One thing that I did notice was that while the overall grouping was ~ 2 MOA (about 4" spread at 200 yards, I believe that translates to 2 MOA), the two-shot groups were more like 1-2" apart for each set.
I'm *VERY* pleased with the Savage and the Barska scope...
Dave,
Giving up caffeine is a level of commitment I'm not sure I can make yet... :)
Hat Trick,
Good point on the indoor .22LR rifle league. I also need to attend an Appleseed shoot next year, too. I believe my good friend Ross will be by shortly to needle me about it...
Old NFO,
This rifle is DEFINITELY coming to Blogorado, no question about that. I'll make a couple more trips to Wally's range before to get it dialed in at 200 and see where it hits at 400 (and maybe even 600).
Les,
If'n we hadn't run out of daylight (and shoulder strength), we were going to set up on the 300 yard line as well. As it turned out, we spent more time at 100 yards with the happy fun toys (which is perfectly fine) and ran out of time and such)...
Thanks everyone. I'm quite pleased with the initial outing of the Savage and my first time shooting at 200 yards.
I do have to admit, I'm looking forward to doing this again... ;)
And on the other end of the spectrum, I've got to introduce you to Steel Challenge. Great way to improve your handgun shooting!
Nice. My first time at 200 yards was with a 6.5 Swede hunting rifle, with a big scope... I shot 1 MoA(2" group), it was all down and right from the center, but in the black, I hadn't sighted it myself(and I know I was scoped dead on for most shots, I could see the center zoom in as I fired, from the straight back recoil). I was 15. Mind you I was also in a BB gun club and shot 198/200 at 10 yards, iron sight, with that, on those tiny 5 targets/paper things.
+1 on Appleseed. I thought I was a pretty good shooter until I went to my first Appleseed. Learned stuff there that really made a difference. Practice makes "permanent", only perfect practice makes perfect.
+1 on Appleseed. I thought I was a pretty good shooter until I went to my first Appleseed. Learned stuff there that really made a difference. Practice makes "permanent", only perfect practice makes perfect.
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