Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,503
- 4,720
A few stalwart riflemen showed up for the Jan '08 600 yard practice/match. Me, Mike, Orv, Monte and John. John gets the award for the biggest rifle a .338 Laupa Magnum sending 300 grain bullets downrange. Mike brought the smallest, a 6.5x47 shooting 139 grain Lapua Scenars at about 2895 fps. In between there were a couple of .308's and a 6.5-284. Custom actions are starting to outnumber the cleaned up Remingtons and Winchesters at our local events - mirroring what is being seen across the country. Today there were a couple of BAT actions from Idaho and a Stiller action too.
We started by shoveling snow off the new concrete pad on the 600 yard line. Then I pulled the Dodge into 4-low to carry the targets, along with Monte and me downrange. The first shooters were up, and we were busy pulling targets as they banged away. On the first relay, both the .338 and the 6.5x47 were present - and both shot very well.
I was well off my game. Except for a few rounds across the chronograph a couple of weeks ago, this was the first time I'd shot the .308 match rifle in over a year, since Oct '06. Shoulder surgery a few months ago didn't help.
I managed to hit paper with my first shot, although it was high, at 12 o'clock. I was shooting a Win 70 Palma rifle with a 30" Krieger and a 12x Leupold. Orv and I shot with the sling only for support, while the other guys shot from either bipods or from rests. All shooting was from prone. My load was my match standard: .308 Win brass, 155 gr Nosler comp bullet and 46.5 gr Varget sparked by a Fed 210 match primer for 2986 fps.
Me, with the good old .308 Winchester 70. I managed a score of 88/0x for the 10 scored shots in our mini-match. I'm not sure what Orv shot, but one of us brought up last place. The highest score was turned in by Mike, with his 6.5x47, a 99/2x.
Along with the match, we held a little side-challenge - a hard-boiled egg suspended on the target face by strings. Monte, shooting a .308 built on a Stiller action, smacked it with his first shot! :shock: That, gentlemen, is out of my league! Wow... He nailed that thing:
After that, everything was pretty much anti-climatic. We had a good shoot. There was a little wind to cope with, and the snow made for some nice photos. A very good practice/match with no angst. No worries about who did well and who did not. I was pleased to get back on target, and fairly pleased with my score, particularly since we were shooting the far more demanding F-class target instead of the standard NRA 600 yard target.
It was a great way to spend a January afternoon. Regards, Guy
We started by shoveling snow off the new concrete pad on the 600 yard line. Then I pulled the Dodge into 4-low to carry the targets, along with Monte and me downrange. The first shooters were up, and we were busy pulling targets as they banged away. On the first relay, both the .338 and the 6.5x47 were present - and both shot very well.
I was well off my game. Except for a few rounds across the chronograph a couple of weeks ago, this was the first time I'd shot the .308 match rifle in over a year, since Oct '06. Shoulder surgery a few months ago didn't help.
I managed to hit paper with my first shot, although it was high, at 12 o'clock. I was shooting a Win 70 Palma rifle with a 30" Krieger and a 12x Leupold. Orv and I shot with the sling only for support, while the other guys shot from either bipods or from rests. All shooting was from prone. My load was my match standard: .308 Win brass, 155 gr Nosler comp bullet and 46.5 gr Varget sparked by a Fed 210 match primer for 2986 fps.
Me, with the good old .308 Winchester 70. I managed a score of 88/0x for the 10 scored shots in our mini-match. I'm not sure what Orv shot, but one of us brought up last place. The highest score was turned in by Mike, with his 6.5x47, a 99/2x.
Along with the match, we held a little side-challenge - a hard-boiled egg suspended on the target face by strings. Monte, shooting a .308 built on a Stiller action, smacked it with his first shot! :shock: That, gentlemen, is out of my league! Wow... He nailed that thing:
After that, everything was pretty much anti-climatic. We had a good shoot. There was a little wind to cope with, and the snow made for some nice photos. A very good practice/match with no angst. No worries about who did well and who did not. I was pleased to get back on target, and fairly pleased with my score, particularly since we were shooting the far more demanding F-class target instead of the standard NRA 600 yard target.
It was a great way to spend a January afternoon. Regards, Guy
