GA Precision Thunder Ranch Rifle

longrangehunter · Jun 30, 2014

I got around to taking some pictures of my rifles today, and thought I'd show you guys my newest Tactical Rifle built by GA Precision. It's a Thunder Ranch Rifle only tweak a little..... these don't come in 6.5x47 Lapua or with the break (soon to be replaced by a Thunder Beast Arms Suppressor). It also as a small firing pin since the Lapua uses Small Rifle Primers and wears a 24" barrel vs. the 22" it was to come with as a 308 Winchester. But the old 308 is dead, not really but good luck against any guy using a 6.5 mm in the same case. lol

It wear a S&B 5-25x56 LP DT 1/10 CCW Mrad turrets with the MSR reticle in Badger 1" 34mm rings. About the only thing I don't like about this scope is it being illuminated. Waste of money since I don't need it, or will I ever use it, and two it makes mounting the scope for eye relief a little less then perfect. Also the tunneling that these scopes have at 5-7x. Honestly as much as these cost, that should happen. I have a much old Zeiss V/VM 5-15x42 that doesn't do this, or my USO 1.8-10x37, Premier Reticle 3.5-10x50, Kahles 3-12x50, even my older NSX Nightforce 3.5-15x50, but it is still a great piece of glass and I hope it will be as good as what it was to replace, a S&B 4-16x50/P P3. These didn't have that issue, but for more magnification, the 5-25x56 is hard to beat. If I don't like it on this gun it's getting swapped with the PR on my Sako TRG-42, but I'll wait and see?

The 6.5x47 Lapua has been easy to load for, and yes it shoots very well so far even though I have only 50 rounds down the tube.

Guy Miner · Jun 30, 2014

Nice. GAP has been building top notch rifles for quite a while now.

Thanks for sharing that rascal!

Guy

DrMike · Jun 30, 2014

It does look all business; that's for sure.

HOGWILD338-378 · Jul 1, 2014

Nice looking rig and I am sure it will be a tack driver for many rounds, very sweet looking rifle and I hear Zak makes some really nice cans as I had been thinking about getting 1 for my 300 Win Mag myself! Really sweet looking rifle and congrats for sure! :mrgreen:

longrangehunter · Jul 1, 2014

Zak Smith is a really nice guy, so is his buddy Ray. I met them at the Steel Safari this past month down in New Mexico. Very hard Match to shoot well in, you have only five minutes to locate, range, and engage six targets and only one round per target allowed. Some of these stages were very hard just to locate a single target, most of these stages 2 1/2 minutes went by and I'd have to move to shooting what I could find.... about 3 of the 6 sometimes. A beautiful place to shoot, but not fair to the competitor that had never been there before. I heard some of them had just been there a week ago...... needless to say that's like playing golf with the County Club Pro at a course you've never seen before!

Oh well, I didn't do well. I just need to remind myself it's the hardest Tactical/Practical match in the US. I'd do it again though only because I don't like to lose!

HOGWILD338-378 · Jul 1, 2014

NRA Whittington is for sure a challenge I am sure as it's been around for such a long time! I just hate Raton,NM :lol: nice town to drive thru but for some reason I do not like it! I was watching a show a while back and they had the range in Buena Vista on TV which I thought was a really neat place! Never shot at Whittington or comp anywhere but wish I had of done it when I was a little younger ! I need to be hitting some of the Northern NM Lakes for fishing as we have some pretty good lakes but it seems I am always going south or west to fish? Not too smart as south is way too hot and west it takes forever to find anything worth fishing and out east ya gotta have boat surfing techniques du to east NM winds!

longrangehunter · Jul 1, 2014

Terry,

The Steel Safari makes the NRA Whittington Center look the a match for the elderly! Seriously, you'll walk a 1/2 hour across the desert in 90-105 degree heat before you even arrive to the first stage! Anyone who can't walk the entire match between stages with out taking a break.... you'll be DQ'd. On average there is only 10 minutes between when you first arrive to the holding area, and when you leave to the next stage (you can not see the stage's from any part of the match, which is why it's so hard), once you are called over to the stage the clock starts. The R.O. is the shooter before you, he'll show you either one or a two shooting position and a left and right outer marks to look for the targets between these two points. Now these steel targets are either painted black or a rust/brown color to blend into the terrain. There were a few stages that the targets were visible with the naked eye, but by that I mean trained eye for what to look for?

So basically you will shoot and then R.O. for the guy behind you, and move through the course of fire. This Match does not have down time, you will either be moving to the next stage or very quickly using your five minutes wisely and setting up to R.O. the shooter behind you.

I liked it for the fact of zero down time other then the five minutes where you'll R.O., but then you'll grab your Back pack and move to the next stage, most were about 5-8 minutes away. I never waited more then two minutes at a holding area before moving up to the shooting stage, most of the time I walked right up and got ready to shot.

There were 8 stages per day for three days. They started at 5:30 AM, with 3 shooters leaving every 10 minutes to the three different parts of the course, a North, South and a West course. They would mix up your departing time each day, I did get lucky by not leaving too late in the morning and each day, 1 hour earlier then the day before, 8:20, 7:30, and 6:20.

The Steel Safari is one of the best true field/practical long-range rifle matches in the world! If anyone seriously wants to test their skills the Steel Safari is the archetypal "hike-and-shoot" long-range rifle match. It tests a wide spectrum of skills involved in getting to a shooting location, identifying targets, and engaging long-range rifle targets with only one shot a piece. Some of these skills include target recognition, ranging, wind doping, ballistic data management, marksmanship under field conditions, non-standard shooting positions, rudimentary trail skills.

For anyone that would like to give it a try one year, look up Competition Dynamics, it's being going on every year since 1998. You just might like it!

HOGWILD338-378 · Jul 3, 2014

Cole that does sound challenging and a lotta fun but me being an old fart would probably have issues as I am mobility impaired to start with but sure sounds like fun! Not to mention my rifle needs to go on a diet, I need to build me a light weight rig as all I,have are a couple production Accumark's but I,ran some numbers on my 338-378 and 22.5 MOA gets me to 1200 yds! And it has a total MOA of 66.0 but I will loose a little sighting it in but hopefully not too much! I would need a bank loan and a young man to carry a sack full of 338-378 rounds! I would just have to use the 300 Win Mag as it would be more practical! Weatherby did a range certification on it and it had nice cloverleaf group at 200 yds measuring 0.23 which works for me!