Well, Brian invited me down to shoot at his hunt club where he has access to about a 600 yard cutover. He already had steel set up at the 591 yard line and a place to verify at 300. Pretty slick set up really. I brought 4 of my rifles down to shoot. The 338WM, 35 Whelen, 270WSM and my 264WM. Well, I went to work at the 300 yard line, verifying and adjusting my zeros. I really wanted to see how well the Minox's tracked going from their zero's to the 600 yard dope.
Okay, this is the first target we had set up at 300 yards. The first rifle up was my 338WM. I shot the first one in the bull and the next three are in the lower right. I was running the 250 AB's in that rifle.
After that, I pulled out the 264WM with the new load of RL25 and the 140 BT's. I had pretty high hopes of that combo. It didn't let me down a bit. The three shots on the upper left, with two touching and one a touch out was what I was rewarded with.
After that I pulled the Whelen (225 AB @ 2750) out, the random shot on the bottom was the first I think and a dope change put me just under the bull, giving me my 250 yard zero for the Whelen.
I don't have many pictures, but the 270WSM (150 BT @ 3125) did about a 2" group at 300. Brian said it was bigger, but I am sticking with 2". I had to do a little micro adjustment, to get it right on at 300, but it seemed good..
I wished I had a picture of targets at 600 and may try to get them the next time out, but I shot a 4-5" group at 600 with the Whelen in order to verify my dope at 600. I was beside myself. Having never shot the 35 Whelen at 600, it was fairly easy once I got the dope worked out. I dialed in 49 clicks with the Minox and went to work. After that, I dialed back to 300 to verify it moved properly, it did. Very happy with the Minox's on the Whelen and 338WM. I did the same with the VX3 on the 270WSM. The Leupold is a touch tougher to dial as there isn't a way to mark your zero, it kinda had a little sliding ring which you can use to position under the zero, it works, but the Minox is a better set up.
After dialing, the 338 and 270WSM were on steel pretty quick at 600, conditions were pretty decent, alot of mirage though, but light wind, probably less than 5MPH most of the day.
Now, the 264 just has a cheesy little Nikon Pro Staff on it. I pulled up the BDC calculator Nikon provides on their website, entered in the ballistic data and figured out where I needed to hold. Well, once I found that, I was ringing steel pretty easily with it. Their BDC system does work pretty nice actually, no complaints..
Anyhow, here are a few pictures of the range and set up.
3 shots from Brian's 243 AI with the 105 Amax at 300
Here is the shooting area.
You can just make out the 600 yard targets in the upper left of the picture. Pretty tough to see, but they were there!
Here is me and Tom, another one of the fellers that comes out and shoots. He brought out the 338 Lapua that is in the forefront of the picture.. Great dude!
Here are a couple other pictures of the toys brought out to shoot. An AR and a M1A with a Troy chassis on it. I am sure Brian will have some to add to it, but I appreciate the opportunity to sling lead with such good guys.
Both the Minox's and VX3's worked well with dialing. I did find that turning past the setting and backing up assured better and more reliable movement. I had a blast shooting the Whelen out to 600. Pretty decent for a woods cartridge and more than accurate enough and plenty of power to take longer shots, should you know your gun and where it shoots. Oh, and the wind isn't howling!
Hoping to get some more time like that with the rifles. Pretty fun to stretch them out once in awhile and just shoot off the ground! I was getting a little burned out on the bench. I promise to get some pictures of the 600 yard groups with the Whelen and others next time as it is a little unbelievable, but I think Brian will back me up.
Okay, this is the first target we had set up at 300 yards. The first rifle up was my 338WM. I shot the first one in the bull and the next three are in the lower right. I was running the 250 AB's in that rifle.
After that, I pulled out the 264WM with the new load of RL25 and the 140 BT's. I had pretty high hopes of that combo. It didn't let me down a bit. The three shots on the upper left, with two touching and one a touch out was what I was rewarded with.
After that I pulled the Whelen (225 AB @ 2750) out, the random shot on the bottom was the first I think and a dope change put me just under the bull, giving me my 250 yard zero for the Whelen.
I don't have many pictures, but the 270WSM (150 BT @ 3125) did about a 2" group at 300. Brian said it was bigger, but I am sticking with 2". I had to do a little micro adjustment, to get it right on at 300, but it seemed good..
I wished I had a picture of targets at 600 and may try to get them the next time out, but I shot a 4-5" group at 600 with the Whelen in order to verify my dope at 600. I was beside myself. Having never shot the 35 Whelen at 600, it was fairly easy once I got the dope worked out. I dialed in 49 clicks with the Minox and went to work. After that, I dialed back to 300 to verify it moved properly, it did. Very happy with the Minox's on the Whelen and 338WM. I did the same with the VX3 on the 270WSM. The Leupold is a touch tougher to dial as there isn't a way to mark your zero, it kinda had a little sliding ring which you can use to position under the zero, it works, but the Minox is a better set up.
After dialing, the 338 and 270WSM were on steel pretty quick at 600, conditions were pretty decent, alot of mirage though, but light wind, probably less than 5MPH most of the day.
Now, the 264 just has a cheesy little Nikon Pro Staff on it. I pulled up the BDC calculator Nikon provides on their website, entered in the ballistic data and figured out where I needed to hold. Well, once I found that, I was ringing steel pretty easily with it. Their BDC system does work pretty nice actually, no complaints..
Anyhow, here are a few pictures of the range and set up.
3 shots from Brian's 243 AI with the 105 Amax at 300
Here is the shooting area.
You can just make out the 600 yard targets in the upper left of the picture. Pretty tough to see, but they were there!
Here is me and Tom, another one of the fellers that comes out and shoots. He brought out the 338 Lapua that is in the forefront of the picture.. Great dude!
Here are a couple other pictures of the toys brought out to shoot. An AR and a M1A with a Troy chassis on it. I am sure Brian will have some to add to it, but I appreciate the opportunity to sling lead with such good guys.
Both the Minox's and VX3's worked well with dialing. I did find that turning past the setting and backing up assured better and more reliable movement. I had a blast shooting the Whelen out to 600. Pretty decent for a woods cartridge and more than accurate enough and plenty of power to take longer shots, should you know your gun and where it shoots. Oh, and the wind isn't howling!
Hoping to get some more time like that with the rifles. Pretty fun to stretch them out once in awhile and just shoot off the ground! I was getting a little burned out on the bench. I promise to get some pictures of the 600 yard groups with the Whelen and others next time as it is a little unbelievable, but I think Brian will back me up.
