A day at the range

[Love Life]

A day at the range

So there I was, larger than life. I was kicking around the house looking for something productive to do. Nothing was readily apparent so I headed out to the range to do a little 1,000 yard shooting

I got out there and met a friend to throw down some hate and discontent on the steel targets.

Firing point:

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Fat Lady: What can I say about this girl? She was built buy our very own Goodsteel. It was a superbly (1/2 MOA all day…for real) rifle before I sent the 26 inch barrel down in flames at round count 820-ish. I sent her in to Tim, he cut the barrel back to 21 inches to get back into fresh rifling, and she is back in business to her usual sub MOA self. I love this rifle.

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DTA: This is my friend’s rifle. It has a 16.5 inch 308 barrel and a 26 inch 338LM barrel/bolt conversion. The 16.5 inch 308 barrel (1 in 8 twist) had no issues sending 175 gr SMK out to 1,000 yds and making consistent hits. The 338 LM was just plain cheating and tended to knock down our targets…

107460

Barrel Cooling: I keep a white T-shirt soaked in water wrapped around a bag of ice. After shot strings I drape it over the barrel to expedite cooling. Gotta love stainless steel and spray paint!!

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Target: This is 9 shots at 1,000 yds. The wind was 10 MPH (measured with Kestrel at target) variable switching left to right, right to left, half value, and dead still. You really had to be Johnny on the spot with the wind flag. I fired 10 shots, but one got taken by the wind… Those two high shots by the bolt were not called and that brass was culled and will be used for ground squirrel duty. With the uncalled fliers, it is a 10 inch by 10 inch group. I’ll take that for being a bit rusty…

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Much fun was had, my arm tan got better, and I have verified 7.2 mils of elevation puts me right where I need to be. Good times!!

[zidave]

Wow. Nice shooting

[WILCO]

Great report!

[MrWolf]

That looks like fun. Nice shooting.

[kungfustyle]

I was elated at 200 yards. It must have been awesome to hear that tink 3 seconds later (guessing on the time). Great shooting.

[MBTcustom]

I need to get rich so I can fly out there and dig on some of that action. Here in Arkansas, the only 1000 yard stretch you're going to find has planes taking off and landing on it! LOL!

[Love Life]

I need to get rich so I can fly out there and dig on some of that action. Here in Arkansas, the only 1000 yard stretch you're going to find has planes taking off and landing on it! LOL!

I'll be in Georgia soon and the range nearest to me goes out to 200 yds. I reckon it's time to move back to the ol' .223.

I will miss Nevada. Drive 15 minutes in any direction and you can shoot as far as your gun will allow you to!!

Thank you to everybody else for the kind comments. It was a blast! A Mountain Dew and Snickers, a couple boxes of ammo, some smokes, and I have the necessary items to waste an afternoon in good style.

I didn't get here by myself. I learned many of the necessary skills from this very forum. I didn't get here overnight either. Shooting this far was two years in the making and I'm still learning everytime I go out.

Everybody: Get out there and shoot!!

If anybody in the Topaz Lake area of Nevada ever want to come shoot (I'm here another month and a half) drop me a PM and I'll make the time to take you out.

[freebullet]

Was that cast boolits er them nasty jbulls? Good shootin either way. My wife and I had a good time plinkin on the pistol range this afternoon, can't beat an afternoon of shootin.

[Love Life]

Jacketed.

The cast experimentation begins this winter when the polygonal rifled barrel shows up.

[texassako]

I like reading about your 1000 yard shooting with the pictures, targets, and details. It sure looks fun.

[Bzcraig]

I really admire your tenacity to learn the skills to shoot that well. Keep at it brother!

[Love Life]

Here is another picture of the target with the camera zoomed in:

[a.squibload]

Nice shootin! I like the look of that bullpup.

Took friend, his wife & kid to the range yesterday,
he got all happy shootin' his new/used 45acp.
Kid shot her new BB gun, 1 1/2" group (at 10 yards but
she's 9 & new at this stuff). Shot cans cans full of water she liked that.
His wife shot her Granpa's 1917 45acp revolver, first it's been shot in
70 years. She got a little happy too. Was supposed to be thunderstorms,
great weather. Good times!

[Love Life]

Nothing like a day at the range!! I have my daughter shooting the BB gun as well, but I sneak out with it on occasion...when she isn't watching me like a hawk!

[NewbieDave007]

1,000 yards? Heck that's only 5x as long as I've ever attempted. Lol.

Nice shooting!

[Catshooter]

Nice accomplishment LL, very nice.

Is that the .243 you've posted about in other threads?


Cat

[Love Life]

Nice accomplishment LL, very nice.

Is that the .243 you've posted about in other threads?


Cat

It is. Plain vanilla .243 winchester cut with a match reamer, 1 in 7.5 twist barrel, threads lapped into the action.

I usually shoot 105gr and higher bullets.

[badbob454]

nevada will miss you love life , whereabouts you moving to ...?

[CWME]

Green with envy that you can shoot like that. My range continues to make it difficult to use the 600 yard range(keep adding rules and or changing them).

Do you have to turn the necks on your brass or is it a no turn chamber? Been looking at ordering a .243 barrel and not sure what chamber to go with is all.

[Love Life]

No neck turning. Tim has the specs on the reamer.

[MUSTANG]

Good day at the Range. The wife and I miss our house at Lake Topaz; sold it back in 98.

[Finster101]

That's impressive. I have a Sako .243 that does pretty well. Haven't had the opportunity to get past 200 yards. I know it shoots nice and flat, the wind has to be rough with that weight bullet at that range though.

[Love Life]

The wind is funny at that distance. You hold for a full value when the flag is straight out, squeeze off the shot, and between pulling the trigger and impact you see the flag twitch to a half or no value, and your shot impacts accordingly. Sure is fun though. Boom...............ping!!!

[Love Life]

That's impressive. I have a Sako .243 that does pretty well. Haven't had the opportunity to get past 200 yards. I know it shoots nice and flat, the wind has to be rough with that weight bullet at that range though.

The .243 is a great cartridge. I put a lot of thought into it when I was researching for this rifle. Available components, flat trajectory, high BC bullets, and enough case capacity to really give it the juice.

[Finster101]

How much over 105 grn are you going with bullet weight? That's getting in the heavy range for that cartridge is it not. I'm just stating to get into the rifle reloading and I am fairly new to pistol (4 to 5 years) so I am kinda wet behind the ears on a lot of this stuff. I understand the reason for the heavy I just don't know how heavy you can go in a .243.

[country gent]

Love Life,
Years ago when I built my first 243 coarse and long range any rifle I used a hart barrel 1-7 twist, tight necked chamber 26" long on a pre 64 model 70 action all set into a Tubbs stock. It shot great from 200 yds to 1000 yds. I shot 90-95 grn bullets at 200+300 yards/ 105 JLKs or 107 sierras at 600 and for 1000 it was 105 JLKS or 115 bergers. I was shooting the states Bob Wright memoril match at perry beside a friend who the night before was refering to the new gun as a sub caliber. The next day we shot any rifle Irons and any rifle scope our first 2 relays. Larry looked at me and said bring your score book to the pits with you. He was shooting a 300 win mag with 180 or 190 grn match kings. We compared scores and settings for wind and such It seemed My 243 with the 115s was shooting under his 300s wind by about 1/4-1/2 min and I wasnt taking anywhere near the pounding he was. For long range a properly built 243 is second to none on the line. The only drawback I found was barrel life when using it accross the coarse. I need to replace that barrel now. But have an AR 10 set up with a 26" krieger 1-7 twist on it now. There is also a upper in 22-250 for it with krieger 26" 1-7 twist for long range.

[Love Life]

How much over 105 grn are you going with bullet weight? That's getting in the heavy range for that cartridge is it not. I'm just stating to get into the rifle reloading and I am fairly new to pistol (4 to 5 years) so I am kinda wet behind the ears on a lot of this stuff. I understand the reason for the heavy I just don't know how heavy you can go in a .243.

With this twist I can go to 115 gr DTAC bullets and stabilize them. It will all depend on your twist, barrel length, and horsepower. I've seen 1 in 9 twists of 24 inches or great stabilize the 105 AMAX, but shorter barrels not so much. Of course every rifle I different. The heaviest I have shot is 107 gr SMK and was loading those over Retumbo. In the 26 inch barrel it was a phenomenal combo with 4-5 inches of vertical at 1,000 yds.

Once the barrel got cut back to 21 inches the uber slow powders didn't work anymore. They worked when temps were in the 30's, but above those temps things fell apart quickly. I am now using H4831SC and I have an 8lb jug of IMR 4350 for when that runs out.

I hope that helps and if you have any more questions please don't hesitate to ask.