Trailblazer
05-07-2006, 02:39 PM
We had the high power rifle match yesterday. Things are starting to come together but not all there yet. It was a very windy day so there weren't any high scores shot by anyone. It took 2 minutes of windage to get on the pigs at 300 meters with a high power rifle. It is easy to turn a scope knob but the real problem is holding the rifle steady in the gusting wind. Typical conditions for spring and summer at our range though.
I got a score of 5 with the 30-30 and I did not have the lowest score of the match by any means. 1 chicken, 2 pigs, 1 turkey and 1 ram. I have a Lyman globe sight and Marbles tang site on the rifle now. I used the 165 grain Saeco for chickens and pigs and the 205 grain Saeco RG-4 for turkeys and rams. I got to the range late and didn't get sighters so I had to get sighted in on chickens during the match. I was able to get fairly close on the rest of the targets by guesstimation once I had a chicken setting. I did get fouled up on pigs because I ran out of one can of powder and opened a new can while loading ammo. The two cans were different enough to change the trajectory. I thought I was all dialled in and then the shots started falling low. I happened to get a lull in the wind that let me hit my lone turkey.
The Marbles tang sight ran out of elevation after the turkeys so I switched to the Redfield receiver sight for rams. The problem there was that I couldn't see the outside of the globe sight through the receiver sight aperture so I never got a good ram sight setting. The two rings overlapped and I couldn't tell when the front sight was centered. Much later I realized all I had to do was remove the steenking aperture and I could have easily seen all the globe sight. Oh well! I hit the ram in the neck and he fell right over but that hit doesn't show much because it is the center hits that produce the ringers. I also shot my 7-08 and I rang one ram with a 160 grain Sierra BT with a heart shot. All rams are not created equal!
For the next match I need to get my sight heights sorted so I can use the tang sight on the rams. The next stem for the Marbles tang sight is .23" higher. With that stem I won't be able to get low enough for the chickens. I may just cut and lengthen the stem I have when I figure out what the best length would be. Other than that I need to do some more load development. I would like to get the velocities a little higher. And I need to remember to take the extra inserts and apertures for the sights to the match. I didn't have the best combination of apertures in the sights. I had the smallest apertures in the globe and the tang sight. That worked great at 100 yards off the bench. It was very hard to see the silhouettes through the small apertures though. It was really tough with the wind. I had to locate the target over the sights and then bring the sights up onto it. The wind would blow me off and then I had to start all over again.
Still it is fun getting competitive with those bolt gunners with their jacketed bullets. It just adds a little more spice to the pot!
I got a score of 5 with the 30-30 and I did not have the lowest score of the match by any means. 1 chicken, 2 pigs, 1 turkey and 1 ram. I have a Lyman globe sight and Marbles tang site on the rifle now. I used the 165 grain Saeco for chickens and pigs and the 205 grain Saeco RG-4 for turkeys and rams. I got to the range late and didn't get sighters so I had to get sighted in on chickens during the match. I was able to get fairly close on the rest of the targets by guesstimation once I had a chicken setting. I did get fouled up on pigs because I ran out of one can of powder and opened a new can while loading ammo. The two cans were different enough to change the trajectory. I thought I was all dialled in and then the shots started falling low. I happened to get a lull in the wind that let me hit my lone turkey.
The Marbles tang sight ran out of elevation after the turkeys so I switched to the Redfield receiver sight for rams. The problem there was that I couldn't see the outside of the globe sight through the receiver sight aperture so I never got a good ram sight setting. The two rings overlapped and I couldn't tell when the front sight was centered. Much later I realized all I had to do was remove the steenking aperture and I could have easily seen all the globe sight. Oh well! I hit the ram in the neck and he fell right over but that hit doesn't show much because it is the center hits that produce the ringers. I also shot my 7-08 and I rang one ram with a 160 grain Sierra BT with a heart shot. All rams are not created equal!
For the next match I need to get my sight heights sorted so I can use the tang sight on the rams. The next stem for the Marbles tang sight is .23" higher. With that stem I won't be able to get low enough for the chickens. I may just cut and lengthen the stem I have when I figure out what the best length would be. Other than that I need to do some more load development. I would like to get the velocities a little higher. And I need to remember to take the extra inserts and apertures for the sights to the match. I didn't have the best combination of apertures in the sights. I had the smallest apertures in the globe and the tang sight. That worked great at 100 yards off the bench. It was very hard to see the silhouettes through the small apertures though. It was really tough with the wind. I had to locate the target over the sights and then bring the sights up onto it. The wind would blow me off and then I had to start all over again.
Still it is fun getting competitive with those bolt gunners with their jacketed bullets. It just adds a little more spice to the pot!