Budget equipment wins the day!!

[Love Life]

I'm thinking you will make a fine showing once you get in the game. I have never considered any long range shooting competition due to the "cost." Nice informative thread.

That is the thing. I see alot of people get put off at shooting far because they believe they need the most expensive equipment ever made to shoot at distance.

They don't.

All you need is a good perfroming load and trigger time. The high dollar stuff makes life easier, but as long as your scope tracks true and your barrel isn't at a 90 degree angle to your action, then the chances are good that you can make hits on 1-2 MOA targets at distance all day long.

Now to shoot 1/2 MOA at long distance you may need to spend a little coin, but do you know that? Have you shot far with your current set up (directed at everybody)?

Pull them loudenboomers out of the safe, dust them off, stretch the distance on your targets, and go shoot!!!! Make evry shot to the best of your ability, measuer ALL holes in the groups (no called fliers don't count garbage), and enjoy yourself.

Remember, I taught myself with lowest of budget scopes. A $60 tasco varmint... If I can do it then so can you!!

Thus ends my public service announcement.

[W.R.Buchanan]

LoveLife: I guess you know where I stand on this subject. I can't believe the money people spend on some guns and then get spanked by the guy with the generic gun who actually has shot it a few times.

My standard load for My Ruger Scout is 45.0 gr of IMR4895 and a recycled 147gr M80 ball bullet is consistently inside 7/8" at 100. There is nothing special about these loads and they are assembled like any normal hunting load would be done. I do clean the cases each time. Woop!

I was at our Range on the 600 yard range one day when the Ventura County SWAT team was there shooting at a 2'x3' metal plate we have hanging at 600 yards. Each of the 8 guys shot his $8,000+ Griswold Bros built Sniper Rifle at that target 8 times off a Cement bench with bipods on the guns.

Not one guy hit the target even one time. 0 for 64 shots. This was with custom loaded ammo as well. I had to go back to my truck and get in the cab and guffaw uncontrollably several times so I wouldn't be heard by them.

As they were packing their gear up I eased over to the bench and flopped my back pack down and shot My Ruger Scout at the same target. I had dialed 14MOA into the Leupold 1-5x VX3, and proceeded to ring the gong with 5 shots in a row,,, Quite enough to get everyone's attention, and believe me, THIS WAS NOT THAT HARD TO DO! I just knew where my gun would shoot, Simple as that.

After my humiliating display one of the guys came over to me and told me that they never expected to have to take a shot further than 70-80 yards!

My immediate thought (which I kept to myself) was it is a good thing you won't have to shoot past 80 yards because I doubt any of you could hit SQUAT at 100+. These guys are collateral damage waiting to happen.

I am still trying to find out who was responsible for spending $65+K on these guns, for this group of assclowns. They would have been better off with some stock Remington 700's in .308 for $7-800 each and some shooting lessons from a decent coach.

Perfect example of the cost of a high end rifle being a perfect waste of time and money in the hands of a boob.

I loved this thread and you should buy your buddies a beer to celebrate their achievement.

Randy

[Love Life]

You should hook those SWAT guys up with the target I posted. You're going to get me in trouble if you keep talking about that scout rifle!! I've been mighty proud of myself not caving in and buying one. However; if they have a 5.56 one coming out then I'll be whipping ou the wallet.

[M-Tecs]

Randy

When I was actively shooting High Power or 600yd belly matches we would get 2 or 3 SWAT guys per year showing up to show us how a good shooter shoots. They got a rude awakening after the scores were tallied.

In HP the classes are marksman, sharpshooter, expert, master and high master. When they found out they were only marksman level shooters their egos couldn’t handle it and most never came back. One stuck with HP and he did get his high master card.

Funny stuff when big egos crash and burn.

With any type of reasonable equipment the equipment shouldn’t be a limiting factor until you consistently shoot master and high master scores.

[Norbrat]

After my humiliating display one of the guys came over to me and told me that they never expected to have to take a shot further than 70-80 yards!

My immediate thought (which I kept to myself) was it is a good thing you won't have to shoot past 80 yards because I doubt any of you could hit SQUAT at 100+. These guys are collateral damage waiting to happen.

Our club president was at our range when our local police STAR force "snipers" were practicing at 50m. One proudly showed him his 4" group.

Steve just said "So you are the guy who's going to shoot the guy behind me holding me hostage?? Keep practicing!!"

[btroj]

Same thing here with our "snipers". Lots of talk, not much show. Total mall ninjas.

I have watched some very good high power shooters in action and they are all about substance and not style. They just know how to shoot.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Love Life: I was told at SHOT that the .223 version Scout was being discussed.

As far as your target goes? What exactly does it say when you completely miss the whole target?

That's where we would be starting.

Randy

[freebullet]

Interesting thread. I really like the target. I've not competed outside of buddy competitions yet. I would sure like to find the time to do so in the next couple years. I do practice out to 600 that's the furthest our gun club offers, any further and I have to travel a bit to do it.

It always cracks me up when folks are shooting super duper ultra magnums at 100 struggling to get a pattern on 12"+ targets.

[220]

Big difference between being competitive at club level and being competitive at state or national level.
A stock rifle will work well and be competitive enough if you don't have ambitions of becoming a national champ but I think the top guys are now shooting groups around 2" at 1000y.

My 15year old son finished 2nd in a 300m shoot last year using my varmint gun, the other place getters useed far more expensive outfits their scopes alone would be 3 times what my outfit cost.
The bloke in first asked what we were going to do to try and beat him next year, replied weigh our powder charges and try neck sizing.
Bit of a as we do weigh our powder for varmint guns but they were FL sized. Son was kicking himself because he had a 1/4moa group going until the last shot and threw one opening it up to 1/2moa.

I love the target

[Love Life]

So the top guys are shooting world record groups all day?

That is great to hear about your son. I completely understand his frustration with the group. There have been may times when I didn't want to take that 10th shot. There have been many times when I wanted to exclude the "Called flier" from my group measurements.

Get em out and get shooting!!!

Here is what my rifle would do from harris bipods, FL sized every time, no neck turning, no weighed cases, bullets sorted with comparator. 2 different groups at 800 yards.

[M-Tecs]

Love Life very nice shooting

[Love Life]

Thank you!! That is why I wanted to shoot F-Open with no bags and no front rest. The rifle was certainly capable and how cool would it be if I placed anywhere above dead last against the race guns and uber rests? Alas it was not to be since my overly long and fast shot strings sent that barrel down in flames. When she comes back it'll be a 21 inch barrel and I'll have to start anew.

Good times.

[Pb2au]

Superb shooting LL.
I love the thread as well. Too many times people get into "solve problems with buying more gear" mode and simply glass over the fundamentals.
I envy your wide open spaces to shoot in. We have too many hills, trees, cows and barns in the way around here in SW Ohio. It does appear however a good friend of mine is getting access to a 1000 yard range up on the north side of the state. Hitting the range this weekend to blow the dust off.
Oh, I have your target printed out and stuck above my desk/work bench. All the mall ninjas I work with didn't understand it...... I wasn't too surprised.

[220]

That is great to hear about your son. I completely understand his frustration with the group.

Had a play at a 6" 600y gong a few weeks ago, son has made himself up some cheat sheets with drop wind etc.
First shot using bipod prone was just under, 2nd shot drilled it dead centre, only a cheap scope on it so he is holding off not adjusting the scope.
He has a longest shot varminting of 668y, bit of luck involved in it but he takes the heads off rabbits around 400y regularly enough to know there is a bit of skill there as well.

One day I'll get out the range to shoot F class when they are shooting 300 with the 30/30, Ive shot it on paper at 300 and know I can hold a 4" group, sure I wont win but I will have fun and probably wont be last.
Did try it at a 6" gong at 800y about 12months ago, didn't hit it but gave it a scare a few times, shooting from ridge top to ridge top the wind was killing us, elevation wasn't an issue but reading the wind sure was. Drift was varying by up to 1.5y but everybody shooting anything with a low BC bullet was having similar trouble.

[Love Life]

Shooting rabbits consistently at 400 yds takes skill. You should be proud and so should he.