Went out to do some long range shooting last Saturday with a couple of friends, deep in the Mojave desert.
Weather was just about perfect, mid 60's. We did need to contend with some gusting wind. In our face it had no value, but when it was a crosswind it affected impact. Gusts were about 12-20, right to left. I was using between 1 and 2 mils of windage, all day. I was most surprised to find that my dope was off by about 20-25% from the notes in my log. My log showed 38 clicks of elevation (LRB M25) for 400 yards, but yesterday 30 clicks did the job. And at 1,000 yards 184 clicks ended up only being 151. The control dope in my log was set and verified on a day when the weather was much hotter (100+ degrees). As you look at the pics it may look like we were shooting at a low angle, but actually it was almost flat. I gave the angle a zero value as it was very slight. This is the kind of excellent information that needs to be noted in a log.
We set up our home made steel plates, which measure 6"x12", on our home made rebar stands. Our ranges yesterday were 400 yards, 750 yards, 950 yards and 1,000 yards, lasered off to the yard and verified in both directions. Our 950 target was 2 of these plates connected (12"x12"), but the 400, 750 and 1,000 were the 6x12's.The deep holes in the plate are from a previous trip and were caused by close shots (50-75 yards) with various rifles, from .308 up to a Barrett .50.
One friend focused on his Savage M12 FVSS in .308 in a Bell & Carlson, topped with an IOR 6-24. The other brought his LRB M25, topped with a Premier Heritage. I brought along my LRB M25 in JAE G2 topped with an IOR 10x56, and my Armscorp M14 in JAE G2 topped with an IOR 6x42. My Armscorp has a standard profile USGI Winchester 62 bbl, but it shot one hole groups, even before dropping into the JAE G2. It was black nickel plated back in the early 90's, so it is a shiny black finish. I ended up using a Leatherwood Mount on it, and it worked perfectly. The Leatherwood comes with elevation shims (Needed) and has built in fine windage adjustments (also needed). I have not used this mount in a few years, but it worked great and adjusted exactly. It also stayed put, never shifted and sits very low. So now that this rifle seems to be dialed in, I'll set it on paper and it will get a camo job like the one on my LRB after the next range trip.
It soon became obvious that the 400 yard plate was too close, which we found gratifying. Ha. The 750 plate was an excellent test of skill, and due to its larger size the 950 plate about the same. That 1,000 plate kept moving out of the way of the bullets but still ended up with about a dozen hits, and the rocks around it were pulverized. The dirt around the plate looked like it had been roto-tilled. Not bad for a tiny plate (head sized) at 1,000 yards. Great confidence builder.
I used BHM 168 all day and it again proved its excellence. A friend used some BHM and some Hornady TAP 168 in his LRB M25. Both excellent. Another friend was trying BHM 168 and 175, and seemed to like the 175's best in his Savage.
I fired a total of 130 rds of BHM. 50 from my Armscorp, 75 from my LRB and 5 from my bud’s Savage. All rounds fired were from prone. Savage shooter used a bag and a squeeze bag, the other used a Tango Down bipod, and I used a bag and squeezebag.
Savage shooter also brought his SAI TRP Operator .45 along. Scarily accurate pistol. He dropped a couple rds from one mag onto the 400 yard plate while standing. There were also a G21, G17 and Colt 70 Series .45 along, but they only had a few rds run through them.
I came home pretty dehydrated and sunburned (typical), with more than a few bug bites (creepy little beasties out there), but am looking forward to the next trip. It makes for a very long day, but is worth it.
A great day in the desert
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