Range Report Factory ammo "in the node"?

[Baconator]

After tons of research about tuning for node on this great forum I have came to a question.

At first I was shooting 139gr hornady sst at mAx load with h4831 which "should" have been atleast 31-3200 in my 28" tube. The zero I had it on had the sst hitting about 18" low at 400.

Now the weird part. I ran some Winchester 150gr ballistic tip factory ammo through it at rated 3100fps and it hits about 16" higher then the lighter 139gr. Also grouped 1 3/8" at 400 compared to the 2.5-3" it used to shoot with sst. I was happy with 2.5 to 3" at 400.

Now my question is. What's the odds that I was at the bottom of the flex with the sst ammo and now am at the top node. And just luckily found a factory round that is set up just about perfect for my barrel.

I will Try to get out today and shoot some groups at 500 to see whats up. Wind is fairly calm. Il post pics soon as I get a chance.

 

[WDL]

Re: Factory ammo "in the node"?

Are you using Chris Long's OBT nodes and QuickLoad? Or something else?

 

[Baconator]

Re: Factory ammo "in the node"?

I'm using real world testing.

Ok, i accomplished multiple things today!

Well mirage at 400-500 was absolutely rediculous, no bullet holes and 2" black square looked like 6". Also wind kicked up to around 9-10 mph, would settle down to about 6 or so with a couple seconds of no wind then bam hits again.

I went ahead and set up my brand new 500yd target!! (old dryer lol).

Set up my stuff at the bench and adjusted my scope up for a 400yd zero. the group came out to about 3" with all the freaking wind. I took time between shots for barrel to cool because I had to drive 400yds to see my hits. Vertical spread was about 3/4" but lateral spread was 3". less then 1" group feasable!!

Ok I pulled up my ballistics chart which is the one on biggameinfo.com. I guessed at my muzzle velocity and put in the known bc and weight of bullet and 400 yd zero.

Said I needed so many clicks to 100yd zero so I proceeded to click and shot a dead nuts 3 leaf clover 1/2" high An a little left from the wind at 100. So now I have a starting 100-400 dope. Set it up again to verify 400 and sure enough right in the middle of the other 3.

Back down to 100 hit same spot. Ok now to 500. The ballistics chart showed how many clicks for 500 yds. Clicked it up and set for a while to see if wind would die down.

After a while we got fed up and shot 22s for a while discussing things about barrel heat and effects on poi. Well bout that time the wind suddenly stopped so i jumped on the big gun and what ya know it kicked back up to arou 5-7 so I said screw it.

The wind was anywhere from nothing to around 6 so I tried sending 7 rounds down range as fast as I could while the wind was calm.

As you can see the first shot was the lowest. The second shot hit left, third shot stacked rift on top of first, 4th shot is a lil higher but left, I pause for a sec to feel the barrel which was warm and fired the next one which was higher but center, i waited a hair longer each time now and each rose higher and higher.

I stopped after 7 because it was plain to see. Shot one at 400 to verify and was high. Waited bout an hour and was back on at 400.

as you can see i was low at 500. I adjusted in the ballistics program for scope sight height and recalculated, adjusted scope a few clicks up according to program and shot once at 100 400 and 500 going by program dope and was dead nuts out to 500!!!

Now i I have my 50-500 dope that i can count on.

All in all I am very pleased. Very capable of 1.5" groups at 500 in good conditions.....(look at that vertical spread or lack there of for first 4 rnd)

One day I will get a calm day and move back to 600.

 

[Baconator]

Re: Factory ammo "in the node"?

according to the dope being pretty damn accurate, i seem to be shooting right around 3250 fps with my 28" barrel instead of the 3100 advertised by winchester.

 

[SnkBit]

Re: Factory ammo "in the node"?

LOL, I would love to have 6mph winds here. We get happy when they die down to around 10-15mph.

 

[Baconator]

Re: Factory ammo "in the node"?

man that would suck.

i am gaining experience quickly by using this ballistics calc and range time.

i am learning how much to adjust for how much wind. and the wind was kicking good today. i feel confident to throw a rock at anything down to the size of a cat at 500 yds and that is using dope from a 100 zero.

gotta love this 120 dollar simmons lol