Yesterday I made the 100 mile+ trip to Pala shooting range. I was on their long distance rifle range for over 3 hours shooting my new Weatherby Modular Chassis rifle. It is not a real Weatherby as it is made in Japan by Howa not in Germany. I would like to own a real Weatherby but at my age (77.75) and income level it is not possible without mortgaging the house. I am not going to do that because it took 30 years to pay off the mortgage and I am not employable (too old) and cannot afford another mortgage.
For glass I installed an Athlon Argos BTR 6x24x50 in Talley light weigh rings/mount.
Again it is not a real scope as those cost at least 8 to 15 times the price of this Chinese glass. A Nightforce, Zeiss, Swarovski, Leupold, would be much better but I don't have that kind of juice.
So, the equipment is not low end but, a step up from the Mossberg MVP that I just sold. The Howa/Weatherby was affordable and the action functioned perfectly for all 57 rounds of ammo. I was using New, brass cased Wolf Gold and PMC 223 Remington ammo at 30 cents a round. Hornady, Black Hills, or Federal match grade ammo would have been much better but that stuff is about 3 times the cost .
I have never had a spotter and you all know that a good one is as valuable as a good hunting dog. So all my targets were steel and had to be surrounded by dirt so that I could try to determine if I missed or hit them. I had previously sighted the rifle at the indoor range to hit at 200 yds. My first shots were at a 10" steel plate at 200yds. The rifle was on target at that distance so I clicked up 0.7 MILS to 300yds . I took several shots at 300yds and it was easy hitting 16" plates with the scope at 12x. I dialed up another 1 MIL for a total of 1.7 MILS to hit targets at 400yds. I was unsuccessful but could see that my bullets were about 1MIL right of target. That told me I had to make a correction for a 5 mph full left to right wind. I had to dial in 0.8 MILS of windage but after that had repeated success at 400yds. Then I progressed to the targets at 550yds while dialing the scope to 24x. My ballistic chart, obtained from Hornady indicated that I had to dial up an additional 2.0 MILS for a total of 3.7 MILS from my 200 yd zero point. It made those clicks and also clicked another 0.7 MILS of windage to account for the wind. I pressed the trigger and saw my bullet splash about 0.5 MILS above the target. I turned the turret down 0.5 MILS and had repeated success on steel 22" high by 11" wide steel coyote target. I cannot understand why it only took 3.2 MILS of elevation vs 3.7 MILS as prescribed by the ballistic chart in order to move bullet impact from 200yds to 550 yds. The rifle is excellent and runs like a Swiss watch. The scope is much better than my swfa ss 12x fixed scope and cost only $30 more. I like MIL/MIL FFP scopes and this reticle works for me.
For glass I installed an Athlon Argos BTR 6x24x50 in Talley light weigh rings/mount.
Again it is not a real scope as those cost at least 8 to 15 times the price of this Chinese glass. A Nightforce, Zeiss, Swarovski, Leupold, would be much better but I don't have that kind of juice.
So, the equipment is not low end but, a step up from the Mossberg MVP that I just sold. The Howa/Weatherby was affordable and the action functioned perfectly for all 57 rounds of ammo. I was using New, brass cased Wolf Gold and PMC 223 Remington ammo at 30 cents a round. Hornady, Black Hills, or Federal match grade ammo would have been much better but that stuff is about 3 times the cost .
I have never had a spotter and you all know that a good one is as valuable as a good hunting dog. So all my targets were steel and had to be surrounded by dirt so that I could try to determine if I missed or hit them. I had previously sighted the rifle at the indoor range to hit at 200 yds. My first shots were at a 10" steel plate at 200yds. The rifle was on target at that distance so I clicked up 0.7 MILS to 300yds . I took several shots at 300yds and it was easy hitting 16" plates with the scope at 12x. I dialed up another 1 MIL for a total of 1.7 MILS to hit targets at 400yds. I was unsuccessful but could see that my bullets were about 1MIL right of target. That told me I had to make a correction for a 5 mph full left to right wind. I had to dial in 0.8 MILS of windage but after that had repeated success at 400yds. Then I progressed to the targets at 550yds while dialing the scope to 24x. My ballistic chart, obtained from Hornady indicated that I had to dial up an additional 2.0 MILS for a total of 3.7 MILS from my 200 yd zero point. It made those clicks and also clicked another 0.7 MILS of windage to account for the wind. I pressed the trigger and saw my bullet splash about 0.5 MILS above the target. I turned the turret down 0.5 MILS and had repeated success on steel 22" high by 11" wide steel coyote target. I cannot understand why it only took 3.2 MILS of elevation vs 3.7 MILS as prescribed by the ballistic chart in order to move bullet impact from 200yds to 550 yds. The rifle is excellent and runs like a Swiss watch. The scope is much better than my swfa ss 12x fixed scope and cost only $30 more. I like MIL/MIL FFP scopes and this reticle works for me.
