New Contest Starting Now! This Target Haunts Me

[DR2366]

2015 or 2016 I think the last year before the CMP let scopes loose in n Service rifle. I have a 4 point leg and two 8 point legs. I’m at Camp Perry at the NITT trying to leg out. I had “insert famous rifle builder here upper” with Krieger barrel. I’m at 4000 rounds mid summer and order another. I shoot a dozen local 2-300 reduced matches and got my zeros, come ups are all the same. No access to 600 before Perry. I’m having a great day, 96offhand, 100 sitting, 99 at 300 I’m in the hunt to leg out.

Put my 600 dope on, call 2.5 mins right for wind. Break first shot I’m elevation perfect out the left. Put 2.5 right on break the shot, I shoot the spotter same spot. Put half a drum right on, same spot. Say F It Kentucky hold over the next 16 or so shots and miss that hard leg by about 8 points.

Go back to my bunk, turn that drum about 100 turns right sight doesn’t move. Go to commercial row I’m boiling hot. Go to the guys shop yeah hi my 3rd upper from you, spent thousands, sight stopped turning at 6, no problem son, he puts a dial indicator on it and spins the knob. It’s indexing perfect. I’m like look the dial indicator is pushing it right. We take the dial indicator off and I spin the drum ten times like a maniac I’m like look it didn’t move in 10 full drums. He’s like 1/4 min adjustments son you can’t see that. Get out of my shop, come back when we’re slow and I’ll teach you about MOAs and clicks. Now it’s a yelling match. I’m like take my shit apart, he says no I won’t it’s fine you’re not. I’m like fine give me a new screw and base. Nope I won’t even sell you one. You’re the problem not my rifle. I storm out. His young adult son chases me down commercial row, hands me a baggy with a base and screw and apologizes. He’s like I know you spent a ton of money here in the last two years, no matter who is right you can have a Fing screw and base, we appreciate you.

I head home and take the A2 NM sight apart. Turns out the screw had a section to the right where the threads were razor thin and a little short where it would just spin in the base, the base was a bit sloppy too. If you gently helped it you could get passed those and start grabbing again. The new parts they gave me were nice and tight.

Moral of the story. I fired 750 rounds thru that upper on closed no wind ranges. I never needed more than a click of Windage until I got to Perry. I had got duped by an untested $0.39 Chinesum playground grade screw. And a guy that was too proud to listen to me. I did leg out the following season.

 

[Larry Lambert]

This is a quick one, so I’ll set the mood, we all remember our first years hunting with dad and pawpaw. Just imagine misting rain where sundown is only 30min. Sitting in your tree stand with your grandpa while dad is on the next ridge. Your grandfather has killed more than his fair share of deer he’s only wanting to live long enough to see his grandson kill his first deer. Well the opportunity came I drawed my whitetail hunter bow back on a nice 8 point that’s horns was barely even with it’s ears. (16 to 18inch spread) when I let loose the arrow from a bent position to get under the brush where the deer was broadsided my arrow flipped a branch causing a bad shot. My grandfather Told me there’s still a good chance we can find him. We waited till the next day after we lost the blood trail that late night. Little to our surprise even with the misting rain the day before we picked up the trail again. Seems like we tracked the deer for miles but the trail went cold never to find the deer. Next season was different cause my pawpaw pasted and then my dad and I was hunting the same stand just a year before with my grandpa. Almost identical weather conditions a 10 came out around the same time but just above the one the year before came out 25yrds out my shot placement was true. The buck ran about 50yds passed without a kick. Next day my dad was skinning the deer and he found 8 inch’s of an aluminum arrow with the same broadhead we all used (without the blades of course) could it be I asked my dad. My dad spent the last hour with my grandfather he told my dad be sure to take that boy back to my stand he’ll have another chance at the same deer if we got lucky. You ask yourself many times and see the missed opportunity with your grandfather only to enjoy the same experience with your dad. It haunts me to this day with a side of enjoyment.

 

[Riverlife87]

Major lands sniper cup, 1st match ever for me. Frank is my RO. He has me free handing my 25 lb rifle at gophers at 75 yards. I had been skipping shoulders at the gym. And drank way too much coffee. I pulled the shot on the last gopher. “Re engage”.I knew it. I dropped a shot at 75 yards. Unreal.

 

[Quarter Horse]

This is an additional post to reference the post that is a target from 2015 post #86. My poor computer skills will not allow me to add verbiage to explain the target. It was shot on April 12, 2015. @Lowlight had tired of the 5X5 targets that were being posted and came up with this target as an alternative test of skills. The rules in scoring this target can be found in the Advanced Marksmanship Forum in the "stickies". So, to move on.

I found my rifle did not have a cold bore problem it was in fact a cold shooter problem. If I dry-fired about five times and rebuilt my NPA the shot went exactly where it was supposed to. This target was only my second try. A few days before-hand I had doped out the cold bore shot and the day I shot for record I had perfect conditions, no excuses. The mistake I made was strategic and was in the second group of five. I pulled the first shot. It landed on the circle surrounding the second group of five thus a "point." Remember, the lowest score wins. I somehow decided that a rifle that I trusted implicitly had gone wonkers and I tried to chase the shot. Thus, a strategic mistake and as you can see, the whole endeavor turned into dog shit. One round out of twenty. @Clearlight, in Australia, is still listed as #1 with 1.2pts. Extrapolate that into five shot groups and what you get is ridiculous.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda. Oh well.

 

[5RWill]

Jan 6 2021. Load development for my 6.5x47 with 130gr SMKs. Best 5 shot group i had ever printed leading up to the last shot you see in the bottom left corner for the group. It will always haunt me.

 

[Lawolfiie]

I had installed a new scope in my 223 howa. Shot a 10 rds group at 200. Stacked them almost on top of each other up to the ninth shot. The 10th ended maybe a quarter inch above the group for what I could see in the scope. I was thinking, still an awesome group for bragging and posting it. I am waiting for the rso to call next cold range. A huge gust of wind happened and it took everyone's targets up and then too far to be recovered... still hurts this was recently Ben Avery 's in Arizona BTW.

 

[rulellis]

I'm from Indiana, deer hunted forever and felt like I could do anything. I booked a guided elk hunt, bought a Remington 700 in 30-06, put a McMillan stock on it, and topped it with a Leupold VX-3, and had a buddy's dad who loaded me a round that shot 5/8" groups at 100 yards. I The scope was one of those bullet drop reticles. I practiced at the holds 100-300 yards, and I practiced a lot. I thought I was it.

The date finally arrived and I packed up and headed to Colorado. Day 1, we set out. Within a few hours we were on a massive 6x6 bull elk at 383 yards. I knew if I held just a little high, I would be right on. I had time to get comfortable, and I tried with the terrain we were on. I squeezed the trigger, and watched dust fly about 5' in front of the bull. Off they ran. I was devastated by missing my bull. I was humiliated by shooting so bad in front of the guide. But most of all, my confidence was completely gone. I wasn't sure why I missed and, therefore, didn't know how to correct it.

Every time I go hunting I think about that shot. It drives me crazy today. But it also drove me to learn about shooting - it got me on this site to start studying and learning from others. It started my journey in reloading. I began delving into all things about rifles, optics, practice, and trying to stay current on what I can do to be a better shooter.

This was a painful experience, but it certainly taught me a lesson that I needed.

 

[VargmatII]

So, back in 2018 me and my friend Stefan took a 6 hour drive to Norway to compeat in the competition known as NM Langhold. I did not really know what to expect, all I knew was that it was going to be cold, and that we had to use snow shoes.
On the morning of the competition it was a blistering -27 degrees celcius (-16 F) and there was atleast 3 feet of snow covering the mountain where the shooting was supposed to be done.
In the south of Sweden, were I live, it does not get this cold, and we seldom see snow at all. So this was very different to me.
And on top of it all, I forgot my snow shoes in the car and had to borrow a set of WW2 area snow shoes made from wood and leather straps, anyhow...

To make a long story a bit more managable. I took my first shot of the competition at a small 12"x12" plate set at 1090 meter, and it was a hit. I even managed to hit it with 2 out of 3 shots. For years, this was the furthest I have ever shot, and a great memory from a very tough competition. Oh, and on day two of the competition I had to drop out since I had a pretty bad cold with fever.

This is a picture from the second stage I shot that day. The 1099 meter shot was taken from a spot about 30 meters from where this picture is taken, and the red arrow at the left marks where the 12" plate was.

 

[cro789]

The center gate at our property is named Don't Shoot because I decided to bring out a 556 with Barnes bullets as we had seen a bunch of pigs and no bucks. My buddy objected. I did it anyway. I promptly saw the best buck I've ever seen on our property 187 yards away while holding a 14.5" 556 with an old 51T mount/M42K I didn't fully trust to hold true. I didn't shoot. I should have brought anything else.

 

[cro789]

That says it all.