Alright, so I got the Elite 308 out a few days ago at 100 yards, and at 600 today. Millet TRS-1 4-16x50 mounted on Leupold rings. Compromised on the scope for now so I could have the rifle I wanted inside my budget. My only real complaint about the scope is the eye relief is far from forgiving.
I'm pretty much brand new to high power rifles, so figured mounting my scope would be similar to my 22. Unfortunately during the zeroing process I discovered I was wrong- not nearly enough torque on the scope rings. It managed to shift every shot. Took me about 10 rounds of Gold Medal Match to figure that out, ouch.
The action is smooth as butter, as I've heard, the magazines work great, and the stock adjustments are awesome at minimizing recoil. I only managed to goof and slam my collar bone once.
A few observations:
I'm used to shooting from a bipod. The Elite bipod is not an ideal benchrest target bipod. I knew this when I bought it. It just swivels too much left and right to drill 5 holes in a target at the same point reliably.
I've only shot very little from the bench with sandbags, so this was a new experience for me. It was a pain getting the sandbags in position for a solid natural point of aim.
Once I did that, I drilled a few in one ragged hole at 100 yards.
Satisfied with my zero and out of ammo, I packed it up for the day.
Day 2: 600 yards. Our club has people down in a pit marking the targets after every shot and sending it up and down: 15 shots at 600 yards on a 36"x36" target.
Wind was flat with 3-4 mph gusts , ammo was Federal Gold Medal Match, 168gr. Prone this time. This rifle has to be made to shoot prone, so comfortable.
I'm using an app called Ballistic for iPhone to give me the number of clicks up from 100 to 600 yards and also as a range log.
Once again I struggled getting the rifle set up on sandbags at a natural point of aim. The stock design just isn't conducive to small movements up and down the sandbags. I had several flinches big enough for even me to notice. Overall I'm happy with the results. I know the rifle can shoot, the shooter is a problem. I'm definitely hooked!
I'll probably try to bipod prone at 100 yards within the next few days. I decided not to shoot with it for my 600 yard shooting.
Another observation I took away from today- the light was starting to fade away and I was having a little trouble focusing on the reticle. I should have flipped on the illumination.
Great learning experience.
Here's an abbreviated version of the range card I'm working with. (Didn't feed it perfect input data, just went with the defaults.)
I'm pretty much brand new to high power rifles, so figured mounting my scope would be similar to my 22. Unfortunately during the zeroing process I discovered I was wrong- not nearly enough torque on the scope rings. It managed to shift every shot. Took me about 10 rounds of Gold Medal Match to figure that out, ouch.
The action is smooth as butter, as I've heard, the magazines work great, and the stock adjustments are awesome at minimizing recoil. I only managed to goof and slam my collar bone once.
A few observations:
I'm used to shooting from a bipod. The Elite bipod is not an ideal benchrest target bipod. I knew this when I bought it. It just swivels too much left and right to drill 5 holes in a target at the same point reliably.
I've only shot very little from the bench with sandbags, so this was a new experience for me. It was a pain getting the sandbags in position for a solid natural point of aim.
Once I did that, I drilled a few in one ragged hole at 100 yards.
Satisfied with my zero and out of ammo, I packed it up for the day.
Day 2: 600 yards. Our club has people down in a pit marking the targets after every shot and sending it up and down: 15 shots at 600 yards on a 36"x36" target.
Wind was flat with 3-4 mph gusts , ammo was Federal Gold Medal Match, 168gr. Prone this time. This rifle has to be made to shoot prone, so comfortable.
I'm using an app called Ballistic for iPhone to give me the number of clicks up from 100 to 600 yards and also as a range log.
Once again I struggled getting the rifle set up on sandbags at a natural point of aim. The stock design just isn't conducive to small movements up and down the sandbags. I had several flinches big enough for even me to notice. Overall I'm happy with the results. I know the rifle can shoot, the shooter is a problem. I'm definitely hooked!
I'll probably try to bipod prone at 100 yards within the next few days. I decided not to shoot with it for my 600 yard shooting.
Another observation I took away from today- the light was starting to fade away and I was having a little trouble focusing on the reticle. I should have flipped on the illumination.
Great learning experience.
Here's an abbreviated version of the range card I'm working with. (Didn't feed it perfect input data, just went with the defaults.)
