I took a long weekend and went out to visit my old friend Stephen in Park City,Utah.
We hooked up with Sinister(Dave) from here on the hide and headed out the the west desert for some quality time behind our rifles. We had previously connected at 12-1400 on previous jaunts out to the desert and we hoped that we'd be able to ring steel at a mile on this trip. I also wanted to see just how far I could run a .224 bore and still connect. This was my third trip out and by far the most successful outing. I'm hoping that Dave will correct or flesh out any details that I overlook.
Stephen and I both handloaded for the trip and used Quickload as a resource. It appears that reloading supplies are trickling back into stock but at the time of our preparation we had limited resources and were unsure of what would be available for resupply. I ran a ton of work ups in QL to limit the amount of load development we'd have to do in event of a switch in powder. Dave had helped Stephen in sourcing alternative powders and I must say I'm jealous of some of the shooting supply shops that are in the SLC area.
We also heavily relied on the Shooter App in our mobile devices. There was also some good old fashioned graphite on Rite in Rain for the real numbers.
One trend in this game is the pursuit of kickass gear. I tend to go a bit overboard within my means. Stephen prefers to find the least expensive way to get the job done and his successes are really quite impressive. I have seen him punish steel at 600 with a surplus ball fed Big 5 Nagant and at 900 with a Yugo Mauser, 196 Hornadys and 7x scout scope using no small amount of Kentucky windage.
Our gear for this trip was as follows:
Stephen used:
95 grain Bergers out of a Dicks special R700 243 with my LTR stock and well worn Bushnell 10x mil dot.
162 AMAX's out of a 90's Kimber VZ 24 sporter in 7mm RM with a Hougue stock and 10x OG Super Sniper scope.
I was using:
75 AMAX's out of my APA trued and barreled 20" Rem 700 in 223AI(Broughton 5C), bedded in McMillan handle by SAC and a 3.2-21 Bushy HDMR with the G2 reticle.
120 Cauterucios and 142 Sierras out of my R&D built 30" (Lilja 3 groove) 264 Merlin aka 6.5RM AI R700 with a Nightforce 12-42 BR.
All our shooting was done off a bipod and rear bag.
Being gracious hosts they had already recced some new areas to shoot and we headed to the one that seemed best for our needs. We found an excellent perch and drove out to drop off steel. Being an east coaster and accustomed to 300' asl the scenery was quite epic. We used full sized E types arranged in 100 yard increments from 1700 in to 900. We set up an 18x18 at 600 and paper at 100 to confirm zero. Large artfully constructed wind flags were set up at 600, 1100 and 1700 yards.
The first two wind flags are visible in this photo as is the long sand dune( just left of center) that we used as a backstop behind our 1700 yard steel.
We got zeroed at 100 then meandered out to 600, comparing the Shooter data with our actual data. Winds were mild, around 5 mph. Dave walked us out and we amended our data accordingly. Stephen was using his 7 RM and had good local advantage as far as dope goes.
I was generating data as I ran the Ackley out. My first hit at 1000 was quite rewarding. Dave was calling the wind and asked me to send two more rounds downrange. Both were hits that I could see in my HDMR. Though I could not tell how large the group was.
As it turns out the Ackley can hit a 1200 yard E type pretty consistently if it's pointed in the right direction.
My 6.5 and Stephens 7 were both on steel easily at a little over 1000 and as one might imagine taking it out to 14-15-1600 was challenging. My Nightforce ran out of up at 1500 and I had to use the NP-R2 reticle to make elevation holds. I dialed for wind quite a bit and found the tiny numbers and 1/8 MOA clicks to be less user friendly than the HDMR mil knobs.
The light was getting low so we decided to hike up the hill a bit more to turn our 1700 yard steel into a mile target. Dave ranged it 3 times at 1791 yards. He was determined not to cheat us out of a mile shot. I hiked up the hill with four 142 Sierra loaded rounds. My notes from the Oehler indicated that the bullets were traveling 3141 fps with a sd of 8 fps. We set up out mats and rifles an prepared to lop lead at some serious range.
We hooked up with Sinister(Dave) from here on the hide and headed out the the west desert for some quality time behind our rifles. We had previously connected at 12-1400 on previous jaunts out to the desert and we hoped that we'd be able to ring steel at a mile on this trip. I also wanted to see just how far I could run a .224 bore and still connect. This was my third trip out and by far the most successful outing. I'm hoping that Dave will correct or flesh out any details that I overlook.
Stephen and I both handloaded for the trip and used Quickload as a resource. It appears that reloading supplies are trickling back into stock but at the time of our preparation we had limited resources and were unsure of what would be available for resupply. I ran a ton of work ups in QL to limit the amount of load development we'd have to do in event of a switch in powder. Dave had helped Stephen in sourcing alternative powders and I must say I'm jealous of some of the shooting supply shops that are in the SLC area.
We also heavily relied on the Shooter App in our mobile devices. There was also some good old fashioned graphite on Rite in Rain for the real numbers.
One trend in this game is the pursuit of kickass gear. I tend to go a bit overboard within my means. Stephen prefers to find the least expensive way to get the job done and his successes are really quite impressive. I have seen him punish steel at 600 with a surplus ball fed Big 5 Nagant and at 900 with a Yugo Mauser, 196 Hornadys and 7x scout scope using no small amount of Kentucky windage.
Our gear for this trip was as follows:
Stephen used:
95 grain Bergers out of a Dicks special R700 243 with my LTR stock and well worn Bushnell 10x mil dot.
162 AMAX's out of a 90's Kimber VZ 24 sporter in 7mm RM with a Hougue stock and 10x OG Super Sniper scope.
I was using:
75 AMAX's out of my APA trued and barreled 20" Rem 700 in 223AI(Broughton 5C), bedded in McMillan handle by SAC and a 3.2-21 Bushy HDMR with the G2 reticle.
120 Cauterucios and 142 Sierras out of my R&D built 30" (Lilja 3 groove) 264 Merlin aka 6.5RM AI R700 with a Nightforce 12-42 BR.
All our shooting was done off a bipod and rear bag.
Being gracious hosts they had already recced some new areas to shoot and we headed to the one that seemed best for our needs. We found an excellent perch and drove out to drop off steel. Being an east coaster and accustomed to 300' asl the scenery was quite epic. We used full sized E types arranged in 100 yard increments from 1700 in to 900. We set up an 18x18 at 600 and paper at 100 to confirm zero. Large artfully constructed wind flags were set up at 600, 1100 and 1700 yards.
The first two wind flags are visible in this photo as is the long sand dune( just left of center) that we used as a backstop behind our 1700 yard steel.
We got zeroed at 100 then meandered out to 600, comparing the Shooter data with our actual data. Winds were mild, around 5 mph. Dave walked us out and we amended our data accordingly. Stephen was using his 7 RM and had good local advantage as far as dope goes.
I was generating data as I ran the Ackley out. My first hit at 1000 was quite rewarding. Dave was calling the wind and asked me to send two more rounds downrange. Both were hits that I could see in my HDMR. Though I could not tell how large the group was.
As it turns out the Ackley can hit a 1200 yard E type pretty consistently if it's pointed in the right direction.
My 6.5 and Stephens 7 were both on steel easily at a little over 1000 and as one might imagine taking it out to 14-15-1600 was challenging. My Nightforce ran out of up at 1500 and I had to use the NP-R2 reticle to make elevation holds. I dialed for wind quite a bit and found the tiny numbers and 1/8 MOA clicks to be less user friendly than the HDMR mil knobs.
The light was getting low so we decided to hike up the hill a bit more to turn our 1700 yard steel into a mile target. Dave ranged it 3 times at 1791 yards. He was determined not to cheat us out of a mile shot. I hiked up the hill with four 142 Sierra loaded rounds. My notes from the Oehler indicated that the bullets were traveling 3141 fps with a sd of 8 fps. We set up out mats and rifles an prepared to lop lead at some serious range.
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