Testing my Bench Gun at SISC

[SnipeWench]

I've been rather bored this week, jumped onto the SISC website to check when they opened up after the new year, discovered they were open, and decided I'd head on out to blaze away on the electronic targets with my FWB bench gun.

My objective for the afternoon/evening was to shoot and shoot and shoot this gun without a clean, to see when it would finally "break down" and start throwing shots around.

The first problem I discovered was that SISC ran out of Lapua Midas+, but they did have Lapua Midas M, so I bought 5 boxes of that (thinking it wouldn't have been far off Midas+.

Set up the bench gun and start feeding the Midas M rounds into it - all over the place. What the? No matter what I tried with the scope, the shots always ended up in the 9 or 8 ring bottom left around 45 degrees or so. The wind was <5knots or so... I backed off the two fences squishing the front bag on the rest, and noticed an improvement in the aiming, but the grouping was inconsistent.

Looking through my ammo box, I had two and a half packets of Midas+ left, so I thought, "lets try the Midas+". A clean, and the first 80 shots went down (60 + 20 sighters). I scored a 597. Without cleaning (remembering my original goal for the evening), I fired off the next 60 shots, and scored a 598. Max score is 600.

Daniel (one of the range officers there) was floating around, and was visibly impressed with the scores. He told me to try the Midas M, so I did, and without cleaning, I shot a 595. Not bad at all for a rather fouled barrel! The Midas M was certainly shooting ok, but it would occasionally throw a 9 (some dodgey 9's and a lot of dodgey 10's too). Daniel then asked me to try the Midas M on a clean barrel. I shot another 595, with no difference in the spread of the Midas M.

I learnt a number of things last night, like the forestock bag tension affects the aim, which can't be corrected by scope changes, the requirement for return to battery after each shot (with a new rear bag, I was able to finally return to roughly the same aiming point each time), repetition and routine before and after each shot, and the importance of follow through. I've also found some great practice ammo which is accurate enough, but not as expensive as Midas+!

I think that I can score a perfect 600 with this rifle, using Lapua eXact ammo (which I discovered this rifle just loves). There was nothing wrong with the shots thrown into the 9 ring for the 598 (IIRC I think one of them was me stuffing around with the rear bag, and being impatient...).

Gee this sport can be cruel! I've just spent $500 on more ammo, so I can have a crack at the elusive 600!

- bec

[Sam Walker]

Gee this sport can be cruel! I've just spent $500 on more ammo, so I can have a crack at the elusive 600!

- bec

ha ! addicted

[curan]

Good yarn bec.

Best of luck to you, and I hope the 600 is not too many bricks of eXact away!

regards, curan.

[Brett33]

Well done Bec good to see my first Spec build being put to good use.
You impressed one of Australia's best RF shooters at the range, he told me he was impressed.
I also hear you shot a 200 20x at Sutherland, is that true.

Regards Brett

[SnipeWench]

Brett,

Yeah, to the Sutherland question. It was the first time out for the rifle too!

I couldn't believe it! Neither could the guys!

I went out to SISC again on Sunday, and was starting a detail when the gent from RBA turned up. I shot a 599! The one point I dropped it was a 9.9 (scored as a 9 when you're shooting "qualifications"). If it was a paper target, it'd possibly gauged as a 10 too! As soon as I shot it, I knew it was a 9, and I knew it was my fault (shooting just after a bullet of breeze went through - I should have waited about 15 seconds longer) *sigh*

The wind picked up and I stuffed around with the barrel tuner to see whether I can reduce the spread of the Lapua eXact ammo a bit, and then proceeded to shot a 597 (dropped into the 9 on my third shot!). I learnt during this detail that when the wind is blowing at an angle, I not only have to hold off some windage, but also some elevation too (wind from the left about 4:00, so some left windage holdoff + some up elevation holdoff. I could then quite happily string 10's in the breeze, and go back to centre when the wind dropped.

So, a 600 is definitely achievable!

- bec

[curan]

Ha! No doubt it is achievable!

Good luck to you....get there soon!

Some of us mere mortals are watching and living in hope for ourselves!

regards, curan