AusVarmint

G'Day All,
Something happened on the weekend that opened my eyes to a situation that arises in the rimfire bench shoots shot at 50mtrs and 100yrds.
I used my best ammo that I knew was very capable at 50mtrs and proved to be all that and won comfortably, but at 100yrds was a different story,it just didnt turn the .2 groups from 50 to acceptable groups at 100 and I dont mean that I expected screamer groups just something a bit respectable,I learnt that more ammo trials and practice needs to go into the longer yardage but most of all its AMMO(i think).
Now the bloke(Russel Gibson) that won the 100 in heavy didnt do very well at 50 but used the same ammo/rifle and blitzed the field and shot some ripper groups that included a .260 screamer.
Its got me thinking if its more of a Ammo selection thing or do some barrels shoot very well at 50 but just dont shoot well at 100.???
I used eley at both yardage and russel used Federal, both Madco, same gunsmith(cooky) and tuner.
Anyone else care to comment on their findings.??
Regards
Native

I only ever shot at 20 and 50 prone, but my theory was if it shot well at 50 it HAS to shoot better at 20. It's plausable that some ammo will shoot well at 50 and not as well at 100 due to wind effect or velocity changes during the projectiles travel from the 50 to 100 mark.

I doubt it has anything to do with the barrel.

Well done Native, nice going at 50m and 3rd over all.

I have little experience between 50m and 100y, but I think you will find practice id key. Esspecially the wind flags.

I have shot alot latly at 25m and 50m, what I have learnt is I can shoot at 50m and am crap at 25 unless I am using the Air rifle. I thought it might just be my gear but I had the chance to shoot some of the best Calfee guns in the USA and still failed at 25m.

I need more practice.
Regards
Brett

I think that brick needs to be brought out again mate!

Ive heard that 200m subsonic ammo is the ballistic match of a 308 and palma loads at 900m. So even at 100m, wind would have a pretty decent effect on ammo. Doesnt take much of a tail whisp or flick of the flags at 900m to blow things right out.

I shoot metallic silhouette and would suggest it is an ammo problem.
Ammo that shoots good at 50m will usually be good out to turkeys at 77m but not always out to 100m, with some ammo you get vertical fliers but often just a bigger group, like double the size you would expect.
However if it is good at 100 it is usually quite decent at the closer ranges, maybe not to benchrest winning standard but ok for silhouette.

I think if you only have one barrel you come away thinking it’s the ammo and the first time I ever shot a group match was the 2006 (I think it was 2006) nationals at Silverdale and I won the 50m easy and got lost at 100 and blamed the ammo.

But these days with a few match barrels to play with and some reasonable ammo I worked out that even with barrels that shoot the same at 50m, it is more a case of some barrels just do better at 100 than others.

Of the 3 match barrels I use on my Hall, one has won the 100m agg at a group nationals, it and another barrel have both won Hunter nationals the 3rd barrel I won’t use again in a 100m match but if there is a IRB world championships in Brisbane next year and I make the team, it’s the barrel I’ve sacked from 100 matches that’ll I’ll use for the WC.

Peter

G"Day,
Thats interesting pete.!!
I plan to do some ammo testing and see if I can improve on the 100yrd stuff and if it works out that this barrel wont do well at 100 i dont know what to do as Its a ripper barrel at 50.
I do have another rifle in process so maybe that might work for me.
Thanks for your thought fellas.
Regards
Native