Rod had finished his shift 10 hours earlier, drove 350 ks to our range, loaded his ammo in time to shoot only to realise that he had mistakenly loaded 2209 in the little 22 BR cases instead of 2206. So one can imagine that his load was rather pedestrian, but still able to run close to the leader. On the sunday, with Rod loading the right powder this time, it was still close as they moved into the longs with John Lorimer catching up a few points at double 700 and 900. Rod Davies had changed to his 284 barrel at 900 as his 22 is subsonic at that distance and it was still any ones game with Pete Smith, Stu Mowat and Ross Atherton still well in it and the rest close enough to pounce if the leaders faultered.
The third and final day today was a double 800 M at 15 shots each and Rod brought out the little 22 and posted a leading 144 for the first round. Trevor Armstrong used his 284 to win the day with a 137 and a 135. Pete and Rod fell back a bit with Rod having no 22 BR rounds left, went to his 284 and couldn't match his first round score. John Lorimer stayed consistant and was closing the gap considerably.
For the three day grand agg, Rod Davies took out the match with a 918, 6 points clear of John Lorimer and Pete Smith.
As for FStandard, Ben Curley won the lead-up two day shoot on Wednesday and Thursday by a country mile and when i saw his scores over the weekend he had a string of 59s and was sreaking away from the pack at about 6 points a range. So i can only assume he took out the agg, but i don't know for certain. His rifle is his short range BR 6 PPC with the 308 barrel screwed in. Nothing fancy, just a Stolle in a Mac style stock that sits in a good bag set up. The rifle would be lucky to be 12 pounds wringing wet, but slides and balances extremely well.
There were all sorts of calibers in FO, with the usual 6 BRs not smelling roses this weekend. Three 284s, two 30/284s, a 6/284, a few 6.5s and of course the 22 BR. The 284s run 175 SMKs, the 30s ran 190 SMKs, the 6 BRs run 107s and 105s and the 6.5s all ran Lapua 139s and lastly the 22 ran the flat base Littles. Lapua cases were used in all except the 6 cartridges based on the 284 case where Winchester cases imported from the US were being used. The story was the same from all that the recent batch of Lapua 6.5/284 cases are not able to sustain extended high pressure loads before the cases become too sticky to use, even with the use of taper and chamber dies, or the primer pockets get loose. 2217 seemed to be the powder of choice in the 284 family mainly, with the 2213SC in Barry Ellis's 30/284 not performing to his expectations. John Lorimer ran 2217 in his 6.5 Rogue and 139s which were meplat cut. As for the rest of the field and meplat cutting i cannot remember who was what, but there were others.
It was interesting to see the mix of calibers and cartidges being used, and on our range i would have expected the 22 to get overrun at 6,7 and 800 M, but Rod and his method of bracket shooting, and with the predictability of the flat base pill in its wind drift, held tight. I would have to say that the 22 is certainly never going to be my choice, but one 22 with a FB in the field in the last three matches up here in the North, with three wins. Is it the FB or the 22? Some of the best 6.5s about, along with a couple of very good 7s must be scratching their heads.
The 6.5s are the money cartidges for me as the 284 guys are running their 175s soooooo slow and meplat cutting them short to get them to work, and the 30/284s are a no goer with a .565 BC 190 grain bullet at pedestrian speeds not making use of that BC at hand. If you go 30, go 200 SMK, 12 twist barrel in a true 10 KG rifle and drive them at 3100+ in a big case or just don't bother at all. As for the 6 mils, the new 117 SMK is going to make things interesting with a .600 BC, but with the down side being it will probably need a 7 twist to run it, i can't see barrels lasting all that long.
Some things don't change, as all i spoke to really hate the zebra style target they use in FO and the other common complaint is that with only one target on offer, it is down to the luck of the draw with regards to who gets what condition. Not a concern with the stand alone match earlier in the week, but is in many a view a stumbling block for future growth when it comes to OPMs.
One ray of light was a new target being shown with a white dot centre aim point, a half minute centre ring with the rest of the scoring rings being linear. Unlike the zebra taget, this one has been designed with scope shooters in mind, but is also iron sight friendly. It has an aiming zone very close to current TR targets, but with a ten ring sytem and has been designed to be used by FO, FS, and TR. Recently this target was shot on by a top FO and TR shooter with both returning a 98 score. Interestingly it was cheaper to produce this target locally than purchase regular targets. It seems that this target is being trialed for teams events for FO, FS and TR all shooting the one target and being all mixed in together, but a lot of support for it being a permanent fixture was heard to come from all three disciplines just simply because of the fact that the one target could be used for all. I'm still shocked and JR has to see a qwack about his back when he fell over after hearing that such a thing could happen across the board within the NQRA. But i assured him that not all Dinosaurs are extinct
as i seriously think that this target will get nowhere once the firm of Schmuck, Putz and Shiester down in Mexico get their way. As to why i didn't shoot. So many golf balls to be hit, and so little daylight to do it.
Tony Z.