AusVarmint

As I am new to this caper (of posting on forums) pls excuse my faults. Although the petty sniping I have witnessed on this forum has amused me I feel that as a group we are failing in our endeavours to further our sport. I now wish to share with all readers the experiences of the last 12 months of 500mtr & 1,000yd matches.
In the beginning I was of the opinion that 'Power' was essential and campaigned rifles that were 'right up there' in both classes and (as those who know me will agree) achieved a degree of success. By chance I happened to trade-in a fairly 'doggy' sleeved Rem Model 7 that had been taken out to '308' bolt face and had a buggered '6 Dasher' barrel in it. Regarding the thing as 'unsaleable' I had the stock re-furbished and fitted a new barrel (again in 6 Dasher as I had the reamer from doing customer work) with a view to having a cheap 'club-shoot' gun that might find a new home. Gotta tell you that this thing blew my socks off in testing at 200yds to the point where I offered the loan of it to a friend for a 500mtr match where it excelled. It then travelled as a 'back-up' for a while until achieving #1 status in recent times. To this day, this rifle has cost me less than any other competition rifle that Lee-Anne or I own yet it has pulled the greatest results. I have much more that I am willing to post if you would be so kind as to indicate your interest.

We are all ears PVM??

Later
P

Welcome to AV Pete, it is great to see you here. I have always assumed to 'sniping' was in the vein of good natured rivalry - I hope so anyway.

I am sure we would all enjoy and appreciate you sharing your experiences with us - especially those who, like me, are pretty much newcomers to the BR/Long Range shooting sports.

I look forward to your input.

+2 on what ogre said, and welcome.

Paz

Hi Peter.
I'm always interested in your opinon.I shoot a 6mmBR in F open and I'm competive most of the time.Any failure is usually associated with my wind reading rather then the rifle.
I have also shot a lot of magnums and when I was younger my motto was more power is the answer.Now I find skill and a good gunsmith much more useful.
I hope you will share more with us.
I think all forms of our sport wether it be hunting,or the many forms of target are equally important.We need them all to flourish to keep the pastime and passion alive and safe from those who would ban all firearms(or try to).
Have a good one,
Macca.

Hey Pete,

Good to see you here, I know you have been looking for a while. The bulk of the "sniping" is in fun, although I know what you mean.

Your input on the forum will serve to broaden the scope of information available to the members here and I am sure you will find them to be very receptive to new information. There are quite a few Victorians here that would make excallent additions to the Melbourne BR Club and would learn a lot along the way.

As I said at Canberra congrats on the shooting form and results from the shoots. I am still amazed that after 2 targets at 1k there was only 0.5mm between you and Dave G, it must have been a sweet trip home with the win in HG at 500 and your first win at 1k under your belt.

cheers
Rinso

Pete, go away. you know your too busy to spend time here. it might mean selling less stuff and then the prices have to go up to maintain revenue.

OK so maybe the joke wasnt funny.

Welcome, good to have you on board. You might find that the sniping seems to originate from one source so you can just ignore it.

Good to see you aboard Peter

I agree with your theory, things don't have to be all expensive and shiny to be good. There's a particular 'Old Omark' about that is on fire at the moment that reinforces it as well

Are we interested in more from you.......jeez I dunno... GO FOR IT

KY

It's a real honour to welcome you, PetevM. I read of your and Leeann's exploits (the latest Aussie Shooter, Page 99, for example).
I know I've said it before, but I really appreciate your building the long throat #1 in 300WSM, awesome gear; I just haven't learned to drive it proper yet.
Maybe I'll save my pennies for another rifle one day. Say "G'day" to Clem for me please.
ol' wooby

Pete... First up, congratulations on flying the flag high for the Dasher.... 1st in HG, and a not to shabby 4th in lightgun. Second overall by 2 points, Unreal!

I let the Dasher crew down by not making it, next time...

Good to have you onboard here Pete... did you shoot the Dasher at 1000yds also? How'd you go in that?

I too am interested in what else you have to say!

Cheers
AI
(Trevor)

Welcome to AV Pete, would be good to hear of your experiences. While I have not had a go at this BR or Fly shooting stuff reading the posts it sound like great fun. Must get off my fat arse and turn up to one (for a look see atleast).

Tempo

Thanks to all those who have encouraged me to continue !!!

Chapter 2

The Federal Cup was very interesting for a number of reasons.
Firstly the 'warmer' target - which we used to try to shoot a 'group' rather than produce a high scoring target. On detail 1 I used my HG entry (Lee-Anne's 280 AI) and got a big ugly 6 shot group of 5.5" with a random 3 shots in 1.8". To say I was alarmed is an understatement as the conditions were quite readable (I reckon this rifle needs a 'tune-up after 500 rounds!). On detail 2 Lee-Anne used her new 6BR LG to come in with a 3.5" 5 shot group with the last 3 shots going into .900" - OK that one is competition ready! Detail 3 - I use the 6 Dasher for my LG entry. Result is a 2.5" 5 shot group with shots 2,3&4 going into .550". Yep, that little bugger is OK too.
Now by chance I happened to pack an extra box of ammo for the Dasher (just in case it needed to be used in it's original role - as a back-up). The decision was quickly made to shoot the thing in both classes
On to the match! Lee-Anne used her new 6BR to good effect to take 5th in LG and hit the fly 3 times on her A target (those 3 shots in about .9"). Now, we all know that different details will get different conditions and hope that over the day they will 'average-out' to produce a fair contest. This has always been hard to quantify however. As I regularly shoot both classes I have often wondered 'was it me, the gun or the conditions' that caused the discrepency in scores. This time round I had the opportunity to eliminate one variable as I used the exact same rifle twice over !! If we assume that a second variable (the shooter) was also effectively eliminated, then the 29 point discrepancy in my scores are evidence that Detail 1 had better average conditions than detail 3. On review it would seem that (on average) details 1&2 were about even on the first 4 targets but the final target was well in favour of detail2. On detail 1 I was hard pressed to find my shots (using my spotting scope!) and on detail 3 had nothing but a big blur to look at, yet when spotting Lee-Anne's shots on detail 2 was able to find them fairly easily. Next time you shoot one of these matches take the time to record the bench rotation so that you can reconcile it with the results later - I am sure you will find some general trends.
In closing for today - I hope to get our new 15 target frames up and running for the Vic Champs in May and will try to get all HG on one detail and all LG on the other

Pete

Saturday Night and the missus has a firm grasp on the TV remote. Remote is the operative word as I am not remotely interested in what is on TV.

Chapter 3

Canberra Rifle Club 1,000 Yd B/R Match 9/3/08.
Here we again made some interesting observations. Last time out Lee-Anne used the Dasher in LG and it needed 19 moa from 500mt to 1,000yd. Her 6BR needed 19.5 - telling me that that the choice of the std cartridge was OK (I could at any time re-chamber to Dasher if it was needed). The Dasher gives 2950fps with 105 Berger for best accuracy. I reckon the std 6BR is less than 50 behind, so why go to all the trouble of the 'Wildcat' ??? But Oh my! - when you mis-cue with your wind do you get a big-time lose! Lee-Anne put one about 20" out and Murray Hicks with his 6BR lost one by more. (Looks like I will have to save face with wifey and build a barrel-burner LG in 6-284 for 1K).
I used a 6.5/284 in LG and managed well with that - only 1 low shot that is a mystery, and dragged the ultra heavy 300RUM along for HG class. When I built the bugger at 25KG 8 years ago it seemed like a good idea but made no allowance for the way things get heavier as the years roll by. Anyway that powerful beast is humming better than it's operator - 2x 10 shot groups that had no more than 4" of vertical in them. More in next chapter if you are interested. (May be a day or three)
Pete

Pete,

Its an interesting fact at ranges like majura where you have 3 details running that somedays there is no noticeable difference between each detail as far as runs of condition go, however on somedays a particular detail holds an advantage. This is something that has been discussed a few times at 1k at McIntosh ie morning and afternoon details and which is better for conditions but still holds true for the 500.
I and a few others felt that detail 2 probably had the best of conditions over the day at 500 with details 1 and 3 following in that order. That said its the luck of the draw and you can do well from any detail if you can read the conditions on offer.

cheers
Rinso

Hi Pete,
Gotta agree about the 6br when you read wrong.In F open the 6.5's will go to 9 or mabe 8 if its a big mistake with the 6br you go straight to 8 or 7.
I like mine to 600/700 but at 800 and out I sometimes feel I am giving up too much to the 6.5 etc.Maybe I'll save enough and screw on a different tube for the longs.
What are the specs on your 300RUM(projectiles,velocity etc)?
Have a good one,
Macca