Further to the recent information on the Daily Bulletin about my Savage PT action based .223 Rem F/TR rifle and equalling the GB F Class Association 20-round F/TR 1,000yd record at the famous Blair Atholl range in the Scottish Highlands, I was able to shoot the rifle at 1,100yd in competition, and 1,200yd in practice, coincidentally again at Blair Atholl. This is because I'm locally born and bred just down the Great North Road in Perth and was invited to join a scratch Scotland F/TR team to shoot against the USA there.
The background to this was some members of the US F Class team - including a full F/TR contingent - extending their visit to the British Isles whose primary mission was to shoot the revived Creedmoor Match in Tullamore, Republic of Ireland by coming across to Scotland afterwards to compete in the annual Scottish Rifle Association Long-Range Matches. These comprised six 2+15 matches, three each at 900 and 1,000yd over 2nd / 3rd July. The US F/TR Team also suggested a USA v Scotland Challenge team match to be held on Monday 4th July, a date we understand has some significance to those of you in our one-time colony?
With arrangements to have the range available all Friday 1st July for practice and zeroing, this was a full four-day shooting festival and at the visitors' request, two practice sessions were included at 1,200 yards, the range's maximum distance. This was a serious amount of shooting - I used nearly 200 rounds over the four days, and I reckon some US Team members outdid that by a good margin. Everybody used .308 Win apart from Tony Robertson (TonyR on this forum) from the USA and Les Bacon of Team Border Barrels (Scotland) who shot F-Class with biggies throughout the weekend in their own private F Class match, and Peter Burbridge and myself (Scotland) who shot .223, Peter for some matches, me throughout.
Just under half the entry for the Sat/Sun Long-Range meeting were Scottish Target Rifle competitors (sling shooters), the slightly larger remainder made up of our two F Class worthies and then F/TR entrants from both nations. The Friday practices / Monday F/TR international events were fitted seamlessly into the domestic Sat/Sun meeting with SRA / West Atholl Rifle Club officials and shooters undertaking all the administrative and most of the on-the-day workload in setting the range and its electronic targets up, securing everything afterwards, and running /manning the range during shooting. Unfortunately, the date meant that the event clashed with a GB F Class league round at Bisley that weekend which took several Scottish F-Class (Open) shooters away, and just preceded the huge annual Imperial Meeting also at Bisley (Southern England) which deterred several sling shooters from entering, still there were 27 of us all told.
I had a mixed set of results in the individual matches, my superb short-range 90gn Berger BT LR / VarGet load at a little under 2,800 simply not performing in the two 900s I tried them in for some reason, the 90gn VLD at 2,850 proving its usual effective self. I did win Match 5 on Sunday at 1,000 by a clear 6 points, which was nice! Paul Crosbie the Scottish F/TR team captain dominated these matches taking four of the other five matches, but being just beaten in the final 1,000yd match into 3rd place by the USA's Michelle Gallagher and Stan Pate in that order. Stan shot very consistently throughout, taking several second places. Michelle and mother Nancy produced continuous improvements in their scores, presumably as they got used to the local conditions - which were unusual (very warm by Scottish standards, light but very twitchy winds especially on the Saturday, and frequent bouts of mirage).
The other business of the four days was of course the international Challenge Match, on Monday 4th July, 2+15 each at 900, 1,000, and 1,100yd shot under full team shooting conditions with wind coaches, record-keepers etc, six shooters in each team. I've got to admit we (the Scots) were very inhospitable by winning this, provisional results: Scotland 1,072.30v points against 1,050.34v for our guests. I'll provide team lists and scores in a separate 'Topic' in the Competitions section. Paul Crosbie (Scotland) took the highest individual aggregate on 191.4v, me second with the .223 on 190.7v (ex225). Our US opposite numbers were Sierra Scott on 186.4v and Michelle Gallagher on 180.6v. (Add 225.0 to those scores to get a US equivalent out of 450 as we shoot for 5 points compared to 10.)
My 1,100 yd score was 54 ex 75 (US: 129 ex 150) in decidedly difficult conditions with intermittent mirage - this surprised at least one of the Scottish wind coaches who'd told me the .223 just won't shoot beyond 1,000yd. This compared to Paul Crosbie on 59, Michelle Gallagher on 57, and Scotland's Peter Burbridge on 55, none of us getting a V, the other nine scores in the 40s or less. I won't blow any personal trumpets here - this was Hamish Hunter, my wind coach's result! The point is the .223 properly set up for 90s competes with .308W - and that against 210gn Berger VLDs for Paul C, 208gn Hornady A-Maxes for Peter B at hefty velocities.
However ...... the interesting experiments didn't end there. We had an informal US v Scotland 15 round 1,200yd match late Saturday afternoon in apparently (!! it never really is at Blair) still conditions and with a overcast that killed the mirage. I didn't compete (not enough 90gn VLD ammo), but managed a sight-in and 10 quick string shots before the electronic kit was packed away. One 5, a number of 4s and a smaller number of 3s, somewhere around 37 or 38 ex 50. Superb elevation consistency, mainly within half-MOA. This was with my now standard load of the 90gn Berger VLD over VarGet at 2,847 fps with single figure velocity spreads. Temperature was around 70 F, high atmospheric pressure (1,020 MB) in anti-cyclonic conditions at sea level, but 850 ft ASL countering some of that.
So .... those of you who say the .223 can never make an efficient 1,000yd round, I'll counter by asking "Why stop there?". It hits the target at 1,100 and even 1,200yd. Yes, if the wind blows it'll be shot about the target frame - but less than any .308W / 155gn bullet combination. It won't stand up to .308W / 208 or 210gn shot from a chamber properly throated for these bullets and achieving 2,600-2,650 fps, but it recoils only around a quarter of that making consistent shooting a LOT easier.
As noted, I'll do a separate post on this weekend as seen from a home competitor's perspective elsewhere. I'll just say here we all had a ball of a time despite clouds of the dreaded Scottish Highland midges', a tiny bloodsucking fly, regular appearances over the four days every time the wind dropped. The US team members are a really great bunch of guys and ladies, very professional shooters and competitors, and with a great sense of humour. We loved having them over here and hope we'll see them again. They're still in God's Own Country, now sightseeing and shopping, except for Tony Robertson who's looking for his Scottish ancestors in local Perthshire record offices and graveyards. I hope they all have a great remaining few days, even if the weather is reverting to its (wet) norm.
Laurie,
England
The background to this was some members of the US F Class team - including a full F/TR contingent - extending their visit to the British Isles whose primary mission was to shoot the revived Creedmoor Match in Tullamore, Republic of Ireland by coming across to Scotland afterwards to compete in the annual Scottish Rifle Association Long-Range Matches. These comprised six 2+15 matches, three each at 900 and 1,000yd over 2nd / 3rd July. The US F/TR Team also suggested a USA v Scotland Challenge team match to be held on Monday 4th July, a date we understand has some significance to those of you in our one-time colony?
With arrangements to have the range available all Friday 1st July for practice and zeroing, this was a full four-day shooting festival and at the visitors' request, two practice sessions were included at 1,200 yards, the range's maximum distance. This was a serious amount of shooting - I used nearly 200 rounds over the four days, and I reckon some US Team members outdid that by a good margin. Everybody used .308 Win apart from Tony Robertson (TonyR on this forum) from the USA and Les Bacon of Team Border Barrels (Scotland) who shot F-Class with biggies throughout the weekend in their own private F Class match, and Peter Burbridge and myself (Scotland) who shot .223, Peter for some matches, me throughout.
Just under half the entry for the Sat/Sun Long-Range meeting were Scottish Target Rifle competitors (sling shooters), the slightly larger remainder made up of our two F Class worthies and then F/TR entrants from both nations. The Friday practices / Monday F/TR international events were fitted seamlessly into the domestic Sat/Sun meeting with SRA / West Atholl Rifle Club officials and shooters undertaking all the administrative and most of the on-the-day workload in setting the range and its electronic targets up, securing everything afterwards, and running /manning the range during shooting. Unfortunately, the date meant that the event clashed with a GB F Class league round at Bisley that weekend which took several Scottish F-Class (Open) shooters away, and just preceded the huge annual Imperial Meeting also at Bisley (Southern England) which deterred several sling shooters from entering, still there were 27 of us all told.
I had a mixed set of results in the individual matches, my superb short-range 90gn Berger BT LR / VarGet load at a little under 2,800 simply not performing in the two 900s I tried them in for some reason, the 90gn VLD at 2,850 proving its usual effective self. I did win Match 5 on Sunday at 1,000 by a clear 6 points, which was nice! Paul Crosbie the Scottish F/TR team captain dominated these matches taking four of the other five matches, but being just beaten in the final 1,000yd match into 3rd place by the USA's Michelle Gallagher and Stan Pate in that order. Stan shot very consistently throughout, taking several second places. Michelle and mother Nancy produced continuous improvements in their scores, presumably as they got used to the local conditions - which were unusual (very warm by Scottish standards, light but very twitchy winds especially on the Saturday, and frequent bouts of mirage).
The other business of the four days was of course the international Challenge Match, on Monday 4th July, 2+15 each at 900, 1,000, and 1,100yd shot under full team shooting conditions with wind coaches, record-keepers etc, six shooters in each team. I've got to admit we (the Scots) were very inhospitable by winning this, provisional results: Scotland 1,072.30v points against 1,050.34v for our guests. I'll provide team lists and scores in a separate 'Topic' in the Competitions section. Paul Crosbie (Scotland) took the highest individual aggregate on 191.4v, me second with the .223 on 190.7v (ex225). Our US opposite numbers were Sierra Scott on 186.4v and Michelle Gallagher on 180.6v. (Add 225.0 to those scores to get a US equivalent out of 450 as we shoot for 5 points compared to 10.)
My 1,100 yd score was 54 ex 75 (US: 129 ex 150) in decidedly difficult conditions with intermittent mirage - this surprised at least one of the Scottish wind coaches who'd told me the .223 just won't shoot beyond 1,000yd. This compared to Paul Crosbie on 59, Michelle Gallagher on 57, and Scotland's Peter Burbridge on 55, none of us getting a V, the other nine scores in the 40s or less. I won't blow any personal trumpets here - this was Hamish Hunter, my wind coach's result! The point is the .223 properly set up for 90s competes with .308W - and that against 210gn Berger VLDs for Paul C, 208gn Hornady A-Maxes for Peter B at hefty velocities.
However ...... the interesting experiments didn't end there. We had an informal US v Scotland 15 round 1,200yd match late Saturday afternoon in apparently (!! it never really is at Blair) still conditions and with a overcast that killed the mirage. I didn't compete (not enough 90gn VLD ammo), but managed a sight-in and 10 quick string shots before the electronic kit was packed away. One 5, a number of 4s and a smaller number of 3s, somewhere around 37 or 38 ex 50. Superb elevation consistency, mainly within half-MOA. This was with my now standard load of the 90gn Berger VLD over VarGet at 2,847 fps with single figure velocity spreads. Temperature was around 70 F, high atmospheric pressure (1,020 MB) in anti-cyclonic conditions at sea level, but 850 ft ASL countering some of that.
So .... those of you who say the .223 can never make an efficient 1,000yd round, I'll counter by asking "Why stop there?". It hits the target at 1,100 and even 1,200yd. Yes, if the wind blows it'll be shot about the target frame - but less than any .308W / 155gn bullet combination. It won't stand up to .308W / 208 or 210gn shot from a chamber properly throated for these bullets and achieving 2,600-2,650 fps, but it recoils only around a quarter of that making consistent shooting a LOT easier.
As noted, I'll do a separate post on this weekend as seen from a home competitor's perspective elsewhere. I'll just say here we all had a ball of a time despite clouds of the dreaded Scottish Highland midges', a tiny bloodsucking fly, regular appearances over the four days every time the wind dropped. The US team members are a really great bunch of guys and ladies, very professional shooters and competitors, and with a great sense of humour. We loved having them over here and hope we'll see them again. They're still in God's Own Country, now sightseeing and shopping, except for Tony Robertson who's looking for his Scottish ancestors in local Perthshire record offices and graveyards. I hope they all have a great remaining few days, even if the weather is reverting to its (wet) norm.
Laurie,
England
