I have haunted this forum for some time and have posted a time or two. So, I thought I would report on my first competition with a 6.5-284 I had built in March.
I traveled to Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility near Benton City, WA for a 300/600 yd match,about 3 hr drive). There were 10 shooters for this Friday morning shoot. We were divided into 2 relays. I was on relay 1 and got to shoot first at 300 yds, the other relay was sent to the pit to run targets. If you have never been in the pit, you should try to get to a range that has one and volunteer. It was pretty cool! After relay 1 shot, we went to the pit for relay 2 to shoot at 300 and 600 yards. This was nice because it gave my rifle time to cool, however the wind came up a bit and was very shifty by the time I got to shoot at 600 yds. At times, the wind flags were pointing in 3 different directions at the same time! The air temp also cranked up pretty fast as well. We were done shooting by 1030 and it was 89 degrees!
Rules: Open to any rifle, prone position only, sling or bipod permitted, no rear bag permitted, 5 sighters + 15 for score at 300 yds,25 min), 10 sighters + 15 for score at 600 yds,30 min).
Results: Of the 10 shooters, 3 or 4 were NRA Master Class. A perfect score would be 300 - 30X. I shot 289-14X which was good for 3rd place!
Several guys asked about my experience and were surprised to learn it was my first match. A couple of guys asked me to show off my rifle. Their first response was 'Nice lookin' rifle!' Then, the look of utter disbelief rippled through when they found out it was built on a Ruger M77 Mark II action! They hadn't seen a custom rifle built on a Ruger before. They asked about the trigger and I let one of them dry fire it a couple of times. They were so impressed with the work that they asked about my gunsmith! I think I might try to get to the next match in 2 weeks.
I was very pleased with how well both the rifle and the shooter performed at the match. I sure learned quite a bit about wind and mirage effects. Not to mention I picked up a few pointers on keeping your ammo cool. I also found out that my load must be at least somewhat close to max pressure for my rifle. After several shots in 85-90 degree temps, if I left a round in the chamber for too long before shooting,about a minute) the last bit of bolt rotation would be a touch sticky. However, if I left the round in the tray with the bullet just starting up the ramp, lined up for the shot, then reached up, closed the bolt and shot within about 30 seconds, no problem. When I go back, I am thinking about keeping my ammo in an insulated soft cooler with an icepack until I go to the line to shoot. That should give me a bit more wiggle room to take my time shooting. I may also keep a couple of icepacks in my gun case to cool the barrel between relays. It is not uncommon for temps to reach the low 100's in Benton City. If that isn't tough on a shooter, your load, and the equipment, I don't know what is...except for maybe extreme low temps, I suppose. Any thoughts on my ideas to keep the ammo and barrel cool?
I traveled to Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility near Benton City, WA for a 300/600 yd match,about 3 hr drive). There were 10 shooters for this Friday morning shoot. We were divided into 2 relays. I was on relay 1 and got to shoot first at 300 yds, the other relay was sent to the pit to run targets. If you have never been in the pit, you should try to get to a range that has one and volunteer. It was pretty cool! After relay 1 shot, we went to the pit for relay 2 to shoot at 300 and 600 yards. This was nice because it gave my rifle time to cool, however the wind came up a bit and was very shifty by the time I got to shoot at 600 yds. At times, the wind flags were pointing in 3 different directions at the same time! The air temp also cranked up pretty fast as well. We were done shooting by 1030 and it was 89 degrees!
Rules: Open to any rifle, prone position only, sling or bipod permitted, no rear bag permitted, 5 sighters + 15 for score at 300 yds,25 min), 10 sighters + 15 for score at 600 yds,30 min).
Results: Of the 10 shooters, 3 or 4 were NRA Master Class. A perfect score would be 300 - 30X. I shot 289-14X which was good for 3rd place!
Several guys asked about my experience and were surprised to learn it was my first match. A couple of guys asked me to show off my rifle. Their first response was 'Nice lookin' rifle!' Then, the look of utter disbelief rippled through when they found out it was built on a Ruger M77 Mark II action! They hadn't seen a custom rifle built on a Ruger before. They asked about the trigger and I let one of them dry fire it a couple of times. They were so impressed with the work that they asked about my gunsmith! I think I might try to get to the next match in 2 weeks.
I was very pleased with how well both the rifle and the shooter performed at the match. I sure learned quite a bit about wind and mirage effects. Not to mention I picked up a few pointers on keeping your ammo cool. I also found out that my load must be at least somewhat close to max pressure for my rifle. After several shots in 85-90 degree temps, if I left a round in the chamber for too long before shooting,about a minute) the last bit of bolt rotation would be a touch sticky. However, if I left the round in the tray with the bullet just starting up the ramp, lined up for the shot, then reached up, closed the bolt and shot within about 30 seconds, no problem. When I go back, I am thinking about keeping my ammo in an insulated soft cooler with an icepack until I go to the line to shoot. That should give me a bit more wiggle room to take my time shooting. I may also keep a couple of icepacks in my gun case to cool the barrel between relays. It is not uncommon for temps to reach the low 100's in Benton City. If that isn't tough on a shooter, your load, and the equipment, I don't know what is...except for maybe extreme low temps, I suppose. Any thoughts on my ideas to keep the ammo and barrel cool?
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