Ccrider
Gold $$ Contributor
I am picking up on my earlier post regarding my the 6bra Alex built for me. Once I got dialed in at 100 yards, (agging .17 5 shot groups) I stopped shooting this gun, hoping to get a chance to test longer distance.
First, Thanks and big shout out to @shoot4fun. He invited me to Brock’s Gap and spent the better part of the day getting me acquainted with everything. We spent as much time talking as shooting. It was a great day and I made a great friendship.
We started at the 100 yard range and then moved to the 520 range. All I can say is WOW!
There is a hell of a difference shooting at 500. It was right after 1:00 and the sun was directly in our eyes. The wind was constantly switching and the target/dot in the scope seemed to be doing what could best be described as mini-jumping jacks. We could not see the target with the scope turned up to 60, or 50, or 40. Turn back to 25 and you got a decent picture. After 30 the blur began. Mentally, I was like, “there is no way I am going to be able to make this work, but I may as well burn some ammo since I am here.”
I was worried about how much to dial up from 100. I had done the calculations and came up with 9 moa. Thankfully, Jerry showed me how to dial the 9 moa because I was reading the dial on the scope totally wrong.
I dialed as per Jerry’s instructions, though assured in my mind that It was not enough. There were three gongs 16, 12 and around six inches. Surprisingly, I hit the 16 inch gong on the first shot. Wow! Jerry told me to make a few click adjustments and shoot the other gong. I made the clicks and shot again. We heard the hit but he could not find the shot. Turns out I shot the smaller 6 inch gong and he was looking at the middle 12 inch gong. I was a little above dead center so we were ready to go to the target.
I had prepared a load ladder of three shot groups, starting at 29.8 and ending at 31.2 in .2gr increments. Jerry was shooting his 6bra. that was well tuned shooting in the .1s at 100. Obviously, he knew what he was doing. He was shooting to humor me more than anything.
I was still overwhelmed by the conditions, so much so that I did not bother to set up the LabRadar when we started. After settling down, and seeing that this thing was actually doable, I got the LabRadar out and captured data on the remaining groups.
The target is below. The unmarked shots were Jerry’s. I used my Cicognani rest. It is amazing how smooth the joystick is on this rest. Jerry was shooting off of a Neo Max. They are rock solid, but the joystick motion was noticeably not as smooth and fluid as the Cicognani. I have a Hybrid X but my 4 inch top had not made it in so o did not get to try it.
I shot the ladder with Lapua brass on its second firing. I also shot one group with Alpha brass on its 3rd firing. I used the bullet hole at the bottom of the nine ring for an aiming point. I am not sure that I will be using the Alpha, but that’s another story for a different day.
I expected that tune was around 30.6/ 2960 +-. I had three shots down the clean barrel before starting the ladder. I did not clean after starting. The groups jumped in placement on the target substantially from 30.4 to 30.6. I am not sure why. I can’t explain what happened with the 31.0 group. Everything felt right. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your criticism and suggestions.
Charles
First, Thanks and big shout out to @shoot4fun. He invited me to Brock’s Gap and spent the better part of the day getting me acquainted with everything. We spent as much time talking as shooting. It was a great day and I made a great friendship.
We started at the 100 yard range and then moved to the 520 range. All I can say is WOW!
There is a hell of a difference shooting at 500. It was right after 1:00 and the sun was directly in our eyes. The wind was constantly switching and the target/dot in the scope seemed to be doing what could best be described as mini-jumping jacks. We could not see the target with the scope turned up to 60, or 50, or 40. Turn back to 25 and you got a decent picture. After 30 the blur began. Mentally, I was like, “there is no way I am going to be able to make this work, but I may as well burn some ammo since I am here.”
I was worried about how much to dial up from 100. I had done the calculations and came up with 9 moa. Thankfully, Jerry showed me how to dial the 9 moa because I was reading the dial on the scope totally wrong.
I dialed as per Jerry’s instructions, though assured in my mind that It was not enough. There were three gongs 16, 12 and around six inches. Surprisingly, I hit the 16 inch gong on the first shot. Wow! Jerry told me to make a few click adjustments and shoot the other gong. I made the clicks and shot again. We heard the hit but he could not find the shot. Turns out I shot the smaller 6 inch gong and he was looking at the middle 12 inch gong. I was a little above dead center so we were ready to go to the target.
I had prepared a load ladder of three shot groups, starting at 29.8 and ending at 31.2 in .2gr increments. Jerry was shooting his 6bra. that was well tuned shooting in the .1s at 100. Obviously, he knew what he was doing. He was shooting to humor me more than anything.
I was still overwhelmed by the conditions, so much so that I did not bother to set up the LabRadar when we started. After settling down, and seeing that this thing was actually doable, I got the LabRadar out and captured data on the remaining groups.
The target is below. The unmarked shots were Jerry’s. I used my Cicognani rest. It is amazing how smooth the joystick is on this rest. Jerry was shooting off of a Neo Max. They are rock solid, but the joystick motion was noticeably not as smooth and fluid as the Cicognani. I have a Hybrid X but my 4 inch top had not made it in so o did not get to try it.
I shot the ladder with Lapua brass on its second firing. I also shot one group with Alpha brass on its 3rd firing. I used the bullet hole at the bottom of the nine ring for an aiming point. I am not sure that I will be using the Alpha, but that’s another story for a different day.
I expected that tune was around 30.6/ 2960 +-. I had three shots down the clean barrel before starting the ladder. I did not clean after starting. The groups jumped in placement on the target substantially from 30.4 to 30.6. I am not sure why. I can’t explain what happened with the 31.0 group. Everything felt right. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your criticism and suggestions.
Charles
