New to 1000 yard shooting. Need guidance!

[ordnancemarine]

Hello all, In February I have the opportunity to attend a 1000 yard clinic on Camp Pendleton, Ca I know my Rifle is up the challenge, my hand loads I'm not so sure about. I'm using Lapua brass,.308), CCI BR2, Varget,43.0 grains) producing around 2720 fps. I need advice on reloading to obtain the most accuracy at this distance. Actually any advice would be welcomed. I am accustomed to shooting 600 yards with Iron sights with Military weapons and ammo. However, I do not want to show up to this clinic and waste my time as well as the instructors. Thank you in advance for any advice, Tips, or suggestions.

 

[Winchester69]

Heavy bullets are your friend.
.

 

[Baron]

Go to benchrestcentral, register and search within 600/1000 Benchrest. The best shooters in the world hang out on here and brcentral.
Baron

 

[goldy1]

ordnancemarine, you work on pendleton, or miramar? i'm at miramar,tad to a carrier), when i get back from this boat i plan on the wife and i shooting in the 3x600 and long range matches at pendleton and seeley. Then slot of shorter matches at south bay.

 

[HPMike800]

I assume your bullet is a 175 at those velocities. I shot around 2750 w/175's at 1000yds and did fine in Phoenix., higher/warmer) On 1/31/09 there is a Palma match and on 2/1/09 there is a 1000yd match at Ben Avery range in Phoenix. Come on out and shoot them. I assume you shot F/TR class being in the military.

Mike

 

[ordnancemarine]

I am shooting 175 grain Sierra Match kings... 1:12 twist on a schneider barrel. I want to eventually compete in F Class T/R. Any good reloading tips...

 

[goldy1]

I was hoping to get on the rifle team when i get back to miramar. i work over at mals-11. have you been down to south bay rod and gun club? the third saterday of every month is the reduced palma match. the wife and i shot there a whole lot. its 300yds all prone slow fire useing the 1/2 moa mr63f target. 3 strings of 15 rounds with unlimited sighters before hand. there are usually about 15 shooters really laid back people.

 

[ordnancemarine]

I am a member of South Bay... Does your wife have a pink Rifle? I think I may have seen you there... When you get back you need to try out for the team, were shooting intramural matches this week and next with Division coming up in March. Not to mention other matches after that.

 

[ordnancemarine]

HP Mike, What are your reloading practices? what do you you do to get consistency?

 

[goldy1]

my wife does have the pink rifle. its been to long since weve shot there. I wont be back til july or august though.

 

[glo]

Hi Ordnancemarine,
I heard about the 1000 yard clinc last weekend. I understand Lt. Trevor Hengehold is run the clinic.

Can you give us any information about the clinic at Pendleton?
Thanks much,
Glo

USMC 79-83 E-4 Ordnanceman 6521 IIMAW MCAS Cherry Point, NC

 

[ordnancemarine]

Here is the web site for Santa Margarita Gun Club. http://www.santamargaritagunclub.org/
and the link for the clinic. The public is welcome, however I believe it is on a first come first serve basis.
http://www.santamargaritagunclub.org/files/smgc_lr_clinic_090111.pdf
Hope to see you there glo. I don't know if they did this when you were an ordnance Marine, but I just wanted to say, IYAOYAS!

 

[jerrschmitt]

For you guys at Miramar: Is Camp Elliot still open? Back in the 70's when the Navy still had Miramar, Camp Elliot was a great place to shoot. It was a WW2 training site for the Marine Raiders.

As far as reloading for 1000 yard shooting, do the same as for 600 yard shooting with more attention to detail.

CWO3 retired
IYAOYAS

 

[ordnancemarine]

Yes Sir, Camp Elliot is still there, The range is completely digital now, no butts what so ever. it is all computerized. I was trying to find out what are the keys for reloading for 1K. in particular, what processes do you pay the most attention to. Some people weigh each case and projectile, some don't. Some uniform the flash holes, some don't. I was looking for insight as to which practices the experienced shooters do to achieve the distance, and conversely, which ones they don't. Thank you for your time...

 

[Rust]

Big thing is uniformity from round to round, so...

Your match loads should be from the same lot number of brass, whatever brand you chose. Lapua is best, Winchester is pretty good although it can stand to have the flash holes deburred. On deburring, I don't like a lot of chamfer, just enough to clear the burrs. Check you neck thickness variations, one reason I use Lapua is neck thickness has been very uniform. Generally when using other than Lapua I would recommend setting aside the cases with good neck thickness uniformity aside for match loads. The rest should be neck turned for uniformity and relegated to practice use but if it's really bad it's scrap. Neck turned brass in a SAAMI standard chamber work hardens pretty fast and needs to be annealed to make it last.

Bullets?. Nope, I don't bother to weigh them. Main thing with bullet choice is something that's supersonic and a bit more at 1,000 that your barrel likes. That said I use Lapua 155s in .308. On the other hand someone I shoot with uses 210 Bergers in a .308. The 175 SMK is probably the most commonly used bullet in a match .308. Bottom line is what does your rifle like.

Powders? I use RL-15 and it works for me. Plenty of other suitable powders and there is always the old standby IMR 4064 although it is a little more temperature sensitive than more modern powders. There is a LOT of variance barrel to barrel and rifle to rifle so don't get caughyt up in chasing someone elses numbers. Uniform charge weight is an absolute must.

Dies. I mainly use Redding. My chambering reamers are ground to work with Redding full length sizing dies so that when the cases do need to be full length sized the brass isn't overworked. Normal resizing is done with a Redding bushing die for .002" neck tension. Bullet seating is with the Redding micrometer top die, the lock ring is one that clamps on instead of running a screw into the die threads. This way bullet seating is easily repeatable without messing up the threads on the die. I seat lightly into the lands.

Don't worry about velocity too much, as no target has ever been concerned with the velocity of the bullet that missed, or het for that matter.

But the whole focus for your match ammo is uniformity, I consider powder charge weight and neck tension uniformity to be the most important.

I do keep my cases trimmed to uniform length but I try not to trim them to the minimum length, just about .002" under max works for me. Yeah I trim more often but it's what I like.

And keep in mind there are no magic powders, no magic bullets, no magic bullet coatings.

Once you get the load tuned well to the rifle then it is just a matter of figuring out how to shoot the system to its potential.

 

[ordnancemarine]

Rust, Thank you for your reply. I've talked to a few others that have recomended similar approaches. But as I'm sure you've seen, there are a million different opinions as to what are the crucial points to this. I appreciate everyones opinions... Looking forward to getting getting some experience in.

 

[goldy1]

Just looked at the smgc site and saw that Trevor Hengehold was going to be an instructor. I've shot with him and he is an excellent shot and a good guy too, at the time he was a 2nd LT if I remember correctly. should be a very informative class. I wish the wife and I could attend. If you know the velocity you could try a ballistics calc. to get you on the paper at longer ranges and fine tune from there

 

[Rtheurer]

ORD

Rust gave excellent guidance in my opinion. Like he said its nothing special, just a little extra care over your600 yard load. Speaking of that, I could not desifer if your shooting an M14, AR 10 or a Bolt gun with scope or Irons from your post. Just that you are using a 308 with Lapua Brass and 175's. It kind of matters since the M14/M1A should meat a specific pressure curve for the gas system.

Lets go from what you have used so far. what is your current load for 600?, powder) How are the bullets seated?, into the lands, off, or mag length) What kind of dies?, good ole Redding Fl die?) Did you buy all your Lapua Brass at one time or did you get 100 here and 100 there and maybee some from a freind over there? If that is the case I would weigh them, even though some seem to think that is a total wasste of time. If you got the same lot, forget it and load them.

Like Rust said the two most important aspects of consistant ammo are charge weight and NECK TENSION. If when you are seating your bullets you get one that feels super light in resistance and the next one is alot heavier to seat the bullet you are going to have some troubles. Pay attention. Worst case is that you could put the heavy resistance in one pile and the light in the other and the medium in between and shoot them like that. That is a short term fix since you alrady loaded all the ammo. Make a red or Purple Sharpie mark on the light and heavies. Cull those and keep them seperate. You need to figure ot what is causing the problem., if there is a problem)

I hope this helps, Good luck

RT

 

[243Mendoza]

Most people that shoot NRA matches and use the 308W, shoot a Palma rifle or F-Class target rifle. The Palma competitor uses the 155gr bullet and between 46-47 gr of Varget for a muzzle velocity of 2950. People who shoot the F-Class target rifle,with bipod and rear rifle support and a scope) use either the Palma load or use the 175gr with about 44gr of Varget.

 

[ordnancemarine]

Steve, Rtheurer Goldy, Thank you for the guidance. to answer a few of the questions you asked, here goes. I'm shooting a Rem 700 F- class T/R with the projectiles seated .017 off the lands. 43.0 grains of Varget. I was gonna try to experiment with those 155 grain palma SMK's. I bought the Lapua brass at the same time from Midway. I was using the Pejsa Balistics calculator that I found on this site, well mainly because I have a Mac and the other ones will not work with my machine. I will pay closer attention to the amount of neck tension. Maybe get a concentricity gauge to start uniforming them up.