18 Jun 2017 - Recap of the NorCal Jun ‘17 shoots (by SW RD, Lynn Dragoman, additions and minor edits by Facilitator)
Father's Day was our last match in NorCal until October when the local deer seasons are over. We had a decent turnout considering it was 109 degrees in several locations along our route. Yours truly went 5/10 for both matches giving me a win and a shoot-off at 2586 yards against CalGuns regular WhiteMamba were I got lucky and took the win with 3 in 10. [NOTE: With Lynn’s first (for today) 5 in 10 at 2054 yards he completed his 5th achievement target and became the second official URSA Novice Shooter. Congrats, Lynn!]
Interestingly three of the top 5 shooters are sporting CalGuns regular Skkeeter’s “Billy Goat Machine” barrel jobs. Myself and WhiteMamba are both using 338 Lapua Improves and Ken Eng was running a 510 DTC today.
Conditions were hot and windy for the entire day making it difficult to be consistent. I shot prone today – not because I wanted to but because I forgot my shooting bench at home and by the time I realized what I did it was too late to go home and retrieve it. The terrain is very uneven and my front rest kept moving forward and downhill so I abandoned it in favor of CalGuns regular Hoffer’s cardboard box full of rocks. For my rear rest I used a rolled up jacket rather than my Dierks mechanical rest which made the day even tougher. [See pic in the Gallery.]
A huge Thank You to Billy Goat Machine for building me a rifle that has given me 3 match wins in two months time. The kicker was using virgin Lapua brass not yet fire formed into Ackley Improved brass and I was using WhiteMamba’s load of 92 grains of H1000 powder and CalGuns regular Focus' seating depth of 3.870 inches with the 300 grain Berger OTM bullets. Now that all my brass is fire formed into Ackley Improved, I need to decide on which load is the most accurate – 98 grains of H1000 100 Grains of Retumbo, 105 grains of RE33, 111.5 grains of US869, and 99 Grains of VVN570 have all shot sub-1/2 inch groups out of this barrel.
Oh yeah, prone shooting had me twisted up like a banana on the very uneven surface so I will never forget my shooting bench again.
SoCal - event cancelled for lack of shooter sign-ups.
Father's Day was our last match in NorCal until October when the local deer seasons are over. We had a decent turnout considering it was 109 degrees in several locations along our route. Yours truly went 5/10 for both matches giving me a win and a shoot-off at 2586 yards against CalGuns regular WhiteMamba were I got lucky and took the win with 3 in 10. [NOTE: With Lynn’s first (for today) 5 in 10 at 2054 yards he completed his 5th achievement target and became the second official URSA Novice Shooter. Congrats, Lynn!]
Interestingly three of the top 5 shooters are sporting CalGuns regular Skkeeter’s “Billy Goat Machine” barrel jobs. Myself and WhiteMamba are both using 338 Lapua Improves and Ken Eng was running a 510 DTC today.
Conditions were hot and windy for the entire day making it difficult to be consistent. I shot prone today – not because I wanted to but because I forgot my shooting bench at home and by the time I realized what I did it was too late to go home and retrieve it. The terrain is very uneven and my front rest kept moving forward and downhill so I abandoned it in favor of CalGuns regular Hoffer’s cardboard box full of rocks. For my rear rest I used a rolled up jacket rather than my Dierks mechanical rest which made the day even tougher. [See pic in the Gallery.]
A huge Thank You to Billy Goat Machine for building me a rifle that has given me 3 match wins in two months time. The kicker was using virgin Lapua brass not yet fire formed into Ackley Improved brass and I was using WhiteMamba’s load of 92 grains of H1000 powder and CalGuns regular Focus' seating depth of 3.870 inches with the 300 grain Berger OTM bullets. Now that all my brass is fire formed into Ackley Improved, I need to decide on which load is the most accurate – 98 grains of H1000 100 Grains of Retumbo, 105 grains of RE33, 111.5 grains of US869, and 99 Grains of VVN570 have all shot sub-1/2 inch groups out of this barrel.
Oh yeah, prone shooting had me twisted up like a banana on the very uneven surface so I will never forget my shooting bench again.
SoCal - event cancelled for lack of shooter sign-ups.
