Stubfart Friday: Range Notes

When you spend a little time at the reloading bench as I do, over the years you’ll accumulate half boxes of oddball bullets, half cans of oddball powders, and a hell’s half acre of various brass with different headstamps from different makers. Back in 2018 I’d made some practice ammo for the gas guns: about 1500 rounds of 77gr Nosler HPBTs. I put them together with various brass cases, H4895, and mostly CCI primers. I didn’t give a hoot about repeatability-these were patty cake rounds for daily range work. I had meticulously loaded match loads in case any tourneys came up. The garbage did okay in the gas guns…but were spectacular in the bolt gun. I’ve now eaten through the last of them… and I’m now looking for an easy shooting alternative. I’m also going to start consuming and getting rid of these “orphan” powder cans and boolit boxes. 

Today’s loads are 69 grain Nosler HPBTs. It’s interesting because I had to re-zero the Tupperware rifle as it was previously sighted in for a 70 grain Berger bullet load.

The former load I was zeroed for was a smoking hot game load with 70 gr. Bergers…

Today’s load is a mild practice load: 69 grain Nosler HPBTs, seated out to 2.260

OAL, coming off the chronograph at an average 2460 FPS.

Note the difference in impact: the Bergers would land in that orange dot.

The new patty cake loads hit a foot low at 200m. (The knife is pointing

at the initial impacts. All the rest were me dialling up the new mechanical zero).

I think there may be something of a lobbing effect going on? My next chore was shooting off my hind feet at the 100 yard gong. Yesterday I went three for three; today I went 4 out of five… which is okay for me. Next I wanted to see where I was hitting at 150m… so I sat down, slung up…and went to work!

At 150m from the sitting position all my shots went high and left into about a 2.5” 

group. I beefed one off to the left - probably caused

by a random explosive popcorn fart.

Or mental retardation. 

Gawddammit, I did the same thing yesterday too! 

There’s always got to be one…🤬👎

So today was just me playing around, finally getting serious about the little rifle and getting it off the bench, and shooting from the positions. Seeing how it shot from the bench vs. how it shoots without a rest.  The rifles in the WMU I am hunting don’t come out until November… so I have lots of time to polish up a good hunting load, a good practice load, and my rusty marksmanship skills. There’s still a lot of fun to be had.

Cheers!

Filthie