I just could not take it any longer.... Yesterday, I packed up the .243 around noon. Grabbed a couple boxes of ammo, my cleaning kit and newly made shooting bench and I was off to the "range"!!! F-I-N-A-L-L-Y, I'd be able to see what my new baby could do...
My "range"...
Well, it's basically a plowed up bean field out behind the barn, with a "berm" of sorts down on one end, approximately 600 yards down range from where I set up my bench. The only "bad" thing about my set up is that all the shots will be taken at a slight down hill angle. For fine tuning on level ground, I'll be heading into the cities to a VFW sanctioned range that has a max distance of 400 yards.
Weather:
Temperature: 19*F
Humidity: 85 %
Wind Speed: Calm
Barometer: 30.01"
Dewpoint: 3°F (-16°C)
Visibility: 0.25 mi
Not exactly what I would call ideal, but sometimes you just have to play the cards you're dealt... Tall boots and the Carharts were called on as the uniform of the day...
Let's just say I didn't start off the day with optimism... Getting back to where I was going to shoot, I almost buried my truck in the deep snow. Not once, but twice! Even with 33" tall tires, the old Ford was dragging everything from the bottom of the doors on down. My first attempt yielded about 15' of forward motion before coming to a dead stop. Hmmm.... (Note to self... To get 4WD, you need to lock in the front hubs... DUH!!!
)
Shooting:
I chose Federal Premium 70 grain Nosler Ballistic tips for my initial break in. I figured I would start with a middle of the road bullet weight and see how that worked. Then, after these, try some rounds lighter and some heavier to gauge my rifle's favorite flavor...
I began at 50 yards just to get the scope figured out. With the exception of one "oops" (turned the windage the wrong way
) everything was "same old, same old"... Take a shot, let her cool, make adjustments, yada yada yada... Yank the bore snake through and start over.... I left that distance shooting three rounds into one cute little ragged hole roughly +2" directly above the bull!
I then moved out to my 100 yard target. Basically with the same results. Only this time, three shots were taken before any adjustments were made. Grouping was "as expected" shooting typically 1 MOA per group. Nothing really to write home about but very pleasing to see as these were my first rounds out at a "real" distance. Shoot, cool, shoot, cool, shoot, clean. This pattern was very time consuming and honestly a bit boring. However, I did need to break in the barrel and didn't want to rush it any more that I already was... At the close of this distance, I left a nice tight group of three about +1.5" over the top of the bull! Two holes were touching with a small flyer being number three...
Again, I was more than satisfied with the performance of the rifle and with myself. Even with a pot of coffee in me I was not "Shakes McGee" on the bench... LOL!!!
Here's where the "rubber meets the road'... After the cleaning, I took a walk and moved my target back to 200 yards. Deep snow over a chisel plowed field makes for some tough going on these old knees!! Back at the truck, I took a break, warmed up with a cup of piping hot joe to settle down a bit.
At 200 I used the same procedure as mentioned above in the 100 yard shots. Shoot 3, cooling between each shot, make changes and clean. Here's where this old guy got giddy as a school girl!!! My first two shots landed to the right of the bull about 2", with number three being a shooter induced flyer hitting +1" up, +1" right. After a slight tweak of the turrets, the next group started with three shots .5" up, 1.25" right. I fired a fourth just to confirm the last three and thought I completely shanked the shot off the paper. At least that's how it looked through my cheapo spotting scope... WRONG!!! When I went to pick up my target after I was done, I found I had put number four dang near through the center hole of my grouping!!!
Feeling chilled to the bone, and with a right to left breeze developing, I decided to make these my final shots and leave the 300+ yard work for later. Having only three rounds left of this box, I was going to make them count!!! A couple clicks of the turrets later and my last three dropped 1/2" left of the bull with almost perfect elevation. Two holes touching each other just below the horizontal line, and one slightly above!!!
To say I'm happy with these initial results is the understatement of the year!!! Never in my many years behind the trigger have I had basically "out of the box" rifle perform such as this. And with mid grade, factory ammo no less!!!
Here's my baby...
Okay, so I changed the stock already... LOL!! It's so tough for me to pass up a good deal...
Here's what she did yesterday...
And it will only get better from here!!!
Please forgive the long post. The coffee is really doing it's job this morning! LOL!!!
