Went to the range yesterday and was pleasantly happy with the results. The range I go to is one that my dad belongs to and is a real nice place. We shot on the silhouette which is laid out with the metric system so we shot at 100 and 200 meters (115 and 230 yards respectively).
I was shooting with my brother and my dad, my brother shooting a Savage 110 25-06 with Nikon optics and a $169 Rossi scope / rifle combo in 22-250. My dad was just having some fun with his Ruger 22 lr "Slab Side" target pistol.
My hardware was my 45/70 Handi with the Brownells special camo laminant thumbhole stock, and my NEF ultra Varmint 204 Ruger. All shooting was done off of a lead sled rest
The 204: I was not at all impressed with the performance of the Hornady Factory ammo in this rifle. Maybe a 2 inch group at best at 100 meters, switching to my handloads produced clover leafs and same hole shots. Moving out to 200 meters (230 yards) I again tried the Hornady factory ammo and had a hard time just keeping the shots in the outer ring (6 inch). Switching to my handloads, I was able to produce the 3 shot group pictured. I really wish I would have loaded and btought more of these handloads. This particular load was Blem bullets purchased at a great deal from Midway over Varget, specifically 32 Gr Poly Tip BT over 29 grns of Varget.
The 45/70: Happy with this one as well. I shot all handloads ith this rifle. In fact, I don't believe I have ever shot a factory load out of this rifle. 100 meter results were nearly cloverleafs. 200 meter (230yards) are pictured. Not wonderfull, but respectable for this big bore rifle topped with a Nikon 3-9x Shotgun scope with a BDC. POA was on the first graduation of the BDC at 200 meters which will definitely adequate for deer sized game out to 250+ yards. I plan to get back up to the range and see where this thing hits with the other BDC graduations at extended ranges. My handload for this rifle is 300 gr Rem JHP over VV N-133 loaded to 2340 fps. The amount of powder I use gets into the Ruger #1 range so I won't post the actual value. Actually, My next loads I will be tapering the powder load down a bit as I don't think the amount I used is necessary. I have experimented with the N-133 powder in this rifle and have been pretty impressed.
All in all a good day. All rifles shot well. The 110 Savage did well as they always seem to do, the Rossi was ok with a 2 inch 100 meter group (it was a brand new never shot rifle with a no name scope), but the NEF hardware really shined and got high honors in the conversation in the car on the way home.
LAZER
The 204 Ruger Target at 200 meters (230 yards)
The 45/70 Target at 200 meters (230 yards)
