Never, never assume anything. If at first you don't succeed, try try again! For 24 hours my previous untouched mini targets mocked me. I ignored the obvious. I had posted 2 side by side targets at the top of my target frame. paced off the correct distance. and let her rip like it was real. not practice. this rifle had never ever been fired at anything but 25 meters before. "appleseed shoot, and more practice afterwards." it can and will shoot one hole groups at that extremely short range. even with my dumb mass behind the trigger. it was sighted in as 1.5 inch high at 25 meters. what i assumed were hits off the target, low on the target backboard must have been prior holes from earlier shooting. I can only assume (here we go again) that my earlier scope setting for 25 meters was putting my shots at 100 yards 5 inches or greater, high above the 1/4 mini targets. Todays shooting was done in the rain. totally open, in prone on a tarp. Both me and the rifle which i will immediately clean thoroughly were drenched to the bone. I figure the minutemen didn't go home because of rain! I will return my sights to the 25 meter setting and await a sunny day before wasting any more ammo on the unknown. My patrol MBR will be my main go to gun until I get this resolved. I will fire my 11 rounds thru the patrol rifle tomorrow, rain or shine, same conditions across the board except excellent H&K diopter rear sight with standard hooded post on front. In case any have not read my earlier posts on this particular course of fire. I am shooting prone with a bipod. actually I accept any position for this challenge except bench rest. shooting sticks okay. sitting next to a small tree using it for support fine. over a log or bedroll in any position. just not benchrest. this should be a hasty solid semi concealed or reduced exposure quck and dirty course of fire to see what you and your rifle can do in a grab it and go situation. no sighter rounds. just 11 rounds on 2 army 1/4 reduced 100 yard qualification test upper torso silhouettes. one shot with a cold barrel on the 1st target, immediately followed by 10 shots rapid fire with your now warmed/hot barrel on the second target. I hope you are all aware that in most all cases that your cold barrel shot and your warm barrel shots will not fall at the same exact spot. In most cases the center of the 10 shot group, and the cold barrel shot will be slightly off. Maybe by a minimal amount, but in some odd cases 3 to 6 inches. you should know, and IMHO a battle rifle should be sighted in for that warm/hot barrel center of group point. you must be aware of the cold barrel difference if any, but in the fog of trying to stop multiple targets as far away as you are capable you shouldn't have to shift your aim to compensate. You can do that with the first cold shot. JMHO of course ..... new report to follow tomorrow rain or shine. The targets i use are available through "Fred's military M14 Rifle Stocks, in Shotgun News, or www.fredsm14stocks.com, or ph 336-879-2144 mods feel free to remove the plug if you feel it is inappropriate. I thought it had value to all.
Excellent, shooting in the rain for a range report is sincere monkey dedication. What rifle are you shooting, an H&K, or G3 or something else?
My new MBR is definitely not a patrol rifle. It is more of a fixed position reach out and ruin their day kind of rifle. DPMS AR-10 .308 win. with 24 inch match grade SS bull barrel, bipod, 3.5 to 12 X 50mm Optics, 8 magazines 20 round, and plenty of ammo. My patrol MBR is a H&K .308 cal SL-7, full armaloy treatment, multiple 10 round magazines. Open sights at present, diopter rear and standard h&k hooded post front. I have 2 H&K factory claw scope mounts, one with a bushnell 1.5 to 6 X scope and the other with a 3rd generation NOD night observation device. It appears the rain has broke. .... gonna bust 11 more. later
Excellent corrective tuning and sight in of my new MBR. I made an educated guess and after returning my scope to the 25 meter settings..... assuming I was shooting over my target at that range, dropped the scope settings an additional 5 inches. The results as sighters were on target but low by an inch. Raised four clicks, put a new magazine in, and ripped off 10 rounds on a fresh target just as it started to rain again. the group is 2 inches wide and 3 inches high. mind you these were fired in about 15 to 20 seconds maximum. 8 were in the black, 2 were high, still in the scoring rings as 3's. in the black were five 4's and three 5's for a total of 41 out of 50. These were 400 yard equivelant shots on a full size upper torso target. All 10 would have got the job done quite well. Damn barrel was hot when I finished. for now I am satisfied. Rain or shine we will try the patrol rifle tomorrow morning ... no sighters, open sights, same range 100 yards, same target 1/4 AQT military silhouette, hasty steady position, probably with bipod. two targets 1 round cold, 10 rounds warm/hot and rapid. Thank you all for the encouragement !!!
