After having so much fun with my old classmates I knew I had to get my family out to this spot as well. It's amazing that with the right equipment and know how you can take someone who's hardly shot a firearm before and get them hitting steel at extreme distances with little effort.
Merry Christmas 2012!
900 & 1550 yard shot with the win mag. Suppressed AR-15 plinking and a 900 yard Barrett 50 Cal hit.
Like so many others, facebook has allowed me to reconnect with many old friends and classmates. Some I haven't seen in over a decade. It's amazing how people change. The way we look, the things we value, our personalities, prejudices and what we enjoy. Growing up I enjoyed hunting and therefore shooting, but nothing to the extent that I do now. A shared love for the sport drew a few old classmates together over the past year. During Christmas 2012 we realized that most of us would be back home visiting family and we should take the opportunity to get together for a shootout.
Here is a video of some of our adventure. Thanks Geddy, Cody & Jimmy for an awesome day of shooting and camaraderie. Best class reunion you could ever plan.
Did I mentioned we pushed our skills and rifles out further than ever before - 1550 Yards!
Rifles aren't everything and much fun can be had at short range as well. I found some scrap AR550 Steel on KSL and decided to build a multi purpose target for both pistols & rifles. I bought the steel from a nice fellow by the name of Travis who works at a steel yard. He gave me a great deal and I was able to make the rest of the stand from straps around my parents property. This was my first real attempt at welding and I really enjoyed it. I hope to build another stand soon to add even more dynamics and options to our days at the range.
Here we are shooting my buddy Steve's custom glock 19. Custom because it has an aftermarket 3.5 lbs trigger, custom cerakote, heinie sights and a custom undercut and stipple job on the grip.
The other piece is my GSG - 5, 22 LR clone of an H&K MP5. Topped with an EOTECH red dot.
800 yards vs. milk jugs was a lot of fun so the next time out we had more time and better weather so we stretched it out to 1025 yards. Unfortunately it was quite warm that day and the mirage made for a fuzzy video.
This fall I decided it was time to mix things up a little bit. It's been more than a year that I've been shooting steel at 1000 yards and making videos. I've wanted to shoot further but finding a good location can be a challenge. In lieu of more distance I change to a more dynamic target: water filled milk jugs.
This trip I had the pleasure of taking my brother-in-law Barry Sims, retired NFL left tackle and his step brother Michael a veteran of the Marine Corps out for some long range fun.
After some trouble finding the spot we nearly got rained out. A nasty storm cell blew in and back out in just minutes but left us soaked and seeking retreat in the truck.
After it blew over we ventured out and were glad we did. The shooting was superb and we got the video to match. My first video featuring slow motion.
Took my idiot friend Colton out to try his hand at long range. We arrive after 45 minutes of driving to the spot and Colton informs me that his wife wants him back home in 1.5 hours. Leaving us about 30 minutes to shoot. I wanted to kill him. We hustled to set up the target and head up the hill. After setting up the rifle we noticed something troubling. There were two bird hunters and a dog wandering about 150 yards to the side of the target. Not good.
Frustrated we drove back down to the target, picked up our steel and heading further up the canyon in a last ditch effort to at least make a few long range shots. The condition were not ideal as we had to pack the 60 lbs target down a shale slide just off the road then scramble back up to the truck. Not a situation you want to rush thru. With only 20 minutes left until we had to leave to preserve Colton's marriage we took a few shots. Here is the result.
I'll never take him again.
He recently invited me to go test out his new Springfield XD-9 Sub Compact. He claims he has a spot here his home that we can shoot that wouldn't require 4WD. Turns out he wrong...again. He ops to use his dads work truck, an old Chevy 2500. Due to drifting snow we get stuck not 3 ft off of the pavement which just happens to be a main road thru town. Not an ideal spot to get stuck when trying to shoot guns in a area that is a questionable distance from homes.
I have many new videos and changes to report. The first that comes to mind is the COL of my rounds. Up to this point I didn't fully realize the importance of seating depth on accuracy. I focused more on load recipe testing rather than seating depth testing. I've since learned my lesson and have improve my results.
I've learned that when developing a new load the first order of business is to test seating depth. Most shootings find that seating the bullets .001-.002" from the lans provides the best accuracy. This is not true for everyone and some rounds like berger VLD bullets see better group when touching the lans. Before trying different powder charges for load testing you should first test different seating depths until you find one that shoots the best groups.
Previous COL: 3.63
New COL: 3.678
208 gr Hornady AMAX
78.5 gr H1000
Federal Match Grade Large Magnum Rifle Primers
Not an amazing group but given it was shot in single digit temperatures with a cold shaky shooter I'm pleased. Turned out that the longest round I prepared shot the best group by far.
