A New SavageShooters Shoot!

[scooterf79]

LW, we had a great time, hope you can make it next time. I see you're gonna be moving this direction?
Scooter

[LoneWolf]

Yep I'll be out in Richlands, NC.

[scooterf79]

Gotcha, definitely a change for ya Im sure....lol. You wont be confined to non-lead bullets 👍. Winnie is in NC somewhere, I think hes got access to a 1500yd range.
Scooter

[LoneWolf]

Ya, I'll be figuring out the shooting seen there. I settle on a 4.4Acre Piece of Property, so I'll at least be able to work on my short game at home lol.

[scooterf79]

Ahh, gotcha. You're a shooter, we find places lol. Just hopped on Maps, wasnt sure exactly where that was. You'll be down there near the USMC base. My wife and I went to the beach down that way a couple years ago. Seems pretty flat, IIRC you might be able to find a place to stretch things out some.
Scooter

[Rosco]

Yes I had blast and it was great shooting with you guys!! Sunday was just as nice as Saturday without the wind. My rig was acting up so I had to put it down .

DrThunder however knocked it out of the park with multiple hits at 1000 and nailed the 1100 yarder with his 6.5 Creedmore Axis.

A fall meet looks to be in the works but I just have to hammer out a few things with management but you know what I mean.

[LoneWolf]

Awesome, if it all comes together plan on me being there. Should have my new barrel with completed load work and all ready to go by then.

[scooterf79]

I shoulda called in to work! Lol.
What was up with yours Rosco?
Man, thats awesome....Congrats Dr T! Would like to have seen it!
Sounds good to me, Ill be there if possible.
I cant imagine what you'd be referring to with management 😉
Scooter

[upSLIDEdown]

Definitely wish I could have made it to this, but was already paid up for The Guardian match. Hopefully I can make the next one, sounds like a great time.

[DrThunder88]

“Hi there, I’m here with the party that reserved Thunder Valley range for today. Rosco’s on the way, but he’s running a little bit late.”

“I can’t take you down there.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I can wait up here for the rest of the group if that’s okay.”

“No, I mean I can’t take anyone down there. We’ve got hunters in that area today.”

http://i.imgur.com/LVY2jhM.gif

Suffice it to say our Savage Shooters even did not start off well this weekend. Luckily Craig, Rockcastle’s range officer, and some other staff members got in touch with the hunters and resecured our reservation on the long range. Our shooting started a bit later than we’d planned, but the shooting did start.

The day was as nice as one could imagine from photographs, with balmy 45-50 degree F temperatures and a medium cloud cover that gave way to clear, blue skies as the Sun traced its arc from downrange to behind the firing line. The red soil on the firing hill was dry and densely packed, making the climb up the rutted hillside slightly easier for my decidedly city slicker vehicle. Red buds were in full bloom all around the valley, punctuating the still mostly bare woodlands with intense patches of fuchsia.

http://i.imgur.com/7RfZMoS.png

I will post this picture of the range but will have to paint you another one to describe the most prominent condition of the day, the one not made manifest in a photo: wind. Day 1 was plagued by very stout wind from the first shot to trying futilely to roll up my ground cloth at the end of the day. It was the kind of wind that would pick things up and throw them at you, seemingly out of spite. It blew the hat off my very head on one occasion, and then another when I wasn't trying to get it to blow the hat off my head. Varying in intensity and direction, but always somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20 mph and from 5-7 o’clock, it was not only a challenge to get hits but to even detect hits. Sound from downrange was muffled in the face of billowing breezes, and even heavy steel plates would swing and dance more in the wind that they would when struck by our bullets.

We were not as successful as I think anyone would have liked, but we did eventually figure the wind out enough to start cursing ourselves rather than it. There were also some mechanical breakdowns, including one user-induced one on my part. I couldn’t figure out why my POI was so low at 100 yards. Scooter asked if I reset my turret to zero, which, honestly, thought I had. I hadn’t; I was one turn of the turret shy.

I was also pleased to note that the T-post hangers I had used on my previous Kentucky trip handled the abuse of both wind and rifle fire. With 11 steel plates out to 1111 yards, we had very good coverage to check our drop data, and once the winds died down on Day 2, successes were easier to come by. I also have to give credit to the GPS Tape Measure app on my tablet. Its performance was solid, and it provided a good source to check against our rangefinder data.

My rifles included Taxis, Maxis, and the as yet unnamed 6.5 Creedmoor Axises. Apart from deafening my compatriots with Maxis’ muzzle blast, all the rifles worked reasonably well. I did run into some problems with the Creedmoor rifle not ejecting spent cases, even though feeding and extraction were 100%. I also messed around with my AAC 762-SD silencer on both Maxis and the Creed. The amount of change in the POI was dramatically different between the two rifles (2 mils on the Maxis compared to 0.6 mils on the Creed), though the sound suppression on both was impressive.

http://i.imgur.com/0iKtAfn.jpg
Missed the explosive but was working on a nice group with Maxis.

With a car full of very dusty rifles, Scooter, Rosco, Zach, and I ended Day 1 by packing up our gear and chowing down at a local Mexican restaurant.

Day 2 was more promising with no false starts and a more tame breeze. As Rosco and I made the range, we noticed our 1000 and 1111 yard targets, two large, IPSC-style silhouettes, had both blown over. After righting them and repainting the 1000 yard target (the only one we’d manage to hit the day before, we returned to start shooting again.

We were both having some mechanical problems that day. The aforementioned ejection trouble manifested on Day 2, though this was partially because I didn't shoot that rifle on Day 1. It was very frustrating. Rosco’s rifle was also having some difficulty with holding its zero. Eventually, I just took to single loading and Rosco brought out a .204 Ruger he had stashed away.

The wind was still difficult to read. At 1000 yards, I wound up holding almost a full mil to the right despite my reading of the wind—including with the wind flag I placed right next to the 1000 yard plate—indicating I should have been holding left. Fortunately, the ground behind the 1000 yard plate allowed me to see my misses. The 1100 yard plate was not so forgiving. I only managed two hits, and I wouldn’t even count those since I couldn’t tell you which shots they were. I assume they were the last two in the string, as I was progressively adding windage, but there is no way of knowing.

Now I’m back here in Michigan on a 25 degree F morning, and I find myself missing Kentucky already. It was a great time. Thanks to Rosco and Zach for being great hosts. Thanks to Scooter for making the trip on Saturday as well. I think we’ll all be happy to see new faces there next time around!

http://i.imgur.com/DCcIluB.jpg

[LoneWolf]

Good write up DrT. Sounds like a good time none the less. Sounds like the east coast may be more tame for me than some experiences here out west. I shot one match in 35MPH winds with a 308 lol. Holding a mil or more at 300yds in some cases. I did manage to still walk away with top 308 that day, but definitely learned to appreciate my 6mm. So Hopefully I can join you guys. Not sure what date ranges you're looking at, but if it was linked up the week before Thanksgiving I could make it in conjunction with a trip back to Ohio as well. Again, sounds like it was a great weekend!

[scooterf79]

Very nice write-up Dr T...in classic Dr T fashion. Heres a few pics I snapped while we were there
Here's the firing line
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a631/scooterf79/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_120900_zpssp1ggcp7.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/scooterf79/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_120900_zpssp1ggcp7.jpg.html)

http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a631/scooterf79/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_120855_zpsx7tivbfa.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/scooterf79/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_120855_zpsx7tivbfa.jpg.html)
Heres 3 of the best 4 shooters of the day 😉
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a631/scooterf79/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_122431_zpsnwwhw2xu.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/scooterf79/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_122431_zpsnwwhw2xu.jpg.html)
And of course the 1k steel. Dr T is the center mass shot with the Maxis and the 2 bottom hits are from my 6br---my 1st ever 1000yd hits
http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a631/scooterf79/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_134121_zpsotyswqhx.jpg (http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/scooterf79/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160402_134121_zpsotyswqhx.jpg.html)
Again, I wanna thank Rosco and Zach for setting it all up. I had a great time meeting everyone and shooting. Cant wait to do it again!
Scooter

[Rosco]

Gotta Love that Rockcastle Camo!! :) Great pics Scooter...