I hope I have time to write this well. Either way the facts will be here.
Last Saturday was our first PRS match of the season. Physically I felt under ready because of a not so long ago surgery on my left shoulder. But rifle wise and load wise we were ready!! Im sure some of you had read my other thread recently.
Well signed in and squaded up. I went first. It was a barricade and a very close 9x12 target. Just a bit past 300. Sure I was a little shaky from first stage nerves but after all the dust settled I had hit one for sure and another was questionable so they gave it to me. When I stepped away from the stage, the other guys said my group was very tight and I hit in the exact same spot. It was just low left. Ok there was a left to right wind MAYBE I held a little too far. Teresa was going a couple after me so I relayed my wind info to her. She shot. Now I have to say right now that the two people out there I am shooting against is myself, and my wife. I know that I have to get ahead from the start or I may not be able to catch her.
So she shoots...... zero! Now she did seem to have a hard time finding the target. In all honesty there were several targets all around this one in nearly every direction. I struggled getting back on target as well. Maybe that was it?
So we move to the next stage. Its a jiggly bed. Platform suspended by 4 chains. I have never shot off of one of these but I understood the methods. I slipped on and waited for the shaking to calm down to pull off the first shot. I could be sure of the first one. The targets were hit to advance with a very close starting target. 10 shots later I had a zero!!!!
T went. She managed to hit 2 on the first target then advanced but never pulled off another hit.
The match manager was watching me shoot. Same story. Tight group. just off the target. The last thing I did before we went to the match. I checked my zero and made a windage adjustment. MAYBE THAT WAS IT!!! I need to put it back. So I pulled out my tools and put it back.
Our next two stages were prone basically out to 1k. Ok here we can get on paper and back on track. Hold overs and straight dialing. We are both pretty darn good in prone.
RESULT OF BOTH STAGES?????
ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO
WTF?????
I / we DNF'd and left at lunch. Something was bad off and there was no use in staying and wasting any more ammo.
I started chatting with some of my shooting friends on the way home. I needed help to get off the ledge.
We developed some theories and the next day we went out and proved them right.
During initial set up we measured MV with magneto speed. Checked zero then shot at distance and adjusted the Ballistics program for actual poi vs poa. Sounds spot on!!
So we basically did the same thing on Sunday again. When we moved our wood target back and put 3 fresh shoot n see targets on it, we shot all 3 rifles, daughters rifle too, there were maybe one or two holes near the top. WTH?? Everyone had said the day before that they could just put the MV in from the MS plus the correct BC and atmospherics and be on out to a k. This is the exact thing that happened to us last time and the reason we had to adjust the MV. What is going on?
So just on a wild hunch I lazered the steel target out past our check target, dialed the dope in and bing!!
Apparently the laser range finder was NOT sending back an accurate distance from the brown wood target board!!! We didnt stand a chance. It took almost all of our ammo Sunday to figure this out. We have always been able to lase our steel targets and get first round hits. I never would have thought we had bad info. After all the wood target was huge. NO DICE.
So a cautionary tail. It may be accurate off wooden target fairly close i.e. 100 yards or so. But beware of long distance!!!
Or be prepared for your own bad day.