Reply With Quote....
It was early evening on October 31st. My trusty Buick wound the along the steep, twisting, tree-lined drive from the county road before pulling into the well worn parking lot of equally worn Park Mammoth Resort Lodge. The already isolated hotel sits atop a hill overlooking a rural valley in eastern Kentucky. It was shrouded in a light, misty rain that hung in the eerily calm air. Dead calm. The hotel was dimly lit and appointed in an odd mélange of darkly colored decor ranging from antique to just very old.
My suspicions that I inadvertently walked into a horror movie were confirmed when the front desk informed me that a busload of teens would be staying at the hotel as the title theme from Halloween played in the background...
Relatively taxidermy-free.
Fellow SavageShooter Rosco had read about my recent travails and travels in attempting to shoot long range and had kindly invited me to join him and his friend, Zack, at Rockcastle Shooting Center for a day of Savage-intensive long range shooting. I had planned on taking as much time off of work around Halloween as I could, so the timing happened to be perfect—aside from the increased risk of winding up in a low budget slasher flick.
Incidentally, you are required to sign a statement acknowledging that you will not shoot the rocks.
Rockcastle Shooting center is a massive complex, but we stayed on the long distance, reactive steel range. Much like Bang Steel, the range is in the bottom of a typically verdant valley, though the fall colors had changed to make the boundaries of the range more chromatically variable. The firing position was on a rise on the southwest side, and the steel targets were interspersed in the reed and brush on the floor of the valley, some of them in mown lanes and actually visible to the shooters! More on that later.
The rain that fell the day before and misty morning air kept the red soil soft and slippery. The deeply rutted road to the firing position was impassible in places, leaving my decidedly city-oriented car to plow through the roughly mown, heavy grass. Thankfully none of the party’s vehicles got stuck, though an important lesson was learned about not leaving one’s vehicle doors open and running down the battery.
Tricks and Treats
My gear included what has become my usual long range loadout: the oft mentioned Taxis with a recently added adjustable Graco buttplate. I also brought along the Maxis project, my slightly less-mentioned Savage Axis in .300 Win Mag, and a new project for which I haven’t concocted a stupid name, another Axis in 6.5 Creedmoor. As it happened, all three rifles were in pillared and bedded Boyds Tacticool/Pro Varmint stocks. All had EGW 20MOA rails and UTG Max Strength rings. The new project’s optic was a Bushnell Elite 3200 10x40mm mil/mil. Taxis was stoked with its usual handload, and the other two rifles were shooting Hornady Match ammo.
I brought along my DA book for Taxis and was surprised that it was more or less correct given the conditions. Its fidelity with reality was subject to question after my F-class match. I didn't have all of my data for Maxis, which was still in the form of an email from Dan Newberry and set for 5000ft DA (our local DA was about 1000ft). It was also truncated around 850 yards. The lack of good data made me apprehensive about wasting too much ammo lobbing rounds at the more distant targets, though I did confirm some of the nearer drops.
They're altogether ooky,The Axis Family.
Rosco represented the Savage set as well with a customized 12FV in 6.5 Creedmoor and Axis in .308 Winchester. Zack came equipped with the recent media darling, Ruger Precision Rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor. I will say that I was skeptical of the hype train that departed Southport, Connecticut, but the Precision Rifle seems to be a well executed rig. At one point, I think we were all shooting Hornady’s 140gr 6.5 Creedmoor ammo. Rosco and I seem to share a taste in optics, as we both had one rifle with a Primary Arms 4-14x44mm FFP scope and one with an SWFA SS of some sort. Zack’s Ruger was topped with one of those nice, dusty bronze colored Vortexes. I don't remember which one; I just remember it was very nice.
Día de los Cálculos Muertos
The range had been set up for us with three or four gongs ranging from 200 to “1000” yards, with most of them 400 and closer. If there was more steel, the range officer had told us, it was lost somewhere in the woods surrounding the range. We decided it would be better to put more steel farther out, and we made the hike down the firing lane to move the targets and get some rangefinder measurements to the most distant plate. Rosco also set up a paper target at 100 in order to check zeroes.
For the most part, we did fairly well. The wind was very mild, only occasionally peaking at 5MPH and barely moving the long grass and weeds downrange the rest of the time. None of us had much luck with the “1000” yard target, which we had measured via rangefinder at 800-ish. Because of the weedy backdrop and dense, wet soil, it was impossible to see splashes in the dirt. There were occasional hits, but no one could connect with the plate twice in a row. My trajectory was reasonably consistent with my acquired data, and Zack’s ballistics app seemed to be predicting his come-ups accurately enough for all of the targets out to 500 yards, but a hit on an 800 yard plate was hard to come by.
Even though the wind was light, I think we all were convinced that our projectiles were being blown off target. I metered the wind at the firing point, but it was harder to detect downrange. A blanket of gray kept the sun from warming the ground, resulting in no visible mirage. Try as I might, I could see no airborne seeds floating in the mild November air.
I was about ready to call it quits on that target and just stick to closer steel when it occurred to me to mil the target. I didn’t know its dimensions but figured it would be between 16 and 24 inches in width. The target subtended 0.9 mil, which gave me a range somewhere between 490 and 740 yards. I knew it was significantly beyond the 500 yard target, so I started at the top. Splitting the difference between my 725 and 750 drops, I dialed in my scope, held on the windward edge, and loosed a shot. Hit! I happily reported the discovery to Rosco and Zack but chided myself for jumping to a conclusion until I landed a follow-up shot. The next shot was also a hit; we had discovered the problem.
A Shakespearean allusion by any other name would still be as awkward.
After establishing our trajectories on the few steel targets in the firing lane, we ventured into the deeply rutted, quagmire-infested field to move some of the targets to longer distances. We just had to jump start Rosco’s SUV first (soon to be a PRS stage), and he valiantly piloted us around the many car-crippling hazards and hazardous, crippled cars. In our foray we discovered several steel targets that the range officer had told us were AWOL. They weren’t so much “AWOL” as “pretty much in plain sight if you happened to be looking from 25 yards away”. We put up a few more including an IPSC silhouette at what we figured would be 1000 yards—though I think it turned out to be 950. At least it would be closer to 1000 than the target we were told was 1000.
I was having more difficulty with that steel, possibly owing to the fact that I had to shoot though the branches from my chosen firing position, but the 8-inch plate we hung at about 830 yards was in the clear. Since the plate was just slightly larger than one of my dots in my reticule, I was having a hard time getting the exact distance. Mercifully, it was in an area where dirt splashes were visible, so it only took a few shots to get on steel. And once there, hits were consistent.
Maxis didn’t get shot quite as much. With its brake blasting gas at my hosts and blowing detritus all over my shooting mat, it was something of a nuisance. Still, it was impressive to see it not only hitting the 500 yard gong but also carrying enough oomph to make the target holder rock back and forth. The most satisfying “ding” of the day had to have been the mini IPSC target Rosco put up at 300 yards. From the mat, I could barely see the top of the target through the grass and over a small rise. The sound of the impact was, in a word, authoritative.
The 6.5 Creedmoor also didn’t get shot a whole heck of a lot. Given the cartridge’s reputation for consistency and the fact that its 22” barrel length was halfway between Rosco’s 12FV and Zack’s RPR, I probably could have just stolen their drop data and used it. Still, given that it was still in rat rod configuration, I didn’t want to push it before I put it through its paces on a square range.
Ending With a Bang
After lunch my hosts brought out three jars of exploding target compound. Let me say the pleasing ding of steel hardly compares to the chesty thump accompanying the detonation of that stuff. The ghastly columns of yellowish smoke rose rapidly from the red soil and drifted slowly in the gentle breeze. I was so fixated on hitting steel that I forgot to mix and set mine out, but the other two jars were spectacular fun.
I was having trouble telling what time it was for my entire stay in Kentucky. Part of it was going from Eastern to Central Daylight Time, another part was transitioning from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time, and part of it was the heavy cloud cover that provided completely directionless light the entire day. The clock, however, revealed that evening was upon us, except for my clock, of course, which said evening was upon us two hours ago.
After stowing our gear and checking out, we all grabbed a bite to eat before parting ways. Rosco and Zack had a long drive that evening, and I'd be making an even longer one in the morning. It was well worth the trip. The range at Rockcastle was a fantastic setting for informal shooting, though it's also in demand for much more formal pursuits. I am deeply grateful to Rosco and Zack for their hospitality and invitation.
I'm spent.
Last edited by DrThunder88; 11-12-2015 at 11:33 AM. Reason: Bad ubb
....
Its Not the Violence that sets Men apart...
Its the Distance They are Willing to travel!
As always a great write up!! Maybe next time it will be a little less creepy.
It was great fun and hopefully we can revisit next spring and maybe even locate all that "missing steel" in the woods.
That added to the charm. I don't even remember the hotel in Virginia!
If you don't include the hiking boots I had to get at WalMart because I left mine at home, probably in the area of $325. That's with gas, lodging, restaurants, and the range fee. There were definitely cheaper ways to go about it, but aside from booking the hotel, I was kind of playing by ear. Also, for some reason the room rate at the resort seems to have plummeted after my stay. I paid about $75/night but now it's down to less than $50.Originally Posted by XL105
Good write up Doc! Sounds like a good time. You really have a way with words! Lol
Sounds like a pretty good place!
Scooter
I'm the Boss. I make sure what she wants gets done.
It was a very cool place, and I only saw one part of it!
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