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.
What a bummer for you two. I'm glad that you have it figured out, though. I know that I have left the range before discussed with my performance, but usually by the end of the day I find something positive to focus on. I've never used a range finder so I wouldn't know how they work, but it sure seems that they would work the same on wood or metal.
Let us us know how things go on the next match.
Glad you figured it out doc. My guess would've been that maybe the rangefinder or balistic app got switched to meters vs yards or something on that note.
Just out of curiosity what rangefinder are you using?
Yes, please tell us what RF you're using... I hope you don't say "Sig Kilo2000"....Originally Posted by hafejd30
Thats funny you asked that question becuase after I was driving back from lunch I was going to talk about that very thing. Its vortex 1000. Not the greatest but I would **** sure think it could pick out a 3x4 foot board at 500 yrds. Apparently not. It did measure a 10 inch square white steel at nearly the same distance though. My thoughts were that it should very well pick up those wood targets but I now notice that after about 300 yrds it was not very accurate. Last year I used it for a wood target at 450 but the target was set almost directly against the wood line with a solid back drop of huge cedar tree. But I had also used large light colored targets as well.
In an open field past 300 on brown wood it seems no good. I would bet that if I had a poster board or painted a white area on the target it would do fine. I plan to upgrade to a kilo 2000 or something of the like in a month or two. This RF would and did work just fine at normal hunting distances. I used it this past deer season and ranged every deer I shot but they were all very reasonable shoots not across a valley or anything.
If it doesnt rain after work. Im loaded up to go back out. Im going to set up a steel target directly to the side of the wood target and get a directl comparison. Also so I can get an accurate distance so I can see how my shots are grouping. It looks like rain at the moment.
When I range something, I range it 6 or so times to verify. I range behind, in front and the target several times all on a tripod. Never freehand.
Doc,
I've been happy with my Sig Kilo2000 thus far. All I've done is try ranging different objects both large and small to see how accurate it will read "small" targets... It does pretty good on a 9" plate out to 300 yards (I haven't been able to try further on the plate)... I'm hoping it will range Prairie dogs or Sage rats out to 300-400 yards. I doubt it will be that precise on something that small, but If I can range the "bush" or "mound" next to it, then that should work. I've ranged tree lines to over 1300 yards.
I've heard the Sig Kilo2400 may do better, but it's a bit more expensive....
That sucks but glad you figured it out. I had a vortex 1000 but sold it earlier this year to help pay for my Sig Kilo 2000. Never done a match before but I would ask if they could put some tin foil on that for the range finder to work. One thing I have learned using a laser range finder and what was posted above, besides lasing the target, point right below the target. For giggles, send vortex a email asking why the product didn't work at that close range. Curious what they have to say.
Your headline had me thinking the worst. Glad you didn't mess up the surgery. Good luck on your next competition.
Savage 10 FCP-SR 308, 300BO PCS
I tried responding last night from my phone but for some reason it didnt / wouldnt post.
Any how I went back out yesterday evening and set a steel plate up next to the wood target and backed up and ranged.
The wood measured 10 yrds different. I went with the steel yrdg. What do you know.... First round hit at 446 with both rifles I brought with me. So its been a huge lesson learned.
There was some info I did learn also on the 243. The ammo we used to measure on Sunday was previous to moving to one smaller bushing so the neck tension was probably not the best. The ammo used last night was spot on so I was hitting about 3" high from poa. I am going to have to re zero and re check velocity on that one. If I dont have time Im going to adjust bc to bring it down a bit as our next match is a paper match and just hitting it isnt good enough.
As far as my surgery. This has been the slowest painful recovery ever. By the time we quit las sat. at lunch I was miserable and the surgery was last December.......
Ill post the question here as well. Im going back out to double double check the 243. Here is the question. If at 100 yrds I am punching holes just left of center like w/n .5" then I dial .1 r and now punch holes w/n .5" on the right. I cant adjust the scope in between to hit dead center. what do you do???
You are talking about splitting .36" in two. Isn't gonna happen with .1 mrad adjustments. Set it so you will be left of center at 100, then as you work out spin drift will push you to just right of center between 400 and 500 yards. If you are stressing over .18" at 100 yards, it's time to spend some money and ditch your vortex.
well schnyd that is where I wound up leaving it. its just frustrating. However when I shot last night at 440 yrds and hit EXACTLY where the crosshairs were it was all good.
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