Postal Shoot Excuses

[jo191145]

jo191145
Did you shoot any fouling shots after cleaning your bore? I know my rifle likes at least 5 shots through it before its completely settled down.

14.) My dog ate my target!

hozz57
Be very careful. If you ask me for specifics I'm liable to type your ear off
I'll try to keep this short because my computer constantly crashes.

Had 1/2 lb of BM. Decided to use it for the Postal as i've been having trouble with brass exspansion with Viht. Found out pretty quick that problem is not just with Viht contrary to some previous tests. Did a couple weeks of load development,annealing, reannealing ,super annealing,flame throwers and barbeque pits. Brass is better but not 100%.

I'm also noticing substantially lower velocitys than normal data. Beginning to think my powders are picking up moisture from the humid summer air Might need to store them differently. Hard brass and weak powder could be my problem.
Anyhow I picked two loads. One still under max and painfully slow but USUALLY accurate. One over max, not quite as accurate but seemed to perform nicely at 200yds.
Running out of time and patience I loaded six of each and decided to go with the better of the two.
Cleaned the durn barrel.
Came home from work and fired the first six. Nice one hole group at 100yds. Commenced with the second group and had a flyer on shot three. Stopped all shooting and loaded up 26 of the low charge.

So I had nine shots down the tube when I started on the real target. Two clicks up to adjust my scope for dead center and the first sighter went right in the center of the Bull. Pretty much thought I was styling. Decided to just shoot the #1 target. First shot at 1 was a touch off center. Went back to the sighter and tried again. It shot off center too. No problem let it go I figured.

First target was respectable but not what I was looking for. Getting dark so I just went for it. Target two definately shows what happens when my barrel is not yet ready. The last three started walking away from the bull. After I botched that group I went back for another sighter shot. It went right through the second sighter hole
Group three was OK.

The great thing about this hobby is theres always more to learn. By the way. This is not the first time I've seen this particular tube pull a stunt like that. I just don't have enough expierience using clean powders in it.
I'll make sure its well fouled before my Oct 14 egg shoot. Got a new batch of BM so theres plenty of wrinkles to iron out before then.

Good Luck to all and Congratulations to the winner.

[Verminator2]

I'm not sure if I'll get my target shot Going on a fishin trip so I might not have time

[acloco]

Wish me luck. Going out tomorrow afternoon/evening...or...early Friday morning. Trying to avoid the "W" word.

[Hotshot]

Good luck acloco.

Just hold and squeeeeeze 15 times. Like my old high school coach used to say "it's just a game, now get out there and win!"

[acloco]

LOL! Be heading out in 20 minutes....depending on the wind...or early in the AM.

[Hotshot]

I shot mine yesterday. I had 14 pretty good rounds down range, when I started worrying about you keeping up, so I pulled the last shot out a little to help you out. Does the wind blow in Western Nebraska?

[Hawkeye Joe]

I consider myself lucky when it comes to wind. My range is protected except for a opening between the 2 and 300 mark. Even on hot windy days, I find it cool and calm out to 200. Good luck shootin. No excuses from me. I shot well. or should I say "my RIFLE shot well" Here's a pic of our 1-2-and 300 yard lines

[hozz57]

I guess I have to blame my inexperience on my ONE bad group.

I went out to the range on friday to shoot my postal target, I was prepared and the wind wasn't to bad at all.

I set up my Postal target at the top of the target board and a practice target underneath. I shot 5 fouler shots and an additional 5 shot group to settle the rifle into the rest. I then moved up to the postal target and sighted in wth 5 shots, the last 3 of those went into the same hole. I shot target 1 & 2 with OK results but my 1st shot on target 3 flew left and instead of using the sighter area to check my loads I just continued to aim at the same spot. Of course my next 4 shots went back to the original POI.

I learned a lot and had a bunch of fun on this "shoot" and I hope we do it again. My friend tells me that over on "savageshooters.com" they have an on-going monthly shoot.

My hats off to 'Waldo for all the hard work and the great job he did for the rest of us.

[rayfromtx]

Oh my goodness. I finally had time to shoot some groups. My son was in an accident and had his leg amputated a few weeks ago and we finally got him home on Friday. It's been kinda crazy around here. With all that and a few other things, I didn't get around to shooting targets until today. Fortunately I can shoot in my back yard. We watched Dallas whoop up on the Rams and then went out to try my new 40 grain Bergers. The first load had a good bit of vertical so I added half a grain and shot a very nice group. I missed one wind call and the other four went into .120. The fifth went with the condition so I figured I was good to go and loaded some up.

The first group was benchrest quality and I felt pretty good about it.

The second group started with the first shot out to the left. I held for it and the second shot went left of it. The other three fell into that wide group without further damage. It was looking bad for the home team but I kept a stiff upper lip and carried on. Daylight was short so I didn't clean and the barrel was pretty warm.

Third group started with one high and left. I went to the sighter and confirmed where it should be and held for the first shot. The first four shots formed a nice group just a little wider than two bullet holes. The last shot went high and left of those and ruined my chances of being competitive.

I had a good time and I think a little tinkering will help find the cause of the fliers. I think I might question the scopes ability to hold poa. After I shot my target I had a few loads left so I called my wife out to shoot. She usually dislikes my bench setup and the sun was in her eyes as I shoot toward the west. She got a grin after each shot except the fourth shot which she called as a flier. With the flier, she scored a .335 which is pretty darned good considering her experience level and the fact that she spent the last 3 weeks sleeping at the hospital and only left for her class at UT twice a week. She is a dynamo.

[Verminator2]

I can't shoot my target Its been to busy and Timneys return rate is VERY slow, I sent my trigger in 1 1/2 months ago and its still not back Oh well, when it gets back I'm going to shoot my target just to see how it would have gone.

[WHISTLEPIG]

Rayfromtx, Sorry to hear about your boy.

[jo191145]

Ray, Very Sorry to hear about your boys accident.
I have an aquaintance from town who lost his leg when we were both young. It did not keep him down for long. He was a house painter before the accident and still is. I'll see him from time to time precariously perched on a ladder or rooftop of the big old Victorians that dominate our area painting away with out a care in the world. Places I would not go and I used to repair thier chimneys for a living. At ground level you'd never know he was missing a leg unless someone told you.

I see you got over your concern about seating bullets down into the shoulder. Let us know how that works out after you get that load tweaked.
Wishing your family well.

[The N.U.B.]

I shot last Friday morning. I was looking for an easy .25" but ended up bigger than 1.5". Really windy and kinda cold. I was just too busy to pick the best day and had to shoot or not send in a target. I was going to keep the poor outing but figured I owed Wrzwaldo something for all his efforts. I really like the format and hope someone does it again. I'm really jealous of the range you shoot, Hawkeye Joe. I'll snap a picture of ours, and given that it's in eastern Colorado at 6,700 ft and the nearest real tree is 1/4 mile away (and that's only a couple), makes windy days common and a reall problem for accuracy. Great real world training though.

Congrats to all of you that performed so well. Keep those recipes coming and I'll keep trying.

Scott

[Hotshot]

This is my best excuse yet.

Oh, you guys shot at 100 yards? I thought it was 200. Too late to re-shoot so maybe Waldo can just cut my group sizes in half.

[WrzWaldo]

I'll see what I can do...


edit: I did like your (new) hat excuse!