gjduk posted on July 13, 2009 13:49
When I got up on Saturday morning, I thought the weather looked nice. So I had decided to give the long range shooting another try. Instead of shooting at a paper target, I thought something a bit more visual was in order, so settled upon a small metal spinner. This worked out at just about an inch of target to go for. I was hoping to be able to do a sequence of hitting it five in a row, giving me almost a 5 shot group of an inch.
So I packed everything into the car, but this time included my video camera so I could take away some memories of the session. When I turned up to the range the wind was quite still, and a little bit sunny. After getting setup the weather however had changed. It was now darker, and it looked like is was threating to rain. I thought about not bothering as I knew it would more than likely be a difficult session for long range.
However I persisted and I got the sand bag and rifle, along with the camera all setup. I walked out to place the spinner in place just below the 100 yard target holders. While walking up the range I made a mental note of the different wind conditions, it is surprising that in the space of 100 yards the wind can be doing so many different things.
Against my better judgment I had decided not to place any wind flags out, as I thought I could use the grass and the trees for readings. As I did not want to re zero my scope, I kept the 35 yard zero and left it on 12x mag and took a few shots into the sand bank on the 100 yard range, then adjusted my mag until a suitable reticle marker matched the POI, which was the bottom line on my MTC Viper scope at close to 14x magnification.
I started the camera rolling and took a few shots, and before I knew it I was getting the spinner to spin. It was quite hit and miss, but I would say it was between 2 and 3 in 10 shots where on target. The others were very close, as you could see the grass, or dirt scuff up just behind the spinner.
Overall it was quite a fun session, and I think next time if the conditions are better it will be a little more successful. What the session has done is built my confidence up in my MFR. Last time I did some long range with it, I was very unhappy with the results, and preferred my little S200 at that range. I think with the rifle having had a bit of a longer break in period, and me getting used to it, it has come into its own.
Well here is a short video of some of the hits of the spinner, hope you enjoy.