FRGC Spring League Results

As the results stand right now, I came out right in the middle of the pack overall. This seems to be my regular position. I came third unclassified, 7 points out behind the winner, and 2-x out of second. The first match would have been my low match even if I hadn't cross-fired, so it didn't make any difference in the league results.

I'm pretty sure my score keeper made a mistake adding my results for match 3, recording a 440 instead of a 450. If that's correct, I will finish 1st unclassified with a total of 1357-17x. If I had been classified, I would have placed 5th/15 in Marksman, 2nd/4 Sharpshooter, or 9th/12 Expert.

Here's the funny part. I shot (just barely) Expert. That's assuming the 450 is correct, and OK, 9 of those shots were on the wrong target. If I really did shoot a 440, AND/OR you don't count my crossfires, I'm a Sharpshooter. The NRA is not going to count my crossfires (and why would they?), so I guess I'm a Sharpshooter.

CMP Practice.

Standing

I actually managed to find a clear, warm day to go practice last week. The wind was calm; the sun was bright; the temperature perfect. I started with Standing practice. The good news is I can call my shots. It was nice to see the holes appear where I thought they would. I only got off 15 rounds during the shooting period, but they were mostly 8s, 9s, and 10s. The first shots seemed to be the best. As I shot, I was getting fatigued, and it was harder to settle the rifle. I guess I better get a little more exercise.




Sitting

Next came rapid sitting. It took me awhile to find a good position. If the I had a good head position on the stock, the rifle was pointed at the ground. If the rifle was pointed at the target, I couldn't get my head on the rifle, or my eyeball was in front of the rear sight. I finally got a good crossed ankle position, and shot a pretty good group (96-3x). Part of the solution was choking up on the front stock to bring the sights up to the target. I got a 1" stock spacer coming from Midway which should help get the rear sight away from my eye. I'm also getting a Ron Brown sling from Creedmoor, which I hope will help keep the sling in place.




Prone

I didn't really have the heart (or daylight) to shoot a slow prone string. I just didn't feel like messing with my sling again. The damn thing always works its way down my arm as I reach for single rounds. Therefore, I decided to shoot "Rattle Battle."


I shot my own 100yd version of Rattle Battle, with a 600yd target reduced for 100yds. The official stage is as many rounds as you can shoot in 50 seconds. I only had one loaded magazine, so I just shot that about as fast as I could. I'm pretty sure I was under 30 seconds. So, shooting 30 rounds in 30 seconds, I got 28 hits on a target that's a little over 3-inches wide at 100 yards. Not bad.

Now that's what I'm talk'n about

100 yards shooting off a bench
69 gr. Sierra Match King
over 24.4 grains Varget
in LC brass
on a bright day with light wind
6 O'Clock hold

Now if my groups from prone position start to look like this we will be getting somewhere. In prone my group is about 1.5 MOA lower. I can come up 6 clicks to center the group, but the group is much wider. Even though I've got a nose weld on the bench and in prone, my eye seems to be much closer to the rear sight in prone. I think my prone position needs some work. I can't seem to find a spot for the butt that feels solid, and has the rifle pointed at the target instead of the ground.

The Importance of Brass

I've been shooting Service Rifle for a little bit now, and I haven't paid too much attention to my ammo. I mostly shot inexpensive 55gr factory ammo that grouped around 3MOA.

Remington white box from the bench:


Georgia Arms from prone:



Earlier this year I got a 1:8 barrel, and some Sierra MK 69grs to go through it, but I haven't had a chance to try them out until recently. My first groups with the 69s were not any better than the 55s, about 2.5-3 MOA. After some reading, I decided to sort my brass by headstamp, load some rounds and head to the range. My first group with sorted brass:

Sierras in TW69 brass from the bench:



WTF? It turns out TW69 is really crappy brass made at the Twin Cities plant. During the time this brass was made, they were mostly concerned with productivity and not quality. Also, at least one of those shots on the right did not come from my rifle. Fortunately, I had also loaded some (mostly) once-fired R-P brass, and those fared much better.

Sierras in R-P brass from the bench:


You notice there are two distinct groups. One to the upper left with 6 shots, and one around the X with 4 shots (I think there's a double). When I got home, I weighted the R-P brass I hadn't loaded and found two distinct groups:

91| 1 1 3 3
91| 7
92|
92| 8 9
93| 0 0
93| 9

key: 93| 0 = 93.0 grains
leaf unit: 0.1 grains
stem unit: 1.0 grains

What, you don't know how to read a Stem and Leaf Plot? Anyway, Some of that is once fired from the same lot, and some is range brass, but I can't tell which is which. My guess is that each kind groups pretty well, they just don't happen to group in the same place.

Now I've got my brass sorted into Lake City, Winchester, and 'Blaster.' I also weighted the Winchester and culled anything that wasn't within a grain of average. I'll let you know how they shoot when I get them loaded (daddy needs a case trimmer). Oh, and the Lapua brass should be here Saturday.