Tim
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TL/DR: The video sums it all up.
I worked all last weekend, am heading to Vermont next week for work...so I decided to play hooky today and get some much needed ballistic therapy. Perfectly awesome day.
First, let me say that I was really impressed with @VOD Tactical at our gathering a couple weeks ago and ended up joining Frank's range. He's just an awfully nice guy and it's clear he wants to make the best of his range. His attitude is awesome and the facility is going to be top notch. I'm glad to be in early.
I started off with about 200 rounds of pistol on the plate rack and dueling tree. It seems the only time I shoot my pistols is during a 3 Gun match, so the opportunity to practice was welcome. I got my 15yard plate rack (6plates) down to consistently ~4.8 seconds.
Then I headed over to the rifle range.
Last fall I sold off a perfectly good, tack driving Savage because it was right handed. I replaced it with a LH Tikka T3X Tac A1 in 6.5CM. Before today, I would have traded for that Savage I sold off in a heartbeat. Looks like I finally have a load figured out as of today and have really warmed up to this rifle. Definitely a smoother action than the Savage and I really like the chassis system and stock.
After getting dialed in with some factory ammo (Hornady American Gunner), I chrono'd the handload with my Magnetospeed. 2665fps with a 140gr Hornady ELD-M over Reloder 17.
Then the fun really started. A couple months back, I stumbled onto a smoking deal on a NIB Kestrel 5700 Advanced Ballistics . The Kestrel combines your iPhone ballistics app (Strelok, Ballistics ARC, etc) with a handheld weather station. So, as the Kestrel gathers wind, temp, humidity, altitude, etc, it's also running your ballistics calculations through Applied Ballistics Elite and telling you your MIL/MOA adjustments. Very handy to have for long range!
It's also Bluetooth enabled to link with other gear, such as....
The Sig Kilo3000 BDX laser range finder binoculars. Again, I caught these on sale recently, but they're still rather spendy. What you get is 10x42 binoculars with integrated laser range finder. Nice to consolidate a spotting scope and range finder into a single unit.
What's REALLY cool is that the binocs and the Kestrel talk to each other. So, you can spot a target, range it, the Kestrel calls the adjustment, and then displays the adjustment on the Kestrel AND in the display on the binoculars. (Note: you don't need a Kestrel per se...the binocs will do basic calculations using AB LITE out of the box).
So...what does all of this lengthy prelude lead up to?
1st shot hits at 400, 450 and 500 yards. Woot! Granted, we had very little wind today, so that helped.
All in all a perfect way to blow off a work day.
The 5.5" plate was 450 yards (same size plate at 400), the 10" plate was at 500.
I worked all last weekend, am heading to Vermont next week for work...so I decided to play hooky today and get some much needed ballistic therapy. Perfectly awesome day.
First, let me say that I was really impressed with @VOD Tactical at our gathering a couple weeks ago and ended up joining Frank's range. He's just an awfully nice guy and it's clear he wants to make the best of his range. His attitude is awesome and the facility is going to be top notch. I'm glad to be in early.
I started off with about 200 rounds of pistol on the plate rack and dueling tree. It seems the only time I shoot my pistols is during a 3 Gun match, so the opportunity to practice was welcome. I got my 15yard plate rack (6plates) down to consistently ~4.8 seconds.
Then I headed over to the rifle range.
Last fall I sold off a perfectly good, tack driving Savage because it was right handed. I replaced it with a LH Tikka T3X Tac A1 in 6.5CM. Before today, I would have traded for that Savage I sold off in a heartbeat. Looks like I finally have a load figured out as of today and have really warmed up to this rifle. Definitely a smoother action than the Savage and I really like the chassis system and stock.
After getting dialed in with some factory ammo (Hornady American Gunner), I chrono'd the handload with my Magnetospeed. 2665fps with a 140gr Hornady ELD-M over Reloder 17.
Then the fun really started. A couple months back, I stumbled onto a smoking deal on a NIB Kestrel 5700 Advanced Ballistics . The Kestrel combines your iPhone ballistics app (Strelok, Ballistics ARC, etc) with a handheld weather station. So, as the Kestrel gathers wind, temp, humidity, altitude, etc, it's also running your ballistics calculations through Applied Ballistics Elite and telling you your MIL/MOA adjustments. Very handy to have for long range!
It's also Bluetooth enabled to link with other gear, such as....
The Sig Kilo3000 BDX laser range finder binoculars. Again, I caught these on sale recently, but they're still rather spendy. What you get is 10x42 binoculars with integrated laser range finder. Nice to consolidate a spotting scope and range finder into a single unit.
What's REALLY cool is that the binocs and the Kestrel talk to each other. So, you can spot a target, range it, the Kestrel calls the adjustment, and then displays the adjustment on the Kestrel AND in the display on the binoculars. (Note: you don't need a Kestrel per se...the binocs will do basic calculations using AB LITE out of the box).
So...what does all of this lengthy prelude lead up to?
1st shot hits at 400, 450 and 500 yards. Woot! Granted, we had very little wind today, so that helped.
All in all a perfect way to blow off a work day.
The 5.5" plate was 450 yards (same size plate at 400), the 10" plate was at 500.
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