What did you do at the range today?

[WestTN2288]

Verified Zero on the replacement SWFA today.

Also got a few more rounds down range on the 7 PRC.

Got to be more clear. I was really excited thinking that was the PRC for a second…

 

[Chris in TN]

More sitting behind trek poles with and without a pack for rear support today.

 

[flyfisher117]

Got to be more clear. I was really excited thinking that was the PRC for a second…

That’s the 6.5 Micro PRC.

 

[waspocrew]

Pressure test with CFE 223 and the 95 TMK in my Howa mini. No stellar group worth posting, but got up to ~ 2815 (31 gr) in Starline brass with normal bolt lift.

Zeroed my 7 SAUM for the upcoming elk season. 145 LRX at 3040 should do. After this group, made a nice cluster on the steel at 300.

 

[RWT]

Tried 3 different stocks today in my 16” 6.5CM
RS, Mesa Precision, Bastion
3 different load with the new chronograph
ACC 140 black tips out of my Alamo
Cooper Creek 130 OTM in the Tikka and Alamo
Hornady 140 Bulk ammo in a tikka as it is my practice round

I’ll a full review of the 3 stocks soon. They all have trade offs of some sort.

 

[Chris in TN]

Tried 3 different stocks today in my 16” 6.5CM
RS, Mesa Precision, Bastion
3 different load with the new chronograph
ACC 140 black tips out of my Alamo
Cooper Creek 130 OTM in the Tikka and Alamo
Hornady 140 Bulk ammo in a tikka as it is my practice round

I’ll a full review of the 3 stocks soon. They all have trade offs of some sort.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of them.

 

[Chris in TN]

Spent some time working more on field positions with my daughter this morning before work.

She's struggling with using a pack for a rear rest. In any position. A full sized pack works better than our little day pack, but I'm trying to avoid hauling a full sized pack around just to use as a rest. I think there are better options.

So this morning we went back to ol' faithful, my rubberbanded arrows that I have used to kill deer from a seated position:



The orange fencepost wedged under my knee, was an attempt to figure out if it's worth bringing a third arrow. We always have a handful of those fenceposts in the SxS so I just grabbed one this monring instead of getting out a third arrow shaft.

I think a guy could make a cheap gadget - and sell it - that would clamp to a trek pole and hold an arrow shaft where it was adjustable up-down to make a third leg to convert trek poles from a bipod to tripod configuration. Or perhaps a mounting plate that locked to the trek pole and held the arrow shaft securely but not fixed permanently, so that the arrow (for seated you don't need more than 26" max) would be out of the way when not being used as a tripod leg, but the plate would rotate and allow the arrow (under tension) to slide in-out to adjust length quickly. The goal here isn't to make a tripod that'll hold a kettle of stew over a fire; it's just to make something that makes a worthwhile marginal improvement in front rest stability, and I think that would be worthwhile for the ~1.5 ounce weight penalty of a simple mount and an arrow shaft.

The rubberbanded arrows for a rear support are not perfect. But they offer a whole lot of stability for their costs (weight and money).

I'm not expecting to start a trend of everyone rushing to turn arrows into field rests, but I think there's worse ideas for making quick but steady positions.

 

[Chris in TN]

We continued with the theme of working with the trek-pole bipod up front today, but with a third leg - an arrow shaft shortened and zip-tied to the trek pole just below the handle, then the other end secured towards the bottom with a hair tie. When you need the third leg, pull the hair tie off the bottom of the arrow shaft and fold it out. Takes about two extra seconds, or less if you do it while getting seated.

It absolutely makes the front rest steadier and I was gratified by how well I could shoot from seated. My daughter hasn't quite got this all perfectly figured out, but she's getting there. She's already very confident prone to further than I want her to shoot, but I know that prone isn't always do-able in the mountains so I need to get her more comfortable from seated. What she did this afternoon would have easily worked to 300+, she was just a bit slow at actually getting shots off.

One thing I have noticed too late where I made a mistake this summer with her:

When I bought her 6.5CM I knew I had basically two months to get it up and running and find a load it liked and tweak whatever needed tweaking on it. That honestly didn't take that long, but I've been limited on time at the reloading bench and we've stuck to her shooting 1-5 shots per outing, most days, though we also still shoot a lot of .22lr. We even snuck out at lunch today (we homeschool the kids and I work from home) and shot some .22lr at lunch. But, with the focus on setting up a new rifle and getting her comfortable with it while I'm still trying to learn to trust it myself (I have, it shoots great, it's been a joy to shoot, I haven't had a single unexplained miss all summer when I sneak 1-2 rounds per week for myself), I completely fell off the wagon of letting the kids blast a lot of 5.56. So this afternoon we grabbed a couple boxes of AAC 69BTHP and I let her shoot most of it (seated w/ trek poles and arrows) and I finished of the rest.

 

[Chris in TN]

With a bit of tweaking we took our various trek poles and arrows back to the range today. We took the 6.5cm again and my daughter said it felt much steadier today. She shot 3 shots, well centered, under 2moa, at ~395 yards.

Saw some neighbors on our way down to repaint the target afterwards.