Going to my first precision rifle clinic -Very excited!

[Leland Pate]

This Friday and Saturday I'm traveling into central PA to attend a precision rifle training course. We'll be spending several hours in a classroom reinforcing fundamentals, learning MILDOT ranging, holds, and reading the wind. Once we move to the range we'll be shooting almost 200 rounds at steel placed at unknown distances out to 1,000 yards. To add to the cool factor, I'm camping on the range with several other class mates.

WHOO HOO!

Pics will be forthcoming but I just had to share.

Black Hat Training Corps - Precision Rifle Instruction

Range Pics

[LakeCleElum]

LeLand - Send up Pic's and a full report.....over the years, I attended Sniper training put on the by the FBI and Army Green Beret.......Happy Times......Where's Sniper when we need him?

[ODDJOB UNO]

i certainly hope you get to "enjoy" the "pits." nothing better than having 30/06 .308, go over yer head early in the morning! ask me how i know.


it truly is an exciting invigorating breath taking sound at 1000yds.


now do you know yer "come-ups" for .308 federal match 168gr BTHP?


if you do, paste them on inside of stock so all ya have to do after ranging is lean stock over and see what yer "come-ups" are and start clicking away on yer elevation turret.

[pitargue]

What rifle/scope/mount combo are you using?

[Brando]

Sweet!

When you're done with that, grab a .22 mag-fed auto-loader and attend an Appleseed.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by Brando

Sweet!

When you're done with that, grab a .22 mag-fed auto-loader and attend an Appleseed.

+1 brazillion

[Leland Pate]

now do you know yer "come-ups" for .308 federal match 168gr BTHP?

I've got solid dope recorded out to 600 yards. I've calculated the external ballistics with software but we'll see how close I am beyond that once I get out there. The range is at about 1000 ft in elevation which is damn near the same as my home range. I'm shooting up the last of my 168 FGMM on this one. From this point on, I don't think I'll shoot anything lighter than 175 SMK's.

I've got my RCBS press finally set up for .308 handloads.

i certainly hope you get to "enjoy" the "pits." nothing better than having 30/06 .308, go over yer head early in the morning! ask me how i know.

I don't know if this range has pits or not. We'll see. My local range has pits at 600 yards and it's a lot of fun to get back there and use silohuettes on poles to create moving targets for shooters out at 600.

What rifle/scope/mount combo are you using?

I have a lowly Cactus Weapons built Remy 700 .308/S&B PMII 4-16x42 mil/mil scope. It shoots half minute with FGMM in the right hands (not mine).

[Rednine11]

I'd love to go through a course like that. I've been trying some long range shooting with my 50 BMG but it gets expensive pretty quick
That's a great looking 308 you've got there

[LakeCleElum]

Very sweet looking rifle. Bi-pod is the way to go.

At the one school I attended, on day one they announced a goal:

Cold rifle, 600 meters, head shot to a moving target (silohuettes on poles to create moving targets), on the first shot.

Most of us were doing it by the end of the 80 hr. class.

[ODDJOB UNO]

that sure is sweet looking. i see some type of barrel contraption. what the hell is it? for a suppressor? is it a short barrel? is it 24" or 26"?


LOVE the box feed.


heres some advice from my M40-A1 mcmillian, WIN M-70, which i have owned for a good many years.


no matter whose scope ya have, how much ya pay, sooner or later the stadia/scope will sometimes puke. it doesnt matter zeiss/swavorski/leupold. why i havent a clue. this just comes from alot of use, not just from a deer hunt and occasional "look at me and how stoopid i am for spending gazzillions of dollars on my rifle at the range deals". my mcmillian M-70 winchester .338 win mag did this to me (3) times(leupolds warranty is UNREAL!). granted its a win mag, butttt..................had that happened on a COVETED BULL ELK HUNT............well i would have been screwed big time.


sooo with this in mind............i am following military doctrine "when everything GOES TO POO"................use urine IRON SIGHTS! sooo when my leupolds takes a dump on me on the M40-A1 or the WIN M-70 win mag..............they izz GETTING IRON SIGHTS installed with QD RINGS!


much to my DEMISE i do not have a BWANA carrying a backup rifle for those fun moments when ya slip down a cliff,trip over a tree branch, or any of the other maladies that inflict hardcore hunters when in pursuit of ROYAL BULL ELK! never have i just walked out of camp and nailed one. deer yes elk never. usually its some long drawn out hump across gods country in the middle of BFE or some bumpy azzed quad ride or 4wd ride and then a hump. all the time pounding the living hell out of a very very very VERY SPENDY PRECISION GE-SCHUTZEN!


i have also had scopes fog/leak while raining/rings come loose despite loctite blue blah blah. handing any of my rifles(scads) to my kids is a guurranteed bummer of the $$$$ type and i have learned the hard way NOT TO LOAN THEM OUT EVER! the kids rifles have POS bushnell scopes on them as they are cheap and the kids can SCREW ANYTHING GOOD UP in no time flat. i did spring for a leupold for (1) kids marlin 45/70. just waiting for that heartbreak. but with the marlin we maintained the IRON SIGHTS and installed leupold QD rings in the certain event of him CLOBBERING THE HELL out of his scope and rendering it USELESS! that way he can still hunt and doesnt have to snivile about me not loaning him my rifles.


now should you be so inclined to enjoy equine hunting on horsey back...........well that adds a whole nuther spectrum to "how rifles/scopes get WASTED going hunting."


thats my (2) centavos worth of many years of doing this.


(1) of my most important considerations on my springfield/arrington/mcmillian super duper match from hell M-14 was MAINTAINING MY IRON SIGHTS for just such catastrophic events, and to use at 1000yd iron site matches. we are going with a LEATHERWOOD receiver mt. picatinny rail with A.R.M.S QD scope rings. that way i can add/remove scope any damn time i want and RETAIN MY GLORIFIED EXALTED EXPENSIVE COVETED "ZERO."



a LAZER(laser) bore sighter goes with me anytime they get bounced around.



i have FOUGHT the elusive "ZERO" on one too many rifles over the years at a very expensive price(ammo), spent days of my life, and been plenty PISSED OFF when it hides from me.


good luck with this class cant wait to hear all about it and what ya learned

[Leland Pate]

Thanks for the feedback, Mr. Uno.

The mount is for my AAC SCAR Heavy suppressor on a 20" Lothar Walther barrel. It is a MITER mount that enables me to test various locking points for zero shift. After owning a suppressed bolt gun, I don't think I could ever own an unsuppressed precision rifle. They are an absolute joy to shoot.

My club just had a night/suppressor match last weekend and I was out there in the pitch black shooting on the 600 yard range. We mounted a friends PV-22 NVD on a suppressed rifle and were getting hits on steel at 600. Wow was that fun. Everyone had glow-stick necklaces on so we could keep track of each other.

I'm not really a big game hunter but that might change is I am able to weezle my way back out west. For the time being, I am really just a steel hunter.

[ODDJOB UNO]

well it OBVIOUS as ALL HELL you know how to break the FUN BARRIER IN SPADES by having SUPPRESSED/ NVD/ and a range that allows night shooting of hi-po rifles. im jealous!


well take COPIOUS NOTES and PICTURES of yer weekend in paradise cuz i wanna gleam whatever impotent info they teach ya.


edumacation IS POWER!

[pitargue]

It's going to be a challenge to reach 1000 yards w/ a 20" barrel. Even w/ 175gr SMK at your elevation.

Do you hand load?

At least you'll learn the limitations of your rifle and yourself. Very good things to know...

[Leland Pate]

Originally Posted by pitargue

It's going to be a challenge to reach 1000 yards w/ a 20" barrel. Even w/ 175gr SMK at your elevation.

Do you hand load?

At least you'll learn the limitations of your rifle and yourself. Very good things to know...

Truer words were never spoken. I don't suspect I'll get past 800. But, you are exactly right... I want to know what I/we can do.

[id10t]

IIRC from reading when the 300 whisper came out that with barely subsonic loads and really heavy/long pills (220grn+) that with proper/sufficient elevation adjustment (some moa in the mounts, burris zee rings or similar for more MOA, etc) that very good accuracy could deliver the very heavy bullet still moving at close to what it launched at.

I'd like one of the Savage F-class ready to go set ups, but I can't afford the rifle, can't afford the glass, and I can't afford the fees (and gas) for the one 1000 yard range that I know of. Not tacticool but it works - the Savage team did very well at the '09 F-T/R world championships...

[Leland Pate]

The shoot this weekend was a ball!

After about 6 hours of classroom instruction on shooting fundamentals, external ballistics, mildot ranging, target engagement and deployment drills we hit the range to zero our rifles and begin a series of shooting exercises.

We shot at both known and unknown distances that required us to use longhand math and mildot reticles to figure an estimated range to target. We also used sniper data books to log shots and draw engagement maps. Paired in two man teams we shot at steel out to 1000 yards and were able to call shots using the vapor trails of the bullets. That was a new experience for me and it was super cool to see.

I learned the limits of my rifle and ammo. I couldn't reach past 800 yards with my short barrel and light 168 SMK's. The vapor trails were literally disappearing when the bullets hit transonic speeds and went wildly off target.

The instructors put out simulated IED planting bad-guy teams (steel silhouettes) and made us find them. They camouflaged them with paint to make them harder to find. We had to find the badguys, range them and engage with one shot accuracy.

We also shot several groups using holdovers for elevation and also tried the very tricky 90 degree lay over shot where you lay the rifle over 90 degrees from vertical and shoot with the scope on it's side. This is very tricky because you have to account for the loss of elevation over the bore and added windage of the scope, In my case, my scope is 2" high so my shots would land 2" low and to the right as I lose the 2" of scope over bore and add 2" of right windage. Cool stuff.

I took several photos and will post them below.

With my lowly .308 I was definitely in the bottom of the class hierarchy. There were a couple 300 Win Mags, several .260s, a couple .338 Lapuas, and one very very wicked Accuracy International .50 cal that rocked the mountain side.




Firing positions:



Perfect weather:
















Can you find the IED Team??



Ah HA! Here's one!

Range 766 yards




All in all a fantastic weekend!

[Brando]

Where's your sling? Bring that trigger leg up! Needs more cowbell!