Reaching out

Last weekend I ran to the hills with a group of friends to do some long range shooting. We got another guy hooked on it and he will be purchasing a rifle of his own within a week or two.

The weather was still and crystal clear so we were able to push the .308 out to 1100 yards. That was a new personal record and we were making hits much easier that I normally would have expected.

This also really reinforced the fact that while high magnification is a bonus, it is not necessary to make hits. I can now better understand why a fixed 10x was chosen for some military sniper rifles for a long time. That really is all you NEED to hit a man sized target out to a grand. A few years ago I would have skeptical that a 3-9x would be adequate for shots out to that range.

Afterwards was steaks and beer. An excellent day overall.

Keeping Perspective - The Flatline Ops Scout Level

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ” -- Archimedes

In an earlier post I made a comment about the Flat Line Ops Scout level that is attached to my SWFA scope. Today I discovered that having your rifle level absolutely makes a difference down range. In theory I already knew this, but today I got to experience it for myself.

SWFA & Weaver Scope Comparison

SWFA SS 3-9x 42 Tactical 30mm scope compared with the Weaver Tactical Grand Slam 3-10x 40mm

When I was putting together my 10/22, I knew that I wanted to make it an accurate gun, so I decided to try and make it match my .308 as closely as possible with how it was set up so it could be a kind of "trainer" rifle. Some people have gone so far with trainer .22's as to put them in Accuracy International Chassis and put high end glass on them like Nightforce or Schmidt & Bender's to match their big boy rifles. Since I haven't won the lottery or anything, that wasn't really an option here.