30-Yard Challenge

[tommyb]

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100 Yards - in strong wind - with pellets​

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I'm documenting this for my reference - I thought I'd share this with you guys - in case you are interested...

I was shooting at 100 yards on Friday at my brother's house. He lives in the middle of the woods and is an avid hunter/fisherman. We mapped out a 100 yard range outside his back door - named it the "Pete Gillis Memorial Range" - in honor of our Dad, an avid outdoorsman.

I was supposed to get to my brother's at 8:30am, knowing that the wind would get bad by noon. I overslept due to bourbon consumption and showed up at 10:30am. The wind was already kicking up. My brother informed that it was very calm at 8am - serves me right for drinking.

It was so windy (weather app reported gusts to 30mph - and that could have been understated) but I wanted to play with the new-to-me .30 Wildcat Mk 2. It has some history as a consistent 1.25" 5-shot group performer at 100 yards.

The rifle shoots insane sub-Moa (.5") 5-shot groups at 50 yards at my house. I had made some hammer spring adjustments at home and it chronoed a perfect 900fps when I got to my brother's - so at least I got that right.

The wind was switching, as all high wind does, but it was mostly L to R. I used just two wind flags at 25 and 75 yards - this was just a casual shoot to sight-in/dial-in the rifle at 100, not to shoot for score. I had to keep chasing my hat and my large cardboard targets - the wind kept blowing them away, lol.

Anyways, I thought the rifle did fantastic in the conditions. I've shot in 100-yard benchrest competitions and they never had wind this bad. Note that the vertical spreads were very reasonable (I thought) in windy conditions. A few shots jumped high or low - likely because the wind was slightly headwind or tailwind as well as L to R on those shots.

I'm showing you my two "10-shot" targets (one is 11 and one is 8 after some sight-in shots). I'm showing you the targets as I saw them and then marked up versions that give you the details of what was happening.

One interesting thing is that I fell off the reg on the paper plate target while shooting the 4 sight-in shots (walking them towards target - 3" splatter). Note the 1.5" drop of the off-reg shot of 865fps. At 30 yards, a 30fps drop in velocity might show as 1/4" at most. It was great to have an air tank with me. TommyB inspired my to get a tank - it makes filling when at the range very convenient.

Despite the bad shooting conditions, I hung in there and waited for lulls in the wind when the flags were not moving real fast - and both flags were pointing Right. Still, it was really tough to judge.

Note also on the cardboard target that I made "reference marks". I knew I'd have to hold left quite a bit and my Sightron 45X scope is just a simple thin crosshair. Without target rings to hold off on, I thought to make myself a couple marks on the target - so I don't appear to be that hung over, lol.

For you guys that shoot almost always inside 50 yards, shooting 100 yards is a different ball game and 100 yards in heavy wind is all about patience. I sometimes would have 5 minutes between shots. If you just ignore the wind, pellets - even .30 cal 44g - will just blow all over the place. The flat part of the paper plate is about 5.5" diameter. Put one out at 100 yards sometimes and note how small it looks, lol.


Anyways, I plan to do a bunch of 100 yard shoots at my brother's this year. It gives me a chance to see him as well as play with some of my bigger caliber air rifles - really stretch them out.

If any of our shooter's here have any questions about shooting at 100, feel free to reach out. I'm no expert, but I can offer what I've experienced to date. Most accurate PCPs shooting 25+ grain pellets can do well out to 75 yards in decent wind conditions. Beyond 75-80 yards things get a lot different.

-Ed
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Good summary Ed.

Shooting pellets at 100Y outside with significant wind will test everyone. I looked at your groups and the vertical is really good.

It will be interesting to try this again in a light wind day.

 

[tommyb]

Shot a few 30Y Masters and 40Y Challenge cards with the RAW HM1000x .22 HP this morning.

Wind was 3-6 mph, and mostly a tail wind with some R-L at times from 2 o’clock.

Have one leaderboard entry:

40 Y Challenge
196-11X
JTS 22.07 at 885 fps
Athlon Heras 15X60x 56mm
35x magnification

Note: I did not realize that there was a hole in bull #1, when I started the leaderboard card. I shoot from bottom right bull when starting a card, so I didn’t see it until way too late.

It’s a shame because it really would of helped my score, but that’s on me to check the cards before I staple them.

 

[EPG]

Shot a few 30Y Masters and 40Y Challenge cards with the RAW HM1000x .22 HP this morning.

Wind was 3-6 mph, and mostly a tail wind with some R-L at times from 2 o’clock.

Have one leaderboard entry:

40 Y Challenge
196-11X
JTS 22.07 at 885 fps
Athlon Heras 15X60x 56mm
35x magnification

Note: I did not realize that there was a hole in bull #1, when I started the leaderboard card. I shoot from bottom right bull when starting a card, so I didn’t see it until way too late.

It’s a shame because it really would of helped my score, but that’s on me to check the cards before I staple them.

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Great card Tommy! That should have been a 197 12X if you had paid attention…

No mulligans granted here, lol. Although I did put Greg’s awesome “mulligan” card on the leaderboard as incentive for him to try to beat it this year.

I remember one time I jokingly asked this crowd for a mulligan on a great card I shot with my Regal. I forgot to close the bolt on one shot…. the “NO” I got from you guys was louder than the ringing in my ears from the open bolt shot, lol.

 

[tommyb]

Great card Tommy! That should have been a 197 12X if you had paid attention…

No mulligans granted here, lol. Although I did put Greg’s awesome “mulligan” card on the leaderboard as incentive for him to try to beat it this year.

I remember one time I jokingly asked this crowd for a mulligan on a great card I shot with my Regal. I forgot to close the bolt on one shot…. the “NO” I got from you guys was louder than the ringing in my ears from the open bolt shot, lol.

Were we really that bad? Lol

I think forgetting to close the bolt should count as an honest mulligan. Shame on us.

It falls under the following two categories:

“ he/she gets a Senior pass”
“ CRS syndrome”

 

[NAProf]

Hi Guys,
The wind finally died down right as the sun was going down yesterday so I shot a quick 30yd Challenge card with the DRS.

For the leader board - 193-13x with the DRS 500mm .177 using FX 13.4gr pellets at about 820fps

Not a big improvement over my previous best with this rifle (1 point), but the 13 X's was a big improvement. I have polished the barrel again and went over the brass barrel inlet also. It is still a little crunchy when pushing the cocking lever home. That means some more work on the breech end of the liner.

So far this target shows the efforts are working. I did not get 1 bad flyer (5 or 6) though i had five 8's. I still think that can be helped a bit with more work on the barrel. The 13x's show that in light wind it can put rounds on target. I don't trust the scope ranging on this setup enough yet to use in an FT match, but the accuracy looks to be just about there for FT.

Cheers,
Greg