Saturday, March 26, 2016

Shooting long range in Merritt, BC with the PGW LRT-3

So I bought a 50....where the hell do I shoot it?  I'm not exactly good with directions, but thankfully my buddy Jay is and he's taken me to more than a few places where we can reach out to 1,000+ meters.

Anyway, it was a long weekend so we decided to drive out to Merritt, BC after work Thursday night and have a fresh start to scout for a good shooting place at first light.  We drove around for a couple of hours and explored several FSR (forest service roads) but didn't see any place we could safely shoot.  Then we stumbled on this place, wide open area, grassy rolling hills as far as the eye could see.  



Anyway, it was still pretty chilly when the sun was behind the clouds and fingers went numb pretty fast, but we settled down on a spot and decided to give it a whirl.  We started off with our Savage 10TRs in .308.  Jay was load testing, and I was fortunate to have mine pretty close to zero from a few range trips ago so I was ready to go.









We wrapped up zeroing the .308s at 100m, then the 50 came out.














After snapping a couple of pics, we got the 50 set up for zeroing at 100m.  As you can see, I decided to run the Steiner on the 50, mainly because of the warranty, lol!  I know the Schmidt would have no trouble holding up to the 50's abuse, but the Steiner has life-time warantee where the Schmidt only has 10.  In the unlikely event I blew up the S&B and had no warranty, I would be crying, haha!


The Steiner's controls turn in the opposite direction from what I'm used to so it took a few rounds to get the rifle zeroed, but it was a hoot getting there:




Screen cap:




Me shooting the 50 for the first time,  I've fired .50bmg machine guns, but this was the first time I've ever fired a bolt action rifle in .50bmg.  To tell you the truth, my M14 and some of my shotguns kick harder than this rifle, but the PGW was infinitely more fun to shoot than just about anything I have, lol!




Jay's fired .50bmg rifles before, but this was his first time shooting this one.






After every shot, we had to walk down to the stand and set it up again.




There are other splash marks on the gong from .308 but you can distinctly see the .50 strikes which notonly remove paint, but also expose some of the steel under the paint.  One is dead centre of the middle dot, one just right of the 3 o'clock one and one on the 6 o'clock dot.  The middle dot was our last shot.


The 50 actually dented the 1/2in AR500 plate, lol!


And the spalding cut a line in the ground after only a few rounds



Jay firing a confirmation shot after we got it zeroed.




Another shot from me after zeroing.

After zeroing the 50, Jay drove his truck out to set up targets while I stayed back on the radio to give him the range.  The Bushnell G-Force ARC 1300 laser range finder was a bit finicky because it was so dry and there was really not a whole lot to bounce the laser off of.  I managed to get a reading off the targets at 500m and off his truck at about 750m (748).  Beyond that, it was pretty tough, but from his point at 750, he was able to get a reading another 250m away for a full 1km.  We didn't have enough gongs and stands for 1km, so we figured we'd make sure we could get hits at 500m and 750, first before moving up.






The gong was useless to us after the first shot with the 50, knocking it down, lol!




Screen cap:



Screen cap:








Since I knocked down the target at 500m, Jay had no choice but to skip load testing at 500m and go straight from 100m to 750m, lol!  We only plinked a little, but the 10TRs proved as accurate and precise as ever, taking only 1 or 2 rounds to walk it onto the gong (with the held of Strelok of course, hahahaha!)






So, we learned two things from this range trip.  First, we need a heavier gong and a stornger stand.  Second, we really need to stake down the corners of our shooting mats, lol!

Anyway, we could have easily reached out to 1km or even two km, but we were losing light and we had a long drive ahead of us so we called it a day.  Since I figured we'd probably be shooting under a grand, I only brought American Eagle 660 grain.  Next time when we try to go beyond 1k, I'll bring the 750 grain match ammo.



Of course, Jay had to perform at least one act of jack-assery before leaving, lol!



Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Steiner M5Xi or Schmidt and Bender PMII on the LRT-3

My taste in glass sure has changed since 2012.  Back then, I was running a Deal Extreme no-name knock-off for $60 and free rings:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9bDlgqhQLzf36yR83Csw0L3xbrOeL7YXe9OckDc8A1U6cyeKWAUUC5u88TkaWTI2Vr2-tBNgr-vZMUUNS9HDEgNCMKYTnVDmU_yxnCsEDsLIC3Tp6mu_2Uex5f1D9I1C74BLKHq9rEVF/s1600/DSCN0694.JPG



The $60 Deal Extreme scope was an epic fail as after just a few rounds downrange with my M14 and the scope basically grenaded inside.  I remember the windage and elevation turrets rattled loose and the scope was basically rendered useless.  Anyway, not sure what led me to believe I could afford these two scopes, but here they are, and my credit card is crying a river of tears.

The Schmidt came mounted on my LRT-3 from PGW, and it was even level with the rifle, though I have my doubts they zeroed it as some of the screws on the TPS rings weren't all that tight.  Anyway, I yanked the S&B off the rifle and plopped it into a Spuhr mount I picked up just for the LRT-3.  I ended up scoring a second Spuhr from equipment exchange on CGN so I threw my Steiner into it.  Talk about a robust mount.
  









I have the Steiner in the SP-4602 with the 6mils of cant on it because I'm probably going to put it on my Savage 110 which is going into a Cadex chassis with a 20moa top rail.  The LRT-3 has a 45moa top rail, so I figured if I used this mount on the LRT-3, that would be a total of 65moa, way too much for my needs as I don't think I'll be shooting that far out.  A total of 40.6moa on the Savage 110 should be adequate.  




The Schmidt is sitting in the SP-4002 with 0moa cant.  This will work out just fine as the LRT-3 has a 45moa top rail.  






I'm proabably going to keep the Steiner M5Xi for the Savage 110 in .338lm, and will keep the S&B on the LRT-3, but I just wanted to see how it would look the other way around.  The Coyote Brown of the Steiner isn't a perfect match for the PGW, but it's not horrible.  












Anyway, the Steiner does look right at home on the PGW, I'll figure out later if I keep it this way, or throw the Schmidt back on.

To tell the truth, clarity-wise, I can’t tell the difference between the Steiner and the Schmidt, but then again, this is the opinion of a guy who just four years ago swore by $60 Deal Extreme scopes (which promptly self-destructed after 5 or 6 rounds of copper-washed 7.62 through a Norc M14).

I am clearly in over my head with this kit, but overtime I hope to grow into it.

As for where to get Steiners, I got them from

https://www.reliablegun.com/en/

I don't think they have any in stock, but they are an authorized dealer and they can bring in anything Steiner, Burris, Stoeger, Sako etc. I met the Stoeger reps there a few weeks ago, really cool guys and they have plans to outfit Reliable Gun with a lot of nice stuff (they brought in a Sako TRG M10 and it sold within days).

Grouse River has them in stock:

http://www.grouseriver.com/Steiner-M...x56-Riflescope

but I've always found some of their prices a bit higher than average.



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