Utah was cool-50's and 60's. I didn't get a chance to shoot until sunday morning, and at daybreak it was blowing around 5 mph, with some gusting. My hold was 12" into the wind. After a couple of sighters on a dirt clod, I shot a 3-shot group of 1.76 that was 1.66 on the horizontal plane and .55 verticle. second group was 2.77, 2.77 horizontal, .81 verticle, and a third group was 6.16, 6.16 horizontal, 1.54 verticle. At this point, about 7:30 am, the wind was blowing too much for testing, so I packed it up. All shooting was at 481 yds. I chrono'ed a few groups this A.M. Shooting 38.7 gr. H380 from a 24" bl. av. velocity is about 3525. My first group was a .13-three shot at 100 yds. After 20 minutes sitting and admiring an 1877 .500 Nitro, and an 1850 .54 cal muzzleloader the guy next to me was shooting, I resumed shooting. My ammo had been sitting in direct sunlight, and now speeds averaged slightly more than 100 fps faster. My next three groups were .55, .319, and .518. I'm not sure how much my shooting form affects these groups, except to say that this rifle shoots well enough to really reveal the flaws in my technique. I am learning a lot. In all, this mornings Ag. was .379, which is in keeping with the average over several hundred shots. I never had a chance to test performance on a prairie dog. Before leaving I checked with the UT division of wildlife and was surprised to find that they now protect the white-tailed PD's from April 1 through June 15, during their "reproductive cycle" due to a serious decline in their numbers. I only saw three or four 'dogs the entire time.
