Ernie
SPONSOR
Aaron and I had set aside two mornings and two afternoons for some LR doggin. Rain and high winds took away three of those shooting opportunities. We did go out Saturday afternoon late. Winds were in the 7mph zone but were not constant.
Aaron is running a rear-grip XP-100 chambered in 7mm Dakota (180 Berger Hybrids). He made a benchrest stock for his XP that is 3" wide in the forend and is also 3" wide at the base of the grip. He added lead to it to make the weight overall around 32 pounds (no muzzle brake). 20" 1.250 diameter Krieger or Bartlein 8.5 Twist, Jewel trigger, 12-42 NF benchrest scope. Has a Variable Gantry Mount scope base that can be adjusted to over 100 MOA.
Mine is a BAT non-designated action, 7mm LRM (Long Range Magnum), 1-8 twist Krieger W/Gunwerks brake, Jewel trigger, Eric Wallace Benchrest stock, 20 MOA base, Burris Signature Zee Rings (added 20 MOA with inserts), Sightron S-III 6-24 with MOA reticle. Gunwerks factory ammo (180 Berger Hybrid). It weighs around 16 pounds.
Gunwerks chambered the barrel. I was going to run a 20" tube for this project, but once I realized that Gunwerks was looking for ballistic information for shorter than their normal barrel length in their rifles (25.5"), I decided to go with a 21.75" tube. This is closer to what they are considering.
I guessed MV based on what the typical MV was in a 25.5" 7 LRM would be when cut down to 21.75" to be around 2850 fps. I ran several different drop charts in 50 fps increments.
First time I shot this rig was sighting it in at 100 yards Saturday afternoon using only their ammo. I didn't have time to load for it, as I got it Friday afternoon.
I shot out to just over 1600 yards. No dead dogs, but a handful of real close ones. If they had been rock chucks, they would have been dead for sure. Beyond 1500 to 1600 yards the S-III with its 1/4 minute dot was just to large. Chose this scope since it has 100 MOA internally and a 20 MOA reticle. Should have put my 8-32 S-III (less internal MOA) on.
I would normally had a heavy barrel but this was the only 8T I could find at the time.
These are purely bench specialty pistols, built for the sole purpose of accuracy off of the bench.
Both of us were using MAX Rests.
My longest shot was just over 1600 yards. Dogs were going down after 1 or two close shots which made things difficult.
Aaron went out to the 1900 yard distance. Higher magnification and adjustable scope base is key here. He got so close on this one dog that gave him more shot opportunities, I was convinced he was going to get it, but one shot that almost grazed his left shoulder motivated him to go down and never come back up.
I shot 20 rounds at pd's, while Aaron shot 91 rounds at pd's.
We started off at in 1,300 yard range as the winds were not great yet.
If we had stayed in the 1300 to 1400 yard range for the whole time we would have had dead dogs, especially when conditions got good at the very end.
Give us some more time with good conditions and there will be dead dogs at 2K+
Aaron is running a rear-grip XP-100 chambered in 7mm Dakota (180 Berger Hybrids). He made a benchrest stock for his XP that is 3" wide in the forend and is also 3" wide at the base of the grip. He added lead to it to make the weight overall around 32 pounds (no muzzle brake). 20" 1.250 diameter Krieger or Bartlein 8.5 Twist, Jewel trigger, 12-42 NF benchrest scope. Has a Variable Gantry Mount scope base that can be adjusted to over 100 MOA.
Mine is a BAT non-designated action, 7mm LRM (Long Range Magnum), 1-8 twist Krieger W/Gunwerks brake, Jewel trigger, Eric Wallace Benchrest stock, 20 MOA base, Burris Signature Zee Rings (added 20 MOA with inserts), Sightron S-III 6-24 with MOA reticle. Gunwerks factory ammo (180 Berger Hybrid). It weighs around 16 pounds.
Gunwerks chambered the barrel. I was going to run a 20" tube for this project, but once I realized that Gunwerks was looking for ballistic information for shorter than their normal barrel length in their rifles (25.5"), I decided to go with a 21.75" tube. This is closer to what they are considering.
I guessed MV based on what the typical MV was in a 25.5" 7 LRM would be when cut down to 21.75" to be around 2850 fps. I ran several different drop charts in 50 fps increments.
First time I shot this rig was sighting it in at 100 yards Saturday afternoon using only their ammo. I didn't have time to load for it, as I got it Friday afternoon.
I shot out to just over 1600 yards. No dead dogs, but a handful of real close ones. If they had been rock chucks, they would have been dead for sure. Beyond 1500 to 1600 yards the S-III with its 1/4 minute dot was just to large. Chose this scope since it has 100 MOA internally and a 20 MOA reticle. Should have put my 8-32 S-III (less internal MOA) on.
I would normally had a heavy barrel but this was the only 8T I could find at the time.
These are purely bench specialty pistols, built for the sole purpose of accuracy off of the bench.
Both of us were using MAX Rests.
My longest shot was just over 1600 yards. Dogs were going down after 1 or two close shots which made things difficult.
Aaron went out to the 1900 yard distance. Higher magnification and adjustable scope base is key here. He got so close on this one dog that gave him more shot opportunities, I was convinced he was going to get it, but one shot that almost grazed his left shoulder motivated him to go down and never come back up.
I shot 20 rounds at pd's, while Aaron shot 91 rounds at pd's.
We started off at in 1,300 yard range as the winds were not great yet.
If we had stayed in the 1300 to 1400 yard range for the whole time we would have had dead dogs, especially when conditions got good at the very end.
Give us some more time with good conditions and there will be dead dogs at 2K+
