On Wednesday I joined Tom Sarver at his range at Thunder Valley to do some more testing long range on the three above rifles. If you live near central Ohio, Tom s a great guy to visit for both shooting and also his Hulk rifles are super accurate. As some of you may have seen, he set a world record of 1.4" at 1000 yds with his Hulk (300/ Lapua).
We started at one mile range with the two 375s with the wind from 2-3 o'clock in 8 mile an hour gusts and some rain showers just before so the humidity was quite high. We were expecting more rain. After sighting in on the metal plate, went to 3' targets but I suspect because of the conditions the rifles hit the targets but not consistently. The 375 AM has grouped 9" at one mile for me and Kirby had a 3 shot group of about 5" at one mile.
Went to 600 yds, still with gusting breeze and increasing temperatures and the groupings were about 6-10 inches but not great, including with the 30-378 customized with 240SMK rounds. Was trying these based on Tom's recommendation and 2 weeks before had a 4 round group at 300 yds of .9". The 375 AM has grouped 2.25" for me at 600 yds.
By the time we went to 1000 yds, the wind was less, contrary to what Tom was expecting since he knows his ranges very well (hill side to hillside shooting) since he expected it to pickup. First we went with the 375AM then the 375 ST and finally the 30-378. I was not expecting much but Tom was calling the shots and giving corrections (shooting red clay birds at 1000 yds is alot of fun!!) while sighting in and then we went to paper on his call. The 30-378 had only a Leoupold B&C scope and so it ran out of clicks so at Tom s advice I turned it down to 11 power and used the very bottom of the thin part of the radical for aiming. The AM with still some wind gust came in Ok with 12 " group but has been better; the ST came in with 5 great shots, of which 4 were in a 2" group (this was with a new load and German brass and different to the one mile, also the wind was dying down). Even with 11 times mag, the 30-378 groupings of 5 rounds was 6.5" - a big improvement on the previous acubonds and 175 smk. Convinces me Tom s advice is right that the 240smk is a great round for the big 30 magnums, even the if the velocity is alot less (was getting 3495fps for the 175) and its very accurate at 1000 yds.
Now I need to get one of the new NXS 8-32 scopes for the 375 AM and move the 5.5-22 to the 30-378. (Dont get me wrong, the B+C is fantastic out to 650 yds for elk hunting and the speed of getting on target)
Hope this is valuable to those trying to make some decisions about what to build. Also shows how important the weather is at long range.
We started at one mile range with the two 375s with the wind from 2-3 o'clock in 8 mile an hour gusts and some rain showers just before so the humidity was quite high. We were expecting more rain. After sighting in on the metal plate, went to 3' targets but I suspect because of the conditions the rifles hit the targets but not consistently. The 375 AM has grouped 9" at one mile for me and Kirby had a 3 shot group of about 5" at one mile.
Went to 600 yds, still with gusting breeze and increasing temperatures and the groupings were about 6-10 inches but not great, including with the 30-378 customized with 240SMK rounds. Was trying these based on Tom's recommendation and 2 weeks before had a 4 round group at 300 yds of .9". The 375 AM has grouped 2.25" for me at 600 yds.
By the time we went to 1000 yds, the wind was less, contrary to what Tom was expecting since he knows his ranges very well (hill side to hillside shooting) since he expected it to pickup. First we went with the 375AM then the 375 ST and finally the 30-378. I was not expecting much but Tom was calling the shots and giving corrections (shooting red clay birds at 1000 yds is alot of fun!!) while sighting in and then we went to paper on his call. The 30-378 had only a Leoupold B&C scope and so it ran out of clicks so at Tom s advice I turned it down to 11 power and used the very bottom of the thin part of the radical for aiming. The AM with still some wind gust came in Ok with 12 " group but has been better; the ST came in with 5 great shots, of which 4 were in a 2" group (this was with a new load and German brass and different to the one mile, also the wind was dying down). Even with 11 times mag, the 30-378 groupings of 5 rounds was 6.5" - a big improvement on the previous acubonds and 175 smk. Convinces me Tom s advice is right that the 240smk is a great round for the big 30 magnums, even the if the velocity is alot less (was getting 3495fps for the 175) and its very accurate at 1000 yds.
Now I need to get one of the new NXS 8-32 scopes for the 375 AM and move the 5.5-22 to the 30-378. (Dont get me wrong, the B+C is fantastic out to 650 yds for elk hunting and the speed of getting on target)
Hope this is valuable to those trying to make some decisions about what to build. Also shows how important the weather is at long range.
