okay here we go!
Got down there at about 2:15 - found my gf's mom - Mo - and we grabbed some plates and went down to the range.
After driving to short siberia from the caravan site i realised that Mo had not brought her rifle with her (she didnt think we were batching for her rifle too) so we had to go back to the caravan to fetch it...
By this time it was pressing on so we had to go down to the butts.... baring in mind neither of us had been to the butts at SS before, it was new to us both...
We initially struggled to put the target board in the frame, but after a little help from one of the other guys in the butts, it got figured out and we loaded up 3 paper plates each, either side of the black standard target - great, the bit we coloured in on the target is the small circle bit of the paper plate (you'll see on the first picture)...
Back to the firing point:
Neither me or Mo are set up for bench/rested firing so we had to improvise - I used my rucksack and Mo used a rolled up mat - not the greatest for testing accuracy, but it could have been more stable than using a sling... - we also shot from the bench rather than I originally planned on the floor...
First things first - we had to Zero our rifles - neither of us had shot at 100 yards before, so didnt know where to zero - we knew it was somewhere inbetween 0 minutes and 11 minutes (300yds)... so we shot some RG at the target until we found where we were... unfortunately we couldnt see where the shots were going through the scope and we didnt have anyone there marking for us... so a makeshift marker out of a cable tie and some pink highlighted paper and sent my gf down to the butts so we could center our rifles...
Here you can see the paper plate we later used as you could see the shots down the scope on the white...
then we started on the paper plate targets (shown on the right)...
almost inevitably as the lack of forward planning and amount of time getting shorter, one of us cross shot onto the first grouping plate - I was shooting at the right targets from the left hand bench and mo was shooting at the left from the right - Mo accidently put her first 3 round group into my target - shown here...
Oops!
nevermind, a quick confirmation of where we're shooting and we sorted it out...
we shot the other 3 cards down there as wel as we could (the bits we coloured in were unfortunately a bit too small and made it difficult to center in the open sights, especially as the packaging tape was dark too and made the "dot" we were aiming at a bit taller than it needed to be - I think thats why Mo was shooting a bit lower, aiming between the plate and the tape as they merged into one at 100 yards!
next time I'll have a bit of forward plannign and either buy black paper plates (if possible, or get some spraypaint and paint them black before going down so the whole plate is black!)
anyways, heres the plates from the first 5 batches (Lapua case):
44.5gr Lapua was both on the target above so we don't know what the group size was for each of us... oops - it wasnt the tightest overall though, we can see that!)
Me 45gr Lapua case
Me 45.5gr Lapua case
Mo 45gr Lapua case
Mo 45.5gr Lapua case
Mo 46gr Lapua case (oops, the shot dropped onto the tape!)
I don't know what happened to the pictures of the 46.5gr Lapua... they don't seem to be on my camera
onto RWS Brass - same loads:
Me 44.5gr RWS Brass
Me 45gr RWS
Me 45.5gr RWS
Me 46gr RWS
Me 46.5gr RWS *Personal Best Round
Mo's Cards:
Mo 44.5gr RWS
Mo 45gr RWS
Mo 45.5gr RWS
Mo 46gr RWS
Mo 46.5gr RWS *Personal Best Round*
As you can see, for both of us (we were both using 30" 1/13" barrels - Mo's was Paramount actioned and mine is RPA)
What I've Learned:
Take coloured paper plates - the circle we coloured in (or should I say my gf coloured in) was a bit too small at 100 yards - needed to be the whole plate to make it a bit easier to see!! (you guys with scopes have this side of load development easy!!)
get something a bit more stable and
consistent for taking the shots than a rucksack.
Take your own chair/stool if ur going to short siberia - an adjustable height one if possible!
anyways, heres some pictures of us on the range:
BANG!
Look at the concentration!
Note the ingenious use of the mat!
Rucksack Tripod Power!!
Weather:
The weather, for the most part whilst we were on the range was actually pretty good! I can't remember getting wet at all when I was changing targets/running down to pass messages to Laura (we had a bisley radio but we didnt actually use it!)
it Pee'd down when we finished, but 100yd point at SS is covered :)
All in all we had a fantastic day, and it was a steep but enjoyable learning curve for both of us :)