Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
A buddy of mine showed up with a new pet--a Model 700 with a heavy, fluted, 20" barrel in .308. Leupold 3.5X10 scope. It drives tacks from his benchrest, but he's limited to 100 yards.
So, I took a couple of lids from 55-gallon drums, painted them white and put 3" aiming dots in the centers. Hung them in some brush across the creek at 400 yards and 250 feet below our "settin' spot".
No bench rest, just blankets over some rocks. Variable winds, to make life interesting. He had brought some sort of surplus military ball ammo.
Had to hold some 18" above the edge of the lid to hit near center. Windage varied from dead center to one foot upwind of the edge of the lid, or some two feet + of drift.
We took turns, until he got mad at me...
I dug out "Ol' Deerbuster", and a mixed bag of various '06 stuff. Accelerator, 110-gr, 150-grain pet loads.
Comments: A 26" barrelled '06 has a higher muzzle velocity than a 20" barrelled .308, particularly with my 150-gr handloads compared to GI ball .308. It is about eight inches of vertical hold better, and about the same for windage.
For a while, we were shooting the .308 into an "incoming" wind. It noticeably slowed the bullets, resulting in hitting at low 6 o'clock.
I plan on building a benchrest at that shooting site, and moving the targets out to 500 yards. Sometime this month, maybe...Will report, if and when...
Regards, Art
So, I took a couple of lids from 55-gallon drums, painted them white and put 3" aiming dots in the centers. Hung them in some brush across the creek at 400 yards and 250 feet below our "settin' spot".
No bench rest, just blankets over some rocks. Variable winds, to make life interesting. He had brought some sort of surplus military ball ammo.
Had to hold some 18" above the edge of the lid to hit near center. Windage varied from dead center to one foot upwind of the edge of the lid, or some two feet + of drift.
We took turns, until he got mad at me...
I dug out "Ol' Deerbuster", and a mixed bag of various '06 stuff. Accelerator, 110-gr, 150-grain pet loads.
Comments: A 26" barrelled '06 has a higher muzzle velocity than a 20" barrelled .308, particularly with my 150-gr handloads compared to GI ball .308. It is about eight inches of vertical hold better, and about the same for windage.
For a while, we were shooting the .308 into an "incoming" wind. It noticeably slowed the bullets, resulting in hitting at low 6 o'clock.
I plan on building a benchrest at that shooting site, and moving the targets out to 500 yards. Sometime this month, maybe...Will report, if and when...
Regards, Art