dakota.potts
New member
Just got back from the 2018 Precision Rifle Expo. This was a 2 day event held at the Arena Training Facility in Blakely, Georgia. The purpose of the event was to bring together the shooting sports community and to help get shooters involved in the long range shooting sport. Obviously, a lot of the equipment is really expensive and not everybody gets a chance to try it.
This thread is to report back with some of the awesome things I saw there. There was a surprising amount of product reveal and other news coming out of the expo, so if there's anything with real interest a new thread can be started but I really don't want to clutter up the forum with new threads.
I'm still processing a lot of videos I have and some articles I'm writing, so this thread will probably be updated over the coming days as I get each of those updated. Only so much time to do it all!
I will start with one of the coolest things that I got to shoot. The Manners stock team was at the show with the rifle that was used to win this year's King of 2 Mile match. It was a McMillan single shot action with a 39" barrel in .416 Barrett. Topped with a Bushnell XRS II scope. Weighing over 40 lbs. and with a monster muzzle brake, it was actually surprisingly comfortable to shoot - but the concussion was incredible for those on the tower waiting their turn to shoot!
We were shooting at a target 2400 yards away, and 25 shooters each day were allowed 2 shots at the target. I didn't connect, but I was able to see both impacts. I favored right edge the first shot and I saw the impact about a tenth of a mil or so off the left edge. So I held just off the right edge of the plate and the wind suddenly died, putting my shot essentially point of aiming and missing barely off the right edge. Such is life at these distances, though. Most shooters made a solid hit and several shooters went 2 for 2.
The barrel got hot with even the comparatively low number of rounds fired. If I remember correctly, the rifle was pushing a 500 grain bullet around 2900 Feet Per Second. Efforts had to be taken to keep the barrel cool. I'm told the cartridges cost about $7 each to load. Also, the barrels cost $2,000 and have a barrel life of roughly 400 rounds - so consider another $5 in barrel wear every shot.
The round, for reference:
You can see a video of my time on the gun here:
https://youtu.be/pVeOgg-e_ig
This thread is to report back with some of the awesome things I saw there. There was a surprising amount of product reveal and other news coming out of the expo, so if there's anything with real interest a new thread can be started but I really don't want to clutter up the forum with new threads.
I'm still processing a lot of videos I have and some articles I'm writing, so this thread will probably be updated over the coming days as I get each of those updated. Only so much time to do it all!
I will start with one of the coolest things that I got to shoot. The Manners stock team was at the show with the rifle that was used to win this year's King of 2 Mile match. It was a McMillan single shot action with a 39" barrel in .416 Barrett. Topped with a Bushnell XRS II scope. Weighing over 40 lbs. and with a monster muzzle brake, it was actually surprisingly comfortable to shoot - but the concussion was incredible for those on the tower waiting their turn to shoot!
We were shooting at a target 2400 yards away, and 25 shooters each day were allowed 2 shots at the target. I didn't connect, but I was able to see both impacts. I favored right edge the first shot and I saw the impact about a tenth of a mil or so off the left edge. So I held just off the right edge of the plate and the wind suddenly died, putting my shot essentially point of aiming and missing barely off the right edge. Such is life at these distances, though. Most shooters made a solid hit and several shooters went 2 for 2.
The barrel got hot with even the comparatively low number of rounds fired. If I remember correctly, the rifle was pushing a 500 grain bullet around 2900 Feet Per Second. Efforts had to be taken to keep the barrel cool. I'm told the cartridges cost about $7 each to load. Also, the barrels cost $2,000 and have a barrel life of roughly 400 rounds - so consider another $5 in barrel wear every shot.
The round, for reference:
You can see a video of my time on the gun here:
https://youtu.be/pVeOgg-e_ig