Rifle Shooting

[Greg Jennings]

I have the rifle/new barrel tuned now. 3-shot groups at 100 yards off a bench (of course). The first is just foulers; left over loads that didn't work. The next three are a .067, .200, .045. I had 25 loaded, but I packed up my things and went home. Nowhere to go but down.



If anyone is interested, it's a Stolle Grizzly, Krieger barrel chambered in 30 Major, Shadetree tuner, Tucker wood and carbon stock, Jewell trigger, Kelbly rings, Leupold scope.

The 30 Major is a 6.5 Grendel necked up to 30 caliber. My friend Mike Ezell actually invented this for 3-gun competition, but it worked so well in IBS Varmint For Score shooting, that he gave up 3-gun. It's easy as pie. The load is 31.2 grains of VitaVourhi N120 behind a Hillbilly 118 grain, 7-3/4 ogive benchrest bullet. Velocity is about 2950fps.

I think Remington pretty well stole Mike's idea with their 30 Remington AR deal.

I like the 30 Major so well that I bought my own reamer and am having Mike build a rifle for my son.

[MTO4Life]

Uh, that's pretty darn impressive! You should have left out that it was off a bench... leave something for the imagination

Here's a question (since I really don't know much about benchrest shooting. You had one group of 0.045". Since you are shooting a bullet with a diameter of .308, that's an odd number. As best I can tell, are you measuring the group (outside edge to outside edge), and then subtracting .308". Is this correct? My reasoning is that the centre of impact for the two bullet holes farthest apart would be measured where they impacted. Since this is impossible on paper to measure, you measure to the outside edges, and subtract 1/2 the bullet diameter each for the two bullet holes farthest apart. This equals .308 in this case. Does this make sense? Am I correct? You are measuring the spread from these impacts. One shot groups would have a spread of 0". I don't know if I'm off base on this, and I could very well be, but that is my best kick at the can.

Bottom line, excellent shooting.

[Wagonmaster]

I have a .22 K Hornet. I found some German factory loads and was shooting them just before the gun was made into a K. Don't remember exactly what the group was, but it was under a tenth. All the bullets in one hole. Never done it before and probably won't again. When I use my rifles it is for varmint, so don't need accuracy that close. You must be an engineer or something.

[Greg Jennings]

Uh, that's pretty darn impressive! You should have left out that it was off a bench... leave something for the imagination

Here's a question (since I really don't know much about benchrest shooting. You had one group of 0.045". Since you are shooting a bullet with a diameter of .308, that's an odd number. As best I can tell, are you measuring the group (outside edge to outside edge), and then subtracting .308". Is this correct? My reasoning is that the centre of impact for the two bullet holes farthest apart would be measured where they impacted. Since this is impossible on paper to measure, you measure to the outside edges, and subtract 1/2 the bullet diameter each for the two bullet holes farthest apart. This equals .308 in this case. Does this make sense? Am I correct? You are measuring the spread from these impacts. One shot groups would have a spread of 0". I don't know if I'm off base on this, and I could very well be, but that is my best kick at the can.

Bottom line, excellent shooting.

The groups are supposed to be measured center-to-center. As you thought, I'm measuring the outside and then subtracting 308. If we get down to splitting hairs, that might be overstating or understating the group. I don't own the device that you use to measure from true centers and my real interest is in "is this one smaller than that one" anyway.

A compromise is to measure one isolated hole and subract that rather than 308. I started doing that and it became a real hassle. So, for my purposes, I just use 308 and I can record what is better than what else as long as I'm using roughly the same (really cheap!) paper to print my targets.

John: Yep. Guilty of being Engineer. In this case, all the detailed tinkering associated with benchrest helps with the excess energy when I can't be out with the dogs.

[AHGSP]

Looks like you've got it dialed in Greg! Just how small of groups are you BR guys shooting with these set-ups, to WIN?

[Greg Jennings]

Thank you, Bruce.

Those are 3-shot groups. If you can shoot 5, 5-shot groups in the 2s, you're going to win some wood. In the group game, which is different from what I'm aiming for, it's all about the "aggregate" or the average of all the groups. They divide the ones at 200 by two to put them in the agg, btw. The top shooters say "agg them to death". It's all about being consistent and not throwing a shot out in nah-nah land.

In the game I'm aiming for, IBS Varmint For Score shooting, you're shooting bullseyes. The 10 ring is a bit smaller than a dime at 100 yards and about the size of a quarter at 200. In the center of the target is a 1/16th dot called the "X". It's the same at 100 and 200.

We shoot 5, 5-target relays at both 100 and 200. So, there are 250 possible points at 100 and 250 at 200. Then, the X's are counted. A perfect score at a yardage is "250-25X".

The way to win is to shoot 250 with a high X count at 100 and to "shoot clean" meaning to hit all 10's at 200. If you manage that, you'll win a lot.

It's reading the wind that makes the game fun and difficult. Missing the wind *will* blow it out of the 10 ring at 100 and will put you in the 8 ring at 200.

I prefer the dogs, but if I can't be out with them, shooting rifles or shotguns is the next best thing.

[Greg Jennings]

I forgot to mention that this cartridge makes a heck of a low-recoiling smaller-big-game round. Deer, hogs, things like that.

It's easy to make the cases. You just neck run a 6.5 Grendel case over a 30 caliber mandrel, load it and go shoot.

If anyone is interested in chambering a rifle in it, drop me a line.

I'm having one built for my son. I introduced him to a 12 ga slug gun too soon and he's now recoil sensitive. This is a great round for him.

Greg J.

[Chasin' Mearns]

Would be nice to see the rifle.

Please post a pic and maybe one of the cartridge.

Steve

[Greg Jennings]

Here are a picture of the rifle and the cartridge, respectively.

The rifle is a Stolle Grizzly action in a custom wood and carbon fiber stock. Arnold Jewel trigger. 1:18 Krieger Med Varmint barrel with ShadeTree tuner. Leupold 45X-45mm scope in Kelbly 2-screw, extra tall mounts. It's sitting in a Joe Cowan front rest and an Edgewood Mini-Gator rear bag which is my backup rig.

The second picture compares the case, the 30 Major, to the 30 BenchRest and the 30 PPC. I'll try to post another picture comparing the 30 Major to a 243 or something else that is more familiar. The Major throws that 115 grain bullet right at almot 3000 fps. I could push it over 3000, but I don't want to wreck my brass.

[ACooper]

Never seen a rifle with a tuner that looks interesting. Nice shooting.

[Greg Jennings]

I don't like to load at the matches to stay in tune. So, I load at home (with known temperature, humidity, etc), then can use the tuner to stay in tune at the match should the tune start going away as it heats up, humidity drops out, phase of the moon changes or whatever .