After my first outing where I did not do well I made a couple of adjustments. I got a shorter bipod so my rear bag wasn't hanging onto a quarter to a half an inch of recoil pad. I built a homemade spotting scope stand, worked up a load when I finally found some more bullets, and I changed scopes.
The bipod made a huge difference in stability with the rear bag, the spotting scope came in handy for the first three shots of the first 20 shots, and the new scope, a (Sightron SIII 8-32-56), was very nice. I tried the scope set anywhere from 20X to 24X, but anything over that was too much. The load workup is surely the reason for the tighter groupings, along with the better support and a little more experience shooting with a bipod.
The mirage in the second string of 20 was so bad I had no idea where the shots were going, even with the spotting scope. I tried it from 20X to 40X, but nothing was clear enough to see bullet holes when the mirage kicked up, which was shortly before we started shooting.
During the first string the fellow with a big Kowa next to me said he could make out most shots, but during the second string he too could not make out bullet holes.
For the second string of 20, I shot two on the shoot-n-see sighter (Even those were not easy to see), made a slight adjustment, and then started banging away, having no idea where they were going. I shot the prevailing condition, only adjusting my point of aim right to left a little as the condition slowed or sped up.
I tightened up my groupings from last time, and with a 189 2X and then a 194 2X I certainly scored better as well. I am happy with the scores, but it sure is frustrating not being able to see where you hit so you can get valuable feedback. With feedback I might have been able to adjust and get more shots centered.
Oh well, little baby steps.
.
The bipod made a huge difference in stability with the rear bag, the spotting scope came in handy for the first three shots of the first 20 shots, and the new scope, a (Sightron SIII 8-32-56), was very nice. I tried the scope set anywhere from 20X to 24X, but anything over that was too much. The load workup is surely the reason for the tighter groupings, along with the better support and a little more experience shooting with a bipod.
The mirage in the second string of 20 was so bad I had no idea where the shots were going, even with the spotting scope. I tried it from 20X to 40X, but nothing was clear enough to see bullet holes when the mirage kicked up, which was shortly before we started shooting.
During the first string the fellow with a big Kowa next to me said he could make out most shots, but during the second string he too could not make out bullet holes.
For the second string of 20, I shot two on the shoot-n-see sighter (Even those were not easy to see), made a slight adjustment, and then started banging away, having no idea where they were going. I shot the prevailing condition, only adjusting my point of aim right to left a little as the condition slowed or sped up.
I tightened up my groupings from last time, and with a 189 2X and then a 194 2X I certainly scored better as well. I am happy with the scores, but it sure is frustrating not being able to see where you hit so you can get valuable feedback. With feedback I might have been able to adjust and get more shots centered.
Oh well, little baby steps.
.
