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The way I count it, today is the first day of the first shooting week of 2020. That means I'm done with the 2019 shooting year.
Here's my round count (the averages, etc are weekly):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96500971@N06/49294395381/in/dateposted/
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And compared to last year:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96500971@N06/49294395566/in/dateposted/
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So you will note that I shot 33% less rounds this year (and I only count rifle/carbine rounds in this number, not shotgun or pistol). The reason was we dumped everything we had into some more land and I haven't bought one rd of ammo since April. It did motivate me to start reloading :D
Of course, I will have to buy some rimfire, but I haven't shot up that much rimfire, I've restricted rimfire to vermin only, day and night. So I'm reloading for 308 now and the plan is that over the next few months I'll be reloading for 556 and .300WM. Those are the only three centerfire calibers I shoot, so that will cover everything.
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So what were the highlights and lowlights in 2019?
Total overall average group sizes across 5 rifles on the RRS tripod were 13/16ths compared to 14.6/16th last year. I shot vastly higher percent of groups and wind practice off the tripod this year. In 2018, I was still using 100% manfrottos thru April 2018. So 2019 was the first year of 100% RRS.
Prone groups last year 12.2/16ths and this year 12.0/16ths ... the main change again, was less groups prone this year and actually I don't consider that to be good. I don't want to loose the prone skill. I can't use prone in the field much around here, but I want to practice it. And in part that's because I don't much like prone. I'd rather shoot of the tripod. So, if I don't like it ... then all the more reason the beat the crap out of myself and MAKE myself shoot more prone. So today, all shots were prone. :D
So net/net, no real change on group size.
As to wind practice (what I call shooting 500-800yds on my land ... as far as I've been able to get, though now I should have a spot I can shoot 1050yds. The percent of 1st rd hits on a given target was 73% overall. With 73% being the day percentage and 76% being the night percentage. Vastly more shots during the day. The shots were all on IPSC(2/3) steel, with some of the targets being the "face" only (the 6x6 piece at the top of the target). And the vast majority were off the tripod. During most of the year, from most of the positions, I can't see the targets prone. Too much grass in the way.
I did build another berm this year and that opened up another stage ... and I hope to build a third berm in 2020.
Most of the wind shots were with the T3 reticle using the wind dots. The wind dots allow adjustments for wind just by thinking what the new MPH of the wind is and holding in MPH. No need to look at ballistic calculator for wind at all.
I've also finally got the Kestrel 5700 AB Elite Link 100% working and I can synch it to the AB app on the phone to back everything up there. I can send the gun data in either direction. This will enable me to synch the gun data across multiple kestrels. I'm using G7 now across the board.
Right now, I'm still shooting up 1500 remaining 175gr SMK FGMM 7.62 load. This is generating a lot of brass !! And I'm reloading the 175gr as well, using the 175SMK, the FC brass (and for my buddy using the M118LR LC brass). Using varget. SDs are sub 10 and the MV is averaging around 2575 for the bolt guns. The GAP-10 with barlein barrel was getting 2611-2617 ... but I sold that and haven't shot the aero precision/ballistic advantage replacement yet.
Still cogitating on whether to load the 155gr to try to mimic the berger 155.5 cartridge. Or maybe just do a long coal 175gr and hope it can beat the 155gr. Right now, the berger 155 beast the socks off the 175gr standard length for danger space, lag time and energy.
I'm still finishing off the Black Hills 77 SMK with the 5.56(18) mk12-ish. I hope I can beat that load. Right now I'm getting 2751 MV, most recent measure. SD 16.4
And I have 370 A191 and 400 barnes 220 for the .300WM. I'll be loading the 220 SMK.
So I'll be loading 3-4 cartridges.
Standard length 175 SMK
Standard length 77 SMK
Standard length 220 SMK
Potentially a long coal 175 SMK.
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On fundamentals. A trick showed to me by a member and an accident I had while shooting buddies stock REM700 308(20) together solved trigger issue. Then for most of the year I struggled with diopter setting and parallax removal issues, but as of now, I think I've solved those. So, now finally on to the breathing cycle. Trying to make the trigger break happen at the respiratory pause without forcing it.
Of course "solve" just means, for one layer of the onion. I don't think we ever get done improving fundamentals. But can I ever get consistent down to 0.5 inch ? IDK. I get strings of 3 groups sub 0.5 inch ... but not avg group size over 100s of rds. But my process is keep pounding on the fundamentals. The good news is, I think my analysis seems to be correct as to where the problem lie. So, if I can keep figuring out what to fix, then eventually, I will be able to fix it ... and on and on it goes for ever and the group sizes should be dropping. Well, that's how I measure if issues are being "solved".
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So big goals for 2020
Get reloading up for all center fire rifle/carbine cartridges
Get stage set up to allow wind practice out to 1200yds.
For groups, use prone 50% of the time and whenever possible for wind practice.
Let's try setting avg group size 0.6 for prone and 0.75 for tripod for the group size goals.
