Bull81 RRT
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Been following everyone’s range report threads and find them interesting. I shoot pretty much daily and decided I might as well start one myself. Worked on load development for a precision AR I have. I’ve had the rifle for a while but never really worked a dedicatedload up for it. Started at 23.2 grains of 8208 and the 73 eld’s and went up to 24. Looking pretty good may load up a 24.2 and 24.4 charge and see how wide this node is. Groups were fired from left to right starting with 23.2 gr.
This is 23.8 and 24 grains thinking about going higher to see how wide the node is, there was also a velocity flat spot here only 7 fps difference.
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@bull81 said:
I shoot pretty much daily and decided I might as well start one myself.
Good! It's amazing how many myths get destroyed when you start tracking performance and measuring things analytically. Turning it out in the public domain keeps you honest. :)
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No groups today, it’s cold as hell and raining. I did test 24.2 and 24.4 grains over the chronograph though and the velocity flat spot wasn’t there. At 24.4 grains I had some primer flatting but no ejector swipes so I know I was getting up in pressure. Probably settle in at 23.9 right in the middle of the velocity flat spot from yesterday.
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Tested the Nosler 130 gr RDF’s this morning with varget from 36 grs to 37.5 in .3 gr increments. Not going to test any further, I ran into pressure signs at 2800 fps which is only 45 fps faster than my go to load with the 140’s. These are jumping .050 right now and I can’t get closer to the lands and still keep a reasonable amount of the bullet in the neck. Could probably eliminate the flyers with seating depth adjustments but I don’t see these being worth the extra testing.
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Well yesterday I picked up my BigHorn TL3 .223 that @tscustoms built for me. Found a good deal on another CG Extreme trigger which showed up yesterday as well, so last night I installed the trigger and mounted the optics. Got it out this morning to do a barrel break in on it with some 55 gr Nosler loads I had laying around. My hats off to Travis, this thing flat out shoots! I’m not going to post any target pictures because I don’t believe they will do the rifle justice. We had 15 plus mph winds todaY and my target hangs from the stand so it kept swinging back and forth ruining random shots. I just gave up and started using the same POI for probably close to 30 rounds. When I was done there was one hole a dime would cover up with single holes all around it from the target swinging back and forth. I’ll start load development hopefully tomorrow and post results. Thanks Travis for an awesome build.
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Started on load development today for the new rifle Travis built. Wind was still kicking up pretty good today so I used some sticks of fire wood to set at the bottom of the target to help minimize the swinging, it helped but didn’t completely eliminate it. Tested 8208, Varget, and H4895. Just like every other .223 I’ve ever loaded for this one hated Varget, accuracy was terrible and the number were all over the place. 8208 showed the lowest ES and SD’s and H4895 showing the best accuracy at this point. All these loads were with the 80 gr eld’s. Gonna fine tune the seating depths and see if the 8208 load will tighten up. Also got some 80 gr vld’s I want to play with as well. Very impressed with this build so far. Green is 8208, pink is Varget, and orange is H4895.
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@bull81
Have you ever tried Ramshot Tac for heavies in .223? I have had good results with 55-60gr loads with it, better than Varget. For some reason I have a pound of H322 and H4198. I don't remember if I bought it for .223Remington or .222. I haven't pulled the handle on my press in months and have lots of new loads to go shoot I just can't get a little monkey off of my back to go shoot. But it's fixing to change.
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@bigfoot I’ve never used Ramshot but heard it does good in gas guns. I always try varget cause it’s always highly recommend for .223’s but I’ve yet to find one that likes it. I’ve always had really good luck out of 8208 and it’s usually the first powder I go too for 69 gr and up pills. H4895 is shooting better accuracy wise out of this rifle but isn’t as consistent on ES and SD’s. I’m gonna mess around with the seating depths and see if I can tighten up the 8208 load.
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@bull81
I shot the Tac loads in my CZ 527 and I might have shot some in my AR but I don't recall. I have put a lot of effort into trying Varget mainly because I have ten pounds of the stuff. It does ok in my 308 but the .223 not so good. I get a lot of horizontal spread with Varget and the Tac loads were easier to hit a node. I haven't shot anything heavier than 64 grains but they were Winchester Power Points and did terrible. I might grab a pound of 8208 for heavier projectiles and see. The CZ has a nine twist barrel so it may not do too hot over 60 grains. Heck, I have a couple of pounds of CF223 I don't think I have tried yet either.
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Finished load development on the BigHorn TL3 today. Settled on 23.8 grains of 8208 and the Berger 80 gr VLD’s.
Seating depth test from .010 to .130 jump
Confirming results of two best preformers. Had one get away from me
Best 5 shot group of the day .183
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Got the 6.5x47 out today to check zero for a match this weekend.
8 rounds
Just picked a random spot on the paper a fire five rounds using the first rounds hole for a poa
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Looks like you're a contender this weekend!
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@rr2241tx
Well my positional shooting could use some work so all this proves is I can’t blame the gun or load for my misses.
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Been awhile since I posted to this thread, but I just got the 223 @tscustoms built for me back from cerakote. Gonna let my brother borrow it this weekend in a match. Put everything back together and cleaned the bore real good then re zeroed.
Lowest shot was the first round from a cold clean bore, same point of aim for the second, adjusted up .3 and five in a nice little knot.
Here she is with her new paint job.
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The range where I shoot some Fclass gave us a login this past weeks were we could go back and look at all our past electronic targets. These are from a few months ago when I won the entire match not just my class.
First relay. Letter represent sighters followed by number for the scores shots.
Score was 197 11x. Group size 8.41
Second relay. Score was 200 14x. Group size 4.28
Third relay. Score 200 12x. Group size 5.22. Had a couple that almost broke into the 9 ring on this one
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Neat! Good shooting.
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Thanks fella
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Finally got a chance this morning to get the .223 Travis built out at distance. Rifle was zeroed with a brake for my brother to use in a match he backed out of. I was shooting suppressed so I did a quick zero adjustment on an old fence post and started stretching it out. Wind was 12-15 today so I got a feel for the wind in some 66% Pisa plates at 550 and 675. Then went 4 for 4 on some 3in gongs at 372, 383, 425, and 473. Feeling good I decided to really stretch it out and got settled in on a 20” gong at 1168 first round went left second round connected followed by the last 4 rounds I had with me. I wasn’t able to tell where on the gong they impacted or how well they grouped cause I didn’t bring my paint and the target was shot up real bad. I could just see the bullet splash on impact.
I was able to dig up the bullet from the first shot off the left side of the target
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@bull81 said:
I was able to dig up the bullet from the first shot off the left side of the target
This is one of my favorite things to do after a long day of shooting.
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@brittel said:
@bull81 said:
I was able to dig up the bullet from the first shot off the left side of the target
This is one of my favorite things to do after a long day of shooting.
Mine too, and I got a little jack Russel that will dig to China to get them out. It’s the damnest thing I ever seen. I have to tie him up or leave him at home cause he will go to wherever the bullets are landing and start digging. Guess he’d make a good spotter 😁
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@bull81 said:
@brittel said:
@bull81 said:
I was able to dig up the bullet from the first shot off the left side of the target
This is one of my favorite things to do after a long day of shooting.
Mine too, and I got a little jack Russel that will dig to China to get them out. It’s the damnest thing I ever seen. I have to tie him up or leave him at home cause he will go to wherever the bullets are landing and start digging. Guess he’d make a good spotter 😁
Digging up lead cored bullets may not be the best for your pups longevity.
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@martino1
If he’s with me there isn’t any stopping him, I rarely let him go with me any more cause if I don’t tie him up he’s digging for bullets and if I tie him up he squeals like a pig nonstop while I’m trying to shoot. He’s getting on up in age too and I worry about him running hundreds of yards or getting all worked up like he does when he’s tied up and I’m shooting.
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Ever had one of those day when shit just won’t come together for you? Well I had one today ant the target shows.
Fired left to right 23.6 23.7 23.8.
It never has liked the 23.6 load every time I shoot it it looks about like that. The other two charges should have gone in the same hole, I knew they were bad when I shot them. Just couldn’t pull it together today.
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Below is 13 5 shot groups fired as quick as I could bolt the rifle. All in all not to bad total agg for everything was .438. The one to the low left of the top left dot was from an AR fired as fast as I could pull the trigger, it’s not included in the total agg even though it measured a respectable .490. @orkan my hats off to you for being able to fire that fast a print the groups you print.
Same picture as above but turned so it’s zoomed in a bit more.
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@bull81 said in Bull81 RRT:
@orkan my hats off to you for being able to fire that fast a print the groups you print.
The more comfortable in your position and the more mechanically correct that position, the easier it is.
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@orkan
I was pretty comfortable, only issue I ran into was I shot this early this morning as it was getting daylight. The target is under some trees so it’s shaded and the optic on this rifle didn’t handle the low light conditions all that well I was having problems seeing the dots. I may could have tightened those up a bit it better light or better optics
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Carried my 6 year old daughter shooting today. This is her first time shooting past 75 yards. Here she is ringing plates at 550 yards with my 223. I have a video but not sure how to upload.
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I post my videos to Flickr then just post the link here.
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Is there any other way to upload a video? The Flickr thing won’t let me create an account
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@bull81 No, you cannot upload a video directly here. Check out streamable.com. It's a very easy place to upload to from mobile devices as well as computers.
Otherwise there are the more regimented video hosts such as vimeo and youtube.
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This post is deleted!
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Thanks I just won’t worry about it.
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25 rounds from the TL3. 223. Shot the bottom 2 then came up .1 Mil. Had two flyers hit on top of each other to the left, both were honest good shots so I’m not sure what that was about. I had some differences in seating pressure I believe is due to some of this brass being sized by a different whidden die that I had to return for not sizing the neck enough. That may have been what caused the flyers.
Group minus the flyers and .224 for the bullet.
Group including the flyers minus .224 for the bullet
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I may normal 6.5x47 load is with 140 RDF’s but I had a handful of 140 hybrids from an old lot left over from the first barrel so I decided to play around with them. Wasn’t able to get the same velocity I got when the barrel was new according to my notes but it obviously still likes them just fine. Had one get away from me though and ruined a good run.
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Hadn’t posted here in a while just been busy with other things, but I have still been doing a lot of shooting.
Me and a few friends went to the CORE longrange steel challenge this past weekend in Baker Florida. I carried my new 6br and must say I’ve been extremely impressed with this little round. I’m also extremely happy with my performance at the match. I placed 13th and two of my buddies places 14th and 17th. My brother and the other guy that went with us are new to the sport and were closer to the bottom. We all had a blast though. The COF was the hardest I’ve ever competed in, the RO’s and staff members actually half way apologized for the difficultly of the match. CORE is in the process of moving offices so they brought in a guy to set the stages and COF which turned out a lot tougher than expected. I’m by no means complaining and neither were any other competitors that I saw, it was extremely challenging which made it that much more fun for me. There was definitely no “easy” stages, and every stage was designed to keep you on your toes. To top it all off we had 10-15 mph switching winds adding to the fun.
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Went with some friends today and practiced on some barricade and positional shooting. One of them had a little ruger 22 that looked like a cross between a 10/22 and a AR. We had more fun shooting prairie dog poppers at 200 yards with that thing. The scope was a cheap ass Nikon with a useless BDC reticle. Once we got it zeroed in the prairie dogs didn’t stand a chance. I was amazed at how accurate it was at 200 yards. I shot a 10 round group at 200 with it about the size of a 50 cent piece. It did have a couple flyers but given the trigger was set at an extra rough/gritty need 2 fingers and a come-a-long to pull it weight I wasn’t surprised.
It’s got me wanting a good bolt action 22 now.
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First relays results from Saturday’s 1000 yard match. I took a screenshot the website hasn’t updated yet with the details and other two relays. This was my 6 BR and the H4350 load shot off a bipod and squeeze bag. You’ll have to excuse the sighter rounds A, B, and C the rifle wasn’t zeroed for this particular load
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Just found out that the 1000 group pictured above was the smallest group of the day by a significant margin next smallest was 11 something. Also found out it is the second smallest group ever shot at 1000 yards at this range. The smallest measured 6.6 and mine measured 6.9. The smallest one was shot from a 6.5x284 full blown Fopen rig and a front rest. Not to bad for a tactical rifle fired from a bipod and rear bag.
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Not really my range report but my daughters. Me and Ava went out to shoot this morning and she wanted to shoot prairie dog poppers. Here she is tearing up the 200 yard dog. Scope didn’t have enough travel so she had to do hold overs at 26 MOA from a 25 yard zero
Target circled in red
Posing for the camera
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I see a Labradar sitting there. Do you have enough time with it to have an opinion you care to share?
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@flyinphill
I’ve had it for a little over a year. I had the magnetospeed before and ran them both together for a little while. I sold the magnetospeed and like the Labradar much better. I’ve not had any trouble out of mine, I’ve shot everything from suppressed 22’s to braked 300 win mags across it with no issue. It does take a slight learning curve to learn where to place it next to the rifle. Also if shooting suppressed the external mic is a must. It will work without the mic but is very sensitive to placement. Main reason I prefer it over the magnetospeed is I do a hybrid version of load development and shoot across a chronograph at the same time I do an OCW test.
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@bull81 Cool. I am going to have to buy a speedometer for my bullets of some sort in the next while. Just trying to weigh options. I like the concept of the Labradar for the very same reason as you. I have limited opportunities to shoot, so being able to perform speed and OCWs at the same time would be a big plus. But it has to actually perform up to its claims or it is meaningless.
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I'll probably have to get one with the external mic and new app to try out. I was very unimpressed with the first batch they sold.
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@orkan I would certainly be interested to see an updated review by you. I remember (I think on a different forum) where you expressed your lack of positive results when they first came out. Since then, I see a handful of people that had very negative experiences, and the significant majority with experiences like bull81. Not a lot of in between. It was a new product 2 years ago, so maybe the problems have been ironed out now.
And I am also curious about the external mic. Doing a search on their website I don't see anything listed as a "microphone", but they do have the "air gun trigger adapter", which appears to be a microphone. Is that what you are referring to?
BTW: Didn't really mean to hijack somebodies RRT with this. We can move this discussion elsewhere if needed.
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@flyinphill
Yes the air gun trigger is what I’m referring too as the external mic. The long awaited newly released app is really nice. You can now completely control the unit without having to get up and move. It’s the first version of the app so it does have a few little quirks that they will need to work out in future updates but nothing serious
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friend of mine cleared out a spot at his place that stretches out to 1355 yards. We went out there today with with steel from 450 to 1355. Had to shoot modified prone off the cab of the truck. Was able to score 3 hits on a full size ipsa at 1355 with my 223 after walking it out target to target. It amazes me how capable a 223 with heavy bullets can be.
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Shot my new 6.5x47 barrel today at the 1000 yard match. Cleaned the rifle this morning and was amazed when the first round from a cold clean bore landed in the 10 ring followed by the next 4 sighters, zero shift in POI.
Wind picked up on me while I was switching from sighters to score rounds and bombed the first to rounds in relay 1. Still managed to walk off with a solid win for the day.Relay1
Relay 2
Relay 3
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Put the 6br barrel back on for a match this weekend and confirmed zero. 5 rounds had one try to sneak out the left side on me. Dots are about 3/16th in size
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Shot a 600 yard Fclass match today with my 6br. 7-10 mph winds that were consistently inconsistent lol.
Relay one 195 5x
Relay two 198 10x
Relay three 198 11x
Also let a friend of mines wife shoot the 223 that @tscustoms built. It was her first match to shoot in but she still did very well. When she would get the wind figured out it would stack bullets on top of each other every time.
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@bull81 said in Bull81 RRT:
friend of mine cleared out a spot at his place that stretches out to 1355 yards. We went out there today with with steel from 450 to 1355. Had to shoot modified prone off the cab of the truck. Was able to score 3 hits on a full size ipsa at 1355 with my 223 after walking it out target to target. It amazes me how capable a 223 with heavy bullets can be.
How far out does that .223 heavy bullet load stay supersonic?
