It's been a long winter with more still to come so here I go again........
How
about some tips on shooting prone slow fire at 600 yards?
Boy,
what a tough subject. Been teaching high power clinics for over 10 years and
still have a hard time with this one but here goes........
Natural point of aim- this is absolutely critical. Your sights must come easily, naturally, back on target every time you snap in. If they don't rebuild your position and start over until they do. I like to recheck my natural point of aim after 10 shots or so to make sure it hasn't changed.
Develop a cadence and shoot fast- slow fire should have a cadence just like rapid fire does. Don't screw around, SHOOT IT FAST. This is the single biggest mistake I see shooters who have a hard time at 600 make. They shoot way too slow. While the rules say you have 1 minute per shot, they don't say you have to use the whole 22 minutes for the 22 shots! Make a serious effort to fire all 22 rounds in 15 minutes or less. Most of the time my personal cadence gets me done in under 12 minutes unless I have to wait for a wind condition to come around. My personal best 600 score (a 200-12x clean) was fired in less then 9 minutes.
Don't lay on the gun or the sights- can't stress this enough. Once the rifle hits your shoulder and you look through your sights the shot should break in 8-10 seconds at most. If you try to touch up your sight picture you are only doing damage to your score. If you can't get squared away in that amount of time break the rifle out of your shoulder and start your approach again. Shoot prone slow like prone rapid. Acquire the target, breath, and squeeze the trigger. Once the shot is gone immediately load and get ready for the target to come back up. When it does mark your data book if you have one, check the wind/mirage, then slam the butt into your shoulder and shoot! This procedure should take seconds definitely not a whole minute.
600 yard loads- make sure your load works, period. In a perfect world we would all be able to bench test our long range load at 600 yards to make sure it shoots at least moa. But, for most of us, this just isn't a practical or possible thing to do. So if you can only test at 100-200 yards you need to do two things. #1 take time to test for loads that group the tightest at the longest range that is practical for you. Then #2, take time to chronograph (even if you have to borrow one) the loads to make sure the numbers are good. What I look for is average and standard deviations under 20 fps, extreme spread under 50 fps for ten shots and an average velocity of not less then 2700 fps with the Sierra 80 grain bullet. If you can't get the 2700 out of your service rifles 20" barrel don't sweat it. But shoot for a solid 2600+ and if the accuracy is there you'll be fine.
In a fish tailing wind condition try holding off (using Kentucky windage) instead of constantly clicking on the sights and getting lost. I started doing it this past season and it worked really well. Once you understand the wind value and what it looks like to hold off a bit, it really does work. Watched several of the AMU team members use it even at 1000 yards with great success. What holding off does is help you from making errors in sight correct when changing conditions are present. Think about this- the last time you were shooting in a wind that was fishtailing from 2 moa right to 2 moa left did you remember to make 4 minute changes? Or when it went from the right back to the left did you only make a 2 minute change which put you back at "no wind zero" so you still got blown out to the right? Begin to see what I mean here? This is made even worse with 1/4 moa sights where a 4 minute change equals 16 clicks on the windage knob. Then it's REAL easy to get lost. Instead of getting all wrapped around the axle (or windage knob) in this case, wouldn't it be easier to hold off in the 9 ring one way or the other the constantly try to count 16 (or more) clicks every time the wind shifts? Think about and give it a try. If you want cheap practice on holding off take an iron sighted 22 rimfire out to a 100 yard range during the next blustery day. You'll get the knack of it quick enough!
Well that's all I have for now. If any one would like to see a commentary on any related subject please feel free to ask. It'll give me something to write about in my spare time.
Thanks,
Michael S. Orwan
Daddy/Gunsmith
NRA
High Master- Long Range (1000 yard) & High Power Rifle
NRA Master- High Power
Sporting Rifle