Cats, Guns, and more. What’s not to love?
Aspirin Shoots! In the rain! 39 degrees! North wind 13 gusting 29! But ya do what ya gotta do.
If you squint real hard, you can just barely see the Know Your Limits steel at 150, just to the right of the yellowish 200 yard target board.
Only 4 brave shooters today, but it does help the odds.
Of taking the W.
And 26 MOA rings steel at 200.
But it is a little embarrassing. Two years ago I took a first with 32 out of 40. Today, a 23. I’ll still take the win and the .50 BMG brass first prize.
It (the problem) really is the first thing to check. I’ll fess up at the bottom.
So I went to the range. Got on paper and zeroed at 25 yards. Then went to 100. No. 1 below are the first two, No. 2 is dialed down 4 MOA.
The circle at the lower right is first suppressed shots. I dialed up 2 MOA and shot the orange splatter target on the far left. .432”. I’ll take it. I then locked that in as my zero and did first round hits on the dueling tree paddles at 200 and 300. And went home, where I reinstalled the zero stop shims:
The shims give you a little bit of a fudge factor if you need to dial down your zero on a high DA day. You can see that the actual stop is down about 1.75 MOA.
I just sent thank you notes to Vortex and Ruger. Oh, the problem? Well, wind, temperature, ammo, rifle and scope were perfect. The only remaining variable was the operator. I suspect I started chasing the windage with the dial and got lost. Lesson – do not chase the windage with the dial. Use your scope hash marks to offset. D’oh.
But at least the exercise gave me a positive reality check on the scope and rifle. Life is all about experiencing it, I guess. 🤡
They said it would be here today. And they were right. All cleaned up and tested, plus another cool decal for my range box.
Listen to me on this one – if you are going to work on scopes, you need these tools, both by Wheeler: FAT wrench for torque in inch-pounds, and scope level set.
I’ll demonstrate with pix:
Now, off to the range.
I sent the box by USPS on Tuesday. Vortex sent an email today (Wisconsin) confirming receipt and letting me know what to expect. So far, so good.
So what did I do with the rest of my day?
Ranging the distance to all the targets by drone!
I used up three complete batteries because I hovered and maneuvered next to each group to get an accurate distance(although the latter targets are off because the drone updated its home location after leaving the bench).
Well, once the drone work was done (and I warmed up in the car (39 degrees, and a brisk damp wind)), I uncased the .308. Yes, I had brought gear in the event I really wanted to shoot. Amazing.
Ballistics were perfect at the 525 boulder, very close at 750 (but with 5 MOA windage correction) and, after a number of rounds, hit 900. Elevation was great, but the wind was all over the place. Very satisfying hearing the steel ring about three seconds after the shot!
Maybe I’ll do some drone footage tomorrow.
Back to the range with the Predator 6.5 and the AR-10 after their deep cleaning.
No snow!
The AR loved the deep clean. First fouling/sighter shot in the center target. The next 4 were in the upper left target. But the 6.5? POA was lower left target. POI was lower right. 12 MOA to the right? No wonder I couldn’t hit anything on the Long Range last week.
I adjusted windage several times and all I got were the two on the bottom left. I loosened the windage set screws, reset them, checked out far travel on both sides and still got way left.
I think my trusty Vortex Viper 6x24x50 has a problem. Over 3k rounds may have disturbed something. I contacted Vortex for the Lifetime Warranty. We shall see.
But the .308 group was .683”, so I am happy.
So, the AR10 has had two overnight soaks, one in Wipe-Out and one in Hoppes’ version of the same thing – I’ll have to look later for the name. But I’m still getting views of carbon streaks between the lands:
I got out the CLP, brush and patches and this is what I got on the first pass after scrubbing:
Back to the scope. Better, but still carbon remaining:
Tried again, but still got filthy black fouling. Back to a Wipeout soak overnight. That fouling is really baked in. I assume that the barrel is getting hotter with a faster rate of fire than a bolt action. Probably means more frequent cleaning.
Speaking of cleaning, I had picked up some .308 range brass likely left over from a winter shoot and under the snow till I got there last week. A pic showed how nasty it was:
I let it run in the tumbler another time overnight. The results were better:
It’s all PMC, and when I ran it through my go/no go gauge, it was all fine. None needed trimming, so I suspect it is not once-fired brass. I’ll load up a few and see how it shoots. At least it’s cleaner than the rifle.
Since the scope was still out and I’d never looked inside the AR-10 barrel:
Clearly some carbon fouling down next to the lands and a bit of copper on them.
Ramps to the lands are dirty but not much in the way of erosion.
Lots of carbon at the mouth and inside the chamber. Not surprising with a direct impingement gas system.
Gas port is clear, maybe a little wear or buildup on the left.
Time for some Wipe-Out!
The “After” pictures. Remember, if you see blue, it means copper fouling.
Shiny clean lands:
End of chamber, ramping up to lands. Not much throat erosion.
And crown at end of barrel:
3,000 plus rounds. Wipeout for the win.
At a certain age the doc wants to check things under the hood. Well, more like via the tailpipe. Since I’m scheduled for one soon, it got me thinking about scopes. In this case, a borescope.
I hadn’t scoped the 6.5 in a while, so I fired up my Teslong bore scope. No, not Tesla, and if anyone keys any of my stuff . . .
Anyway, I did a quick bore clean so the scope could get a good look. First thing I noticed – lots of copper on the lands. A little copper smooths out imperfections in the rifling, but too much is counterproductive.
Next, check the throat for erosion. Not much at all. What you’re seeing is the end of the chamber, the leade, and the ramping up to the rifling.
Here’s the crown at the end of the barrel:
And the blowout hole in the chamber wall:
So, best tool for the job:
WIPEOUT!!! (The Surfaris?) With Wipeout, you spray the stuff down the barrel and up the breech. It immediately foams out everywhere, which explains the paper towels.
I’m going to let it soak overnight and then do another rifleoscopy. With before and after pix, of course.
Yesterday at the range, shooting to compare from five years ago:
Center – fouling and sighters, plus one round with damaged meplat Still, .763”.
Upper left – Hornady 140 ELD Match. Cases sorted and bullets weighed. .459”.
Upper right – Nosler Competition 140 HPBT. .281”. Yes, that is three shots.
Lower left – Hornadys, again, but unsorted brass and loaded ages ago. The flyer puts it at 1.033”, but .226” without.
Lower right – My last two Hornady 140 SSTs from the bullet shortage during the Plandemic; they were all I could find at the time. .742”.
I think I’m going to write to Ruger to tell them that this 5 year old rifle, with over 3,000 rounds through it, still shoots well.
KatNap Fever! 