Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles I made a shooting tree after work today

Well, I finally got a chance to shoot this thing today. And it was a heck of a lot of fun. My boss was scrambling today to get all his ducks in a row, since he's leaving for montana in the morning. He'll shoot a big mulie for sure. Anyway, when we (my shop foreman and I) got up there the sun was horrible:


With the sun in our eyes, I shoot to see where I am at on the plate. My Nightforce was still zeroed for the 100 yard line, so I dialed up to where I thought it should have been (off the top of my memory and all). The first shot was low on the 12" diameter plate (low/left target):




So, I dial up 1 moa to get to center of the plate. You can see where the next shot went on the same plate. Just about dead nuts. Good to go for the 2" plate with only 1 adjustment on the scope.....

I ended up tagging the 2" plate 3 out of 6 times, but the sun was hard on the eyes and made seeing the target difficult. The target had also shed almost all of its paint, so it was just a pain to see in those conditions... Since I could barely see the small target, I shot for the larger targets. The moa target is the upper left (4" diameter plate). That one was just too easy to hit. I then shot at the other plates as quick as I could get sights on them. Pretty easy to hit them as well. We waited for a while, since my boss had not shown up yet and the sun was right in our eyes. I had enough time to drive to the tree and repaint it:





I get back and my boss had shown up. I say, "the targets have a fresh coat of paint on them and are calling your name"... He pulls his Remington 700 300wm out of his truck and sets up on the bench. I am spotting for him. He says, "I'm going to hit the 4" plate", and I say, "Ok, lets see it".. He shoots and misses...... He's shooting high and to the left.. Hmmm you say, he's using the finest of equipment. Rem 700 coupled with a Leupold VX6 HD and heavy Berger VLD's.... Good enough for knocking montana mulies down.... He takes another shot and no hit. He makes an adjustment to his turrets and then I say, aim at a bigger target, so he says ok, "I'll hit the lower right target". I say, "ok, hit that 6 inch target... He fires and hits, still high and to the left, but much better. He says, "Ok now I'm going to hit that 4" target". I said, Ok lets see it. He shoots 4 or 5 more times and is all over the place. Didn't hit the 4" plate, it's safe. He said, ok that's all I can shoot, I need to save some ammo for Montana. I said, ok shoot my creed then. He fires at the 4" plate and hits it. I said, "see, I'm going to talk you into buying a creedmoor pretty soon".. He just laughs and says you probably will... The next shot, he shoots the target right off the tree!!! Some dummy didn't weld it on good. :rolleyes:. Ok, so He says, " I know I can't hit the 2" target and it has fresh paint on it, you hit it"... I said hell yes, I might be able to hit that bad boy!! Well, after 3 shots and 3 hits, I couldn't see the damn thing anymore. I thought I just blew it off like my boss did to the 4" plate. Keep in mind we are shooting at 400 yards and this is a sub 1/2 moa target I'm shooting at... I run down range to look at the target and here's what I see:


Funny little target, just stayed in the up position. :p but indeed the 4" target was gone. Here's what that looked like and the lack of weld I had on it. That's what you get when you get in a hurry. Dang it:



The evening I made this tree, I tacked stuff in place and I must have just overlooked welding one side!! DUH!!! Well, I double checked all the rest of them and this was the only one that was not welded all the way around to the collar that pivots on the bolt... i KNEW that was going to be a weak spot. Ha ha..

I run to the shop and fix it right up. A little pre heat on the re bar:


Weld it on all the way this time:


Back to the range in the dark:


Fixed as good as new now:





Well, it needed a paint job:


Now it's good as new and a whole lot of fun!!! Now you guys know how I spend some of my afternoons and evenings.. I'm not all about shooting paper..