Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Building a new rifle need some advice

Good stuff man. It sounds like your getting that rifle dialed in nicely. I also like how you said you lessened your TIR by adjusting your die set. That's how you do it and having less than about .002" TIR is where you want to be. When I posted the first time, it was a few months ago. I'm still going to those varmint silhouette shoots and I'll tell you, those guys are good shooters. Its been a humbling experience. I've had to pull out all the stops with my CTR to get the most out of it. As it is, I'm shooting against guys that are running full on customs. Barrels that are 28"+ long and heavy as truck axles. I ended up using my 6.5 creedmoor the last 2 times out and went all out on my scope choice. Ended up with a 7-35x56 Nightforce ATACR. That scope is damn nice man. No question on if it's going to dial properly or not. It is spot on. I also added a 20 moa rail. My other CTR already had a 20 moa rail and an NXS 5.5-22x56:


As I said earlier, I had to dig deep and get the best out of my rifle and load because there's heavy competition. Here's how it shoots after a little more bedding work:

This rifle hits the 800 yard cold bore targets now too, which is a pretty good feat in itself. I think there were only 7 of us that hit it out of 22 shooters.

You are wise to go to a chassis system on your rifle. Like I said in my last post, everyone I'm shooting against is running them. I watch those guys and there are benefits/advantages to running the chassis. Its nice to have that adjustability and they are more comfortable when shooting prone. Having a good bi-pod is a benefit as well. From the sounds of it, if you are hitting a 12" plate at 1,000 yards, you are doing damn good. Especially in the wind. I'll eventually revisit the 147 ELDM's and hope I find a really good load for shooting at my 1,400 yard target. It doesn't sound like you need our help anymore buddy. Good job on setting that rifle up right.

I'll eventually try one. Thanks for the tidbit though. My scope fund has dwindled after buying the ATACR. That sob wasn't cheap. Ha ha. Nice piece of glass, but not cheap..

This is my first rifle with a chassis and I went with the Mystic Precision Mpod. I think I can say the chassis and Mpod are without any doubt a big part of this shooting system. There are very few I think I pulled that shot moments and sometimes when you think you pulled a bit its still on target. The KRG Bravo has proven to be pleasantly surprising especially for the price. The Mystic Precision Mpod is rock solid as well

I'd say tracking on the Bushnell DMR3 is dead on as well beings I was on the plate my first shot. The glass is good enouph I can spot hits on paper at 500 yds when the lighting is right. I was surprised I was able to at all. I'm certain a Nightforce will beat it hands down, I was going the budget route and feel I got good bang for my buck. If I ever build something that will reach out to 2000 yds in going with the Nightforce without any doubt.

We have a 1480 yd 2' plate as well and was on it the second shot however after only hitting it twice in ten shots it proved to be to far of a poke to get any reliability out of the 140 eld which we were expecting.

The mountain performance trigger spring is also proving to be about perfect IMO

Overall for a budget rifle it will be a lot of fun to get out there and compete some. I certainly am not expecting to ever win just want to get into the crowd so I can learn
from people who do it a lot more than I do.

The group's you posted look similar to mine only slightly better. I'm useing RL23 for this first load but am going to try some NV555 next. With RL23 you run out of room in the case and if you don't find a good seating node right away can run into problems with compressing the load to much and the bullet doesn't want to consistently seat. I was fortunate that my lands in my CTR barrel landed at 2.860 and I found mags that fit the KRG Bravo that are 2.950 length mags. I found a good seating depth between 2.852 and 2.842 that is non temperamental. I loaded at 2.850 and went shooting. Most mags for the 6.5 are 2.820 in length and with a mag that short I would never have had the room to get RL 23 to work in my rifle IMO

That's pretty cool to hear your finding time to have fun with the varmint silhouette shooting crowd. It certainly brought a smile to my face to hear that and thanks for sharing BSA it's appreciated

Thanks for the info on the KRG. I've shot a Christensen Arms with one and it was pretty nice. I'll definitely keep that in mind for my second CTR. I'll probably also re barrel that one to a 6GT one of these days too. You did good on your scope choice. Mr. John Hondo was good to suggest that one. He's a shooter and one I would listen to here. That is also very good that you doing that well at 1480 yards. That is a long shot. I've yet to hit my 12" plate on the first shot at that distance on the first shot. Last time out, it took me 4 shots to get dialed in, but the wind was fn with me. At that distance the wind can really screw with you, especially if you are shooting in canyons like i do. I think the updrafts get me more than anything. Keep us posted on how that NV555 does for you. Its Vihtavuori, so it should work well. Have you watched any Jack Neary videos on youtube? That guy uses a lot of the Viht powder and explains stuff very well. I watched a video on your MPOD bi pod and it looks slick and pretty solid. Much more stable than the Harris I use. One very impressive bi-pod I saw at the match last month was an Accu tac FC5 G2. That is one bad azzed bi-pod that allows you to cant and also pan, which makes it quicker to get on multiple targets at varying ranges. Your thread is a good one and I can see guys using your info, as it looks like you are doing things right.

What velocity are you getting out of R23 with the 140s? Heavily compressed?

John

I was at 2750 with 45.3 grains and CCI450 primers on a new 24" CTR barrel. Powder is about 2/3 up the neck of the case useing lapua small primer brass. Not heavily compressed but compressed. My son in law has a 6.5 creed ruger precision and we get 2830 with 45.5 grains in lapua small primer brass with CCI450.

Both guns with 140 eldm
Not useing a drop tube

Trystan,

A trick you can use to settle that powder if you do not want to use a drop tube is to take a second case tray and place it upside down over the tops of the charged cases. Then holding it together like a sandwich you can press it against the top of your case tumbler and the vibration will really settle the powder in the case. I've used that to get heavy charges of N150 settled into .308 Palma loads.

Mike

Mike, thanks for the tip

Shoot white AR500 plating and your hits will show up like a five carat diamond in a Billygoats ass!!

Yes indeed! We use white spray paint and can see hits plain as day