For me just normal BB match

[ole95]

Friday I made the 6+hr. trip to East Ga. to shoot BB with Robert, Melvin and the Ga. Gang. The weather man had promised a great day. I woke Saturday to misty rain and heavy Fog! Not what I expected
But after breakfast I headed the Range I was greeted with smiling faces and Handshakes and once again I knew I was in Ga. Shooting Silhouette it was going to be a great day no matter what the weather did.
There is a world of shooting knowledge in the state of Ga. Free for the asking, two of what I think are great standing shooter in Robert and Melvin (ok their pretty good and others positions to) and Richard P with his data base of tried that knowledge. Anytime I go shoot in Ga. whether it be BB in Lincolnton or SB in Gainesville I come home with some helpful tips and the Dixon’s and Robert and Melvin make me feel welcome.
Any time I shoot BB it’s a new adventure and today would be no exception. I normally get to shoot BB once or twice a year and I don’t think I’ve shot two matches with the exact same set ups/load I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to find what not only works for me but something I enjoy shooting . Last year I made the call to do what I do in SB in BB which is Main focus on Production, Unlimited and Standing with add-ons of unlimited fifth scale and for now UAS HS.
So Saturday I headed to the Range with my 300 blackout Contender, 7TCU xp and triple deuce 14” scoped contender.
Unlike SB production which was the 1st. thing I made INT in and I consider my ole faithful (excluding it’s last time out ) BB production has been my worst nightmare I’ve tried 2 different 7 TCU barrels with combos of Bomar/ken light rib and Williams/Martens hooded front along with the same on a 32-20 and now on my second Whisper/Blackout Barrel . I now think I have the right for me setup. This last Blackout is a 1/8 twist MGM. Its 1st. match was the ECC last summer cleaning the 1st. 45 targets and only leaving 6 of the 15 Rams or a 54 converted 36 which is by fair my best ever BB Pro score.
Saturday the plan for this gun which is also my standing gun was more range time and I’ve been working on a new Ram load with only sights setting from the old Ram load. Rain and fog hampered my testing but gave me a good excuse for what turned out to be my normal BB standing and Production scores
Main thing between standing and production I was able to make the call on the Ram load and get better sight setting. So after Sat. though Rain and Fog I have my Production /Standing gun were it needs to be
I can start working on the trigger puller to get him up to speed.
Like the Production I’ve tried bucket loads of things for BB U. A couple of 14” 7 TCU barrel with Bomar/ Marten and Williams/ Marten , 7 Br. Xp with King sight Tube and a 14” Whisper Contender with Williams / Martens. I now have a gun that fits my style and is fun to shoot. 7 TCU xp that has been magna ported, bought as a barreled action I set it rear grip with a King Tube sight. Last year I used it with the King tube set up peep on post with a 1650 mv. 120gr. C P T load and a 1600 150gr. Ram load
This year I’m trying the King tube peep on peep to match my SB U gun and a load change to 2000 mv 120 gr. across the board. Because of the load change and switch to the front peep I had no real sight settings but was hoping I was close and could adjust shooting my sighters. I don’t normally have a shooting partner/ spotter luckily a lot of volunteers jumps up when they see me in trouble and bail me out. In this case it’s it was Caryl Barrett Caryl Spotted for me when I shot my 1st. perfect score- SB UAS 60/60 a couple years ago She has a very calming voice and don’t overload me with info. With Carly in tow I head to the sighters I hit high on the Chick and high on the Pigs but close then when I went to the Turkey FOG FOG
Because of the fog I could barely make it out the sighter turkey I shot but Carly could not tell where I hit OK go to the Ram same thing ran out of time trying to find it. So with slightly better chick and pig setting I had to the firing line hoping the fog would pass before I got back to the turkeys and rams. I decided to go ahead and come down a couple clicks for the chicks because Of hitting high on the sighter Caryl called a high hits on the 1st. and 2nd chick and a high MISS on the 3rd. So I came down 3 more clicks 4 and 5 were high hits. The last 5 were high center hits. When we got to the pigs and I started putting in my pigs setting is when I found that I was shooting the Chicks with my Turkey setting still in from sighters (I’m sure I’m the only one to ever do that) Good reason to be shooting high lol. I managed to clean the pigs and made a few adjustments on them.
The fog did somewhat leave the turkeys and I made the call to come down two clicks from the setting I had. Which was a good call ended up somehow hitting 8 Turkeys which being an AA U shooter is not bad.
Not so lucky on the Rams 1st. and 2nd were high misses. Trying not to over react I came down 2 clicks 3 and 4 high missies down two more #5 high miss. I then reacted and came down about 7 before shooting the second bank #6 low hit #7 low hit so I came up 2 taking down the remaining Rams. The goal for this gun Saturday was to give the peep on peep a try and see if I needed to adjust the apertures size , get sight setting and see how the 120gr. Ram load worked. Again though Rain and fog I think the peep on peep will work as is, sight setting are way better now than what I came with and as long as I only shoot at ranges like little River where the Rams are always “properly set” I will be ok with the 120’s.

The triple duce 14” Contender barrel I traded for a few years back I had wanted to use a 22 cal for half scale and from what I had read the a 223 would have to be down loaded to keep from doing target damage . OK a full loaded 222 MV is about the same as a downloaded 223. The 222 back in the day was considered the go to round for bench rest / varmint guns so it sounded like a perfect fit. In the last couple years it been a HS U then a HS UAS then back to U and now back to UAS this time with a Redfield Tactical scope and loads of 55 gr, @ 2200 for chicks and pigs and 60gr. @2350 for turkeys and rams these loads have not shown any target damage problems. Saturday goal for this gun was see how I like the scope and how it tracked and adjust from calculated and bore sighted setting.
Now because of the weather and not much interest in shooting HS Sat. we decided not to set up the HS targets. After talking to Richard P and Dave C I decided to have some fun and shoot the full size targets with the triple Duce. Again Caryl stepped up to spot right off the bat I missed the chicken sighter but hit the rest and came back and hit the chicken! because this was for fun as much as anything I made the call to shoot dead center until I rang a target I made it to pig #2 . So now my point of aim was the hind quarter still rang 2 more with the 55gr. I think if I ever do it again I will shoot at the head/nose area and maybe use the 60 gr. Ram/Turkey load. The Turkeys I decided to shoot for the tail worked real good I knocked down all 10 but had a slight problem that 2 were not shot in the correct order so I only got to count 8
The plan for the Rams shoot for the eyes which I hit 6 in the eye and 6 went down had one complete miss and 4 more that were not hit in the eye and didn’t go down. Scope works great and I think I learned enough that if I did it again I could have a decent score.
I would to say last weekend was a success. I got what I came for.
Better sight setting, proved some loads, tested sight apertures and scope, shot some average scores
and had fun. Really I guess Iast weekend was a success when I saw the 1st. smiling face and got the 1st. handshake
yep this was just a normal for me BB match

[hardtoseeovergut]

This last Blackout is a 1/8 twist MGM. Its 1st. match was the ECC last summer cleaning the 1st. 45 targets and only leaving 6 of the 15 Rams or a 54 converted 36 which is by fair my best ever BB Pro score.

I think you had a pretty good spotter for that one!

[jmoore]

I really, really need to watch you freestyle shooters more. Esp. whilst using peep sights. Have yet to find a steady position from which I can see out of my glasses.

[high standard 40]

Richard,
Thanks for the detailed write up. I wish I could make another trip to shoot with the Georgia gang but my plate is too full right now. Hey, maybe you would like to come shoot big bore with us in Louisiana. It would only be about a 5 hour drive from Tuscaloosa to our new "Top Shot" range.