Experimental sights/experimental ammunition and gongs

[Eric Johanen]

Yesterdays match went well considering the overcast and bright sunlight followed up by a pretty fair rain fall. Wind was from 6 O'clock switching slightly left and right. Now I have a good zero with the semi buckhorn rear and blade front sight for 200, 300 and 400 yards. (Gave it a good try at 500 but with no hits and several close misses I have work to do at 500 and 600 yards). For now it seems that my limit working with these sights is around 400 yards! Kinda of impressed how well they can work at these ranges. Poor nights sleep and very early rise left my offhand looking a little poorly. 1 sighter hit and 1 hit for record in a 5 shot total. 200 yard prone went 3 for 5 with 2 close misses on the middle and middle right target. Discs shot with 1 miss off at 1 and 1 miss at 5. Centered the buffalo head right between the eyes as my last shot/target. 300 yards went 8 for 10 with nice solid hits on those targets. Both misses came on the small middle triangle. Close but no cigars on those two. For these ranges I again used the BACO 500 grain RN with 70 grains of KIK 2 fg and a federal large pistol primer and a primer wad and a .060 poly wad over powder wad. This load will shoot pretty good when seated out exposing the top grease groove and just kissing the rifling. Blow tubed and wiped between stages. For 400 and 500 I used the Sagebrush PJ Money bullet and 1.5 fg OE. Federal large pistol primer and primer wad and again a .060 poly wad over powder wad. This load surprised me by how flat shooting they are. 400 yards I scored 5 for 10. I did have to make a windage change at this range and the misses were close around the targets. With a little more experience I feel that 400 is very doable with these sights.. Sight setting was just a whisker under the 400 yard mark on the sight ladder. With the 500 yard setting on the sights I was over the target bank by quite a bit. Working the slider down I finally got some impacts around the targets with a setting just a whisker above the 450 yard point. Flat shooting indeed! I still must admit that I like Creedmoor shooting more, but these steel matches are really fun and can teach one a lot about shooting with open sights. I will keep at and see how my skill range improves with more experience. The shooter's are really great fun and the relaxed atmosphere is a joy for pulling triggers. Now I have to clean the brass and get them reloaded for more practice for the next steel match!