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My wife and I went to Gunsite Academy in Arizona for one week, what a location for training. They are not a marksmanship school but rather a fighting school, my wife had a tutorial (one on one instruction) with handgun for three days, the improvement she gained is very clear to us. Her mindset and confidence now are much better and on the right track for continued training in the future. One should come to Gunsite with firearms safety, manipulation & basic marksmanship skills already in place.
While she was training I on the other hand worked 5 days of Extreme Long Range Rifle (XLR). The first day we confirmed zero on a 300 yard short square range, then calibrated our ballistic software programs on (18"wx36"h) steel targets at 600m,1000m & 1500m. Once I fine tuned my data I engaged each target again late in the day with a barometric pressure and ambient temperature change from earlier, with first round hits on each one, must say that felt rather goodJ.
The next day was the first of several UKD steel courses, the targets here are painted camo and hidden on a hillside. Shooters worked as teams and needed to find, name, range and calculate firing solutions. These targets were all past 1000 yards and short of 2000 yards. First round hits ran around 25-30% and second round hits ran 50-60%. At these ranges these percentages are above average and second round impacts are key. Sending a first round and getting a quality correction from its impact then using that and hitting with a second means you have put two quality shots down range using a good correction.
We ended with 2 days of testing various bullets and rifle systems (the reason we were invited in the first place). .338 LM from Ashbury, Cheytac, Desert Tactical, AI, and custom sticks. We also tested a .300 Norma built on a Cheytac platform. This was shot on paper at 600y,1000y and 1500y. Each test was two 5 shot groups measured with a tape, the group size vertically and horizontally as well as the center of the group to the POA. The final report is still in the works, but the solids (monolithic) bullets did not fare as well as expected. My load for my .338 (Hornady 285 gr match) did very well at 1500 yards (9"v. by 11"h.) and 9" from POA. I also ran Lapua Scenar 250 gr. with similar results. Having ballistic data for these two loads I feel confident and do not plan on changing anytime soon.
Best part of the trip Arizona is a constituional carry state we got done, my wife said she would like some ice cream. We went to Sonic, open carry, her with a Glock and me with a 1911, sat next to families and others without even a second look. try that in New York and see what happens?
A couple links:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h249/pinwheel1/100_5809.jpg
100_5803.mp4 video by pinwheel1 - Photobucket
While she was training I on the other hand worked 5 days of Extreme Long Range Rifle (XLR). The first day we confirmed zero on a 300 yard short square range, then calibrated our ballistic software programs on (18"wx36"h) steel targets at 600m,1000m & 1500m. Once I fine tuned my data I engaged each target again late in the day with a barometric pressure and ambient temperature change from earlier, with first round hits on each one, must say that felt rather goodJ.
The next day was the first of several UKD steel courses, the targets here are painted camo and hidden on a hillside. Shooters worked as teams and needed to find, name, range and calculate firing solutions. These targets were all past 1000 yards and short of 2000 yards. First round hits ran around 25-30% and second round hits ran 50-60%. At these ranges these percentages are above average and second round impacts are key. Sending a first round and getting a quality correction from its impact then using that and hitting with a second means you have put two quality shots down range using a good correction.
We ended with 2 days of testing various bullets and rifle systems (the reason we were invited in the first place). .338 LM from Ashbury, Cheytac, Desert Tactical, AI, and custom sticks. We also tested a .300 Norma built on a Cheytac platform. This was shot on paper at 600y,1000y and 1500y. Each test was two 5 shot groups measured with a tape, the group size vertically and horizontally as well as the center of the group to the POA. The final report is still in the works, but the solids (monolithic) bullets did not fare as well as expected. My load for my .338 (Hornady 285 gr match) did very well at 1500 yards (9"v. by 11"h.) and 9" from POA. I also ran Lapua Scenar 250 gr. with similar results. Having ballistic data for these two loads I feel confident and do not plan on changing anytime soon.
Best part of the trip Arizona is a constituional carry state we got done, my wife said she would like some ice cream. We went to Sonic, open carry, her with a Glock and me with a 1911, sat next to families and others without even a second look. try that in New York and see what happens?
A couple links:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h249/pinwheel1/100_5809.jpg
100_5803.mp4 video by pinwheel1 - Photobucket
