I went out last night to sight in a new scope and rifle for Independence Training's new Precision Rifle course, and when I was done I was sitting on my shooting mat putting some info in my dope book when my son says "Hey, a jackrabbit!" I look up to see this big ol' jackrabbit about 50 yards away rolling around in the dirt, so I slowly open a box of ammo, load a round into the chamber of my rifle, and roll into the prone position. The rabbit never saw me until it was too late and a 168gr Hornady TAP round slammed into his boiler room - first blood for my new rifle. What you see in the picture below is the exit wound, but what else is in the picture is the weirdest thing I have ever had happen when shooting a jackrabbit - the TAP round blew the rabbit's heart out, whole and complete and without a scratch, and it landed right where you see it in the picture. Craziest thing I have ever seen.
Every good shooter needs a good spotter, and I have one of the best.
For those of you interested in my rifle setup, it is a Remington 700 SPS AAC-SD in .308 WIN with Nightforce 1-piece 20 MOA rail and medium Nightforce rings, all of which came from our friends over at STG Firearms. The scope is the Primary Arms 4-14x44mm FFP mil-dot, courtesy of Marshall at Primary Arms. This is a very excellent setup, and as you can see by the groups below, it gets the job done. I'll be testing additional loads through it as we continue to gear up for the course, including heading to the range tomorrow for some 500 yard work with the 175gr Sierra Matchkings alongside our sniper instructor, Josh.
3 shot group wth Hornady 168gr TAP FPD
3 shot group with Black Hills 175gr BTHP
5 shot group with Federal Premium Gold Medal Match 168gr Sierra Matchkings -
this was the worst round I have fired through this rifle, but then again it does not get
good field reports from other sources, so I'll be trying the 175gr version instead.
Overall, I really like this rifle and optic combo, and I look forward to putting a lot of quality shots downrange with it.
Happy Hunting!
No comments:
Post a Comment