Long Ranger Goes Long & Other Highlights (Long Post)
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:02 pm
First things first, my limitless gratitude and best wishes to PT7 for setting up today’s outing, which was to his son-in-law’s property in some beautiful country northeast of Kansas City. Said S-I-L (“Vic”) is a former military sniper, competitive shooter, trainer of private security and public police forces, owner of a multi-faceted outdoor range and all around great guy.
As PT7 knew, I was most interested in getting my recently acquired Henrys to an outdoor range where I could stretch out the Long Ranger 308 and 30-30CCH to some respectable distances, which, in my mind, would have amounted to upwards of 200 yards. I figured we’d start out slow with the BBS 357, work our way up to the 30-30 and, once warmed up, see what the LR 308 could do. So much for my plan.
We walked into Vic’s living room and he basically handed me his competition 6.5 Creedmoor that was topped with a Sig scope as long as your forearm, a Tango6 5-30X56 with a 36mm tube (if I remember right), with which he’d recently won a competition match at 1,200 yards, or about 7/10s of a mile.
We had a good weather day, overcast, low 60s, but with about a 10-15 MPH wind quartering over our left shoulder. So much for my indoor, 50 yard range. Time to step it up.
“You’re gonna shoot this Creedmoor first so you can see what you think,” Vic says, and few minutes later I’m sitting at his shooting bench peering down the scope at a steel silhouette some 300 yards away. This rifle probably weighed close to 20 pounds, and the scope made it feel like I was RIGHT THERE! Started right off by ringing the steel (several times) and WOW, what a feeling! Warmed up yet? You bet!
“Okay, let’s see your 308,” he says. So, we’re going to work our way backwards. Go big or go home. Before I know it, he’s got me focusing in on another steel silhouette that’s kind of nestled in the tree-line 400 yards away. He’s got the target rigged up with a flashing red light that blinks if you hit the steel, which was a good thing, because the wind is blowing hard enough that we couldn’t have heard the “CLANG” no matter what.
He gave me a bit of coaching about where to hold the cross-hairs and with shot #1, I’m watching the red light flash. More rounds, more flashes! We tried out some closer distances, determined that it was just about perfectly zeroed at 200 yards and Yes, the deer should be worried.
We moved on to the 30-30, starting at 150 yards (as I recall) and moving out to 300. Clang, clang!
Next, we slummed with the 357 BBS, starting out by blasting away at a 10” steel square at about 40 yards. We moved to about 150 yards and the wind came into play, decreasing out rate of clanging, but Vic later inspected the target area and found about a fist-sized group just to the right of where I was aiming. Probably just found the outer limits of Hornady 158 gr XTP, I’m guessing.
From there, we moved a few hundred yards afield, down to the pistol range, where PT7 clanged all kinds of steel and shredded lots of hedge-apples with his 45LC Uberti SA revolver (as did the rest of us), and I got some time with Vic’s Sig P320 9mm with its Romeo sight. That 45LC is one sweet six-shooter, so well balanced, with fantastic sights and surprisingly little recoil. While on the pistol range, Vic gave me the run-down on the gauntlet he puts his trainees through over a series of drills and scenarios he uses in his training classes. Ver y cool.
All in all, it was about a four-hour session, by the end of which Vic’s wife (PTs daughter) had arrived to see what we were up to (if not how soon we would be finished!).
It was so much fun and unfolded so unexpectedly that it was, at times, a bit of a blur, so I’m hoping that PT7 will follow up in this thread and correct any errors or omissions that are undoubtedly contained herein.
Thanks, Bob, for a true “blast” of a day. The Long Ranger 308 is a beast and the 30-30 is no slouch, either (and how can you not love the 357, just because?)! Sorry for the long post, but it was quite a day!
As PT7 knew, I was most interested in getting my recently acquired Henrys to an outdoor range where I could stretch out the Long Ranger 308 and 30-30CCH to some respectable distances, which, in my mind, would have amounted to upwards of 200 yards. I figured we’d start out slow with the BBS 357, work our way up to the 30-30 and, once warmed up, see what the LR 308 could do. So much for my plan.
We walked into Vic’s living room and he basically handed me his competition 6.5 Creedmoor that was topped with a Sig scope as long as your forearm, a Tango6 5-30X56 with a 36mm tube (if I remember right), with which he’d recently won a competition match at 1,200 yards, or about 7/10s of a mile.
We had a good weather day, overcast, low 60s, but with about a 10-15 MPH wind quartering over our left shoulder. So much for my indoor, 50 yard range. Time to step it up.
“You’re gonna shoot this Creedmoor first so you can see what you think,” Vic says, and few minutes later I’m sitting at his shooting bench peering down the scope at a steel silhouette some 300 yards away. This rifle probably weighed close to 20 pounds, and the scope made it feel like I was RIGHT THERE! Started right off by ringing the steel (several times) and WOW, what a feeling! Warmed up yet? You bet!
“Okay, let’s see your 308,” he says. So, we’re going to work our way backwards. Go big or go home. Before I know it, he’s got me focusing in on another steel silhouette that’s kind of nestled in the tree-line 400 yards away. He’s got the target rigged up with a flashing red light that blinks if you hit the steel, which was a good thing, because the wind is blowing hard enough that we couldn’t have heard the “CLANG” no matter what.
He gave me a bit of coaching about where to hold the cross-hairs and with shot #1, I’m watching the red light flash. More rounds, more flashes! We tried out some closer distances, determined that it was just about perfectly zeroed at 200 yards and Yes, the deer should be worried.
We moved on to the 30-30, starting at 150 yards (as I recall) and moving out to 300. Clang, clang!
Next, we slummed with the 357 BBS, starting out by blasting away at a 10” steel square at about 40 yards. We moved to about 150 yards and the wind came into play, decreasing out rate of clanging, but Vic later inspected the target area and found about a fist-sized group just to the right of where I was aiming. Probably just found the outer limits of Hornady 158 gr XTP, I’m guessing.
From there, we moved a few hundred yards afield, down to the pistol range, where PT7 clanged all kinds of steel and shredded lots of hedge-apples with his 45LC Uberti SA revolver (as did the rest of us), and I got some time with Vic’s Sig P320 9mm with its Romeo sight. That 45LC is one sweet six-shooter, so well balanced, with fantastic sights and surprisingly little recoil. While on the pistol range, Vic gave me the run-down on the gauntlet he puts his trainees through over a series of drills and scenarios he uses in his training classes. Ver y cool.
All in all, it was about a four-hour session, by the end of which Vic’s wife (PTs daughter) had arrived to see what we were up to (if not how soon we would be finished!).
It was so much fun and unfolded so unexpectedly that it was, at times, a bit of a blur, so I’m hoping that PT7 will follow up in this thread and correct any errors or omissions that are undoubtedly contained herein.
Thanks, Bob, for a true “blast” of a day. The Long Ranger 308 is a beast and the 30-30 is no slouch, either (and how can you not love the 357, just because?)! Sorry for the long post, but it was quite a day!
The Henrys wore their scopes and slings proud, and were showcase level. For only shooting rifles since July, it was something to see how well-prepared and knowledgeable ESquared was today. His sight in work on all the Henrys needed zip adjustment.