20" SS mws report. Made it to 700yds. Very happy

[m1ajunkie]

I feel like I have made some improvements in my technique and loads that are making me and my mws shoot much better. I'm sure most remember my less than stellar groups off the bipod recently. I got back to the range today with some sandbags I made as well as my geiselle ssa-e trigger. I must say, the ssa-e is an awesome trigger. I would say it is almost perfect for what I have in mind for my mws. I was also convinced my loads were not correct for the rifle so today I did some more testing.

I found that max for me with both the 175's and 178's is 44gr of varget, but I found loads with potential below that. All these groups are at 100yds and only 5 rounds, but I plan to shoot some ten round groups later on, as well as some longer range testing. I didn't have the chrony today, so I'm not sure of the exact speed but the 175s are moving at least 2575fps and the 178s at least 2525( I measured this last range trip).

Pics of my groups:

175gr Fgmm is first. I am not sure my rifle likes the 175's moving at the speed that FGMM is moving. This groups isn't great and my handloads at the same velocity weren't doing so well.


The load I am going to work more on with the 175 smk is at 43.4gr of varget. 2.8" oal in wcc nato brass. 4 rounds into one small hole with the one flier that isn't far off, and could have been me. Mirage was tough today.


Next I shot the 178 amax which seems very promising. I loaded these from 43-44gr of varget in lc lr brass, oal of 2.81". 43 gr wasn't great, but 43.2gr, 43.4gr, and 43.6gr all shot basically the same group. I had a flier low on the 43.4gr group that opened it up to 1.5", but the four main shots were in about a .75" square. I am thinking I will load at 43.5gr and this will be a nice shooting round.

[Anchor Zero Six]

Looking good!

What elevation are you at and do you happen to know the humidity?

My go to load is 45gr Var and I'm not even close to your velocity but I'm darn near at sea level where I live.

[m1ajunkie]

Looking good!

What elevation are you at and do you happen to know the humidity?

My go to load is 45gr Var and I'm not even close to your velocity but I'm darn near at sea level where I live.

I am about 2000 feet, and humidity lately has been pretty low. I would guess less than 50%, the summer is when humidity gets much higher.

When I was shooting 43gr of varget with the 175 smk, I chronied 4 ten round strings. The averages were: 2566, 2571, 2565, 2567. These were on four different range trips with temp all in the low 60's, and no clouds. I am thinking with 43.4gr varget I am going to be right at 2600fps.

Anchor aren't you running the 18"?

[thmpr]

With my BM308 and MK11, they both shoot great with 43.6 grains of Varget (175 SMK)--> <1 MOA if I do my part. =0)

[Anchor Zero Six]

Right now I'm running a 13.5"

My loads with 45gr Var were clocking 2560 out of my 20" AI. If I recall same load was 2400 out of the 13", will look in my log book to confirm but I beleive that was the correct fps.

I'm positive I'm burning up powder outside the barrel with the shorty but I dont want to change loads as it works for all my other 308's. I would rather have one load for everything vice having lots of assorted ammo around.

Considerable difference in elevation between us and it looks to be within reason of the variance in FPS.

[m1ajunkie]

I made it out to the 700yd range today and had excellant results. Shooting my 178 amax and 175 smk load making hits was almost easy. (wind was coming at our face) I was mainly just getting zeros all the way out, but I did get a chance to shoot a couple five round groups. The rate of fire rules made this slow so I didn't shoot many groups, much less 10 shot groups.

Overall I am very pleased. I can't wait to get back out and gather some more data on this rifle. I am fairly new to long range shooting and have always heard "lights up, sights up" but the group at 600 at the end of the day seems a little extreme for what I was expecting. I zeroed about 10 am and four hours later I am hitting 1.5ish moa higher, does that sound right?

View from the bench:


Group shot at 500yds with the 178 amax and 43.6gr of varget ETA: the mag is not covering a hit, the five hits are above the mag:


Then I decided to shoot prone at the end of the day and shot these five smk rounds off the bipod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ocPy...el_video_title

Here is a pic of the five rounds. The flier to the left is my fault, I wasn't as stable as i could have been and jerked the trigger.

[ALCOAR]

There you go brother...looking like your starting to really tap into that performance that sets the MWS apart form the pack.

Just think about this....if you shortened your 20" Rock 5R to 16" thereby making it equilivent to the SST model, now almost double the 700yds. you were shooting at to make a total range of 1300+yds....and then get some torso hits like the Brits are doing with the L129A1's

That's still such a mind blowing stat. Glad you are really starting to have fun and enjoy the learning process with your awesome rifle, that imho is the whole fun part. The super challenging aspect of this will make your spent dollar goes so much further in terms of what you should or could get out of the MWS/SS barrel pricetag.

Just one quick thing I noticed on your prone shooting....it appears that your not squared up and centered properly. Get as centered as possible and square your shoulders up to the target....place you target hairs on the said target with as light of pressure from your part as possible...once the rifle is free of your hand and generally lined up with the target, slightly adjust your body positioning to move in slight increments "around" the rifle that should already be centered on the target. (note..this is opposed to getting your posture and final firing position set and then moving your rifle on the target according to how your body is planted.)

So in short adjust your prone body position around the rifle, not vise versa

[m1ajunkie]

Just one quick thing I noticed on your prone shooting....it appears that your not squared up and centered properly. Get as centered as possible and square your shoulders up to the target....place you target hairs on the said target with as light of pressure from your part as possible...once the rifle is free of your hand and generally lined up with the target, free all your pressure and movements from the actual rifle and solidify your final prone shooting posture. Then slightly adjust your body moving in slight increments "around" the rifle, RATHER than getting your posture and final firing position set and then moving your rifle on the target according to how your body is planted.

So in short adjust your prone body position around the rifle, not vise versa

Thats one thing I have had trouble with for a while now. I used to shoot my m1a and leather shooting sling prone and had nice results when at an angle. I guess it's something that I do instinctively at this point. I have always read you should be square behind the rifle when shooting from the bipod. The issue I was fighting was that the 600yd targets were at a slight downhill position and I wasn't able to get a good position with my support hand because the butt was so high off the ground.

[ZRH]

...(replied in wrong thread)