Thursday, October 31, 2013

Range Report: 100m Edition

A rainy day at the range today.  On a positive note, I had it to myself, and could call a cease fire whenever I wanted!

Aguila (Mexican) 55gr.:

Aguila (Mexico) 55gr.

Pretty typical.  It’s grouping wasn’t particularly bad, but for some reason it shoots way to the left of anything else I’ve ever used.

There’s a metaphor in here somewhere . . .

Black Hills Seconds 55gr.:

Black Hills Seconds 55gr

My goal at 100m is a four-inch group, and this met it.

DRS FMJ1F 55gr. reloads:

DRS FMJ1F 55gr.

Still a top performer.  But DRS only reloads what it can get, and I haven’t seen them offer this again.

MFS (Russian) Rem SP 62gr.

MFS Rem SP 62gr

Blech!  Definitely not worth the $.50 per round.

PMC Bronze 55gr.:

PMC Bronze 55gr

Never been more than a plinker.

PMC X-Tac 55gr.:

PMC X-Tac 55gr

Wow!  That’s tighter than it did at 50m, suspiciously good for what’s always been one of my weakest performers.  I may have got it confused with something else.  That was the last of my stock, though, and I don’t plan on buying more

Precision Cartridge “Range Pack” 55gr.:

Precision Cartridge Range Pack 55gr

Plinker.

The Brass Kings 55gr.:

The Brass Kings 55gr

Not sure what to make of this.  An excellent 3-shot and two way outliers.  Wish I could make it shoot 1-inch groups every time!

The Brass Kings “Metal Piercing” 62gr.:

The Brass Kings metal piercing 62gr

Not worth the $.57 per I paid, but I can’t help wonder if I got my ammo confused again.

WPA (Russia) “Military Classic” HP 62gr.:

WPA Military Classic HP 62gr

Mmm . . . You may remember that this shot low at 50m, but it surprises me that it’s shooting low at 100m.  Normally, .223 sighted in at 50m should be still arcing upward at 100m.

All in all, a pretty good day shooting.  Everything did better than it has historically; perhaps I’m making marginal improvement as a rifleman?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how you have your weapons sighted, but it is possible your 50 yard zero is the top of the arc, so at 100 yards, the bullet is below the line of sight. It is normally only with a 25 yard zero that the arc is high enough to cross the line of sight twice. I've had this trouble before myself since optical sights like the Trijicon ACOG zero at 100 yards.

What was your shooting position? Prone? sandbags? standing? bipod? Bench with vice?

What are you using for the pictures that produces those nifty high contrast yellow dots?

--Hale

Dr. Φ said...

I use Microsoft Paint to highlight the holes. In the drawing tools, select the ellipse, then choose red and yellow as the first and second colors, respectively. The first ellipse you insert, you will have to right click on it to tell it to fill with the second color, but after that all the ellipses will fill automatically.

Shooting position was bench with bipod. The concrete floor of the platform makes prone too painful, and I can't hit anything standing at more that 25m.

Mmm . . . my quick calculation is that a projectile with a muzzle velocity of 2000fps, with a sight perched 4 inches above the barrel, sighted in at 50m, should still be arcing upwards for another couple of hundred meters or more, depending on wind resistance.

Anonymous said...

Your calculation is dependent on the initial angle between the sight line and the barrel, which you don't know. Further, the ammo itself will each have a different velocity(i) and therefore a different apex range (the range at which the ballistic curve is at it's highest). If the Apex range is farther than your zero range, you will have two points where the trajectory crosses the line of sight. Otherwise, only one or zero.

Anonymous said...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.phossil.com/thom/SIG%2520556%2520Commando/SIG%2520556%2520Zero%2520Chart.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sigarms556.com/viewtopic.php?f%3D8%26t%3D11055&h=525&w=800&sz=85&tbnid=RzdIaHdvnHflRM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=137&zoom=1&usg=__TO9AnMFh3N2Z5gf0yU8PjRMFpEs=&docid=1kIKUQU_CObQyM&sa=X&ei=srNzUtXmFYjjsAT2toHoBA&ved=0CDYQ9QEwAg

Mine uses the blue trace.

Anonymous said...

Only 2000FPS? you are way low. 5.56mm out of the box ammo normally produces 2800-3200 FPS. Lighter bullets like 55 gr are at the higher end.