Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
i used to post alot of pics early on in my career. Looks like you joined LRH around mid 2011. By then i had pretty well refined my process and did not post paper targets much by then so thats the reason you have not seen many.
my test procedure for long range is likely much different then what most would expect. Like most other things in my process very simple. I have posted video many times of my rifles, especially early on in my career. I started out doing the 100 yard accuracy test on paper and sending the proof target with the rifle.
Then one time a customer called me saying that his rifle, if i remember correctly A 300 rum (15 years ago or so), was not shooting all that great at long range. He wanted to send it back to me to test and figure out what was wrong with it so i agreed.
got the rifle, set up at 100 yards on paper and the rifle was shooting right at 1/2 moa. However, i them decided to set up a target at 500 yards and test the rifle. This three shot group was very informative, shot impact would raise up and to the right with each shot roughly 3/4 moa so between the first and third shot it was basically a straight line pointing up and to the right. Now, these two groups, the 100 and 500 yard groups were shot in a relatively short period of time. Barrel was pretty warm on the 500 yard group.
so let the rifle completely cool and then shot another 500 yard three shot group. This one measured just over 2" ctc if i remember correctly. Then followed it up with another three shot group, nearly identical as the first 500 yard group, 1.5 moa or so......
this was my first experience with a barrel that had a stress issue.... learned a Lot about testing my rifles. Realized i need to test at longer range also.
as i got more well known, and a heck of alot busier, the time it was taking to go out, set up paper targets at 100 yards and at 500 yards was getting to be a serious pain in the rear and taking up time i needed to be putting into production. Again, one man shop so i do everything from the mail room to the janitor work and everything in between!!
it was also around this time i realized that 100 yard groups really ment nothing at all as far as a rifles performance at long range which was my only real purpose for building my rifles.
it was also about this time that i had built myself a then relatively new 7mm Allen Magnum. This was a lightweight version based on a fully blueprinted rem 700 receiver, #3 barrel, hs precision sporter stock and detachable mag. Cerakoted in flat black and the stock was a green with black web finish. Most of the old timers here on LRH likely got very sick of seeing this rifle as i was always posting about it here in LRH.
anyway, that specific rifle, i tested and tested and tested when it was finished and no matter what i tried, at 100 yards on paper the very best i ever got the rifle to do group wise was 3/4 moa and most loads were in the 1 moa range. Honestly, i was pretty much ready to throw the barrel and start over, however hunting season was coming up fast and i did not have the time to redo the barrel so i went with the best 200 gr uldrbbt load i had come up with which was pushing that moster to around 3150 fps. Again on paper at 100 yards it was barely a sub moa load. Was hoping it would work out to at least 400 yards....
went out to the range to work on the drop chart with the rifle zeroed at 250 yards. Where i practice is a big valley with relatively steep valley walls. The south facing valley walls are totally bare with many patches of bare dirt. In these patches are many small white colored rocks which make perfect targets of opportunity. From a single set up position, i can engage targets from 200 yards to 2500 yards if i want to.
so with this rifle, once zeroed, i found a target rock, which was roughly 1/2 moa in size measured initially using the reticle of leupold ffp mark 4 scope on the rifle. Ranged the rock which was around 600 yards (can not remember the exact number, many years ago), dialed up the recommended dope and took a shot, which cracked the rock in half.... was pretty surprised, was just hoping to get close....
let the barrel totally cool again and then found another target rock which was around 1 moa in size, again going off the reticle. Ranged this one at around 900 yards. Dialed up the scope and took a shot and again solidly hit the target rock. This rock was big enough to take the hit and not break but it did move a bit. Decided to take another quick shot and again, smacked it solidly. Then sent a third and again solidly smacked the rock.....
now i was a bit perplexed. This rifle was, at 100 yards pushing 1 moa in group size, however, i had just sent three shots down range at 900 yards that all landed within 1/4 moa of my point of aim.......
major lesson on how a rifle can shoot better moa groups at long range then at short ranges, especially when using very long, very heavy bullets driven to higher velocities...
this rifle, over its entire hunting career was never more then barely a sub moa rifle at 100 yards, however over the years of use, it took 28 head of big game at ranges from 450 to 950 yards, all but two being one shot kills. Those two, one was a clean miss due to pilot error and when i corrected my set up, made a followup shot at an additional 200 yard farther range for a clean harvest. The other, was an issue with bullet performance. Shot anchored the animal at +700 yards by breaking both shoulders but when i got to it it was still alive and needed to be finished with a handgun, got a little western!!
this rifle taught me that in my opinion, it was a total waste of time to shoot paper at any range other then to possibly zero a rifle, eventually even that would be pretty much removed from my testing As well.
i then started to set up my steel gongs at long range to test rifles which would also allow me to take pics of groups. Used to leave my gongs set up, however where i test, while its Private ground, plenty of people make their way through the property at times. Got there one day to test and all three of my gongs were gone.....
so then i started setting up and taking down my steel every trip and quickly realized i was burning a better part of a day driving around to set up targets, test and then drive back across the valley to take down the targets.
so i decided that i would test the rifles shooting at rocks laying in the bare dirt valley walls. At first i would video each shooting session, at this time it was before i had my Painkiller muzzle brakes and the brakes i used at the time just were not quite up to allowing me to see every single bullet impact clearly to evaluate rifles accuracy potential. So i set up the video camera for each session.
then came my PK brakes and from that point on, it was EASY to spot every shot i took as long As the rifles were using a bipod. I also decided to stop videoing the shooting sessions as well just to save more time.
what used to originally be half a days time to eval a rifle, now i could do in 20-30 minutes and be headed back to the shop. Customers did Not seem to mind at all and after thousands of rifles, have had zero issues other then some barrel issues that popped up after the rifles got some use on them.
so now, the evaluation procedure i have been using for the past decade or so goes as follows.
set up my portable shooting bench.
find a small target to direct fire towards, try to find as small a target as possible, often in the 1/4 to 1/3 moa size. Again, all measured off my test scope reticles which all are currently scopes with ffp moa reticles so its easy to measure targets with the fine moa reticle line spacing.
for my lighter weight Stalker rifles this is at a minimum of 800 yards. For my heavier Raptor LRSS and XHS rifles its a 1000 yard minimum.
bore sight the rifle, take a few shots to get point of impact to match up with point of aim at the target distance.
i then let the barrel totally cool. And will shoot a three shot group To eval the rifles accuracy potential. Which is very easy to accurately do using the reticle. however, this is not the end of the test even if the rifle proves its capable of holding 1/2 moa accuracy.
i then will shoot at least two more three shot groups for the sole purpose to warm the barrel up and check for any stringing issues which will tell if there are any stresses in the barrels that show themselves with barrel heat. It also confirms that the velocity spreads are solid as i can check any vertical variations.
if rifle passes all these tests it ships. If not, we do more load development usually with a different projo.
again, its easy to estimate group size using the reticle or by shooting at a target rock that is a known size. Some said early on that its not possible to accurately measure target size off a reticle, well, i tested this quite a bit and while i would agree, you can not measure down to the nearest 1/2" of the size of a rock at 800 yards, its EASY to get within 1-2" of actual target size or group size at that range.
again, some will say that is not accurate enough to measure group size at that range...... my reply to that is that its easy to tell if a rifle has 1/2 moa accuracy potential or if it does not and thats all i am doing. Many custom rifles are never fired at all before they ship and the vast majority are only tested at 50-100 yards if shot at all.
i am not shooting each of my customer rifles to prove that i am finding the absolute best group possible for each rifle. Not at all, what i am doing is for myself more then the customer. I develop a load with the bullet the customer wants to use so that when i tell my customer that his 7mm Allen Magnum rifle will drive a 195 gr berger to 3300 fps, this is not opinion as it would be from most custom rifle makers, its a proven fact. And its not proven that the rifle can simply hit this number, its proven that the rifle can do this with totally acceptable chamber pressures and long brass life.
i test the rifles at 800 or 1000 yards, again, for my own piece of mind, not really for the customer or for a sales pitch. yes i advertise a 1/2 moa accuracy potential standard which they have to prove but i do this so that i know, i have shot personally and seen with my own eyes that the load tested will do what i say it will do out of each specific rifle.
not make a velocity claim and then when a rifle does not meet this claim, come back to my customers with a lame excuse that, well all rifles are different and will shoot each load a bit different. Nope, if i say my rifles get 3300 fps and have 1/2 moa accuracy potential, i say this because its been PROVEN with each and every rifle.
again, not a brag group to be sent with each rifle, simply a quality control test more for my purpose then the customers.
now around 75% of my customers just go with the test load i develop and never are left wanting for more. The other 25% will often try to tweak this provided load trying to get even better consistency, which is perfectly fine with me. I have said a thousand times that my customers often shoot their rifles better then i ever could. Never claimed to be the best shot out there. If i can keep these rifles corralled in the 1/2 moa range, generally my customers do even better.
again, how many other rifle makers offer any target groups with their rifles? How many develop loads for each custom rifle with load data provided with rifle? How many actually out bullets in the air out to 800-1000 yards to test a rifles accuracy potential and consistency potential and to prove the rifle is mechanically sound?
sorry for the long winded post but wanted to explain the evolution of the test procedures i have evolved through over nearly 2 decades of building precision rifles.
i have though many times about dropping the test procedures all together. I do not charge a dime for load development or accuracy testing. So think of the cash i could save with components, fuel and production time. However, the i feel the piece of mind to my it offers my customers and myself is more then worth the price. Plus i get to shoot every rifle!!
hope this explains my process and its purpose well enough.
