Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Shoot me an e-mail and we can discuss the pros and cons. The main issue would be time frame. Been a long wait, would hate to start that process over with ordering new parts!
New APS Raptor Hunter and THunter rifles
- Thread starter Fiftydriver
- Start date
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Shoot me an e-mail and we can discuss the pros and cons. The main issue would be time frame. Been a long wait, would hate to start that process over with ordering new parts!
yama49
Well-Known Member
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
This past weekend, I was able to take a small group of local boy scouts up to the range to do some shooting. Most of these kids and their two leaders had done very little shooting at all so we took the day and covered a wide range of shooting. I set up a tactical style shooting course with my reactive steel targets and we did some close range handgun work starting with some 22 LR revolvers and then quickly moving up to 9mm, then 357 Mag revolvers and finally 45 ACP. Then did some close range shotgun work followed by close range carbine shooting with some of my AR platform rifles.
The kids did great. It was them time to get away from the ACTION and settle in for some longer range fun. Started with setting up my MGM IPSC target with chest zone swing arm at 350 yards and set up my Ruger SR-556. At this range, with the SS scope, the first line down from the main cross hair is a dead on hold for hitting the chest flipper!! They all hit the center multipul times and as most of them had not shot at any range at all this seemed like a long distance to them and they were all very impressed.
They also did very well on my 590 yard gong with the little Ruger carbine. That thing always suprises me how well it shoots even at medium ranges. We tried it on my 820 yard gong and did get some hits but that is REALLY pushing the limits for the 69 gr loads we were shooting. The kids were pretty much done so they started eating their lunch and I asked the two leaders if they wanted to try my THunter out.
I had my 7mm AM in the truck, the Raptor THunter featured in the original post of this thread. I was really not planning on shooting it as its not really the best to let a bunch of kids shoot one right after another shot because of barrel heat but a shot each for each leader would be no problem at all.
They agreed and I set up the 7mm AM and told each of the leaders where they wanted to hold on the reticle for a solid hit. I set my gongs up painted black with a small white dot in the middle for aiming point.
Neither of these two leaders had done ANY rifle shooting at all other then 22 LR plinking. The first shot and solidly hit the gong but I could not see the impact as I had left my spotter at the shop and only had my 10x binos. It was obviously a solid hit from the sound of the impact however.
He was just happy to have hit the gong at nearly 1/2 mile away.
We let the rifle cool completely and talked about a few things and then the second leader wanted to give it a try. The wind had picked up a bit so had to dial in a bit for the left to right wind. I could see his shot as it landed just slightly low and slightly to the right of the center white aiming point. He was amazed as were the kids.
When we drove over to the gongs at the end of the day to pick them up, we could really see what they had done. Now, again, The first shot was a cold bore shot from a rifle that is basically very similar in weight to a standard Rem 700 BDL rifle and shot but two guys that had very little shooting experience over their lifetime and zero experience shooting past 100 yards.
The first shot that was difficult to see had landed 3" low of center and 2.5" to the left of center of the aiming point. The second shot, with the wind adjustment landed a bit over 4" low and about 1.5" to the right.
The two shots were within 4.5" ctc of each other from two different shooters who had no shooting experience at all at 820 yards. The first shot from a true cold bore condition, the second from a cool bore.
This THunter is a very easy system to shoot even for the beginner. Recoil is slightly more but not dramatically more then the Ruger SR-556 rifle, just a lot more muzzle blast!!! All were very impressed and all shot very well throughout the entire day of shooting. Was a good time. I went up the next day to do some shooting of my own. I do not shoot on gongs as they just take a lot of time to set up and take down so I just shoot targets of opportunity. For me the drops were dead on the money out to 1000 yards. For the two leaders however, they were seeing about 1/2 moa more drop then I was, may have simply been a rifle hold issue. I put a slight forward load on my bipod when I shoot and I did not bother telling them about bipod loading so that may have been the reason. Still, had they been big game hunting, we would have never said anything but GREAT SHOT if they would have been holding center on the chest of a big whitetail buck!!
Always good to get out with the scouts and do some shooting. These young guy really respond well to the shooting sports. Need to do it more often.
The kids did great. It was them time to get away from the ACTION and settle in for some longer range fun. Started with setting up my MGM IPSC target with chest zone swing arm at 350 yards and set up my Ruger SR-556. At this range, with the SS scope, the first line down from the main cross hair is a dead on hold for hitting the chest flipper!! They all hit the center multipul times and as most of them had not shot at any range at all this seemed like a long distance to them and they were all very impressed.
They also did very well on my 590 yard gong with the little Ruger carbine. That thing always suprises me how well it shoots even at medium ranges. We tried it on my 820 yard gong and did get some hits but that is REALLY pushing the limits for the 69 gr loads we were shooting. The kids were pretty much done so they started eating their lunch and I asked the two leaders if they wanted to try my THunter out.
I had my 7mm AM in the truck, the Raptor THunter featured in the original post of this thread. I was really not planning on shooting it as its not really the best to let a bunch of kids shoot one right after another shot because of barrel heat but a shot each for each leader would be no problem at all.
They agreed and I set up the 7mm AM and told each of the leaders where they wanted to hold on the reticle for a solid hit. I set my gongs up painted black with a small white dot in the middle for aiming point.
Neither of these two leaders had done ANY rifle shooting at all other then 22 LR plinking. The first shot and solidly hit the gong but I could not see the impact as I had left my spotter at the shop and only had my 10x binos. It was obviously a solid hit from the sound of the impact however.
He was just happy to have hit the gong at nearly 1/2 mile away.
We let the rifle cool completely and talked about a few things and then the second leader wanted to give it a try. The wind had picked up a bit so had to dial in a bit for the left to right wind. I could see his shot as it landed just slightly low and slightly to the right of the center white aiming point. He was amazed as were the kids.
When we drove over to the gongs at the end of the day to pick them up, we could really see what they had done. Now, again, The first shot was a cold bore shot from a rifle that is basically very similar in weight to a standard Rem 700 BDL rifle and shot but two guys that had very little shooting experience over their lifetime and zero experience shooting past 100 yards.
The first shot that was difficult to see had landed 3" low of center and 2.5" to the left of center of the aiming point. The second shot, with the wind adjustment landed a bit over 4" low and about 1.5" to the right.
The two shots were within 4.5" ctc of each other from two different shooters who had no shooting experience at all at 820 yards. The first shot from a true cold bore condition, the second from a cool bore.
This THunter is a very easy system to shoot even for the beginner. Recoil is slightly more but not dramatically more then the Ruger SR-556 rifle, just a lot more muzzle blast!!! All were very impressed and all shot very well throughout the entire day of shooting. Was a good time. I went up the next day to do some shooting of my own. I do not shoot on gongs as they just take a lot of time to set up and take down so I just shoot targets of opportunity. For me the drops were dead on the money out to 1000 yards. For the two leaders however, they were seeing about 1/2 moa more drop then I was, may have simply been a rifle hold issue. I put a slight forward load on my bipod when I shoot and I did not bother telling them about bipod loading so that may have been the reason. Still, had they been big game hunting, we would have never said anything but GREAT SHOT if they would have been holding center on the chest of a big whitetail buck!!
Always good to get out with the scouts and do some shooting. These young guy really respond well to the shooting sports. Need to do it more often.
MT4XFore
Well-Known Member
Kirby, thanks for giving some of your valuable time for introducing young folks ,(and some older folks) to the joys of trigger pulling. Who knows if any of those young'uns might adopt a hunting hobby or maybe competitive shooting. A wise investment I suspect.
