Weekend Wildcat Range report.
6.5X47 Lapua with a .290 neck turn neck, match chamber, .123 FB for 130 Berger VLDS, 28 inch heavy contour Hart Barrel.
Leupold 8X20X56 VXL with Varmint Hunter reticule.
Day one shooting started at 200 and I wasn't impressed. The barrel had less than 30 rounds thru it but I was hoping for better. Most of the groups were 2 to 2.4 inches
Shot about 20 rounds, cleaned reloaded and tried some ladders. Easily got the 130 VLDs over 3000 but the groups were worse at the top of the ladder, even across different powders. The bottom of the ladder started at 2850 and easily produced better groups.
Day one afternoon backed off to 400, ran a couple ladders, same results. Shot my hunting rifle 1 cold bore shot, less than an inch from the bulls eye. We also shot sub moa groups with a Mini 14 (target version) and a RRA varmint 223. I put 10 in the 8 inch , 2 in the 6 inch and let my 2 buddies shot 4 each, all but one a hit on the 8 inch steel.
Day two, one group at 400 to make sure the 400 yard reticule was deadon and then moved to 600. Started with the Mini and AR. Both had no problem staying on the 8 inch steel at 600.Did some bad math and dialed the wildcat wrong and wasted a bunch of rounds trying to find the 16 inch steel. Finally figured out the problem got on the steel and managed to shoot a .5 moa group on the 8 inch steel with the last 3 shots. So there is hope….
Backed off to 800 and managed a couple of hits on the 16 inch steel but was frustrated and out of ammo for the wildcat. My Mini couldn't dial high enough for 800 but my stepson's AR has a one MOA click scope and reached it easily. I would have never believed you could hit the steel at 800 with a 223 zombie gun. Took about 5 shots, but once he was on he put 2/3 of the remaining clip into a 12 inch steel at 800 YARDS! All the hits where above the bulls eye so I'm sure all the misses where high, but with a 1 MOA click, he couldn't adjust into the middle of the 12 so he was trying to hold low and 1 mil dot left for wind and hit it 2 out of 3 shots for the 15 shots remaining in the mag. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. The 69 grain bullets barely made a sound we could hear and in some cases didn't even knock all the paint off.
The good news was:
My neck turned cases were perfect, once fired cases could be reloaded without resizing the necks!
The 6.5 ballistics worked perfect on the 400 yard reticule of the Varmint hunter scope. Didn't try 500 as a fence wire gets in the way.
The .5 moa group at 600 gives me hope that the gun will continue to improve. That group was at the end of the first 100 rounds.
I cleaned after the first 5, next 10, then every 15 to 20 depending on the shooting.
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