Since my ultimate goal with competition is to shoot NRL Hunter matches in an Open Light class (to more closely resemble the rifles I actually hunt with), I set up my 308Win Fix and 6.5PRC Stag Pursuit for Open Light and Factory respectively.
I have a lot more 308Win ammo than 6.5CM anyway, so that is the rifle I prefer to practice with.
Now that I have a little time before the next Hunter match, I decided to see if I can properly control the muzzle rise with the lighter rifles. To that extent, I went and sighted them in before proceeding with shooting at various plates mostly between 500 and 600 yards to see if I can control the muzzle well enough to spot my misses.
The wind was pretty sporting and inconsistent today. On top of that, I decided to use the lightweight pint-sized gamechanger bag to add to the challenge. While we were at it, I also tested the new tripod plate from Sunway photo. I generally like it, but it needs to be a bit wider for shooting purposes. It is great for holding binos and a wind meter.
Here is how the bag fits on it:
Not bad, but a little more width would help. The tripod is Field Optics Research's Dome Top Hunter 32.
The 308 Fix is a known quantity since I have talked about it quite a lot in the past. In this iteration, I have it set up with Tangent Theta 5-25x56 in an Aadmount.
The muzzle device is Q's Bottle Rocket on top of a Cherry Bomb.
The bipod is Gunwerks' Elevate.
Rather amazingly, the balance on this thing is just right as is.
However, I must have made a miscalculation somewhere because I thought this would weigh just a hair below 12lbs. It weighed in at exactly 11lbs and based on the Arizona match, my scales measure a little higher than the ones they used over there (about 5 ounce difference for my 6.5CM gun).
Despite that, I had no real issues controlling the muzzle rise with this setup. I was able to comfortably spot my shots and see trace as long as I was properly square behind the rifle. Interestingly, at this weight, it is something I might actually hunt with, but a lighter scope might not be a bad idea.
This also means that I have enough weight budget to use Q's Trash Panda suppressor instead of the Bottle Rocket brake. While the brake is not obnoxiously loud, I do prefer to run with a suppressor when possible, so I will try that next.
With the 6.5PRC, I know for a fact that without a decent brake, I could not spot my own shots, so I have Area 419's titanium Hellfire brake on it. This was my first time shooting with it.
It was substantially loud, but not as obnoxious as some competition brakes I have seen. More importantly, muzzle rise was minimal at most. I doubled up on the hearing protection, but the rifle became impressively more mild mannered. Again, shooting standing off of a tripod in the wind, I had not problem at all spotting my own shots and watching trace when shooting a bit further out.
The rifle is Stag Pursuit in 6.5PRC
The scope is Vortex Razor HD-LHT 4.5-22x50 in Talley MSR rings (the lightest 30mm rings I had on hand).
The bipod is Gunwerks' Elevate.
As shown, the rifle clocked in at 11.7lbs on my scales. I am inclined to not mess with it too much, but if it comes to that, I can mount a somewhat heavier scope without too much trouble, but I am inclined to let it be.
I did a good number of dry presses and live fire with both rifles. One thing that surprised me a little was that the Fix had a smaller wobble zone than the Pursuit. I think I can attribute that to the balance point on the Fix being a little further forward, but some experimentation is in order.
I was definitely shooting better with the Fix, despite the Pursuit being chmabered for a much flatter cartridge. Perhaps, a heavier bipod will shift the balance point sufficiently.
That is one of the advantages of the Fix design: the buttstock, while sturdy and comfortable, is so light that it is very easy to balance. Pursuit's beefy buttstock while comfortable, could use some weight cutting. If I want to ever use this rifle for NRL Hunter's Factory division, I can not make any mods, so I'll do with what I have. If my arithmetic is correct, I could probably get a lightweight Ckye-pod to shift the weight a little forward.
With all that, I am not sure how I feel about trying to game this too much. For now, I'll just shoot the rifle as is and see if I can train my way out of this wobble zone issue with some deliberate practice.
I have to admit that Area 419's muzzle brake is pretty impressive. The rifle is now extremely soft shooting and the muzzle stays down.
The next step for the 6.5PRC is to either buy or work-up some proper match ammo. All I have is Hornady's 143gr ELD-X which shoots pretty well in this gun, but isn't match ammo.
Hornady loads their 147gr ELDM in 6.5PRC, so that is probably the first option to try. Looking at the costs, this might be one of the few calibers I have to reload for.
If I were to go compete with a sub-12lbs rifle today, I think I would still take the 308 Fix despite all the ballistic disadvantages. It is probably just the familiarity factor, but I simply shoot that rifle better. In the future... we'll see how it goes.
