Long way to go

[eagle24]

I had a buddy pick up some targets at Friendship a few weeks ago.  Yesterday, I went out to the range and shot the National Ag targets.  The results were worse than I hoped or expected.  First of all, I could tell right off the bat it was not going to be a great day shooting.  Too much college football the day before and too much coffee before church I guess.  Whatever the cause, I certainly had the jitters.  I started out decent on the 25 yard 6 spot, and the 50 yard big bull.  Not great, but decent.  At least I scored on each of my first 10 shots.  Then I put up the 50 yard 6 spot target.  The first shot was a 9........next four shots were 0's about 1/2" outside the 5 ring.  Is it just me, or is that a tough target?  I went on and shot the 100 yard target.  All 5 shots found paper, but I managed to score only 10 points (2-5's).  Somewhat to my defense, the wind had kicked up pretty good and I had a nice 6" group slightly low and to the right on the 100 yd target.  Oh well......more dry firing this week and give it another go Saturday.

[BrownBear]

I'm not acquainted with the targets, but can offer the following suggestion:

Have you considered shooting the 100 yard targets first?  There may be an issue of fatigue involved, making the toughest targets even tougher.  You might not be able to do that in a match, but during practice for other shooting events I used to gain a lot of confidence points by proving to myself I could beat the tough ones.  Seemed like they weren't nearly so tough after practice sessions had proven I could hit them.

[Roger Fisher]

Don't have a clue how old you are, so we assume you are under 77 years!!
So to many of us you can't blame old age...
Yes, lay off the coffee, and don't surrender.  You are the boss not that rifle in your mitts.  We also assume the rifle 'shoots' and that you have her sighted in and charges, patches ball worked out so you can't blame 'her'! Check those shot patches and make sure they are not 'blowing'!
It boils down to getting used to the old gal and finding out what she wants.

Bottom line, keep at it and practice, practice, practice.  You will find that you will slowly get more skilled with her!

[eagle24]

Don't have a clue how old you are, so we assume you are under 77 years!!
So to many of us you can't blame old age...
Yes, lay off the coffee, and don't surrender.  You are the boss not that rifle in your mitts.  We also assume the rifle 'shoots' and that you have her sighted in and charges, patches ball worked out so you can't blame 'her'! Check those shot patches and make sure they are not 'blowing'!
It boils down to getting used to the old gal and finding out what she wants.

Bottom line, keep at it and practice, practice, practice.  You will find that you will slowly get more skilled with her!

Couple of things.  I have the rifle shooting pretty well at 25 & 50 yards, but actually have not shot it off the bench at 100 yards.  At 50 yards it shoots around 2" with 60, 70, or 80 grains.  Actually not much difference in the group size with any of those loads.  The heavier charges just move the group up a little on the paper.  I shot my 25 yd target with 60 gr, upped it to 70gr for the 50 yd targets, and shot the 100 yd target with 80 gr.  I seemed to be consistently low on my first 4 shots at 100 yds.  I was also slightly right and had a pretty significant left to right breeze while shooting at 100 yds.  I plan to shoot at 100 yds from the bench to see what is happening and know where I need to hold.  That would help huh?

On "blowing patches".  Could you explain what you mean, what causes, and what the effect of "blown patches" is?  I think they are OK.  They are intact with no holes or tears with just a dark gray stain on them.  I did catch a glimpse of an ember out of the barrel on a couple of shots.

[Roger Fisher]

Sure shoot her from the bench!

Your patches sound just fine not shredded, charred, shattered, ripped or even torn whilst starting at the muzzle!!   Effect would be like spritzing the target with a shotgun!!

On the 6 inch bull 8 ring black at 100 yds offhand, if you keep them in the scoring including the white rings your coming along,  if you keep some in the black and rest in the white your now pretty much one of the regulars, if you keep them all in the black your pretty @!*% good at it.   

[eagle24]

Thanks for the info.  Based off the way the rifle shoots at 50 yds, I have a feeling it is shooting pretty well at 100 yds.  I didn't have my sandbags with me yesterday, so I didn't shoot off the bench at 100.  Thing is, I really don't know how where to hold at 100 yards.  If I was anywhere near consistent it was hitting low at 100 yds with 80 grains.  I may need to try a heavier load or adjust my sight picture to show some front sight above the top of the rear.  I used the same sight picture and aiming point at 100 that I was using at 50 with only a 10 gr increase in powder charge.  I'll shoot her off the bench next outing so I know where to hold.  That's gotta help.  Biggest problem I was having at 100 yds was holding steady enough to squeeze the shot off.  Kinda hard to squeeze it when the sight is waving back and forth across the target.

[Daryl]

Everyone's offhand sights are moving acoss the target, back and forth, up and down. One must squeeze off the shot to time the shot onto the target's centre. It matters not if you are shooting a modern Swiss-butted International Match Rifle or a matchlock. Timing is what separates the winners from the also-rans.  The faster the ignition, the easier it is to get the timing right. Much practise will slow the movements and improve accuracy.  Lack of practise, and well, you'll shoot like I do most of the time.