This was my third time out to a new-to-me section of this BLM area. The West side of the area, where I have been shooting for over 10 years, has been closed to shooting because of the construction of a border fence over the hill that acts as a backstop (more information here: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df9nfd5d_78gv2593cq). The East side is relatively rugged and does not have a wide, open, gently sloping hillside like the West. On my first couple outings to this area the intermediate ridges which run north-south between the access road and mountainside blocked target placement and limited shooting to between 2-300 meters. The mountainside visible beyond the intermediate ridge is around 700m away. Target placement at 200m and then skipping to 700m was not what I was ideally looking for. There is a creek bed that shows promise, though, as it looks to provide a cut through the ridges allowing long range shooting to 800 meters with target placement possible at 100m intervals. If this worked out that would allow me to shoot 400 meters further than I could shoot on the West side. I planned to check out this area and set out targets at 100 meter intervals to 500 or 600 meters.
I set up my shooting position on the left side of the creek bed looking towards the mountainside and began range finding to set target locations. 100m was easy to locate along the right side of the creek bed bank before the intermediate ridge cut-through. A 200m location was a little harder to find. Ideally I wanted to keep the targets somewhat aligned on a bearing all the way out to 800m, spread no more than 10-15 degrees so I wouldn't have to radically rotate my prone shooting position and spotting scope to line up on them. The lay of the land wouldn't cooperate for 200m. The creek bed cut through the intermediate ridge about 125m from my position. Beyond the cut through the ground fell away into a valley running north-south intersecting with the creek bed running east-west. 200m on my desired radial would have been on the creek bed floor, but the height of the cut through blocked this. On the left the next clear view of the creek bed bank was ranging at 280m. I had to range along the intermediate ridge line to the right (south) to find a 200m location. This would make my target spread about 20 degrees, and I would have to rotate my shooting position quite a bit to get on the 200m target location. 300m was easy, a relatively open area on the left (north) side of the creek bed bank, and a large boulder marked 400m exactly. I ranged spots for 5, 6, 7, and 800m but was running out of time to set up those targets, as I had spent more than half the day shooting handguns and siting-in rifles at 100 yards with friends who came out with me.
I packed my load-bearing "A" frame with metal targets, strapped it on my back and headed out. It was about 1445 and I knew I would only have a few more hours before the sun started to set. My friends were going to leave, so with no spotting help I brought out larger metal plates in addition to my swingers. These would allow me to make hits and see marks to make corrections. I set up the 4 and 6 inch round swinger frame and a 10 inch square at 300m and a 6 and 8 inch round swinger frame and a 12 inch square at 400m. I arrived back to the shooting position at about 1530 just in time to say goodbye to my friend. I had staked in an "Ivan" at 200m earlier in the day and had already made hits on it with my 1953 Hungarian M52 with a Chinese code 833 PU type scope using Sellier & Bellot 174gr HPBT Sierra Match Kings. I had swapped out the 2000m 14.5mm BDC range drum for a 1300m 7.62 x54R PU BDC and was eager to further test this setup. I had the Ivan at about 210m and was having to hold a loose 6 O'clock with a bit of gap to hit with the BDC set at 200m. I was holding a quarter target's width right for wind, keeping the windage setting at zero to feel out the conditions. I was dealing with a 90 degree full-value right to left wind blowing 10-15mph (5-7m/s) and gusting to 20mph (10m/s). It was never blowing steady or consistent-- this was going to be a challenge at the longer ranges.
I started on the 10 inch square plate at 300m. I set scope elevation at the 3 mark and dialed in a 1/4 mil right windage that would be 7.5cm or 3 inches and took a center hold. The first shot looked like it went over the top of the target on the left side. A bottom right corner hold gave a hit on the top left corner. I continued with a few more hits on the plate and then went for the 6 inch swinger. I did not make any more scope setting corrections, and just using hold adjustments made a couple of hits on the left edge of the 1/2 inch thick steel circle. It was difficult because I was trying to hold at an imaginary spot down and right of the target. In hindsight I should have went ahead and fine tuned the scope settings to achieve consistent hits on the 6 inch swinger and moved on from there. But I was running out of daylight and decided to push forward and try the 400m 12 inch plate. I dialed a bit more right windage in to a 1/2 mil, moved the elevation to the 4 mark, and held about six inches right of the bottom right corner. First shot was a hit just left of center and high. I took another shot and confirmed then made an elevation adjustment to just a line's width under the 4 mark. This brought the elevation to near perfect center height hits on the 12 inch plate. Feeling confident, I went for the 8 inch circle swinger, taking a loose 6 O'clock hold off to the right, and made 2 out of 3 solid center hits. I tried some more on the swinger but could not hit again with the wind playing havoc. Having such near misses I could not tell how I should correct, so I went back to the 12 inch plate and hit it each time. For a repeatability check I went back to the 300m targets and made more hits on the 10 inch plate and put a round through the hanger just above the 6 inch swinger. Time was running out and I had to put the rifle away and retrieve the targets while I still had some light.
Lessons learned: I should have given myself more time because while shooting I was feeling stressed about how much sunlight I had left to collect the targets. Also, my shooting position was sloped too much making me feel like I was sliding backwards away from the rifle and tensing my body positioning and affecting my steadiness. In addition I should have went ahead and made the small scope windage and elevation adjustments that would have given me a better visual target hold. These were all things I was aware of while I was doing them but feeling the time crunch I just "went with what I had" because I was making hits, but all the while feeling I could have done better. I am used to shooting at the longer ranges in places that are wide open such as across part of a valley and up a hillside-- with all targets exposed to the same wind. With my 300m target down between two creek bed banks and somewhat shielded to the wind compared to the 400m target that was up on the open mountainside slope I really need to evaluate and adjust windage separately from one target to the next. I am glad that I put out the larger steel plates. Having a target that is roughly three times the distance's hundreds digit is just about right for these rifles, especially without having a spotter. So a 10 inch at 300m, 12 inch at 400m worked so good that I am planning on placing an 18 inch at 500 and 600m and 24 inch at 700 and 800m (the metal supply store does not have them in 9, 15, or 21 inch sizes off the shelf). To challenge myself on these I will paint minute of angle size circles and strive to hit center on them. Also, I need to add a waist belt to that load bearing "A" frame because carrying all the weight on my shoulders is almost too much! I felt good about the performance of the Chinese scoped M52. The sight settings are consistent with my Russian PU rifles at the same ranges using the same ammunition.
YouTube video is up! See video sidebar to right-- it is labeled M52 Sniper Range Day 03NOV2008. I will also try to use the slideshow function to show some stills.
Safe shooting, John
