Thursday Shooting

Today, I spent most of the day on a tractor, pulling a shredder on family land.  After mowing for several hours, my eldest son and three grandsons met me and we did a little shooting.  We fine-tuned the eldest grandson's rifle, a Savage Edge in .25-06.  After the final sight-in, he started banging away at the gongs whe have on the 100 yard line.  We also shot my Remington 700 in .308, and a H&R Handi-rifle in .223.  The boys got a great kick out of slapping the gongs with those little .223 slugs.

Then, my son took out a rifle I gave him several years ago.  It's a pump action Remington, the Model 760, in .30-06.  He had a scope on it last year that he couldn't see through, and I gave him a new scope for his birthday, a Redfield Revolution 4-12X scope.  He hadn't sighted the rifle in with the new scope so we posted some dots on the 100 yard line and after several adjustment shots, he managed to find the groove.

That's two shots at a 1" target dot.  The load is one that I like, for several reasons.  Reloder 22 might be considered too slow for the .30-06, but I use that powder for several rifles and I trust it.  Also, I don't believe that you can put enough RL22 into a .30-06 case to get to max pressure for the cartridge.  It pushes that 150 grain Hornady SST to 2700 fps, which isn't a screaming load, but well within the capabilities of the .30-06 when you consider that the standard Garand load at about 2800 fps.  However, this load is very accurate in several rifles I've fired it in, and that Remington 760 likes it a lot.

I've got other loads using faster powders that push that same bullet over 2900 fps, but the simple fact is that the medium game around here won't be able to tell the difference.  This load is great in several rifles, it's easy on brass and it's easy on our shoulders. 

If you're wondering what the little tic-marks on the paper might be, that's all those grandkid bullets coming apart on the gongs.  Evidently, it would be foolish to stand near those gongs when a bullet disintegrates on them.  The shrapnel looks to be pretty intense.