Shoot Accurately with Cheap Ammo

It has not rained today. Hard to believe. I actually got to shoot my Ruger Precision Rifle.

I’ll post the target. I started at the bottom left and went clockwise. I shot 30 rounds.

Things are looking up. That may not be the most impressive target on earth, but I see a big difference since the last time I shot the gun.

The stuff at bottom left generally went into one inch. I think the three outliers are flyers caused by technique failure. I think this gun will shoot sub-MOA with this ammo all day, provided the shooter has it together.

I zeroed the scope as well as I could on the previous outing. It rained, so I was not able to do everything I wanted. Today I decided to move the zero around. That explains the second group (top left), which is still a lot better than I used to shoot with other rifles.

The flyer at right is me adjusting the scope, and the farthest shots to the left were also caused by scope adjustments. That means the rest, fired at the final zero setting, were very close together.

I think the shots that piled into the center of the bullseye on the top right represent the rifle’s actual zero. I was fiddling with technique, and I was getting annoyed with my rear bag. I think that’s why the entire 10-round group takes up so much space.

I love 6.5 Creedmoor. It shoots as well as .17 HMR, but it reaches a lot farther out and kills things like deer and bears. And the recoil is a joke.

While I was in the pasture shooting, I ordered a bigger rear bag. I think it will make things much easier.

The ammunition is wonderful. I bought a lot of it. As mentioned in an earlier post, a Youtuber with a Ruger Precision Rifle shot it into a small gong, over and over, at 656 yards, so I have a lot of faith in it. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong when I take the gun to a longer shooting lane.

I’m learning more about long-range shooting. I learned that an expert’s advice was not very good.

I bought a book by Ryan Cleckner, a former sniper who teaches people to shoot. I also watched him on Youtube. In a video, he provided his method for aligning a scope’s reticle with a rifle. Most scopes have flat surfaces on their undersides, and many rifles have flat surfaces on top of them. Cleckner says to stick a rectangular object between the scope and rifle so both are pressing against it. This aligns the rifle’s top surface and the scope’s bottom surface.

Problem: it doesn’t align the reticle with anything. Not accurately, anyway.

Scope manufacturers don’t align their reticles perfectly with the housings of their scopes. Some have tolerances of up to 3°. If you’re shooting at a target 1000 yards off, your bullet will drop maybe 30 feet. Thirty feet times the sine of 3° is about 19″. That means you can be aiming 19″ to the side of your intended impact point. That’s a big deal.

I don’t think this applies when you’re using your turrets to change your point of aim, but I can see how it would be a problem if you were using your reticle. Or maybe I’m wrong. Are the little things inside scopes that move reticles really aligned with the reticles? Now my head hurts.

I am amazed that a person who holds himself out to be an expert would drop the ball like that, but I shouldn’t be. Am I saying I know more than he does? No. I got the information about scope reticle tolerances from other experts, and I have concluded, tentatively, that they know more than he does.

Maybe I’ll read something tomorrow that will convince me he’s right. That would be nice, because otherwise, I have to get some of my scopes leveled. I don’t think it will matter for .17 HMR, because it pretty much dies before it drops 20 inches, but it could be worth the trouble for .204 Ruger, .223, and .308.

In his book, he says he doesn’t believe in rifle levels. He says he has no faith in them because they may have more internal error than the people and equipment they’re supposed to help. Maybe that’s a gadget I can forgo.

I don’t know the answers. Right now, I just want to be able to hit a gong 900 yards away on the first try with every one of my high-powered rifles. Surely I should be able to gather enough sound advice to get to that point, even if the people I listen to aren’t right about everything.

Whatever. I now have a very nice shooting platform that blocks most of the sun and rain, I have a good deal of cheap, accurate ammo, and I have my rifle set up well enough to hit a few things. Onward and upward.