In less than 2 weeks, NC 100 Yard BR will have its first match at the Camp Butner facility.
I have no official position with the club, just been a member since 1996. But it occurred to me that a forum such as this allows for more communication than any simple website, so I'm going to start, at least, allowing us competitors to prepare for the match. Chime in if you can help in any way. But if all you've got is complaints, please start a new thread. I'm going to use my BR Central moderator position to keep this one thread useful; I will delete unhelpful posts.
Personal comfort:
At Hawks Ridge, we had covered cleaning benches, chairs, and a covered firing line. Not available yet at Butner. I'd plan on bringing a cleaning table if you need one, and a chair to sit on. You can clean rifles out of the back of a pickup truck, but it is not exactly fun. If you have a small awning or other shade, might want to bring that too, to keep rifles and ammunition out of the sun. (Anyboy with Butner experience on this one, let us know).
No food, no drinks. Plan on bringing your own. Maybe throw some extras in for the guy or gal who forgot.
Getting on target:
We won't have the bank with clay pigeons for initial sighting in. The target backers will be a bit bigger than the target, and the pits are in communication with the firing line, but you know how it is. The club left whatever big eyes it may have owned at Hawks Ridge. If anybody has big eyes, or even a good spotting scope on a full-size, stand-up tripod, it would help if you brought them.
For any first-time shooters, if you don't have a 1,000 yard zero, we can try to improve the odds before you get to the range. If you tell me the caliber, muzzle velocity, bullet weight, ballistic coefficient, and scope height above the bore, I'll run the numbers to estimate how to get a 1,000 yard zero using a 100 yard target. Post & answers on this thread, so anybody else using similar numbers can see the estimates.
Essentially, you're going to want to have the bullet somewhere from 23 to 28 inches (MOA) high at 100 yards. But that's a 5 MOA spread. 5 MOA equals 50 inches at 1,000 yards, so if we can refine that for anybody, it would be a plus. If you don't have good data on MV or BC, shoot at 100 yards and get the bullet to strike 25 inches above your aiming point.
Setting up & cleaning up.
I believe most of the "skill" needs have been met. But there will just be a lot of manual labor needed. If you can get there early & generally help out, let someone know.
We absolutely cannot leave until the range is clean. If not very many people help, the few who do will get home quite late, and not in a happy frame of mind. Dunno about you, but I've always tried to stay on the good side of a man or woman with a long-range rifle who knows how to shoot.
Charles Ellertson
I have no official position with the club, just been a member since 1996. But it occurred to me that a forum such as this allows for more communication than any simple website, so I'm going to start, at least, allowing us competitors to prepare for the match. Chime in if you can help in any way. But if all you've got is complaints, please start a new thread. I'm going to use my BR Central moderator position to keep this one thread useful; I will delete unhelpful posts.
Personal comfort:
At Hawks Ridge, we had covered cleaning benches, chairs, and a covered firing line. Not available yet at Butner. I'd plan on bringing a cleaning table if you need one, and a chair to sit on. You can clean rifles out of the back of a pickup truck, but it is not exactly fun. If you have a small awning or other shade, might want to bring that too, to keep rifles and ammunition out of the sun. (Anyboy with Butner experience on this one, let us know).
No food, no drinks. Plan on bringing your own. Maybe throw some extras in for the guy or gal who forgot.
Getting on target:
We won't have the bank with clay pigeons for initial sighting in. The target backers will be a bit bigger than the target, and the pits are in communication with the firing line, but you know how it is. The club left whatever big eyes it may have owned at Hawks Ridge. If anybody has big eyes, or even a good spotting scope on a full-size, stand-up tripod, it would help if you brought them.
For any first-time shooters, if you don't have a 1,000 yard zero, we can try to improve the odds before you get to the range. If you tell me the caliber, muzzle velocity, bullet weight, ballistic coefficient, and scope height above the bore, I'll run the numbers to estimate how to get a 1,000 yard zero using a 100 yard target. Post & answers on this thread, so anybody else using similar numbers can see the estimates.
Essentially, you're going to want to have the bullet somewhere from 23 to 28 inches (MOA) high at 100 yards. But that's a 5 MOA spread. 5 MOA equals 50 inches at 1,000 yards, so if we can refine that for anybody, it would be a plus. If you don't have good data on MV or BC, shoot at 100 yards and get the bullet to strike 25 inches above your aiming point.
Setting up & cleaning up.
I believe most of the "skill" needs have been met. But there will just be a lot of manual labor needed. If you can get there early & generally help out, let someone know.
We absolutely cannot leave until the range is clean. If not very many people help, the few who do will get home quite late, and not in a happy frame of mind. Dunno about you, but I've always tried to stay on the good side of a man or woman with a long-range rifle who knows how to shoot.
Charles Ellertson
