The right gun for the right yardage

G

gabe ledesma

Member
I predict that about 90% if not more of benchaholics ( bench rest shooters ) own more than just one benchgun, I personally own 3 and got one more in the making. If this is the case than why is it that I see more shooters using only one gun for 100 and 200 range shooting? I have seen many posts talking about tuning there guns at 200 while others like tuning at 100. The reason I am asking this is beacus back when I made my own bullets i did extensive testing at 100 and 200 yards. I proved to myself time after time that my bullets with that load would shoot better at 200 yards. This is where my score would suffer,because knowing that this gun would shoot good at 200 I kept using it at 100 also. This year i am going to change things a little, I am going to tune up 2 guns both guns being light guns,one for 100 and one for 200. Are some of you out there having better scores using 2 guns instead of one?
 
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In terms of vertical compensation, if the gun is in tune at one yardage, it is not in tune for any other yardage. Let's say we are tuned at 100 yards for perfect compensation, which means that slow bullets hit the target at exactly the same elevation on target as fast bullets. Beyond 100 and out to 200 yards, the slow bullets will drop farther than the fast ones, causing vertical dispersion. If you are going to tune at only one yardage, it is better to do it at 200, because vertical dispersion in fast and slow bullets at 100 yards for them to have zero dispersion at 200 is less than the dispersion at 200 of bullets perfectly compensated at 100.

Now horizontal dispersion is another story. If we minimize this at one yardage, it tends to be minimized at all yardages.
 
Dusty Stevens said:
If it shoots good at 100 itll shoot good at 200.
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Dusty, at one time, I would have agreed with you on this because it seems to make sense but I now know it isn't the case. Here we are talking about extreme accuracy with a good shooting benchrest rifle in 100 and 200 yd group shooting.

After much study and experimenting, I am now certain that the rifle must be tuned to the specific yardage in order to take advantage of what is known as positive compensation. A good barrel tuner that can be easily and quickly adjusted at the firing line makes this simple and easy.

My writing skills leave a lot to be desired. Mike Sharp (MKS) does a much better job of explaining. :eek:

My experience has been only with short range group shooting so I can't speak for long range ballistics but I assure you that at 100 and 200 yds, the rifle must be tuned to the specific yardage.

Gene Beggs
 
If a rifle will shoot well at 200 yards, it will shoot well at 100 and 600 yards. I know that this will cause much indigestion among long range shooters, but that is my experience. I shoot a 600 yard match once a month during the summer months with my 6 Dasher. Since I don't have a 600 yard range on which to practice, I zero at 100 yards and crank in 11 inches of elevation and go to the match. I have done okay at 600 using this method. Also, I weigh all of my charges for 600 yards and check the standard deviation and try to avoid loads with too much spread in velocity. Loads with large SD's will show a great deal of vertical at 600 yards. I use the same rifle at 100/200 but I screw in a 6PPC barrel for the short range stuff. The sd is not nearly as important at the short ranges. Good shooting...James
 

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Ive even heard people say they change to a different style of bullet (flat base or BT) from 100 to 200. I hope everybody changes everything between yardages- guns, scopes, powder, bullets- everything
 
Maybe that is what a hummer barrel is,a barrel that can stabilize a given bullet at 1-2 or 3 hundred yards. I don't have one ,but I do have a few that shoot exceptionaly well. One thing I did not mention also was that on my new gun I will add a tuner. What sucks about our range is that it only has 100 yards max. In order to tune my guns at 200 I need to drive 60 miles to the Sacramento shooting range. I don't have any of my own bullets anymore so I will try some hottenstiens and Bart's BT. Hopefully I can get my guns tuned in time for the cactus Classic this year.
 
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It is true that if a rifle will shoot well at 200 yards, it will shoot well at 100 and 600 yards …. IF SD IS SMALL. If not, then you may not be able to see the difference at 100, but at 600 it can be disastrous.
 
gabe ledesma said:
What sucks about our range is that it only has 100 yards max.
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You can tune for 200 by shooting at 100. Use a bullet trajectory program to calculate the rise at 100 for a zero at 200 for a range of muzzle velocities. Using ladder tests over a chronograph, tune until the slow bullets hit the 100 yard target higher by an amount that matches the trajectory program.
 
What Gene Beggs said. Just because you tuned your rifle for 200 yds on a given day, does not translate to a solid 200 tune or even 100 yd tune on match day a week or even a day later. Also, just because your rifle shot well enough to win @ 100 yds on a given day, does not mean that you will be in tune @ 200 yds on the same day. Tuners rock.

Rick
 
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