...while I shot my best ever 100 yard 3 shot group today, with my ClarkArms .50 cal
Here's my cumbersome set-up, on the back deck

So we have the boom-box, to keep the neighbours happy, and the new bench, and even a padded seat.....
Well I started this session just as the sun ducked down behind the hill, with more wind than I would have liked in my valley range. My objective was to test out some .308 slugs that a friend had cast, which were looking particularly promising. But the wind was pushing them around and I decided to abandon that particular quest, and have a play with the .50 cal instead, thinking that the heavy slugs would be less wind-affected. Well, my first shot was wild, and I figured it may have clipped the side of the boom-box on the way out, so I did some adjustments and fired again. The slug landed about 4 3/4" down from the POA and 1 1/2' to the right, near the next bullseye down and amongst a couple of .308 holes I had shot earlier. I didn't adjust the elevation and windage, I just fired again and noticed no real change in the hole. I wasn't sure if I had hit somewhere else on the target board (no stray shots were evident) so I fired again. Still no real change in the size of the hole, so I moved on and shot 2 more groups, one at 1.7" ctc and the other at 2.28" ctc. It wasn't until I retrieved the target that I realised that those initial 3 shots had fallen very nicely, 2 of them almost into the same hole at the bottom of the group (note also the .308 hole at the top right from the earlier shots)

I was still sceptical (not of the gun but of my shooting), so I returned to the target board with a chisel and screwdriver and dug out this mass of fused lead

Still sceptical, I tried to weigh it but it maxed out the scales, so I cut it in half with the bolt cutters and sure enough, it weighed in at just over 980 grains, so taking into account the loss a some hunks of lead digging it out, there were 3 big slugs in there for sure
The group measured in at .316" ctc ( .817 edge to edge...the slugs are sized to .501)

I'm still pinching myself.....I feel like all my Christmas's have come at once My friend from ClarkArms has made a beauty!

Cheers
Neil



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2009 08:54AM by neilmcp.

Congrats Neil! Awesome shooting!

Awesome shooting Neil! I guess the gophers have someone else to be worried about.

Way to go Neil! Excellent shooting. Looks like you even measured a bit wide outside to outside. That's a spectacular group. From the first ... I knew that slug would fly. It's similar to a very good slug of mine - so I suspected it would have excellent flight characteristics.

The bench sure did it's part. That's what you have to do to get the trophy groups.

Great post. Thanks!

Gary

Neil,

That may be one of the best ever recorded. Nice!

Lon

Thanks guys. Quite a buzz for me on my first serious 100 yard hit-out with this gun

Neil, that is very impressive! I've never heard of a tiny group like that at 100 yards with the bigbore. And who says bigbore airgun can't be super accurate? Your gun and ammo is more accurate than most custom centerfired deer rifles. Good job!

Thank you Peter, I'm still pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming!

I think you will find that the Maestro (Gary) has done better, and Jerry is right up there too.... have a look in the Target Trophy Lodge on this forum.....interesting that some of the best groups happen on used targets. I wonder, is that Murphy's Law of Ballistics??

Cheers

Neil.

I don't know about you but clean targets make me nervous!

Hehehe Jerry
By the way, I need to correct one small detail in my original post. I wrote on the photo that the slug was 323 grain but that should have read "332". I put my error down to temporary numeric dyslexia brought on by excitement
Which reminds me of the story about the agnostic dyslexic insomniac who laid awake all night wondering if there really was a Dog
Cheers
Neil

hahah. Funny.

However; there is most likely a specialist for that exact thing. hehe

Gary

You're right Neil. I just saw the trophy groups shot by Jerry and Gary, they are spectacular bigbore groups at 100 yards. You can literally hit the fly at 100 yards with it! Very impressive.