With the warmer weather here, my buddy, nephew and brother- inlaw and myself went to the range yesterday. I took my new encore with the 7mm-08 barrel and the 209x50 mag barrel. Mounted a new scope for my buddy on his savage 110 in 308. He got a new bushnell banner dusk to dawn 3x9x40. Got that going for him and he was busy sighting that in. I got out my encore and my brother in law showed up. We put a new simmons 3x9x50 on his remington 742 in 30-06 and put the simmons 3x9x40 he had on th eremington on his traditions tracker and bore sighted them so he could site in again. My 12 year old nephew was there also with the new Rossi combo 20 gauge/22lr in youth. Plus he brought the cva sidelock his Grandfather got him for Christmas also. Well they all got shooting and having fun. Since I am the guy with the toys such as tools and a boresighter, I spent most of my time getting them going. When I got to shoot, I shot the 7-08 barrel with handloads of sierra game king 140 grain bullets with 52 grains of Imr 4895. At 50 yards which was where I started, the three shot group was just under an inch. I switched barrels and started with the 50 caliber. I should mention both have the Bushnell Banner 3x9x40 dusk to dawn scope on them. I played with some pyrodex and different bullets such as 295 power belts 200 grain and 240 grain bulets in Hornady sabots. I could not concentrate as well as I like due to helping out others and working some with my nephew. The best I could get was about 3 inch groups at 50 yards with 100 grains of loose pyrodex and 240 grain bullets in Hornady sabots. Next time I go to the range I will work up a good load for it when I can take my time and be a bit more meticulous about it. Either way I had a lot of fun shooting and joking and a lot of ribbing. Oh yeah also my buddy brought a small grill and some venison to cook. So all in all I had a blast hanging with friends and family. Happy New Year to everyone. Only 4 months to Turkey season.
