G’Day all,
After my 2nd only 500m fly match last weekend, I was struggling to see my 6mm bullet holes with my NF12-42x BR scope and 32x Bushnell spotting scope. I have done some thinking and want to ask the 500m fly shooting community about the gear they use
•Which make and models of spotting scope are preferred on the firing line today, and are they good enough to see 6mm holes at 500m?
•Which larger bore cartridges are popular in LG. if I chamber a new barrel it will be fitted to a LBRP Panda (no ejector) I was thinking 284W with 162amax might fit the bill.
Any suggestions and help offered will be greatly appreciated
Cheerio Geoff
I was at that Fly Shoot too, and seeing bullet holes at 500meters was very difficult. My rifle had a 36-55x March on it, the spotter used a Leupold LCS 45x, and we also had access to a Nightforce 12-42x. None of them were able to handle the murk.
In fact the only optical device that was much good was a bloke's very expensive Carl Zeiss spotting scope. We could just see 30 cal holes, but my 6.5's were still difficult.
Considering that the bullet's flight is some 30 feet (and maybe more) above the deck at Little River, the ground mirage is not a factor.
Bigger bullet holes maybe?
Geoff
Buy a .338 Lapua.
Then again, I some times have Problems seeing them at 500m, with my eyes.
Max
Yep, That's one of the magics of the 500m Fly shoot. It "demands" that you see your bullet holes if possible. Without seeing holes you are shooting blind. That pushes people towards larger calibres (30 or even 338).
On those perfect days you can actually see 6mm holes and if it meant nothing to see where your shots are then we would all be shooting some version of a 6mm cartridge which is otherwise ideal for the distance including reduced recoil.
Probably why 30cal is the most popular now in "the Fly". Part of effective strategy. As you can imagine the soup sight picture here in Brisbane this time of year for the SE QLD Fly shoot last Monday was difficult. There were a couple of times I could not see my 30 cal holes through my 8x-80x (which I mostly had set at 50x or 60x for this event). Luckily this only lasted 30 seconds at most.
Better quality optics in scopes or spotting scopes helps for sure but only a little bit. The law of diminishing returns comes into play. Naturally there are limits to what any optics can do when the mirage is bad. Usually the worst sight picture occurs when there are different wind directions across the field at the same time and therefore different moisture movement directions and most of those are in the out of focus (or depth of field) area of the scope. So high magnification in this situation can be a disadvantage but whilst lower magnification helps improve this it often does not have the resolving power to still see bullet holes so...... still no win. Just have to wait till the air "clears" to get a quick view.
Like I said one of the many "magics" of Fly. It's always a lot of fun but very hard to shoot consistant good scores.
Stuart
Annie & Stuart Elliott
www.benchrest.com.au
Hi Seb
I have done exactly what you have been pondering, moved from 6mmbr to a straight 284 winchester. Went with 180berger VLDs with reloader 17 to stay in light class also trying 162 A -max. when I get time. Shane Clancey built my rifle on a barnard long action. Talk to Shane he is a wealth of information.
Cheers
Glen
gma223