Well, my son Hampton took the Rifle Merit Badge at Scout Camp this summer, and did well. In fact, he was the first Scout to qualify during his camp week. He qualified as soon as they let the boys attempt, which was on day 3, and qualified on his first attempt. Anyway, he put 5 groups of 5 on the paper, and "qualifying" was each group could be covered by a quarter. Most of his could be covered by a dime. So he comes home all excited and starts talking about getting out the rifle I got him a couple of years ago, scoping it up, and heading to the range. Not one to waste opportunity (especially after several years of disinterest on his part) we started in immediately. Mounted the scope one night, loaded ammo another night, and headed to the range Saturday afternoon after helping another Scout with his Eagle Project.
To give some background, Hampton is left-eye dominant, and shoots left-handed because of it. I ran up on a Browning A-Bolt II Micro Hunter in a southpaw configuration, chambered in 270WSM, a few years back and bought it. I picked up a Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x40 for $135 from Midway on closeout when those were discontinued, as well. So we set all that up for him. Then we proceeded to load up some H4895 reduced loads, putting 40gr powder under a 110gr Hornady BTHP. I have some Accubonds for hunting rounds, but these cheap Hornadys are great for the range.
Here he is at the range:
I forgot my front rest, so we were using a bag I keep in the shooting box, and it was a little low. He made do, however. In fact, his first group at 50yds was the bottom group on this target:
I have to brag a bit, as he's never shot anything other than a 22lr (though a lot of that) and nothing but iron sights before this range trip. His first three shots with a centerfire rifle, through a scope, and he gets a group right over 1.5MOA for the distance. The upper group on that target are shots 4-6, with the target moved to 100, and the scope adjusted. He's feeling pretty good at this point, as we were aiming for 2MOA or better. I am chronoing the loads and they're a about 100fps slower than I expected, hitting 2400fps instead of 2500. But they're consistent, and he's not at all bothered by the recoil. He plinks some with his 22lr bolt gun while the barrel on the Browning is cooling (it was not a cool day at the range, being 87deg here in Alabama in July), and I work through some 243Win, 30-30WCF, 300Wby, and 270Wby work I need to get done. He alternates shooting the rimfire and his Browning rifle, shooting several groups in the 1-1.5MOA range. I'm pretty impressed. And I'm frustrated about my 270Wby, but that's another story. May have a bad scope. If so, Minox is on my crap list. One more range trip should prove or disprove the value of that brand to me. But it's a good day, as the IMR7828 loads I worked up for the 300'bee (since I can't get H1000 right now) are making nice triangles, albeit about 1.5MOA, but perfect triangles, telling me I can tighten them with some COL tweaking. And velocities are humming. Like, I stopped at the mid-load of my workup, because I was getting 3300fps with 180gr E-Tips. No pressure signs, but I figured the next step up might very well give sign, and I'll wait until a cool morning at the range to try them out. I can't imagine anything in the world except the Big 5, and the big bears, which would not be handled mightily with a 180gr E-Tip leaving my barrel at 3300fps.
So, it's close to the end of the day, we've shot a bunch, and we're tired. My son says he wants to shoot one more group with his Browning, and he knocks out a 3MOA mess. He's ticked off. I tell him he's tired, and he's already shot maybe 25rds, and his shoulder may be feeling it a bit. He says, "I can't leave on that group. Three more rounds?" I oblige him, of course. He gets settled in, takes a couple of breaths, and proceeds to go through his three shots. I'm spotting, and just telling him, "Looks good. Send another one." Not trying to sway him either way, but keep him confident. After shot number three I'm about to pop, because he pounded out this for his swan song:
So, all in all a very good day at the range. He's already on me to go back. I'm working on figuring out when we can schedule that.