The Santa Margarita Gun Club held an Open Practice event at Camp Pendleton MCB Wilcox Range 103 this weekend. I took my Eliseo R5 6mmBR gun and finally got the opportunity to get a 600 yard (and 300 yard) zero for this rifle.
Using JBM to calculate the ballistic drop, I went with the information that I would need about 12 MOA of elevation from my 200 yard zero to 600 yards. So moving my front sight 2 notches (~5.5 MOA per notch) and my rear sight 4 clicks (1/4 MOA clicks) to get the 12 MOA, my very first shot with the R5 at 600 yards was a solid 10 at 7 o’clock. I proceeded to shoot 21 more rounds to simulate a 22 round 600 yard slow fire stage of fire.
Here is the resulting target (shot holes pasted):
Suffice it to say, this gun shoots great. Aside from shot 2 of 22 (8 at 12 o’clock), shot 7 of 22 (9 at 9 o’clock), and shot 22 of 22 (8 at 6 o’clock). This target reflects a 197-8x score. Not bad. Not bad at all.
The above photo is of the original magazines that came with my R5 kit, plus another pair of magazines I ordered a couple months back from Gary Eliseo. It looks like he changed the followers from metal to plastic. The new plastic design doesn’t tip forward like the metal design. It’s a lot easier to load. I’ll have to test these out at the range sometime.
Jim Laietta
Jonathan,
Could you share the load data? I just shot my R5, for the first time, this weekend at a local ATC match. Rifle is an Eliseo R5, 6mmBR action from Pierce Engineering, 29″ Krieger med/palmer 1:8, Right Sight & Phoenix Precision. Shot a 190 5X at the 300 yard slow fire stage. BUT the rapid fire was another story. I watched your video several times and did a lot of practicing – still had trouble cycling the bolt without moving my right arm off the mat. Any suggestions? Is it LOP?
Jim
ocabj
Jim,
I never really got serious with my R5 (still on a hiatus from High Power). So I can’t really help you with the bolt manipulation in sitting and prone. But what I was told to do was to setup your match rifle (e.g. LOP, stock camber, handstop) while not wearing a shooting jacket. Supposedly this will keep things pure as far as getting the correct setup for your body.
I just tried to locate some sample videos on youtube of rapid fire prone with a bolt gun and I’m amazed that none exist. Everything is with a semi-auto service rifle. Hopefully someone with established shooting skills (e.g. Tubb, Bernosky, Gallagher, DeMille) takes the time to post one (or someone posts one of them).
As far as load data, I have to go back to my notes, but I’m 99% sure I used 29.5gr Varget behind a 107gr Sierra Match King with Lapua brass and CCI BR4 (and would switch with Wolf SRM now). That was pushing right around 2900fps in my 26″ barrel.
Jim Laietta
Jonathan,
That helped quite a bit. I learned ATC by watching your video’s over and over and modeling my discipline from what I could observe. My RRA NMA4 is a great rifle and I moved up quickly in my classification. But Like all things I wanted more. Last year at the Eastern Creedmoor Cup, I watched lots of competitors with T2K rifles. After some research I hooked up with Gary Eliseo and Ted Pierce. Now I need to get committed to the R5. Can’t go back at this point.
Any… many thanks.
Jim