I'm due to go fallow hunting on Saturday as a warm up to a few days hunting down south in Victoria chasing the big sambar deer. The rifle of choice is my Tikka T3 Lite Stainless in 9.3x62, better known as "The Judge". It's a nice rifle and now has some Warne rings on it courtesy of a mate who gave them to me as a birthday present after we discovered the cheap alloy factory rings had actually cracked! I'll post a pic of them later.
 
Anyhow, my mate fitted the rings and bore sighted the 2-7x32 I have on the rifle and I finally got out to test it on Tuesday afternoon. The bore sighting job was a really good one as can be seen below:

 
The first shot hit pretty much dead centre and only 1" low. Since I intended to put it about +2"@100m for a 170yd zero I wound it up 2.5 clicks. That produced a +3" shot so I wound it back about three 3/4 clicks and it printed 2.25" high. Quite sufficient for me.
 
I figured since I was there I'd place a target out at about 220yds and see where it would hit. I was dismayed to find it had dropped alot:

 
As much as 6" down at 220yds. I hummed and hawed and decided to do some maths when I got home. I discovered then even with a reduced velocity to what I'd thought it still was really low.
 
So tomorrow will see me back out there, this time with a friend's chrono, to see where it's printing and what the average velocity is. I may not change anything. Sambar are an up close hunt and 150yds is along way to shoot for one of them. But fallow can be up to 300yds and I want to know why it was so low. I also want to be sure that it was 220yds that I was shooting at on the long shot, not a touch further, so the range finder will also take a trip.

While I remember I want to send out a HUGE thankyou to the NSW Game Council. I'm completely shocking at renewing my hunting licence and suddenly realised today that it had run out and I needed it for Saturday morning. I rang them when I got home and was told they couldn't guarantee anything due to a pile of applications they'd just received at a recent gun show. They'd do their best to have them ready by 5pm tomorrow afternoon. So I printed out the forms, filled them in, scanned and emailed them hoping for the best. There was the familiar little "new email" beep on my smart phone at 4:52 and I glanced at it to see my form processed an temporary papers for the weekend!!
 
Not only did they get it done, they did it in about half an hour. This isn't my first positive experience with the Game Council. They did the same about a year back when I needed my licence renewed then. In a country where law abiding gun owners and hunters feel like second class citizens and are subjected to all sorts of deliberate bureaucratic hurdles and delay it is refreshing to have such prompt and willing service from what is essentially a government body.

"Factory" ammo, right?

Paul

No. goodness me, no!
Just very mild.

How mild? What is your load? And what is your -7x32 scope?

I have to give a big thumbs up to the Game Council too. I renewed my R Licence ahead of time but didn't recieve anything in the mail. After contacting them they said they had not recieved anything from me. It turns out the fax machine at work was not working properly, (govt. employee:p), so no corrospondence was going out.
Anyway after emailing everything to the Game Council they sorted it out in double quick time. I'm very happy with the service. :D

I was looking back in some old threads and found this from Gitano:

According to QuickLoad, the 232 Oryx, ahead of a full charge of ADI 2208 out of a 24" barrel and sighted in for a 6" target, yields:

Muzzle Velocity - 2650 f/s
Muzzle Energy - 3617 ft-lbs
Zero Range - 216 yds
3" low at 253 yds
300 meter drop - 13"
300 meter energy - 1708 ft-lbs

Using the Nosler 285 Partition, (the 9.3 bullet with the best BC according to QL), and 85% of case capacity of ADI 2219:

Muzzle Velocity - 2315 f/s
Muzzle Energy - 3402 ft-lbs
Zero Range - 200 yds
3" low at 235 yds
300 meter drop - 16"
300 yd drop - 11"
300 meter energy - 2100 ft-lbs
300 yd Energy - 2200 ft-lbs

Paul

And

And here are the figures for a 270gr Speer Semi Spitzer with 59gr load of AR2208:

Muzzle Velocity - 2440 f/s
Muzzle Energy - 3569 ft-lbs
Zero Range - 200 yds
3" low at 235 yds
300 yd drop - 10.5"
300 yd Energy - 1933 ft-lbs

Good luck with the hunt, i suspect we can expect a write up and pic's in Aus Outdoors.

looking forward to a good hunting story from ya, with dead animals!!!! God speed buddy!!! God Bless.

My question was in the context of maybe the muzzle velocities weren't quite what the factory said they were.

The fact that it is shooting where you point it is the real 'thing'. Adjustments can be made for range, IF you have shot it at the ranges you intend to hunt out to, and know where it hits at those ranges.

Best of luck on your hunts!

Paul

My load is actually 270gr Speer Semi Spitzer with 56.5gr of AR2208 out of a 22" bbl.
I guestimated it at around 2250fps after some more thought.
And by the ballistics calculator that's bang on.
Zero is about 165yds.
The scope is a Leupold VX-1 2-7x32.
After I return from Victoria I'll be making a hotter load though.
Turns out I won't have the chrono this afternoon.
My friend headed out to Sydney this morning and I forgot to pick it up from his place last night!
Anyhow, the emphasis is on knowing exactly where it's hitting at 100m.
I can allow from there.
The weather isn't looking good though.
It rained this morning and has been blowing.
I'd imagine a 270gr pill would buck the wind better than something faster and lighter but.
But the combination of the change from the Lynx 1.75-5x20 in factory alloy rings to the Leupold 2-7x32 in Warne steel rings has made a noticeable accuracy improvement.
I think it's time to get a half decent scope for my 8x57.
Mount and rings are good but the scope is horrid.
In fact, I may take it out and put one or 2 round through it this afternoon if I have any ammo for it.
If we actually make it out hunting tomorrow morning I'll definitely do a write up for you, Fieldmor, but it'll be for this forum's eyes only.
I don't think Outdoor Aus will be interested in my hack attempts at hunting.
I'm often surprised that you guys are......but it's always fun to point and laugh, right?

I'm a God fearing man and I believe that God speaks to us and answers our prayers.
Right now the message I'm getting is "Don't get your hopes up....."
Today it rained - alot - and as the Irish Setter Grizzly Stalkers I ordered from BassPro have not arrived yet (long story) and won't until Wednesday next week I'm stuck with my old boots which leak.
I headed out to the range to put a few shots over and just see where The Judge was shooting and how close a group it would print.
An older fella was zeroing his target 308 ready for 600yd shooting so we both put a few over.
The 308 was noticably louder.
The first 3 shots, as you can see, shot a very good group........0.74"@100m.

 
To be frank, while it was 1" to the left I would've been happy to leave it.
It was tracking exactly down the centre when I shot it the other day so I thought even if it was a bit left it would be ok.
The older target shooter reckoned with the wind actually blowing to the right it should be wound across to get it centred.
So I wound it right five 1/4-clicks.
That should've put it dead centre.......guess again.
Instead the 4th shot went 3.5" right and almost 3" high as well....even though the elevation wasn't touched.
Hoping against hope that it was some aberration I wounded it back left the same five quarter clicks in the hope it would print SOMEWHERE near the correct spot.
Shot 5 was in a great spot....but not back where I'd started.
Either was shot 6 or shot 7, although at least as a group the last 3 were close enough together.
Was it thermo dynamics?
Was it the beginnings of scope death?
Do I have time to find out before tomorrow?
The answer to the last question of course was no.
So at this point I'm praying that whatever is going on has to do with the scope settling and that after oiling and patching out the bore that it will hit in approximately the same area as the last few shots on a cold bbl.
Oh, and that any shot I need to take is well within 200yds.
I'm also pleased my hunting buddy isn't on this forum.
Next week, well, we'll see.
But I'm praying about tomorrow.
If you're also a God fearing type and feel a man is due a break having already gone deer hunting twice and come home with nothing, and is going out for the third time with the knowledge his feet will be wet and cold probably within a short period, then please join me in petitioning the Almighty.
I'm sure you're all asking "Hold on, Kombi has quite a few rifles - why doesn't he take another rifle instead?"
Well, I have NO 8mm ammo and no projectiles for it, no useable 303/25 ammo or cases and my 450/400 NE, much as it's cool, is not zero'd and is not ideal for carting around the hills after fallow.
I think 2012 maybe time to consolidate on what I have but meanwhile, the night before my deer hunting trip prayer is going to have to do.

shots 5-6-7 might not be the group size you were hoping for, but if it's repeatable, it's certainly accurate enough to kill at the ranges you're talking about.
 
the vx1 is kinda at the shallow end of the pool, as leupold quality goes.  maybe it is a scope issue you're experiencing.  i know every time i adjust my burris fullfield II's, the next shots always a bit wacky but once settled in after that shot, they shoot fine.  would appear you're seeing something similar with shot #4 .?.?.?.?
 
good luck on the hunt.  i'm sure you'll do fine.
 
 
 
k

Thanks for the reassurance, klallen.
I guess I'll find out.
I'm off to bed now so I can get some sleep pre-hunt.
At least the wind has died down out there.
Maybe we can knock over 1 or 2 and be out of there fairly early.
Ah, well, wet feet, here I come!


P.S. My attitude to prayer should be better.
Prayer ALWAYS will do, even more important than anything else.
Just gotta remember it's what God wants, not what I want.

Looks like something "funny" is going on.
Just to be sure, re-check all the screws are tight on the mounts and the rifle.  You never know...

p.s. You need to stock up on ammunition.

Well, I'm its 5:45pm & I'm currently sitting in the Emergency Room at the local hospital.
But never fear.
All's well that ends better.
Report coming soon in the Aussie Outdoors section.