30-Yard Challenge

[JimD]

Ed, good shooting and yes, I probably would have finished the target. My Prod is a 22 and the FTTs (H&N Field Target Trophy) it likes are 14.66 grains. The tune I am using averages just over 700 fps for 24 shots (which is the way I shot the target). It only holds 60cc of air so the ES is better for fewer shots but the POI doesn't change much even when the velocity starts falling. For 16 shots the average velocity is almost 720 fps. ES for 16 shots is less than 20fps but almost 40fps for 24 shots. The tune is more for hunting than target shooting (where the first magazine or two are most important). In the picture it has a Hawke Vantage 2-7 on it like it normally does but for the 30 yard challenge I used my Vector Sentinel 8-32 set at 32X (I can't see the targets in the Hawke).

 

[EPG]

Leaderboard Submission: 199 14X
FX Dreamline .177
FX 10.3g @ 901fps
Arken EPL-4 @ 24x

Since I randomly bumped the Dreamline from a test 12 ft/lb tune (720fps) to 901 fps, it has shot these 4 cards:

198 13x
197 11X
199 14X (1st card today)
197 14X (2nd card today)

Getting close to a 200 with the Dreamline. A 200 seems to require a bit of luck - note on the cardboard of the two cards today, I circled my 3 sighters. Shot 2 sighters before Card 1 and 1 sighter before Card 2. My targets for the sighters were tiny white dots the size of the 10 ring. I nailed it with all 3 sighters. If only I could apply those sighters to these Cards today and presto - 200 & 199. You know my game by now… I take no sighters once the card starts and pellets straight from the tin.

I notice the Dreamline uses more air shooting 901fps - but it freaking loves this velocity with these pellets, so it’s staying at 901 fps - even after I shoot that 200, lol.

-Ed

 

[EPG]

Switching rifles…

3rd card today with Dreamline was 195 12X. Then I decided to switch from Swedish to Turkish, lol.

As you recall, last time I shot the Cayden I popped on a Huma Mod 30 (had a Buck Rail 3d printed previously) and my score immediately popped from 190 to 195 - changing nothing else.

So picked up the Cayden, took 5 zero shots and then shot this 196 12X. Two straight mags - pellets straight from the tin.

I’m proud that my zero targets I draw are smaller than a match head, lol. I must be gettin’ better. Maybe the Cayden wants to make a run at 200… I think I’ll have to bump the velocity up 20-30 fps - it always shot the Baracuda 15s best around 865-875.

Havin’ fun now that the rain has stopped!

-Ed

 

[Florida_Man]

I have a new target for the folks that have shot 200

 

[EPG]

I have a new target for the folks that have shot 200

Beerthief could probably shot that target well - if he doesn’t run out of 50 year old pellets for that Feinwerkbau of his…

 

[tommyb]

I have a new target for the folks that have shot 200

View attachment 388582

Now that’s funny! And I thought the .125” 10 ring was small!

 

[Florida_Man]

Beerthief could probably shot that target well - if he doesn’t run out of 50 year old pellets for that Feinwerkbau of his…

I didn’t have time to try and look at it 30y away with a 24x scope. It took a minute for me to copy and paste in all those 10 rings haha

 

[EPG]

So, EPG has a bunch of different guns and has them all shooting the 30 Yard Challenge pretty well… what’s his favorite?

The RTI Prophet Performance V1. So much so that I own two identical PP V1s.

I own .177 .22 .25 and .30 barrels for them. All are Lothar Walther thick steel barrels.

The .22 and .25 barrels are special 1:32 twist Lothar Walther polygonal barrels. I actually just bought a new, unused .25 from a forum member - so now I have duplicate .25 barrels. The .25 polygonal barrel came out late in Prophet Performance V1 production, so its rarer than the .22 polygonal. I believe it to be a future classic. Also, .25 is a great caliber for 75+ yard targets - and ammo really doesn’t cost more than using .22 MRDs.

The rifles are short, solid as a tank, turn an allen key to adjust the reg up or DOWN while on your shooting bench - same with hammer spring - everything externally adjustable. Even the trigger adjustments are on the SIDE of the rifle. I like the trigger - its very nice. Its a simple rifle with a total of about 8 o-rings in the entire thing.

The Prophet V1 can make huge power or be dialed back to very docile. I can switch calibers in 3 minutes - I’ve timed myself, lol.

I rarely use my Prophets in the 30 Yard Challenge because I have them set up to shoot 100 yards at my brother’s house.

Tonight I zeroed the new .25 barrel at 40 yards, and then shot 19 shots at match head sized targets. It was dim light and I was using 24x with Midas Tac. Shooting FX/JSB 25.4g at 960fps. This Prophet is using a Huma Mod 40 .30 - it works great with .25 cal as well.

[edit - I actually shot 20 shots - I reshot the flyer target and bullseyed it]

A cool thing about my current “tune” is that I simply swap barrels and probes and it shoots the following:
.22 25.39g MRDs @ 912fps
.25 25.4g @ 960fps
.25 34g @ 868fps
.30 44.8g @ 850.2 fps
(Haven’t chronoed the .177 with this tune)

Tonight, You can see that the 1st 5 shots were a 1/2 inch group - even though I was still adjusting scope. I also adjusted a click down after shot 7. Only flyer across 19 shots was #8. I was pretty close to hitting all the matchheads at 40…

I’m thinking of shooting this Prophet tune vs. the Wolverine tomorrow at 40 yards - using the 30 Yard Challenge card. The Wolverine has the advantage of using a Sightron target scope at 36x - while the Prophet has the advantage of a slightly larger caliber.

I just love the Prophet V1 - especially in .22 or .25 with the “long range” poly barrels that let you shoot just about any velocity. I stayed away from trying a Prophet V2 as it appeared they were working out bugs in their new fangled “balanced valve” introduced on the P2.

 

[EPG]

It was so windy here today that I didn’t bother to shoot - watched college football.

But I got trigger stir crazy - so I ventured out into the yard on this blustery day - at the very least I figured I’d zero the Wolverine at 40 yards - to prepare it for the Prophet vs. Wolverine 40 Yard Showdown, lol.

As you can see in the pic, the Wolverine put the first 4 of 5 in a 1/4” group at 40. I used the middle of that group to zero the Sightron and proceeded to hit matchheads with 4 of the next 6 shots…

… so, despite the wind I couldn’t resist shooting a 30 Yard Challenge card at 40 yards.

So how does a rifle that AVERAGES 198 at 30 yards do at 40 yards…?

Well, I shot 190 9X - respectable.

In fairness to the Wolverine, the card was a bit rushed and shooting conditions were not that good. I think I can quickly get this score up to 194 or 195 at 40 yards on a less windy day, but if you have an out-of-spec pellet it shows a lot more at 40 yards. The 1st target on #11 shows that - it even sounded a bit different and dropped low.

This gives me some appreciation of the 50 yard benchrest cards I’ve seen posted by competition shooters!

-Ed

 

[oledawg]

It was so windy here today that I didn’t bother to shoot - watched college football.

But I got trigger stir crazy - so I ventured out into the yard on this blustery day - at the very least I figured I’d zero the Wolverine at 40 yards - to prepare it for the Prophet vs. Wolverine 40 Yard Showdown, lol.

As you can see in the pic, the Wolverine put the first 4 of 5 in a 1/4” group at 40. I used the middle of that group to zero the Sightron and proceeded to hit matchheads with 4 of the next 6 shots…

… so, despite the wind I couldn’t resist shooting a 30 Yard Challenge card at 40 yards.

So how does a rifle that AVERAGES 198 at 30 yards do at 40 yards…?

Well, I shot 190 9X - respectable.

In fairness to the Wolverine, the card was a bit rushed and shooting conditions were not that good. I think I can quickly get this score up to 194 or 195 at 40 yards on a less windy day, but if you have an out-of-spec pellet it shows a lot more at 40 yards. The 1st target on #11 shows that - it even sounded a bit different and dropped low.

This gives me some appreciation of the 50 yard benchrest cards I’ve seen posted by competition shooters!

-Ed

View attachment 389349

View attachment 389350

View attachment 389351

Nice shooting, I need to start shooting those 30 yds challenge cards.

 

[Florida_Man]

Preview of the rifle I'll be shooting next POI chart. This should be fun.

 

[EPG]

Preview of the rifle I'll be shooting next POI chart. This should be fun.

Wow, that seems a bit “loopy”, but you are up the the challenge Florida_Man !

 

[EPG]

Well, one RTI Prophet shot 187 5X shooting the TYC card at 40 yards - .25 LR barrel shooting 25g pellets.

This 2nd RTI Prophet shot 190 8X at 40 yards - with the .22 LR barrel using 25g MRDs (FX branded) at 903 fps.

The .25 cal 187 was shot is miserable conditions in the rain.

So, both the Wolverine and the Prophet have shot 190 at 40 yards. The Wolverine was at 36x and the Prophet was at 24x - magnification definitely helps at 40 yards.

If I eventually try this target at 50 yards, I’d expect to need 36x magnification to accurately hold off. 40 yards is noticeably tougher than 30 yards, that’s for certain.

-Ed

 

[EPG]

Back to 30 Yards…

Had not shot the Huntsman Regal in a couple weeks. One zero shot - bullseye, then 24 straight to a 197 13X. I was perfect through the 1st 12 targets, then the 2nd half of the card went downhill… I was not comfortable with my chair position and that was likely a factor.

Amazing rifle. Always holds zero (love unregulated for that). So compact, pretty and ergonomic. Probably the Revere is even nicer with the sidelever cocking - but the bolt is so pretty, lol.

Breezy, but 70 degrees & sunny here !

 

[EPG]

So, I thought I’d try my PP V1 with .22 LR barrel at lunch today, using the MRDs that the barrel was designed for - at 30 yards.

It’s probably 4-5 months since shooting the Prophet in the TYC - and the 1st time I ever shot it with 25.4g MRDs with the Prophet.

It is breezy, but this barrel & tune shot the insane 247 19X at 40 yards - using the 40 Yard card I cooked up on the 1st try. Yesterday it shot 190 using the 30 Yard Challenge card at 40 yards - 1st try.

Today it took 3 zero shots and then shot this 197 13X - normal 30 Yard Challenge.

This is actually a leaderboard submission, as it has more Xs than my previous 197 with the Prophet using .22 caliber.

Check out that I was almost perfect across Columns 2,3 and 4. The leftmost Column 1 screwed up what easily could have been a 200 - basically because I can’t seem to line up correctly - I’m shifting around on the chair but it didn’t seem to help today.

Also showing my own 40 Yard Target - the outer ring is 1/2” the middle is 1/4” and the center X ring is 1/8” - pretty tough at 40 Yards.

-Ed

 

[EPG]

Inching closer to 200 with the .22 Prophet and MRDs…

2nd card today - Leaderboard Submission:
198 14x
RTI Prophet Performance V1
Athlon Midas Tac @24x
FX 25.4g @ 905fps (MRDs)

I thought I only had 2 “9s” going into the last target - note how badly I choked, definitely yanked the trigger a bit, lol.

“The Prophet Takes No Prisoners!”

-Ed

 

[EPG]

I was happy with the 3 cards from the Prophet .22 - 197, 198, 195 with the 25.4g pellets.

Then I picked up my unregulated Reximex Daystar .177 (which sells for $500 from a Canadian shop). I had not shot it in weeks… First card is 199 14X ! Who needs “high end” rifles, lol.

Daystar only shot 194 9X on 2nd card - light was fading and I didn’t adjust quickly to PoI moving up slightly when I hit the max velocity part of the bell curve.

When your worst card of the day is a 194 - 5 cards shot… its been a good day shooting!

 

[NAProf]

Hi Guys!

Been a while since I posted, mainly because I have not been able to beat my 199-14x card from a while back. Yesterday I "sort of" managed to beat that. Here is a 199 - 17x. I have restricted my self to shooting with an HFT setup. That is at 20FPE and 16x magnification. So my 13.4gr pellets have a muzzle velocity of about 820 fps and I have to keep my Falcon X50 10-50x60 to 16x. Shooting off a wobbly bench with bipod on front and monopod on butt.

I am impressed with all the really great cards that keep appearing here. Keep up the good stuff. And thanks to EPG for keeping this challenge alive.
Cheers,
Greg

 

[ThomasT]

Hi Guys!

Been a while since I posted, mainly because I have not been able to beat my 199-14x card from a while back. Yesterday I "sort of" managed to beat that. Here is a 199 - 17x. I have restricted my self to shooting with an HFT setup. That is at 20FPE and 16x magnification. So my 13.4gr pellets have a muzzle velocity of about 820 fps and I have to keep my Falcon X50 10-50x60 to 16x. Shooting off a wobbly bench with bipod on front and monopod on butt.
View attachment 390941
I am impressed with all the really great cards that keep appearing here. Keep up the good stuff. And thanks to EPG for keeping this challenge alive.
Cheers,
Greg

Hello @NAProf

Nice looking card

ThomasT

 

[EPG]

1st 27 shots of today- beautiful Friday 65 degrees- took the work day off. You can see my 3 zero shots would have likely been 10s.

Leaderboard Submission:
200 15X
FX Dreamline Classic .177
FX 10.3g @ 901 fps (starting fill pressure 170)
Arken EPL-4 @ 24x

You will note that I had 10 or better on my 1st 19 targets and I knew it. I don’t feel I choked on target #20, but I was thinking about a “Master’s 200” - i.e. only needing 20 shots for 200. I gathered myself on Target Pair #12 to avoid choking away a 200 totally.

Big difference in scores with Dreamline since I increased velocity to 900fps with 10.3g. Also putting pen spring into crappy FX trigger (IMHO) has made the trigger much better for target work - about 6 ounces now and stable.

My 4th 200 with 4 different rifles this year - 2 regulated and 2 unregulated.

-Ed