It has been raining and windy for a long time, today was the second day in a long while the sun is out with relatively light breeze so I packed up my Crown and headed to the range for the last oorah of 2021. Arrived at the range and to no surprise the wind is kicking but I figured what da hay. It wasn't that cold but thanks tot he wind I had to wear gloves when shooting or my fingers would get really cold.
Brought with me my Crown in GRS stock with 600mm barrel in .22. Also brought 4 different size slugs, 20, 23, 24.8 and 27.5. Zeroed the 27.5 grain slugs at 50 yards flying at 870FPS average, if the wind doesn't kick too much all the holes are touching so pretty happy with that. For giggles I loaded up the 20 grain slugs and they chronoed at 1040FPS with the same tune and holy cow they are 1 ragged hole at 50 yards. Took off the FX chrono and just smashing small walnut sized rocks on the range berm at 115 yards, WOW!!!! I was impressed to say the least but I ran out of the sample pack. Gonna have to order a full box for more testing! Then the 100 yard range got crowded since it is New Years eve so I moved my stuff to the 300 yard range, to my surprise I literally had the 300 yard range all to myself for rest of the day! BUT the wind also increased.
Didn't have issue get on paper fortunately thanks to strelok but my first few "groups" were 8-10 inches thanks to the shifting wind. However as the wind grew stronger it actually became more steady with less direction change and the guests a little less dramatic which made timing/adjust for the wind a little easier. Obviously still no way I can drop 5 consecutive shots into a sub MOA group today but I got some groups that didn't look too bad all things considered. By 3PM I was starting to freeze my butt off so I called it a quit.
Interestingly enough all the slugs performed pretty darn well in the wind with no one slug shot dramatically better than the other at the same power level(didn't touch any settings). Here is a little table compare how 23, 24.5 and 27.5 grain POI changed at 200 yards on paper:
27.5 grain, Speed=870FPS, BC=0.09, POI=reference/200yard zero
24.8 grain, Speed=910FPS, BC=0.08, POI=0.4-0.6 mils higher than 27.5
23 grain, Speed=950FPS, BC=0.08, POI=1.2-1.4 mils higher than 27.5
I probably will stick with 23 grain because it seemed to perform the best at 200 yards in terms of drop and hard to tell the difference on wind drift with today's wind. According to strelok @5MPH crosswind their difference in wind drift is only 0.2 mils. Now if only I can get the 27.5 grain to fly a little faster in the crown but I think it's at it's limit right now. Should I choose higher speed but lower BC at 200 yards? Think it needs more testing!
Either way I learned a few things on how these different .22 NSA slugs behaved in heavy wind and just feels great getting out to the range after a month of bad weather. However the pursuit of MOA group at 200 yards wil have to be another day.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Brought with me my Crown in GRS stock with 600mm barrel in .22. Also brought 4 different size slugs, 20, 23, 24.8 and 27.5. Zeroed the 27.5 grain slugs at 50 yards flying at 870FPS average, if the wind doesn't kick too much all the holes are touching so pretty happy with that. For giggles I loaded up the 20 grain slugs and they chronoed at 1040FPS with the same tune and holy cow they are 1 ragged hole at 50 yards. Took off the FX chrono and just smashing small walnut sized rocks on the range berm at 115 yards, WOW!!!! I was impressed to say the least but I ran out of the sample pack. Gonna have to order a full box for more testing! Then the 100 yard range got crowded since it is New Years eve so I moved my stuff to the 300 yard range, to my surprise I literally had the 300 yard range all to myself for rest of the day! BUT the wind also increased.
Didn't have issue get on paper fortunately thanks to strelok but my first few "groups" were 8-10 inches thanks to the shifting wind. However as the wind grew stronger it actually became more steady with less direction change and the guests a little less dramatic which made timing/adjust for the wind a little easier. Obviously still no way I can drop 5 consecutive shots into a sub MOA group today but I got some groups that didn't look too bad all things considered. By 3PM I was starting to freeze my butt off so I called it a quit.
Interestingly enough all the slugs performed pretty darn well in the wind with no one slug shot dramatically better than the other at the same power level(didn't touch any settings). Here is a little table compare how 23, 24.5 and 27.5 grain POI changed at 200 yards on paper:
27.5 grain, Speed=870FPS, BC=0.09, POI=reference/200yard zero
24.8 grain, Speed=910FPS, BC=0.08, POI=0.4-0.6 mils higher than 27.5
23 grain, Speed=950FPS, BC=0.08, POI=1.2-1.4 mils higher than 27.5
I probably will stick with 23 grain because it seemed to perform the best at 200 yards in terms of drop and hard to tell the difference on wind drift with today's wind. According to strelok @5MPH crosswind their difference in wind drift is only 0.2 mils. Now if only I can get the 27.5 grain to fly a little faster in the crown but I think it's at it's limit right now. Should I choose higher speed but lower BC at 200 yards? Think it needs more testing!
Either way I learned a few things on how these different .22 NSA slugs behaved in heavy wind and just feels great getting out to the range after a month of bad weather. However the pursuit of MOA group at 200 yards wil have to be another day.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
