Howa 1500 + East cornwall + 1 mile 🎉

[Adamdavi3s]

There are many like it, but this one is mine.

 

So this is a goal I’ve had since I started shooting fullbore 9 years ago. I only started to really think about it just before Covid hit and I ended up waiting 14months for the rifle.

It’s full spec is below, I actually ordered a 26” 300winmag but when a 24” 300PRC showed up in the country I snapped it up after a quick variation.

 

Full spec is:

Howa 1500 24” 300PRC barrel action, off the shelf.

MDT ESS chassis

Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30x (which I’ve had for a long time)

20MOA rail

Burris XTR tactical rings with another 20MOA of inserts.

Wildcat predator moderator

208eld-m over Reloader26 in Lapua brass with Remington 9 1/2 primers.

 

Shot at east cornwall sporting which is an amazing venue, two huge bunkers 50 yards between them and a valley of farm land which you drive back up (in 4x4s) to get longer and longer ranges. I’ve shot there a number of times before but only ever back to 1250.

 

Kev who runs the venue knows his stuff and was a huge help with his wind calls.

Also as I was transonic around 1275, i was very thankful we had put my rifle in his kestrel as strelok was only trued up to 1250 and it was way out (even with multi BC) beyond that.

 

I didn’t go to do the mile, it’s always a hope but I went for a private day to learn and just ring some steel, I even had the .22 in the car just in case I was having an off day and we could have shot that to 600 

 

The weather was swinging from sunshine to pouring rain a fog, very thankful for the new awning addition to the trailer hut!

 

We had a quick check at 100 and I wanted to zero my 6.5 which now has a new scope on it after giving the athlon up to the 300.

We then went back in steps and shot roughly. 600, 800, 1100 and 1250 to get some dope. I wasn’t that hopeful at this point, I was hitting MOA and the odd 1/2 MOA but not as consistently as I hoped. Ammo was showing an 18es on the chrono over 6 rounds so we didn’t think it was that.

 

A quick warm pastie in the trailer / hut and we went back to 1350 where as we were packing up Kev notice my scope cap appeared to be touching the chassis. Now I’d run a piece of paper through it to ensure it wasn’t, but after removing it when we went back to 1500 the groups spoke for themselves and either something else happened weather wise or it really might have been that.

 

I was happy enough to be hitting the big plate at that distance and pulled quite a nice group and I expected us to finish up the day there. Then the magic words “shall we go back to the mile”

 

With 30 rounds from 150 left, I thought why not!

 

Shooting at the big plate (25x37”) in the bottom bunker was good enough for me, making hits on steel at 1713 yards is a feeling that I just can’t describe, just amazing.

 

With 17 rounds left, we moved up to the magic mile, with 22.3mil of elevation and 4.5 mil of wind and 5 rounds and I was so close but we needed to take a break to let the rifle cool a bit.

 

It took 5 more rounds to hit the plate after that, eventually getting on with perfect elevation and on Kev’s wind call, holding 1 mil off the left side. Seeing that little dot appear just under the bull was just something else.

 

Kev’s not daft, he’s got plenty more patches for the 1/2 MOA, MOA in three and cold bore so I will be back again soon no doubt!!

 

Huge thanks to the Country Sports Shop who I buy 95% of my kit from but also who I have learned a huge amount from

 

And of course to Kev for all the tuition and running such a brilliant venue and last but certainly not least, to Vicky who has to sit on top of a hill all day as a spotter!

 

[Charlts]

Great shooting Adam.

[Adamdavi3s]

3 minutes ago, Charlts said:

Great shooting Adam.

Thanks Ryan! 

the one thing I could t quite believe is Bunky said he’s quite quiet down there at the moment, I guess the economy and lack of powder is taking its toll 😞 

[Ralpharama]

My dream as well, but I doubt I'll be able to do it with my factory .300 WinMag, but I'd love to try !

[Adamdavi3s]

12 minutes ago, Ralpharama said:

My dream as well, but I doubt I'll be able to do it with my factory .300 WinMag, but I'd love to try !

I don’t see why not, depending on the rifle. 
mine is an off the shelf howa 1500 24” 300PRC just put it in an MDT chassis instead of the ORYX to match my other rifles. 
 I was well subsonic by the time it got to the mile as I don’t run it very hot. 

[Ralpharama]

I tried at 1400 yards at Bunkies with 195grn TMKs which are great at 1000, but went subsonic at 1250ish and were not really grouping at all. I have some loads with 205grn ELD-Ms which stay super until about 1400. I will have to try them one day and see if I can do the elusive mile. Until then it's just a dream

 

[Adamdavi3s]

Just now, Ralpharama said:

I tried at 1400 yards at Bunkies with 195grn TMKs which are great at 1000, but went subsonic at 1250ish and were not really grouping at all. I have some loads with 205grn ELD-Ms which stay super until about 1400. I will have to try them one day and see if I can do the elusive mile. Until then it's just a dream

 

Awesome 🙂 

my 208 were transonic at about 1275, I totally get the applied ballistics custom curves now, Kev trued it at 1250 and it was bang on from there on out. 
because I am stubborn I will true strelok with some transonic BC data to match my dope but the kestrel was so easy. 

[newsatten]

Only just seen this post ,

well done son !  Makes such a refreshing change to see this type of thing over here !!

id love to have a go but living where I do 

here in Kent it ain’t never going to happen!  
im assuming one needs an open ticket to use such facilities??

🤔

[Cornish-Viking]

Great shooting. Bunkys is an awesome place to test your shooting skills. Lucky it’s only 15 mins from me 

[Ralpharama]

11 hours ago, Cornish-Viking said:

Great shooting. Bunkys is an awesome place to test your shooting skills. Lucky it’s only 15 mins from me 

The expression Jammy Bas**rd springs to mind 🤣 

That said I have a friend living in Bodmin and he suffers badly on the roads from Emmets 😂

[newsatten]

I’ve go a 300 Norma Magnum 

whether I ever get to use it at a mile is highly unlikely, 

ces’t la vie