I took the 7mm TCU to the range today. The weather started off very pleasant but as a storm front moved through, the wind must have hit 25 mph! Made shooting impossible.

However, before the big wind, I was able to work around the other shooters and shoot out to 100 yards. Since I still have some of the 130 gr. Sierra loads I checked zero with those. Right on at 100 yards but when the wind came up it was apparent that these loads are pretty wind sensitive. A 10-25 mph cross wind would drift the bullet a good 3-4 inches at 100 yards. This load uses the CCI 400 primer with 29.4 gr. H4895 and the Sierra 130 gr. SSP for 2460 fps from my 21" factory barrel. I bought this barrel from RJ's Guns about 5 years ago and it is an earlier barrel with only a single dovetail lock. I think it does shoot well.

One thing, this is the first 7mm TCU barrel I got. The second was a 10" that I intended to use for IHMSA production class. Unfortunately, there are no matches within 100 miles of here! So, I've not shot it enough to really wring it out. One thing I did discover was that brass formed for the 21" was a tad too long, base to shoulder, to allow the gun to lock up properly on the 10" barrel. Setting the shoulder back a "smidgen" (I had to experiment to do this a minimal amount) allows both barrels to use the same ammo.

For those interested, the above mentioned load gets only 2040 fps in the 10" barrel, almost exactly 400 fps less than the 21" barrel.

Another thing. Everytime I go to the public range, I get to see the "public" shooting. This can be very interesting! Today was no exception.

Today, there were a couple of younger (younger than me, maybe 25-35 years old) shooters. They had several rifles and were working in conjunction with (or were just acquainted with) a couple of older shooters to their right. They had a Outers Varminter Rest, which they were using with a Browning BAR in .308. Unfortunately they were resting the barrel directly on the rest rather than resting the forearm on the rest. Since the rest is hard, I would expect that the rifle would shoot "away" from the rest much as when you rest the barrel across or against a limb or tree. They were having a devil of a time getting it zeroed. First, they'd shoot on the rest then try to check the zero without the rest. Since it wasn't right, they'd put the gun back on the rest. I don't think that the rest allows the rifle to be set up with the forearm on the forward arm of the rest. Anyway, their machinations were intriguing to watch. I can't for the life of me understand why some of these shooters who appear to be so sophisticated, judging by the equipment they have, have such a limited understanding of the equipment.