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First Appleseed

3K views 26 replies 9 participants last post by  dash4cash 
#1 ·
Saturday the 22nd will be my first Appleseed, and for the last week I have been practicing in my house at about 10 yards, dry fire of course ;) but today it warmed to 14 degrees outside so with only 2 days left before the event I shot 2 AS targets outside, wow, dint know I was so unsteady until I looked through the scope at 27 yards, but I did score rifleman on both tries with a 216 and a 220 with a 50 on the offhand the second time around, cci sv was the ammo of choice and will be for the shoot, working on my breathing is by far the biggest thing I need to practice. One good thing is I have 2maro to shoot a couple more targets and will do it per AS times, and the weather just gets better with mid 30's 2maro and low to mid 40's for the event. At 53 its hard to find things that really excite me but for some reason this does, I will let you all know how I fair after the event.

Carl
 
#6 ·
I agree, as long as the wind settles somewhat lol, I tried putting in some range time today just to prepare some more and stopped after the first 40 rounds down range, I am not capable of doing what is needed in 20 to 30 mph crosswinds that were very inconsistent, supposed to die some overnight so hoping for better 2maro.

Carl
 
#7 ·
Imo, sight for/hold off for your shots in some wind during the match rather than waiting for lulls. Lulls will be too few to get your shots in; peak winds kinda the same, but the wind coming up or going down will be more of the time on the line.
Shots not fired have no chance of score.
 
#8 ·
No patch for me, but had a blast and will do it again, now it has become personal lol, between the misfires and shooting the wrong target I think I had a good chance. After about 50-60 rounds down range my gun began to misfire and had some stove pipes, it was starting to get to me, then on the first aqt I had 6 shells that I did not fire on the sitting 55 second portion because the gun misfired, so I sprayed the chamber and bolt with cleaner and shot the next 53 without incident, not sure whats going on but this gives me something to do lol, on the final agt I think I would have done it as I scored a 188 but put the last 5 shots on the timed sitting portion into the wrong target and they would have scored 23, all I could do was laugh and caulk it up to being a bid dummy and not being on target like I should have. It was a learning experience that I enjoyed very much, the shooting and history lessons are worth a day laying in the snow.

Carl
 
#10 ·
There are two types of people at a Project Appleseed event...those who have shot someone else's target and those that will eventually shoot someone else's target. ;)

Therefore, I wouldn't worry too much about shooting someone else's target. Just try to do better next time. There are tricks that help (dialing the scope back, marking your target or target backer a specific way, etc.). The only thing I have found to lesson the likelihood of someone else shooting your target is distance from the next shooter.

It is very important not to lose one's cool in either case. Stuff happens. There will be more AQT's. I am a pretty calm person, but I have gotten rattled (not upset, I just didn't shoot well that stage) when someone else shot my target. So, my advice is to "Keep Calm and Carry On."
 
#11 ·
Perfectly said! Brush off and go.

dash4cash Great attitude! Just soak it all in and just remember what went right and what didn't and just work on it. My 1st time was great and I got a ton out of it but the 2nd time was much more relaxed, just having the peace of mind knowing the routine was a huge advantage. What rifle are your using and what power is your scope on??
 
#12 ·
Shooting timed stages on a line with a bunch of other shooters is quite a bit different than practicing on your own, even if you are using a timer to simulate the rapid fire stages.

There is of course the noise, and quite possibly the occasional hot brass from your neighbor on the left going down the back of your shirt.

The rifle, magazine, and ammo gremlins always seem to know to make their appearance when you are shooting for score, even if everything checked out and worked fine the day before.

Cross shooting targets is very common. I have done it more than once. Some Appleseed events will use target backers that are spray painted in creative patterns using different colors of paint, or large numbers pinned at the top corner of the backers to identify the target for each lane.

I now take a brightly colored Sharpie and print my first or last name at the top left corner of each target. When I get in position before I establish NPOA the first thing I do is look for my name on the target.
 
#14 ·
Imo a fancy dandy expensive bolt may be nice but it isnt going to make much, if any, diff on the target. Id think about spending the money on better ammo and more shooting.
 
#16 ·
The bolt is to see if it helps stop the stove piping I am having. The gun is very capable of producing quarter inch groups at 50 yards with Tenex, it just does not eject them all, I tried some Lapua Midas plus, Lapua Center X and Lapua Biathlon yesterday and it all shot very small groups at 50 yards but still had ejecting problems with all three, CCI SV seems to have the least problems but I do still get sp issues, my next step in trying to fix problem is the bolt.

Carl
 
#17 ·
May I be so bold to suggest- using High velocity ammo may help your reliability. SV may be just a little weak to reliably cycle your rifle. ( Depending on the lot, maybe a slightly weaker load than usual? just thinking out loud here.)
HV should be more than accurate enough for the Appleseed targets ( Note :I do not speak from experience on this - still have yet to shoot an Appleseed event. :eek:) but from what I read, target ammo is not required.

Unless you have tested the SV ammo extensively and it was ok at the range......usually what can go wrong, will, and usually in a match, not practice.
 
#20 ·
I submit that extraction problems are not caused by the face of the bolt, but the extractor. Tuning the oem ext. would be my first step, they are just simple stamped parts. Replacing it would be east too but why not give a go at fixing what you have?
 
#22 ·
I sure hope it does, more shooting and fewer issues are More Fun!
This is why Ive taken to calling mine the 'money eating hole'. lol, but I still like it;)
 
#24 ·
Those who have measured have found that the head spacing on Ruger 10/22 production bolts is quite variable and often excessive. Head space is determined by the depth of the recessed pocket on the bolt face. Excessive head spacing is more commonly implicated in causing dispersion (poor grouping) but if the head space is really excessive it might not afford the extractor claw a good grasp on the rim of the fired case.

The back end of the Ruger 10/22 bolt is also not radiused to any functional extent. When the bolt cycles the relatively squared-off bolt strikes the hammer and cocks it against the force of the mainspring. A radiused bolt allows the bolt to contact the hammer face higher up where it can apply more leverage on the hammer to defeat the mainspring. A radiused edge also slides over the hammer more smoothly as it cocks it. So radiusing the bolt can improve cycling and sometimes the difference is enough to eliminate stove pipes due to the bolt slightly hanging up on the hammer.
 
#26 · (Edited)
If you've bought that bolt already disregard.

If not, consider replacing the extractor with a Kidd. That may help, it did for me.

Also, make sure your chamber is clean.

I assume your using a match grade barrel, those typically have very tight chambers.

The only extractor I've found to work well is the Kidd. I've tried Volquartsens with VQ barrels, and they didn't work as well as the Kidd extractor.

You can also ship your bolt to a smith to have them correct the headspace, lots cheaper than a new bolt.

Andy Trivette has done all my bolts:
http://www.trivettesgunsmithing.com/10.html

R/
Chris

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