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I went up to northern Utah to shoot in another one of the Long Range Shooters of Utah's Milk Jug Challenges this weekend. We had steel plates set out at a mile, with milk jugs hanging about a foot in front of them as the targets. We had a great time out there, even though there were only two that were successful out of 20-22 shooters (spoiler alert: I wasn't one of them). Most shooters got 2-3 attempts, with 10 rounds per attempt
The conditions were perfect first thing in the morning, but by around 10am there was a pretty constant 7-12mph wind for the rest of the day. I was one of the last shooters for the first go around, and the wind had started to pick up. The shooter immediately before me had hit it on his 7th or 8th shot with his 7mm Rem Mag, so we went down to confirm (it punched through the jug, but at that distance didn't have enough energy to do much...it punched two holes in the bottom, but the vacuum didn't let much drain). We set up a new jug and headed back.
"Ok, the pressure is really on now" I thought as I got set up to shoot. While moving my rifle to the firing line, one of the guys asked if I was shooting an AR10, most likely assuming it was a .260 Rem or similar. "Nope, just an AR15" I responded. He asked if it was a Grendel, to which I replied yes.
The looks on a lot of the guy's faces were along the lines of "are you serious?" And "this ought to be good".
My first shot looked to be a couple minutes low, but around 17 minutes left. Duh!!! Last time I was out shooting I had dialed for insane amounts of wind, and must not have returned to the correct windage zero. I made my corrections and let another fly. MUCH closer, but still not on target. that pretty much summed up my first attempt, as all my subsequent shots were within a foot or so of steel but never made contact.
After I was done shooting, the looks on everyone's faces had changed. Even though I hadn't hit the target, I was about on par with how everyone else was shooting that day. They couldn't believe how consistent I was at 1 mile with the little 123gr bullet out of an AR15, let alone in that kind of wind.
To give you an idea on some of the other cartridges out there, I think the only other 6.5 was a .260 AI. There were a few 7mm's and all the others were 300WM or bigger. Several .338LM's, and even a .50 BMG Tejas.
After the next go around of shooters, I got back on the firing line to get ready again. I had a few more spotters watching this time, but was still unable to make contact. Even so, several of the shooters out there said they were really impressed with how consistent it was shooting on a day where hardly anyone could make contact.
Upon talking to several of them after the event was over, I had more than a few come up and say that got them thinking about selling a gun or two to fund their own Grendel build after seeing what mine could do.
Even though my attempt at the 1 mile milk jug failed, I still consider the day a success. I had a great time out shooting with a bunch of great guys, and made several potential converts to the little cartridge that (almost) could.
The conditions were perfect first thing in the morning, but by around 10am there was a pretty constant 7-12mph wind for the rest of the day. I was one of the last shooters for the first go around, and the wind had started to pick up. The shooter immediately before me had hit it on his 7th or 8th shot with his 7mm Rem Mag, so we went down to confirm (it punched through the jug, but at that distance didn't have enough energy to do much...it punched two holes in the bottom, but the vacuum didn't let much drain). We set up a new jug and headed back.
"Ok, the pressure is really on now" I thought as I got set up to shoot. While moving my rifle to the firing line, one of the guys asked if I was shooting an AR10, most likely assuming it was a .260 Rem or similar. "Nope, just an AR15" I responded. He asked if it was a Grendel, to which I replied yes.
The looks on a lot of the guy's faces were along the lines of "are you serious?" And "this ought to be good".
My first shot looked to be a couple minutes low, but around 17 minutes left. Duh!!! Last time I was out shooting I had dialed for insane amounts of wind, and must not have returned to the correct windage zero. I made my corrections and let another fly. MUCH closer, but still not on target. that pretty much summed up my first attempt, as all my subsequent shots were within a foot or so of steel but never made contact.
After I was done shooting, the looks on everyone's faces had changed. Even though I hadn't hit the target, I was about on par with how everyone else was shooting that day. They couldn't believe how consistent I was at 1 mile with the little 123gr bullet out of an AR15, let alone in that kind of wind.
To give you an idea on some of the other cartridges out there, I think the only other 6.5 was a .260 AI. There were a few 7mm's and all the others were 300WM or bigger. Several .338LM's, and even a .50 BMG Tejas.
After the next go around of shooters, I got back on the firing line to get ready again. I had a few more spotters watching this time, but was still unable to make contact. Even so, several of the shooters out there said they were really impressed with how consistent it was shooting on a day where hardly anyone could make contact.
Upon talking to several of them after the event was over, I had more than a few come up and say that got them thinking about selling a gun or two to fund their own Grendel build after seeing what mine could do.
Even though my attempt at the 1 mile milk jug failed, I still consider the day a success. I had a great time out shooting with a bunch of great guys, and made several potential converts to the little cartridge that (almost) could.
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