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First crack at centrefire Fly

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Dig
Dig's picture
First crack at centrefire Fly

I realise there is a dedicated 500 Fly site but it's probably a little more serious than I am at the moment. There are a number of people who shoot both centrefire benchrest and fly on this forum so I thought I'd start a thread and see what happens.

I decided that I would give some centrefire a go this year but I thought I'd like to try something a little further out than the 100/200 game. I looked at fclass but the thought of lying down and more importantly getting back up again didn't appeal to me at my age so fly was an obvious choice. I also noted that the same rifle specs apply to the 1000 yard game as well so that might be on the cards once I get the 500 sorted.

As the saying goes, there's no Punch without Judy so Norm decided to join me on my journey. Talking to Sully about a rifle he decided he'd give it another go after many years of absence. So three of Team KAOS are about to give it a crack. It will never replace rimfire for me but it's something to do on those week ends where there is no rimfire comps on. We are lucky that both fly and 1000yd are shot on the Belmont complex 30 minutes drive from my place.

Last week-end we shot a 300m fly just to learn the ropes. I shot it with a 308 Rem 700 and the big fella used his 270. Both rifles has lightweight sporter barrels and are not suited to shooting 5 shot groups at 300m in 7 minutes. Barrels get hot and the POI's walk around a fair bit. Suffice to say we learnt a lot and had a great time watching the top shooters. I think there were 3 groups <1" shot which was impressive given the conditions. The events are well run and people struggle to get a spot on the line.

Over the last week I have paid 2 visits to BRT to talk to Stuart about the game. I am now much wiser and considerably poorer than I was a week ago. Not that is prices are high but I found out you need so much more "stuff" than you do for loading hunting rounds which is all I have done for the past 40 odd years..I'll say this for Stuart, he gives exceptional service. Rather than just tell me how to do case preparation and sell me the equipment, he actually showed me how to do it through all the steps.

So the action and barrel are waiting for the chamber reamer to arrive which should be here later in the week. Stock is underway and the case preparation has been completed. Once the gun is in one piece, I'll fireform some cases as I run the barrel in. Research on the web has indicated a starting load then it's off to find an accuracy node. Just so we do not loose interest in the next 2 weeks, Sully has found 2/6x47Laps and a 7mm WSM in the back of his safe. It is really surprising what he has back there that hasn't seen the light of day for some years. Norm gets the WSM because Sully and I cannot carry it to the bench. It's too heavy.

So do those of you who have shot this have any advice for a couple of novice shooters.

At the moment we do really "Have all the gear and no idea"

digs

LJ Fraser
fly

Hi Digs,

What would you like to know mate the match is 5 targets plus an optional warmer 8 rounds only on the bench, 17lbs or under light Gun as long as you can lift in onto the bench you can have a heavy with as much weight as you can.

Now for some load i shoot the 6x47Lapua, 6 Dasher, 6BR, 260 AI and 280AI so i can give you my loads for all of these.

As for the strategy of the shoot get your rifle zeroed at 500m on a still day in the morning and then this will be your rifles zero but it will not be your true wind zero you will get that from range to range and keep good records.

The big challenge is to stop the rush of blood when the commence fire is given most shoot all their sighters then go up to the scoring target and just plink away that's ok when it is calm (never happens) the better management of tough conditions is to shoot your first sighter then confirm it with number two then shoot 4 shots and then last sighter with last scoring shot.

If it is blowing like hell one on the scorer two in the target and so on

hope this helps mate
Les

Ghansen
First crack at centrefire Fly

Hi Digs,

I cross over to Fly' from short range and shot at Canberra and Brisbane for the first times in late 2015. Same bench equipment as short range but a different challenge. It's not a difficult game to understand and the equipment list is widely varied from 224 and up as you will notice. I switch barrel from 6PPC to 6BR and as my understanding improves so hopefully will my score. Shoot for score and/or group, also the same at 1000yd. Bullet holes are difficult to see with mirage at 500, so pick your best condition by whatever means (flags or mirage). The first Fly is the hardest!

Dig
Dig's picture
Thanks

Thanks for the advice fellas. I've shot 200 rimfire fly a couple of times so the rules are not a problem. Les' comments about the utilisation of sighters was interesting. I've watched the blokes shoot both 300 and 500 and everyone seems to have a different strategy. Now that I've been a couple of times I've picked out the people to watch.

As a rimfire benchrest shooter I'm used to shooting over flags but I have to get me some longer poles for the 500 at Belmont. I see Stuart uses painters roller extensions. Who would have though I'd be buying shooting accessories from Bunnings. If they knew what I was going to use them for they'd probably remove them from sale on public safety grounds.

Team KAOS - Catch us if you can! - Ya got no chance
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Aussiebob
Aussiebob's picture
Abandon all hope

This Shooting is addictive and great fun we hope to have our 500m range here in Mackay up and running this year and hold our first FLY Shoot wont hold my breath but has been approved but with all the upgrades and work being done will be a busy year also will extend our bench line to 20 Benches. I shoot Fly with a 30 X 47 and won my first couple shoots with my 30BR

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