A good but very wet finish to the season at Bisley. The final big match of the year was the British F Class Championships held at Bisley.
After my poor show at the Europeans, where whatever I seemed to do went wrong, it was time to start from scratch. A fresh Kreiger barrel was chambered in .300 WSM and fitted to my rifle. I was ready to begin load development. I’ve always had great results with Reload Swiss powders and a lot of faith, having won the British F Class Championships in FTR in 2015 using RS40 in my rifle, setting a GB record score of 75.12 V at 800 yards along the way.
Shooting this year in the F Open, I narrowed my choice of Reload Swiss powders to two: RS62 and RS70. Test loads were assembled with both powders using the highly efficient Berger 215 Hybrid bullet. Initial testing at 100 yards clearly showed that RS62 was the powder of choice, giving bench rest accuracy and very low ES/SD values, so my hopes were high for this combination.
I planned to arrive early at Bisley to carry out further testing at 600 yards, and luckily, I had a perfect morning with zero wind. I was amazed at the result with RS62. The first shot landed slightly high in the bull, so I took 1/4 MOA off. The remaining nine shots went into the centre of the V! To put this into context, that was nine consecutive shots in the V bull, which is 3” in diameter at 600 yards. I was amazed.
My confidence was high for practice day, and I busily loaded some rounds in preparation for further testing at 800/900/1000 yards. The practice day confirmed that the load with RS62 was superbly consistent, giving very tight vertical dispersion, I had every faith now the combination was perfect.
The first day of the Championships dawned wet and miserable, but shooting got underway. I shot steadily all day collecting a bronze medal in the last competition, this left me lying in 3rd place overall. The combination of RS62 and the Berger 215 Hybrid we outstanding.
Sunday morning we awoke to torrential rain, so shooting was delayed until it eased. Time constraints meant we lost one match, but the Championships would conclude with one match of 2+20 at 1000 yards.
I had a good last round with a score of 98.10V, which was enough to move me up one place into 2nd overall in F Open at the British F Class Championships.
So happy and a great finish for me, the combination of the new barrel and RS62 gave me the edge and also the highest V bull count of the match, the “Perfect Hit”
Thanks to Reload Swiss and RS62, a winning combination.
Looking forward to next season with a little bit of confidence restored.
