So with three sighters down the range I gave the rifle a good soak in C2R and patched it out. Hmm... well there was some carbon but not a trace of copper. So a quick 5 shot group and I was back to the 'proper' job.
Now this may not look like a particularly good group for a 6,5x47 however this was with no load development and shot off a Versapod with no rear bag so I was secretly quite pleased with the results. Those are 25mm patches for scale.
I had swabbed the barrel with C2R again so it had quite a few hours soaking before being patched through again.
Carbon but virtually no copper... Hmm, I swapped to a new bottle of C2R and still no copper and a peer up the barrel revealed, well a very nice shiny bore but nothing else.
Time to so some proper testing.
The 123 Scenars have a huge Meplat so I decided to do some bullet pointing and compare the results back to back with the standard Meplats. I deliberately chose not to close the tips right down, instead reducing them by around 60%. Chosen venue was Barton Road for some longer distance shooting.
Starting at 800 yards to confirm drops I found the combination of rifle, suppressor and standard 123 Scenar really quite effective with a few V's on the F Class target, so far so good however Chrono speeds were slightly down on those seen at the tunnel, I assume this was down to the acoustic envelope as I was using a Steinert and the echo in the tunnel may have upset things, as might the solid concrete floor as I was only using a low tripod. No matter a quick correction to my drop data and it was off to the 1000 yard mark.
However I needed to do some sentry duty first on 'Long Sentry'. We have a public footpath that crosses the range at 100m so sentries are needed at both end, long sentry refers to the LHS and is so called because it is a longer walk, this is more than made up for by the bountiful crop of Sloes by the sentry box that are usually ready to pick from November onwards, plus I managed to meet up with a shooting friend of old for a good gossip about all things shooting and other so the hour or so passed very quickly.
Back at the 1000 yard point I dialled in the drop and shot, soon finding the V and keeping the fall of shot in the general area quite nicely. Time for the pointed Scenars. The pointing seems to give me a good 2 clicks advantage on elevation and windage, I shoot a 1/10th Mil click S&B so think along the lines of a tad under 0.7MOA improvement which impressed me. Next outing will see some further pointing experiments. One down side was I managed to piece one of the CCI magnum primers I was using.
After some discussions with the RCO we moved back to the 1200 yard point and 12,6 mils saw me nicely on target with some superb results finishing with 4 consecutive V's. Downside was the last shot dropped into the 4 ring just scraping towards the 5 at 4:00, I think I can blame that on a poor wind call.
So what did I learn? Well pointing the 123 Scenars certainly made a difference and I suspect I could push the gain to 1MOA with some development. I had two additional pierced primers at the 1200 mark however the bolt face looks good and this is always going to be a bit of a problem when shooting with an Accuracy International and I flatly refuse to bush the firing pin hole however I will drop the firing pin out in a few minutes and take a look as it has seen in excess of 10,000 rounds through it now when it was in 7,62x51/.308 guise.
Drops are not quite as I had expected and despite some superb accuracy from the rifle I do suspect the suppressor which is quite a lump has changed the harmonics slightly. On the subject of suppressors I am getting some crud blowing back from the rear so I need to add an O ring to seal things up nicely. The suppressor works superbly and was commented on by a few shooters, at one point during a lull in proceedings I discreetly dropped my Sordins off and took a shot and was delighted by what I did not hear, basically it is just a reasonably discreet hiss and that is it. Certainly the rifle can be shot without ear protection quite safely, not that I would ever suggest such an action on the firing point.
I am certainly sold on the 6,5x47 and can see it becoming a firm favourite.
Just one final thing, I shot 48 rounds today and the barrel had a good soaking with C2R upon returning home. I have just patched it out and yes there was carbon however virtually no copper, just the slightest hint of blue on one patch, in fact I have seen more copper in 5 shots on some rifles than out of this one with 60+ shots. I am impressed with this Border barrel.
