Don’t get me wrong. Given the choice, I am always going to prefer a ballistic ‘superior’ match projectile to something not as slippery. But. There sometimes seems to be a little bit of a fixation on ‘requiring’ a match bullet to shoot to distance. Sometimes, it’s just basic stuff, done right.
Since we are experiencing a little bit of a projectile shortage here in NZ at the moment, I found myself looking at the shelves of the local gun store and not having much choice when it came to 6mm projectiles.
There wasn’t much choice.
I had a limited supply of 109 109 Grain Long-Range Hybrid Target Bergers at home, but I was really looking for some ‘plinking ammo’. So it basically became a case of choosing the cheapest projectiles on the shelf and seeing what I could do with them.
As it turned out, that was 100gr 6mm Interlocks.
I put together a quick load test using them, and, well, got an ‘acceptable’ result I guess. That’s five shots.
So, as I was headed the door, I quickly selected a load/node, made up 10 rounds of it and threw the gun and ammo in the bag, just in case I had a bit of spare time between rifle setups. I.e – plinking time!
As it turned out, I did. So while another shooter ran a few things over the chronograph, I lay down next to them in the dirt to quickly confirm zero – the gun is/was actually zeroed for a different projectile, powder and load, but I knew it wouldn’t be that far out.
Shot, used the reticle, adjusted, shot again. Done.
I turned around, opened up 4DOF, loaded up the interlock into the profile (BC mode, not actually the 4DOF system), put in the last recorded velocity, dialled up, thought to myself it didn’t seem enough (I should have stopped and checked here, I know better) – but, sent a round downrange, watched it hit the dirt a couple of meters in front of the target, adjusted, 2nd round hit. 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th round hit as well. Done. Back to setting up rifles.
Apparently, if you accidently load 4600fps into a ballistic calculator, you get the wrong dope! Who knew!
So yes. This isn’t a case of humble bragging or some weird flex – it’s simply to point out that ‘standard’ projecticles, with a little bit of setup and basic fundamentals – are quite capable of hitting bits of steel a way out with minimal of fuss. Just make sure you double check your data solution before sending it!
