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THAT! THAT... is Ron... R2 Ron, for clarification...

BELT!!! Where you been, man?! I'm getting ready to travel to Little Rock - how far away are you? Just thought about this - I better tag you in this, or you won't see it until you're back here in the next 6 months... @Belt Fed

I grew up shooting left handed. I had a Red Ryder BB gun as a first, but my first powerful BB gun that could shoot pellets was the Daisy 880 Powerline. That changed everything. I'm right handed, so I could run the pump lever with my right hand faster - if I was shooting left handed. Faster on target. Faster on rabbit or bird. Faster on fat pigeon, on the powerlines. I adapted to shooting left handed, at a young age, and stuck with it. Hunted all as a kid left handed. I also played baseball as a kid. I'd always practice throwing with my left hand instead of my right, and practiced batting left handed, when the coach would let me, and not tell me I was wasting everyone's time. Couple times, he TOLD me to go to the plate and bat left - after batting right the whole game. That strategy works. The other team doesn't know what to do... Joined the Army, signed everything with my right hand. Went to BRM, set up as a Lefty, and the Drill SGT's went apeshit. YOU ARE RIGHT HANDED! MOVE THAT GUN TO YOUR OTHER SHOULDER! "But, DS, I shoot Left Handed..." BULLSHIIT, PRIVATE, YOU ARE RIGHT HANDED!!! That was literally the first time I HAD to shoot right handed. Been doing it ever since. I still practice Lefty shooting - and definitely not as much as I should. I can shoot like a MFer still lefty, but I don't have the PROFICIENCY in running the gun left handed, like the muscle memory of running it righty. Mag changes, running the safety, all the finer skills that are just automatic right handed. I don't think, running the gun. I HAVE to think, running it left, if gun manipulation is a task. Not shooting - I can shoot like a champ left, still. I need to work on RUNNING the gun more left handed, and I've proven that to myself, in a match. Lefty was mandatory on one stage, totally optional for double points on another stage. I went Left. I didn't run the gun well, through I shot left very well. Nobody else even fukking tried to do it... There was a time in the Army on the unit softball teams. I always played unit softball - baseball roots as a kid. I ended up on a team that went to Military Worlds, all TDY, 15-pax van, the whole team travelling. I'd bat right a bunch, and I could eat infielders up with my swing - I'd knock shots right over the shortstops head, put a spin on the ball, and it would drop before the outfield. Only Hits Matter. They'd call me, on the other team, and I'd hear it - call the last hit... "He went FIVE!!!" That's the SS position. I'd walk to the plate, hear that shiit, laugh, and mount up on the other side of the plate as a Lefty. THAT fukced them up... I'd drill that damn thing right over the 2nd baseman's head... I'm an anomoly. I'm ambidextrous. I'm primarily right handed. I can write cursive lefty, print left, play sports lefty - I was deadly at high school soccer with my left kick, when the other team always though I was right-footed... I was the Rover, Center Midfield. Go wherever I need to without getting called offsides, switch left to screw the other team all up. When I shoot right handed, I use my right eye. When I shoot left handed, I use my left eye. It's same/same for me - give it to me, and I'll figure it out, and make it work for the best way possible for the application we need it to work for, right now. It's both a blessing, and it's a curse. RLTW.

@Armed Eye Doc, Spicy Friday. After Dark...

Check it out.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!

I didn't know whether to put this here, or in the Cooking thread...

There's a vid out here where they did that, when they were shooting 4 miles...

Range Of Maximum Height: 176 yards. 528 feet, brother...

It finally got recognized by the US Army. We have a Service Medal for the Korean War. Since it's never officially ended, everyone that serves a Hardship Tour in the ROK is still awarded it. Took decades, but at least they recognized it. U.S. Korea Defense Service Medal As a result of effective lobbying by the Korea Defense Veterans Association, in 2003, Congress created the Korea Defense Service Medal to recognize service in Korea on or after July 28, 1954, the date that effectively ends the awarding of the U.S. Korean War Medal. 2 For those U.S. military veterans who earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM) for service in Korea during the authorized operations period of 1 October 1966 to 30 June 1974, they are also eligible for the Korean Defense Service Medal as an exception to DoD policy.

For the most part, what we've seen so far... So, round count is low, shooting 2 miles. Doesn't need to be a high round count to see what we've already seen, especially with years of experience at shooting 1 mile. I'm not kidding when I say you can fire a sighter shot at 500 yards, check current environmental dope at 1000 yards, and make a confirmation set of shots at a mile. This is different... I've been on the mile on the third round before - and on the second round before, and run 7 out of 10. I've cold bored it (luck, I'll take that). This is a different game. We're not shooting due West, like the Mile shot here at SDTF. This isn't the Patriot Mile at Parabellum, which is shot due East. We're shooting west-south-west. Corialis takes effect shooting north and south (in opposite ways). That target will rotate out from under your shot, to the left, when shooting south (from the Northern Hemisphere). Add that correction in. Right-hand barrel twist built into your barrel - better factor that shiit in... When we typically have a wind from the right out here at SDTF at 4~6mph, that's enough to cancel out the right-hand twist of any barrel that you're shooting at a mile. Not so, now... Factor it in... Wind. Big deal for a Mile - HUGE deal at 2 miles. Visibility. Humidity. Mirage. Giant factors. We saw that all. This one is a Game Changer, fellas. Big Time. My bottom line assessment is simple. Anyone can buy an Ivey Mount, and make a heavy-for-caliber round dial to the diatance. Hell, you can dial in 60 Mils or 200 MOA, depending on which version you buy from Ivey. You can coax the load out there - that doesn't mean you'll impart energy on target, or impart enough energy into the dirt surrounding the target - to create enough splash to spot your shot. My assessment will stand - if it's not a 300 grain projectile, it's not heavy enough to blow up the dirt or rocks out here to be able to spot splash, and give you a call or spot on your shot. That rules the .30 Cals right out, with their max being the 250gr A-Tip projectile. The 225gr .30 Cal projectile was only spotted once. And that was luck, .300 PRC cartridge. Anything less is a stab in the dark, literally. .338 Lapua is gonna be the minimum gun to bring to this challenge, or fight, depending on how you look at it. Better be running the 300 grain projectiles, too, not the 285s, the factory stuff from Hornady. This isn't gonna be an easy battle. There's a reason that the .338 Lapua is the SMALLEST cartridge that ever shows up at the annual King Of 2 Mile Competition... .375 CheyTac, .408 CheyTac, .416 Barrett... Wildcats that are giant - those are the prevalent cartridges at KO2M... Minimum projectile weight on those .375s is 400 grains... It only goes up from there... I found a 550gr .416 projectile tonight that has a 1.300 G1 ballistic coefficient... Think about that... We'll mitigate what we can, make every advantage possible, just to get somebody in this crowd to set off one of those target flashers. Of 8 flashers we're gonna run on target. Telling you now, though - I'm not gonna waste a bunch of time trying to teach someone how to do this, coach someone how to adjust a scope for this... Come out here ready to go, knowing your own gun and load... If you can't DIAL 70+ Mils or 240+ MOA into your scope, then you don't even have a chance at trying it, not at all (70 Mils x 3.4377 = 240.639 MOA - I didn't guess that number arbitrarily, and my start on Sunday was 71.8 Mils...). With all the setup, math involved, planning, and selection of the custom rail for my action, I can dial 103.1 Mils, total, from a 100 yard zero that I can only get to 1.3" high at 100 yards, with the turret bottomed all the way out. This won't be an easy task, I'm not trying to discourage anybody - but it's certainly gonna be a TASK... This won't come easy, like the Mile did. Or the 2500, 2700, 2900... We might go through the Fall, and a few people come close - and NOBODY hits this thing... Brace for Impact. That's a possibility. I came in 1 Mil low, good windage, straight below the target, on Sunday, in a steady 8mph left wind. I'm gonna hit the fuckin' thing... 1 Mil, at 3,520 yards is 126.72 inches... My best shot was over 10 1/2 feet low - and I can dial for that. If you want training, that takes place on the Mile target. Not this one. Not at 2. This is different shiit, completely, now...

I've got 6 years in that country, total. 4 tours and 10 TDYs. The terrain is vicious. Much respect for him.

Oh, we'll get it, brother! This was the trial run just to see how much we have yet to do. It's attainable, for certain - someone is gonna smack this thing!

That's pretty damn smart.

Indeed, brother. Holy Shiit!

Nope. Fuk it, We'll DO IT LIVE! I'm cutting that Heavy MFer in half. Bolt it together. Then I don't have to build any complicated frames, etc., just to move it around and hang it.

Interesting data. First, here's the target, set up. It will get WAY MORE BIGGER if you keep clicking it - you can see the hanger system better. Interesting, forgot to mention it until I was talking to @Matt.Cross... Shot the thing today on just under 12x power, on a 4.5-27x scope. That gave me plenty of clear resolution on the actual target, and a great, wide field of view. Flight time was around 9 seconds. Plenty of time to go through recoil management, get back in glass and back on target, see what I could see, with a wide field of view. Something to think about, that I didn't think about before talking to Matt. It's a FFP scope, and the target was just over 0.6 Mils wide. Little guy. In glass.

It was around 0830 when we got out there, and we didn't leave until about 1130. Rigo left his place in NW PHX at 6am, got to my place at 0720, we packed it all up and hit the road a couple minutes before 0800. Moving that plate around really sucks, if I've failed to mention that up to this point...

We'll have to work the kinks out, for sure. It's different. Hopefully, we get everything ironed out and running well long before the Fall Shoot.

Hell Yeah!

AAR. Key Takeaways. First, there was no contact with the target. Actual elevation at the platform is 1390 feet, Density Altitude was 3900 feet. Temp was 91*, humidity was 22%. This is the first time I've shot the gun since putting the Ivey mount on there with the EGW custom 60 MOA rail on the action. I had to check zero on the gun. With the elevation turret buried all the way down, I'm 1.3" high at 100 yards - I'll take that. All the scope travel is UP, all 34 Mils of it. With the target hanging system that I cobbled together yesterday, it went up very easily, even though that plate weighs 163 lbs. It's secure, and it'll swing. Winds were a consistent 8mph from the left. At that distance, is was an 8 Mil windhold, and Dope called for 71.8 Mils of elevation. The handload is Vairog new brass, CCI 250 primers, 88.5gr of Accurate MagPro powder, 300gr Hornady A-Tip projectiles, seated to book length, 3.680" COAL. This gives me 2650 fps muzzle velocity from my 24" barrel. Lesson 1. The target location is in some rocky terrain, so spotting any splash is difficult. I saw some feedback on mine, but there was a 300 PRC on the hill running 225gr projectiles - hard to spot any splash. Rigo ran his 7 PRC with 195s, and I only saw 1 splash over 5 shots - and he was exactly 1 Mil low, good wind call, on the one I could spot. Can the 7 PRC get there? Hell yeah it can. With an Ivey mount. Does it have the energy or the weight? Time will tell. I don't think the .30 Cals are gonna be any good at this, either - just not enough weight going downrange, even if you're running the 250s. Lesson 2. Trust your Dope, but make sure you have accurate Dope. Mine called for 71.8 Mils of elevation, and the really good splash had was exactly 1 Mil low - so I dialed to 72.8 Mils. Getting a consistent wind of 8 mph really helped - being able to accurately read the wind via mirage was important - the wind hold called for was correct, 8 Mils left. Lesson 3. That 163 lb plate is a real bastard to hang, even with 2 guys, and even with a good target hanger system. I'm cutting that thing in half, horizontally, and we'll use 2" steel 1/4" bar stock to bolt the two halves together, at the target location. That will make loading it, transporting it, and setting it up (as well as tear down) much easier. Lesson 4. More target flashers. We ran 2 flashers, one right and one left, top 1/3 of the plate. This is a heavy plate - and it's gonna take alot to make it vibrate and wiggle. And set off a flasher. The "rock test" on the back of the plate proved that. A rock on the back of the plate, on a side, would set off that side's flasher, but not the other one. This plate will have 8 flashers on it. 2 ea, top, bottom, sides. Evenly spaced. That'll do it... Gonna be some fun times coming up for the Fall Shoot. Over the summer, I'm taking the gun apart and shipping the barreled action back to Savage, and having them install the newer 30" barrel in it, and return the original 24" back to me. That should give me the potential for another 150 fps mussle velocity, so 2800 fps, and I can back the load down to 2750 fps from where I am now. In theory. Might as well Cerakote the chassis while the important parts are back at the factory. Fun times coming up... Proof Of Concept is complete. Someone is hitting this thing this Fall Shoot.