Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Don't ya just hate "trespassers"?

This trespasser was seen our our property this week, but we were hesitant to approach him.

Apparently a poacher too....

You caught me:(

Hello.

All the nice place like that, attracts the trespassers.

A+

Is that trespasser the appropriate gauge of steel to use for target practice?

We usually use white paint - so it is easier to see the grouping sizes.

Big Foot wears body armor!

LOL. Bob Lusk's neighbor said that his steel target was guaranteed not to get "drilled" by a bullet by the maker (5/16" or 3/8" AR 400 I think). Dave Davidson shot my long range rifle at it and the target barely swung. It was set at less than 200 yds. He thought he missed. Nope, A 7mm 175g Sierra Matchking @ a muzzle velocity of 3475 fps went right through it like it was butter.

Too tall for a Yeti. I know because I saw one last week in a Bayou Segnette State Park.

From a security standpoint, such a figure is good Feng Shui practice because it gives the visitor a sense of being watched. It's the same principle behind Fu Dog statues or concrete lions at a front entrance. When entering a yard or house, the entry should always be guarded by a portrait or statue of a person or animal watching. Such practice reminds the visitor that he is indeed only a visitor. In my home, a front door visitor is confronted by a portrait of Chief Tecumseh watching the door. Arrivals at the front walk are greeted by a pair of concrete lions. The pond is watched by plastic swans.

The practice of Feng Shui serves me as an art of decoration and arrangement in order to serve purpose and maintain organisation by controlling the flow of energy and attention. Due to its 'mystical' Chinese origin, it seems foreign to us, but it is a VERY practical method to guide the placement of things, the design of a home, and choice of property.
Cheers, -Hirsch

"Too tall for a Yeti. I know because I saw one last week in a Bayou Segnette State Park."

Love to hear more on this one, Hirsch!

I am shrinking in my old age... And my camouflage coat is turning grey and I can't stay awake for the night life, which may account for the daylight sightings:)

Not much to tell. We went to NOLA for a few days of Mardi Gras after attending a family funeral in Florida. Bayou Segnette S.P. is right across the river. I was sitting outside the trailer having a smoke before going to bed. I saw a humanoid-formed shadow around 4' tall walk across the campground toward the canal. From its profile I could tell it was either hairy or wearing rags, and it moved quickly and silently. The filtered window light of the RVs did not light it up enough to see any detail.

My wife doesn't believe me, either.

Certainly could have been some kind of ape.

A 7mm 175g Sierra Matchking @ a muzzle velocity of 3475 fps went right through it like it was butter.

Thats a hell of a round! Speed kills. Wow.

Not sure what the specs are, but my 270 win seems to drop deer. Maybe the deer didn't get the memo?

That bullet is not for hunting large game but for punching paper… be careful

I am not a long-range target shooter, but I do want to add that to my list of "fun things to do" at our property.

I thought that the long-range precision target rounds were specifically designed to spatter when hitting on steel plates? Am I wrong, or is that a match round designed for some other purpose?

Not sure about the splatter on steel ( assuming it will) but most are designed for long range accuracy on paper. I use hornady reloading manuals for bullet selection and they will show bullet choice for most usages. I have neighbors who shoot steel targets and you can hear the ricochets zinging across the road to other properties….. illegal by the way…..

I think I either had brain freeze or read some inaccurate "internet" information as regards match bullets.

Based on further internet research, it appears that open tip match bullets proved to be much more accurate than FMJ because they are easier to manufacture with a uniform weight distribution of the lead. (I thought I had read that the open tip was for the bullets to break up after striking a steel target.)

It appears that the same manufacturing accuracy benefit would also apply to the newer polymer tip match rounds that have become very popular.

I am just summing up my additional reading for the Pond Boss crowd. Any further comments by actual experts would be greatly appreciated.

Pat,

Do you have a range set up on your property? I have a poorly developed range set up in a safe direction.

When I get the time/money to make improvements, should I start a post on Pond Boss for advice?

I'm sure esshup replaced the plate. I mean knowing the Match King was gonna go right through it and all. Poor guy is living on a fixed income, driving a 76 Ford Pinto, and picking up soda cans on the side of the road.

I've got 400 of the Match Kings waiting to be loaded for my coyote rifle. I'm gonna try to get my .223 to reach out a smidge.

It's really hard to find any distance to shoot at in our area, but my neighbor has a 800 yard shooting ranch next door, so I may go ahead and put some plates up for him. AR500 plates can be bought locally, and all I'd have to build is the hangers.

FishinRod, go ahead and start a thread.

Nah got a shooting club about 5 miles from me….. I don’t have anything over 200 yards at my place. My AR-10 308 has dropped piggies at that distance so I’m good…..can’t seem to hit more than one at a time, can’t hit many on the run at night in moonlight

I offered, he said no, he was going to take it back to the guy that built it and who said "nothing can go through it besides AP rounds" and he was laughing when he saw the hole. I gave him a loaded round to take with him when he went to the guy that built the target.

MatchKings will work fine on game, but you have to be VERY PICKY at what the impact velocity is. Too fast and they will explode like a varmint bullet. With that being said, I never used a MatchKing on game, just on paper/steel. After a couple hundred rounds down the tube I was missing the paper. Couldn't figure out why but when I looked up over the rifle (it was in a rest like a Lead Sled) I saw a grey cloud at about 50 yds. The reason why I was missing the target (I "think" this is the reason) was that they were exploding in mid air. I think the throat got a bit rougher and the RPM's of the bullet was causing it to go "poof" because the rougher throat scraped a wee bit more copper off of the jacket.

I switched to 180g Berger VLD Hunting bullets and the sweet spot accuracy wise for them was 100 fps slower. They didn't go "poof". Now I'm shooting the Berger 195g Elite Hunter bullets right around 3300 fps. Google "7mm Allen Magnum" for the info on the round. If you pull up asprifles.com, the rifle is the 6th rifle down on the right hand side of the "custom rifle" picture page.

When I was having the MatchKings go "poof" I called Sierra and talked to their tech guy. It was the 3rd phone call talking to the same guy when he said "Wait a minute, you are shooting them at 3475 fps? What the he.. are you pushing them that fast in?? We've never tested them over 2700 fps. You are on your own." I explained that I was pushing them with 110 grains of WC-872 powder in a modified .338 Lapua case. FWIW, the RPM of the bullet calculates out to be 278,000 rpm. Bullet RPM = MV fps x 720/twist rate (in inches) Barrel is a 1:9 twist

As for the polymer tipped bullets, Hornady says that some start to melt at higher velocities, I haven't seen a picture of a melted tip though. I would think that they could put a ballistics gel block way out there and shoot it to get a picture of one, having calculated the fps needed to impact the block and not damage the tip. I've shot deer with an SST and recovered an undamaged tip in the deer, and shot a deer with a aluminum tipped bullet and the processor found the undamaged tip.