The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

artiglio wrote:When you get a bit of time out of the shed, would it be possible to post a description of the HME procedure?

Annex N of the NRA RCO's Instruction Manual states:

PROCEDURE FOR ZEROING .308 (NRA MATCH RIFLES), F CLASS OR ANY OTHER RIFLES DEVELOPING MUZZLE ENERGIES IN EXCESS OF 4500J (3319 FT LBS) ON MOD GALLERY RANGES

Note: Safety of Butt Markers. Back splash from high energy rounds may create a hazard for unprotected Butt Markers, particularly from poorly maintained stop butts. It is the RCO’s responsibility to ensure that the stop butt has been maintained to a sufficient standard such that no backsplash will occur, failing which a protective screen must be provided and used by the marker when ammunition with ME in excess of 4,500 J (3,319 fl lbs) is in use.

1. Each firer is to be authorized in writing to fire the specific type of firearm by the Chairman of his club.

2. The RCO (HME) is to be qualified to conduct zeroing practices with rifles firing ammunition with an ME in excess of 4500 joules. The RCO is to record the use of any HME firearms in the MOD Form 906, the Land Ranges Log.

3. Initial zeroing is to be conducted on the NRA/MoD approved target at 200 yds / m before firing at any other distance, the only exception being when zeroing is taking place on the Bisley Zero range when a 1/8th scale target may be used.

4. The 200 yds / m HME zeroing target, which may be issued in e-mail or hard copy format to RCOs (HME) and Club Secretaries, consists of three A4 sheets labelled Sheet 1, Sheet 2 and Sheet 3. Sheet 1 (bottom) contains the aiming mark, elevation tables for Match Rifle and F Class rifle and a vertical black line, Sheet 2 (middle) contains instructions, a vertical black line and the ‘Target Centre Height’ line, and Sheet 3 (top) contains the ‘grouping rectangle’ and signature boxes.

5. Sheets 1 and 2 are to be stuck together as indicated with adhesive tape. They are then to be
attached to the blank target face with the ‘Target Centre Height’ line aligned with the horizontal line through the centre of the blank target, which should have already been drawn by the range warden (as requested in advance). Sheet 3 should then be attached with adhesive tape or self adhesive patches to the appropriate dotted line for Match Rifles or F Class rifles. For subsequent firers only Sheet 3 needs to be replaced and attached in the correct position for the type of rifle to be used. Note that this will mean that the aiming mark will be near the bottom of the target

6. The firer must then set his sights at his 600 yards elevation, even though he will be firing at only 200 yards. This will ensure that all shots will strike near the centre of the target and be contained by the stop butt.

7. A spotter, who may be a butt marker, must observe the fall of shot until the initial strike on the target screen is identified:
a. If strike off the target screen is clearly identified, the firer may adjust and re-fire.
b. If no strike is identified the firer is to cease fire and may not continue until the rifle has been recollimated or bore sighted to the RCO’s satisfaction.

8. All sighting shots should be shown with a normal spotting disk and previous shots patched out in the normal way. The firer may adjust his sights to bring his shots into the centre of the grouping rectangle.

9. When the firer is satisfied with his sighting shots he must instruct the marker that he intends to complete his group of five shots. His final sighting shot may be used as his first grouping shot. The marker must not indicate the remaining shots in the group.

10. All 5 rounds of the final group must be within the rectangle before the firer may move to a farther distance.

11. The zeroing procedure is to be carried out each time before shooting unless part of an official competition or training package carried out on consecutive days, in which case the zeroing procedure need only be carried out on the first day of the competition/training package, or the previous day.

One complication that has emerged from this (as a result of the try-before-you-buy at Bisley Live, as it happens) is that if you do not intend to shoot at distances beyond 200, the procedure is irrelevant. The procedure was designed with an implicit assumption that HME users were about to engage in MR or F-class at 1000 yds+. Not necessarily so. This is important to a number of small but significant classes of riflemen, principally those zeroing big game rifles. The current range regulations require that you complete the HME zero procedure before doing anything else with an HME rifle. Patently, if you are setting up an elephant gun for appropriate distances - 80 yards? - the procedure is completely counter-productive.

We hope to address this through range regulations soon. However, as it may require agreement of the military authorities, there may be administrative delays.

Iain
NRA Firearms Liaison

A valid point Iain, I do wonder why >4500J should be zeroed at 200 (outside of Bisley) if it is to be shot at less than 200 on the day.

The main reason for 200 zeroing is that, regardless of the state of your sights, at 200 yds your first shot will hit the stop butt. So it is a safe condition to start from despite any mechanical or setting errors. Also, if you want to zero at a longer distance, you need more paper, and the sticky tape routine on the target face becomes more complicated.

If it is to be shot at a shorter distance, that is just a more pertinent version of the "not to be shot beyond 200" concept. Rationally, we should work out the maximum range at which a catastrophic mis-setting on a standard gallery range will still result in the bullet impacting the stop butt, knock off the JSP 403 allowance for shooter error, knock off a bit more for Mum, round it down to the next lowest '00 yards/metres and say that if you don't intend to go beyond that distance the procedure doesn't apply. A back-of-a-fag-packet calculation suggests to me that the answer would still be 200 metres or less!

Iain

IainWR wrote:The main reason for 200 zeroing is that, regardless of the state of your sights, at 200 yds your first shot will hit the stop butt.

Iain

Really, is that some sort of WAG or based on anything more concrete? If the rifle has been bore sighted its probably not far off the mark, if not then it is a WAG.

John

Sorry, what's a WAG?

Iain

Wild Ass Guess. Unless a rudimentary bore sighting is carried out there is no way of being confident that you'll hit a 4' x 4' screen at 200 yards or the stop butt, obviously depends on the size of the stop butt. I've seen people miss the stop butt at Bisley on many occasions, mostly low at 200 yards.

I was talking to the range manager at Barton Road one morning about the electronics, 'worst' group was 6 rounds recorded out of a full magazine through an SA80 at 100m. They thought the electronics had failed so an instructor put ten in the target with the same rifle to confirm electronics/sights/function.

Did he miss as well?

:lol:

I was shooting on a system back in DK earlier this year and was struggling to get shots to show on the screen, as I had the range to myself and all the electronics were on I took a shot cross lane at the next target to see if that one was working and promptly got a message up telling me I was shooting at the wrong target! very impressive. Apparently I had not booted the system correctly and a restart got me on track.

The current Danish Jagtfeltskydning champion joined me a short while afterwards and also struggled with his electronics, in the end he used mine to confirm his shooting was not quite as he had hoped to and the electronics were OK.

We need a stifling a laugh smilie at this point...