I'm pretty sure I have a shot at high 308! I've replaced the broken scope with a new Sightron. This fixed the problems I was having with the rifle. Still, like all 308's, it's kind of hard to shoot. I've had the scope just touch my nose a few times. That's disconcerting. I thought I had an issue with the scope focus. Turned out I was wearing my shop glasses which don't fully correct my distance vision. A switch to the right glasses fixed things right up!
The HWP barrel is great. I only hope to be able to do it justice.
Having the 300 meter range 50 yds from the house makes load development less trouble. None of the powders I was hoping for (the ones I have a lot of) made the cut. Still, there are three in the running. I ordered some bullets specifically for this. They are sitting in a postal warehouse somewhere. I'm stuck with 167 Scenars but they seem to be capable of decent performance. If this was a 300 meter "F" class match, I would be very confident. Whether I shoot well or not, I'll record what I can for the YT channel. Bill

After many, many years away from BR competition, I decided to get back into it. There was a time when I was a passable shooter but that was then. Nonetheless, I attended a couple of matches this past summer (where I shot quite poorly, thanks for asking) with the intention of attending a big match once I got sorted out a bit. I heard about the Tack Driver match, organized by Jim Cline in South Carolina. It is a match fired at 300m (I like the distance) for group and for score (the score part is on a 200 yd hunter BR target!). It is kind of a "run what you brung" event, but the winning formula, to date, has been a HV rifle in PPC or a BR or BR derivative.  Hugh Williamson has come very close to cleaning the score portion of the event and has placed second overall. If pressed, I would be inclined to pick Hugh as the likely winner this year. Still, ever the optimist, I entered the match and I brashly told Jim that I would show up with a 308. Now, I had a heavy 308 with which I had shot a 750/750 on the ISSF target and it is a pretty solid 1/4 minute rifle at that range. Instead of that, I decided to build another.
I had three suitable actions and a couple of old Hart barrels. I also had one unsuitable action which I naturally chose to use. This is an old Wichita Mini action with a PPC bolt.  I fitted one of the Hart barrels to it and rebated the rims on twenty cases to test the concept.  It worked fine except for one thing; it didn't shoot as well as my silhouette rifle. In fact, it sucked. Now and then, it would shoot under .4 but it was usually closer to .8. Pretty good for a lightweight 30/06 but an embarrassment for a BR gun. Now I had previously shot this rifle, with a 6BR barrel on it (also with rebated rims) at a couple of BR matches. It had not shot particularly well. It was worse as a 308. The likely reason became apparent when I was taking it apart to do some diagnostic work. When I removed the scope (a 36x Weaver) it rattled! Now I'm no expert, but I don't think they are supposed to do that. I replaced it with an old 24x Leupold I have and, at the same time, put on a new Williamson barrel. The improvement was immediate and I'll tell all about it later. Right now, I've got to go to town. Bill

I was away for the match, so commentary is a little thin!

Thanks to Gord for handling the scoring, I just made it a little prettier!

Next match is September 27, hope to see a good turnout.

...and the results: 

Hello,
Here are the results of the BR50 (22LR) competition held on October 5, 2025, at the Maska Shooting Club.
 This event marks the conclusion of the Benchrest Qu?bec season.
 I would like to express my gratitude to the Maska Shooting Club for graciously lending us their site; to Jean-Marc for compiling the results; to the volunteers for target verification; to the line officials; and to Chief Luis for the barbecue.
We had twelve shooters present, an excellent number considering the start of hunting season.
 The weather was unusually warm for the month of October, with fairly consistent wind, though with a few gusts.
 I hope this season has been enjoyable for you.
 Congratulations to David Bisaillon for his score of 990 out of 1000 with 47 Xs.
 We look forward to seeing you next season.

This month, we held our combined Group and Score 300 yard match.  In this format, we hang both a Group and a 200 yard Score target at 300 yards.  You have 14 minutes to complete both targets, and we repeat the process 5 times for the complete match.

Because this shoot combines Group and Score, scoring is done on the basis of points.  You get one point for every competitor you beat in each match. 

A good turnout of 9 shooters got beautiful fall weather and very mild conditions, although, as usual, conditions started to pick up as the morning went on.  We started at 8 degrees while we finished at close to 20.

Congrats to Milan who had the smallest agg in the Group competition - Good shooting in interesting conditions!

Thanks to Art who called the match, Joe who collected our money and to Pete, Bob and Art who wrangled the targets at 300 yards.  Thanks again to Art who scored the Score targets. 

Our next match is November 2nd, and we'll be back to shooting Group at 100 and 200 yards.

Here are the results: