Schatz Sets Pending IBS Record in South Dakota

Richard Schatz, 2007 IBS 600-Yard Shooter of the Year, has done it again. While competing in the South Dakota 600-yard State Championships, Richard nailed a superb 5-shot group that may be a new IBS 600-yard Heavy Gun score record. Richard tells us: “Got home from the VHA Jamboree and IBS 600-yard South Dakota state championship match held last week at Fort Pierre, SD. During the 600-yard match I managed to lay down a ‘lucky’ 50 for score in Heavy Gun with a 0.634″ group for a potential new score record.” While other perfect 50s have been shot in competition, under current rules, group size is the tie-breaker. Schatz’s impressive 0.634″ group, we believe, is the smallest “50” shot to date, and one of the smallest groups ever shot at the 600-yard distance. Amazingly, there is just one bullet diameter of vertical:

In the South Dakota Championship, Richard won Heavy Gun group, finished second in HG score, and finished third overall for the Two-Gun. Richard was shooting his trusty 6mm Dasher in both Light Gun and Heavy Gun classes. This rifle features a Shehane Baby Tracker stock, Nesika Model ‘K’ RBLP, right-eject action, and a 27″ Krieger barrel. The chamber is basically a no-turn neck, but Richard does “clean up” his necks, turning them to a uniform .013″ neck-wall thickness. Richard’s match load was 33.0 grains of Reloder 15, with 105 Berger VLDs, seated about .005″ off the lands. This load runs 3020-3050 fps. Richard notes: “That’s the [velocity] spot where every barrel I’ve had likes to run.”

Richard used Sierra 107gr Match-Kings with great success last year. He recently switched to the Berger 105 VLDs. His testing at 250 yards showed that the Bergers “had a very slight edge in agging capability. It wasn’t much…but enough that I decided to go with the Bergers.” Richard’s Krieger barrel has about 800 rounds through it, and he typically cleans the bore every 70-90 rounds: “I’ll clean after a match, and don’t let it go past 100 rounds.”