Last weekend I ran to the hills with a group of friends to do some long range shooting. We got another guy hooked on it and he will be purchasing a rifle of his own within a week or two.
The weather was still and crystal clear so we were able to push the .308 out to 1100 yards. That was a new personal record and we were making hits much easier that I normally would have expected.
This also really reinforced the fact that while high magnification is a bonus, it is not necessary to make hits. I can now better understand why a fixed 10x was chosen for some military sniper rifles for a long time. That really is all you NEED to hit a man sized target out to a grand. A few years ago I would have skeptical that a 3-9x would be adequate for shots out to that range.
Afterwards was steaks and beer. An excellent day overall.
Cool! what grain of bullet for the 308?
ReplyDelete175gr Sierra Matchking. Turns out a couple of the guys I was out with went BACK out to the canyon later that same afternoon to shoot some more. They found a different angle on the target and they said they pushed out past 1300 yards. It was more slinging lead at the target rather than precision hits at that point though.
DeleteWe went out again to that same spot this weekend, similar target set ups and everything. Got our asses handed to us! The hill side was covered with wet grass so there was NO splash. If you missed it just went into the void.
DeleteThe was also some kind of phantom wind that we couldn't see and for the life of me I could get my ballistic apps to agree with reality. I'd manage to make a hit one time, then 10 minutes later would make a hit with a .5 mil change in elevation... on the same target!
Then we shot another guys rifle that didn't have a long range scope. The consensus was to hold high and left above the target. I tried that and missed. Instead I held pretty much dead on the target and got two hits.
There were gremlins in them hills this weekend. Still beats a day at the office though.