Pretty good talk about long distance hunting and the things needed to be considered for it.
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yeah, good discussion. The thing to me is that doing the gun time on the range, is not available to everyone. When you listen to these people you can hear them talking about spending time shooting for group validation in a loads performance at 100; then transitioning to shooting groups at distances, noting that no one seemed to push back on the statement that 600 is kind of the cut line based on wind impacts; shooting cold barrel in the temperature conditions you will be hunging under; and keeping data on yourself so there is a learning value to the time spent launching rounds downrange. Great points. The combination of time of flight and wind pushes towards a limit of 600 also.
For this deer season I wanted to shoot 125 ballistic tips versus heavier bullets in 308 win.
So, I spent:
a. week or two finalizing a consistent handload and group performance at 100
b. Took that load and weapon to 200, 300, 400, 500 to validate that the round was holding its group integrity at distance. Also do this to validate my elevation comeups for those distances.
c. Load more, and start shooting on different days, at different times, and looking for mornings where the temps have dropped into the type of day I will see when I go hunting.
d. Do the cold bore shots at each distance, and work to shoot in wind at 5-10mph so I get a good feel for what the round is doing.
e. Finally, once I have settled on the load and the results, I will pick random days leading up to gun season, to go to the range and shoot only 1 round, cold barrel, to ensure it is going to repeat everytime. If I shoot more than 1, it will be after 20 minutes or so to ensure the rifle is back to a cold barrel setting.
f. I will shoot 100-125 rounds to be confident on opening day. That is with a caliber and weapon that I am totally familiar and dont need a ballistics calculator to figure elevation, wind, drop, speed, etc. out to 600.
g. Finally, for size of a target I work against 4.25 inches; that is what I started with on a known distance range shooting at clay pigeons layed against the dirt burms. So, I just use that as my shooting goal through 600 to measure my consistency.
Great listen though and appreciate you putting it out there.
Very impressive! Lot of dedication right there.
Rough guess on your part, how many man hours to go from 0 to ready to hunt out the 600?
I get the strong feeling that most people just think they’re going to go to the store and buy the new hotness rifle, in the new hotness round, shoot just enough shots to get a zero at 100 and then call it good to go out to 600. They don’t budget the time that you’re talking about doing above.
Also agree with the issue regarding range. My range only goes out to 400 maximum. And that’s just with a piece of steel, you can’t hang a Target out there to measure a group. Also, can only shoot from the bench or if you really wanted to drop down to the concrete floor. No way to shoot in other unusual positions.
Well, they kept coming back around to the ability of the individual and that person making a good judgement call before just launching a round…so the answer is still it depends.
But, I hunt with a consistent group of guys that have all been deer hunting since they were probably 12 and shooting guns before that; they are seasoned hunters.
However, I can tell you that for the most part they dont, as a rule do a lot of range shooting at distance in the way I described my routine, which is my routine every season no matter what I am going to be hunting with, at distance. Now if I am going to be hunting in the woods, yeah, I zero the weapon for 200 and go to work.
So, instead of saying what it would take for a novice to do it, I will go with a person that hunts but never really got into shooting at distances out to 600. I’ll even use my first cousin, who is a deer killing machine, and probably one of the best off hand shooters I have ever run into, but has had no training, he uses me for that side now.
- He is comfortable with shooting an animal so he wont have the nervous twitch when he sees the big one.
- He know trigger squeeze and sight picture.
- He does not flinch at recoil in a way to cause a miss.
- I got him interested in shooting farther out and he bought a 6.5 creedmoor heavy barrel to do that with one year.
- Getting him to the range, shooting at distances out to 600, going over comeups and wind impacts, learning the 6.5 round, reading wind - mirage, full value, half value…knowing the drop of the round for each 25 yards of distance past 200…
I would say with him it was still an investment of 100-150 rounds fired with the intent of tracking results, making adjustments, and being able to carry that forward on a hunt.
I will say we have a great advantage in that we hunt the same areas consistently so the estimation of range is not the challenge faced by the western hunters on ground they are not familiar with at all.
Anyway, if a person has someone helping them learn, I thing the estimate I said would hold up. I grew up shooting and realized I didnt know anything once I got around people that did.
For a novice, 1000 rounds of the weapon of choice.
JV
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Carter, on the limited 400 yard range thing, that can work.
I do the range time I described, but with weapons and loads that I feel I have validated the performance, when faced with limited access or time, I will shoot a group at 100 (1.7 in high) to check my elevation setting to be on at 200, then I will shoot a group at 300, then go to 600 and shoot a group. As long as my rounds are on at the 300/600 then i call it good and I dont shoot the 400 and 500 because in most of my experience, the comeups for those will be accurate off of a ballistics calculator, if your others are good.
So, if your calculator is telling you what the settings are for 200, 300, and 400, and those are on, then you could in all likelihood be fine to use data come ups out to 600, definitely 500 to be on target.
Hope that helps.
For positions, well I validate all my stuff from a bench or prone; and then what ever I run into in the field just is part of the game. No matter what, in order to take the shot you must find a stable position, no matter how you do it. Wether thats a carry tripod, off a tree, your pack…doesnt seem to matter to me, just realizing your gonna have to do it and planning for it is the task. You definitely do realize pretty quick the wiggle in the scope from non standard positions, but that goes back to wether or not someone should even take the shot or not…
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