My 1st long range hunt. Any suggestions?

[land308]

I have an antelope hunt coming up in a couple of weeks and I am looking for any advice that may help me. Up to this point my longest shot was on an elk at 330 yards(Its in the freezer). This hunt I will have opertunities to shoot between 300 and 600 yards. 600 is my limit at this point. I have practiced on paper and gongs out to 600 with good results. I have not had much practice in the wind. I will be shooting a rem 700vs in 308win with a bushnell 3200 elite fixed 10 power on it. My load is hornady 165 grain sst's starting at 2400 fps. I have a drop chart taped to my rifle that has windage estimated for 10mph and yardage out to 600 yards. I'm considering taking sandbags. I will hopefully be shooting prone but may have to shoot off stix because of high sage. Any suggestions or tips you may have would be appreciated.

[britz]

I am all for having an accurate rifle over a fast one, but you can get alot more out of your .308 than that. If you have time, I would work up a load using a balistic tip or a 168 SMK and try to get a little more velocity out of that rig. You are right that you will be fighting the wind.

I've never hunted Antalope (just want to be honest), but if I was going on a trip, I would have 3 or 4 drop charts made up with various wind conditions and keep them on your person. If you are shooting at 600 yards, you should be able to take a few more seconds to consult your other drop charts IMO.

good luck, Mark.

[royinidaho]

Read buffalobob's post on 'lope shooting.
Poison Spider Antelope

Also look at the post did on the Oregon Trail antelope.

Both will give you some insight.

If a 115gr berger will do the job beyond 1K what you're shooting will certainly do it at half of that. The important thing is hitting with that first shot.

If any practice is needed between now and your hunt I'd stick a target on a dusty bank at 500-600 yds and only shoot during windy days. Heck, your not wearing out the rifle, its fairly inexpensive to load and fun to shoot. Plus you'll learn to dance with the painted lady or the wicked witch or just plain "that damn'd wind'

[mikenc]

CONFIDENCE. Have confidence in yourself and your ability and confidence in your weapon of choice. I find that I shoot much better when I am confident, NOT ARROGANT but confident. Know you are able and know your gun is also and you will hold on target much better and much more still.

As someone else always says,

Find It
Range It
Click It
Pull It
Dump It
Recover It


Above all else, ENJOY YOUR HUNT.

[land308]

Thanks for the input. The hunt is this weekend so I will post some results early next week. Britz, as for getting more speed out of my 308. I tinkered with it but accuracy got poorer the faster I loaded these bullets. If I start reaching out beyond 600 to 800 hundred yards I will try mixing thing up and getting some more velocity out of it.