Ballistics Whizz Required

Lime Dawg · #1 07-07-2008, 03:02 PM

I'm new to this game so I don't have all the toys yet so I was wondering if one of the ballistics wizards on here could help me out with a spot of range finding. I was shooting yesterday at the furthest distance yet but as I have no rangefinder I'd like to find out just how far it was. I was shooting .243win handloaded with 85gn sierra gamekings over 44.8gns of H4831sc. I needed 80 clicks of elevation on my 1/4 " per click scope to be at the correct place on my target. Can someone reverse engineer all this data to find out just how far away from the target I was? If it helps there was no angle on the shot and the elevation wouldn't be more than 2000ft. I was shooting early morning in the desert around Boise so the temp would have been around 70f. Many thanks for the help.

PEI Rob · #2 07-07-2008, 06:03 PM

750 yards, give or take a stones throw

britz · #3 07-07-2008, 10:09 PM

I'm not even going to attempt this one. He could be right with 750, but honestly, it may take one hell of a good stone thrower

. There are just too many variables to be sure as to how far the target is. Barrel length alone can cause a couple hundred FPS difference. as well as the scope that you are using. Some scopes adjust more accurately than others. You may be more accurate simply stepping it off. On the other hand, at that range, slight changes in range make big changes in drop, so maybe he is pretty close???

esshup · #4 07-08-2008, 06:54 AM

I think it would also depend on what distance you were sighted in at?

Shortmagman · #5 07-08-2008, 12:36 PM

Without knowing the velocity of your load it is impossible to know exactly how far your shots were. However according to my Sierra data if you were producing 3200 ft/sec the distance would be just over 700 yards. At 3000 ft/sec the distance would be about 650 yards.

You can not know the velocity of the load without shooting over a good chronograph. Even if we knew the barrel length etc. we would only be guessing at the velocity.

edge · #6 07-08-2008, 01:16 PM

If you have some landmarks you can go to Google Earth and measure the distance!

edge.

Lime Dawg · #7 07-08-2008, 10:04 PM

Thanks for the info. I didn't expect it to be quite that far so I'm pleasantly suprised by my performance. I'll try to borrow a rangefinger in future just to see how far away I actually was. For further info it was a 24" barrel, a Zeiss scope, I was sighted in for 100yds, and it took 21 clicks to get the windage somewhat correct. It was pretty windy!