I am indeed a lousy shot

[AKBman]

Well after lurking here for a year, this site convinced me that shooting at 100 yards wasn't good enough anymore. Well just great, now I am ruined. I discovered that while I can 95% of the time place the 1st shot on coyotes, deer, or caribou at ranges over 250 yards, I apparently don't have what it takes to punch paper at a mere 300 yards. Shot my Ruger M77 MKII topped with a Leupold VXIII 2.5X8X32 in 300 Win Mag at the loacal 300 yard range. Loads were 180gr Rem PSPs over H4831SC, and IMR7828, Winchester cases trimmed to min length, and CCI Mag primers. Shot a 5/8" group at 100 after making some minor scope adjustments. Moved the target out to 300 yards, best group was a 4shot string with 7828 that all landed inside a 3" circle. The rest were more of a pattern that a group, any of them would have killed a coyote, but made me realize just what it really takes to punch paper at more than my normal 100 yards. I have killed a groundhog at a shade over 600 yards with my 22-250, but it has a really good trigger, the Ruger has an atrocious trigger, which really became apparent when trying to duplicate exact aiming for a so called score. This could beome a hazard to my bank account, not to mention my health if my wife gets a clue of how much money I could spend trying to punch paper at extended ranges.

 

[Hired Gun]

The good news is it cost nothing but a few minutes of your time to make the Mark II triger very fine.

http://www.centerfirecentral.com/77trigger.html

 

[GREYGHOSTt]

I bet your problem is projectile choice!! Try a premimum
tip! Like a A-max or a nosler high bc bullet.

 

[41mag]

[ QUOTE ]
The rest were more of a pattern that a group, any of them would have killed a coyote, but made me realize just what it really takes to punch paper at more than my normal 100 yards. I have killed a groundhog at a shade over 600 yards with my 22-250, but it has a really good trigger,

[/ QUOTE ]

IT takes practice, and control. It can be done even with that sort of trigger, however, it isn't something that just happens. Like you mentioned, it is a different critter going from 100 - 300yds, as well as stepping it on out to 500, 800, or further. I have been shooting out to 300 for a while now, even before I came to find this site. My daughter and I built our own range and carefully measured it all out to 300yds. At first man that was a ways, as I had only been exposed to 200yd targets. After working on several rifles though, it has almost become our standard.

Those little things you miss at closer ranges like breathing, moving the rifle slightly as you squeeze become WAY more noticable the further you get. When we hung our plate at 500yds this past fall, I looked through the scope and just thought WOW thats out there. It still is OUT there, compared to 90% of the shots we normally make. However it only took a couple of seccessions to get things into perspective and get on with it. Here is some of the first groups we fired at it, and bear in mind that these are mostly from factory loads as well,

The two shots in yellow are from my buds .270 (Hornady light mag 130gr Interbonds) , the ones in red are from the 25/06 ( Hornady 117gr SST), and the ones in blue are from the first shots with my .270 (58grs RL-22, 130gr SST). I think I could have done better had I shot the .270's again. This was done with about a 15 - 20mph wind coming from about 4 o'clock, to the target. Once I had the hold, you can see that things got better as I went along. The last shots with the 25 the wind had also died down some. I also shot my .270 from off of Polecat shootingh sticks verses the bench like the other two. Trying to duplicate hunting conditions. Trust me I need more practice from the sticks.

So just hang in there and set your mind to burning the powder and it won't be long till your rocking them out there in small cluster as well.

 

[AKBman]

Thanks for the replies. I have given serious thought about the projectile, have been looking at something closer to .500 BC, instead of the .425 of the Rem. I have no doubt that it is going to take considerable effort on my part to push the range out to beyond 500 yards, one thing will be finding a range, or a suitable spot in the desert. I am thinking that I should also eliminate too much caffiene, as I noticed that my heart rate was much more noticeable trough the scope than usual, need to use a more stable rest too. Thanks again.

Dave

 

[Derek M.]

Your bullet choice is actually good for stoutness and killing ability but is rather grim in terms of concentricity. The lead is not completely centered in the jacket. This is why these bullets are not generally all that accurate.

 

[41mag]

You might give these a try if your shooting bulk type bullets anyway,
.308 180gr SP w/C
.308 180gr PLASTIC TIP HUNT w/C

For what it's worth, I picked up the .277 140gr BTPP w/C just for shooting pigs and such with, Since I am just sitting around here with nothing better to do I decided to weigh them up on a digital scale and see how they were, here is the results, out of 250 that I checked.

50 - 139.40-138.65 grs.
50 - 139.70 (+/- .05)grs.
75 - 139.85 (+ .10)grs.
68 - 139.80

Not sure just how meticulious you are at this point, but for practice bullets these aren't a bad deal. Or if your not into those you might give these a look as well. They are seconds but they shoot good,

Nosler BT

Nosler AB's


I bought some of the first links, 130gr Plastic Tip ones last year. I have also shot some of the seconds from Nosler as well in a couple of calibers. They say blems, but all I ever found was a little discoloration and they shot great for the price. None of which bothered the pigs, the paper, or me one bit./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[AKBman]

Thanks again, I will definitely look at a better bullet. I realize that I am going to have to commit many more practice sessions at 300, before I can even think about trying for more. I don't have the money to build a solid 1000 yard gun, but I would like to think my Ruger would easily be capable of 600 plus.

 

[roninflag]

i have two 300 win mags. both have muzzle brakes. both are rem 700 senderos. one has a jewel trigger. the other the has been adjusted down to a a manageble weight. both have higher power scopes( 6.5X20 vx3) which i think helps in target shooting. i am sure the 2.5 x 8 is a very clear scope, especially for hunting. i always start with the accuracy loads in nosler and sierra manuals.and i use lapua brass. i would try a 168 cbt or a 175 matchking with the accuracy load from the respective manual. ron

 

[AKBman]

Thanks for all of the replies, been offline for a while playing wargames. Will try some different bullets once I exhaust this supply. I will use these to work on breathing and trigger pull, they shoot less than 1" at 100 so they will work fine for that purpose. Thanks again.

Dave