Slopeshunter
Well-Known Member
Slopeshunter,
Best way to figure your max range is to get a quality ballistic program. One that will let you account for altitude, Bar pressure, humidy, temp and wind speed.
Then you need an accurate muzzle velocity average and a reliable BC value for your bullet. Plug in all your numbers and then look where your bullet velocity drops below 1100 fps. This is not exactly the speed of sound. This is a value that changes with environmental conditions, espeically altitude but 1100 fps is a decent place to start.
Find out where this is, for example it is 1650 yards. Set up a target at 1600 yards and see if you can get good consistant groups representitive of what the rifle will do. Anything under 1 moa at this range is what I would call predictable bullet impacts.
If you get consistant accuracy, step back 200 yards and check. If your bullet drops out of super sonic velocity in this window, you will see a noticable drop in bullet impact predictablility. Many times, you will have total accuracy lose.
As far as this being Longrangehunting.com, I fully agree, but it never hurts to know the max range of your particular rifle and in the case of my business, I want to push those limits and extend the predictable range of our rifles as far as possible. I would never shoot at big game at 3000 yards, hell not even 2000 yards but my job is to push and move the limits. As of right now, 3800 yards is not practical and we are working with some of the most extreme ballistic performance on the planet concerning shoulder fired conventional rifles.
To say this is possible to the average shooter is simply a practice that eventually will cause the new shooter to get discouraged and possibly give up on the sport.
That is my only point. I agree totally, being able to put that first shot on the money is the determining factor as to what max range you are capable of shooting to. That is concerning hunting, I am talking mostly about shear max performance in this instance.
Kirby Allen(50)
Thanks for the reply Kirby!