Success At +1000 yards!

Fiftydriver

Official LRH Sponsor
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
7,514
Location
Fort Shaw, Montana
To all,

This spring and summer my father, brother and myself have been doing alot of long range varmint hunting getting ready for the big game season in late October.

We are all members in the Varmint Hunters Association and have been working at getting into the "down Range" clubs. We all got into the 500 yard club rather easily. My brother used his 7mm RUM to hammer a chuck at +620 yards and my father used my 6mm-284 to score at 523 yards.

I was able to score two hits on chucks also using my 6mm-284 at 713 yards in as many shots. Then I scored a hit at 902 yards with my 50 BMG.

For the last few weeks we have been going for the thousand yard club and have been having a little trouble.

The main problem we were having was with our drop charts not being set up correctly. Obviously you can not take the B.C. numbers provided from the bullet makers to set up a drop chart. We knew there would be a difference but had no idea that it would be that much.

After a couple weeks range testing my new drop charts, we headed out Saturday morning for the 1000 yard club.

Our first set up provided four shots at chucks but a slight cross wind played a bit with the 107 gr MK's out of my 6mm but I was able to land three of those rounds within inches of the chucks but no solid hits.

We moved to another hunting area and set up the gear and began glassing for chuck movement. There was nothing to be seen for about a half hour.

Finally my brother spotted a chuck sunning on a rock and I lined the Leica 1200 up on it. The range read 1055 yards so I looked up the range on the drop chart and it said to hold on the bottom post of the mil-dot which should give a bullet impact within .6" of aim point.

The wind was slightly blowing but it was directly at our back both at our shooting position and at the target.

I leveled the scope level and held the point of the bottom post dead on the chuck and began to squeeze.

I recovered from the recoil just in time to see the 107 land solidly on the chuck.

We watched the rock pile for several minutes and saw no movement so we headed down to see if it was indeed a kill.

Sure enough the chuck was laying dead just behind the rock he had been sitting on.

I was very happy, a kill at 1055 yards with only one shot.

Now we have to get my brother and father into the club. Then it will be off to the 1500 yard club adventure. I will need to invest in a longer range rangefinder before that though.

What are your opinions of the Swedish military surplus rangefinders of optical design.

Are they accurate enough to range a chuck at +1500 yards and get an accurate reading?

ANy opinions on these rangefinders would be great.

So for now I am happy with my 1055 yard shot and preparring for the next level. I will have to use my 50 BMG at 1500 yards until I build my 338 wildcat designed around the 300 gr MK.

Will keep you posted.

Again, any thoughts on extreme range rangefinders would be great.

Thanks for the advise!

Good SHooting!!!

50
 
Fiftydriver that is some shooting
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and to do it with only one shot.

When are you bringing out the 15 year old Scotch
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Texas,

This 6mm and my 50 BMG are really the only two "Long Range" rifles I own and have been the basis for my short long range shooting career. For the last few years I have been studying and practicing as much as possible to get proficient with these rifles.

The little six is flat out scary accurate at longer ranges. It has shot enough three shot groups at 500 yards that measured under one inch to prove its salt. I had problems earlier in the year with the occasional flier. My load of R-22 drove the coated 107 gr MK to right at 3600 fps out of the 30" Lilja barrel.

This I deduced was playing around the edges of bullet integrety with may cause the occasional flier, especially when the bore warmed up.

I dropped actually three grains off that load and now they average 3430 fps with nearly single digit E.S.

Through the last few years I have learned that extreme velocity is not all that important in long range shooting. Bullet drop is very predictible and easy to figure.

Since I dropped the load down, the fliers have gone away, groups have tighted a bit overall. In fact the first group I fired with the reduced load cut a 3/8" cloverleaf at 300 yards.

I also tweaked my drop chart to a more accurate B.C. and on my last practical range test, I set out four water filled milk jugs out at unknown(at the time) ranges.

Shooting from a prone position with a rear and front bag, I was able to connect four for four at 810, 820, 940 and 975 yards. A rifle like this really makes a guy feel good about his shooting ability but I know the rifle is doing the large portion of the work.

My 50 is not quite so accurate, let me say I can not shoot it as accurately as the 6mm. I have shot several 3/4 moa groups on paper out to 1500 yards with it with my best 1000 yard group a hair over 5 inches.

On milk jugs in the 800-1200 yard range it will score about 50 to 55 percent hits in perfect conditions. The misses are usually within a foot of the target unless I just flat did not do my part or did not have a good accurate range to look up on the drop chart.

Anyway, I will be starting to build my 338 wildcat here in the next month or so once the barrel gets here. Hope I can get her to shoot as well as my 6mm with the 300 gr MK's. If so, the 1500 yard club may get hammered next summer.

Thanks for the reply!

Good Shooting!!!

50
 
Fiftydriver nice shooting. I have a Wild optical range finder and with practice you can range farther than we can shoot
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Crow Mag
 
Fifty, when are you going to start doing it with those specialty pistols of yours? I remember you from Accurate Reloading site.
 
Fiftydriver nice shooting!!
Still trying to make the 1000yd club with my Farley 243 Ackley. Every weekend here in PA it seems to bring rain so I have not got a chance to get past 1000, still at 740 with big yellow. Hopefully this weekend will bring good groundhog hunting/shooting conditions.
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.243 AI pictures
 
Mbianchini, those pics. of yours are some of the finest i've ever seen on these forums-- well done, and what a shooter you got!!
 
SSCOYOTE,

Funny you should ask about the specialty handguns. I have my XP-100 in 338 WSM zeroed at 500 yards right now but have been busy developing the rifles.

Only problem I have had so far with the Specialty handguns is optics. The 3-12 Burris is about as large as high powered as they come but will only allow shooting out to around 500-600 yards on chuck size critters, hairs to thick and cover up to much target.

I will be building a 6.5 WSM on another XP here soon on a sporter weight barrel which will be much better suited for deer hunting here in central Montana.

Good Shooting!!!

50
 
CrowMag,

I think the Wild is the one I will be getting, looks like a quality set up. Thanks for the input reguarding your experience.

Good Shooting!!!

50
 
mbianchini,

Hell of a rifle you got there, great loads as well. It suprises me how similiar the 243 AI, 6mmAI and 6mm-284 are in performance.

Top loads out of my 6mm-284 produced 3595 fps. The most accurate load is the one I am using now with RL-22 at 3430 fps.

The big 6mm's are great with the long VLD bullets.

Good Luck in your hunt for 1000 yards, sound like the weather is your only hold up!

Good Shooting!!!

50
 
Texas,

When I looked at designing a 338 wildcat, I had several cases in mind to play with including the Lapua, Rigby, Lazz, RUM and the big weatherby case.

When it came right down to it, I want to design a round that the average money maker can afford to build a rifle for and shoot but still with plenty of performance for 1500 yard shooting.

The Lapua and its improved brother are greatlong range hammers but require fat actions and brass costs nearly $2 per.

The Rigby is in the same size class only longer and about as expensive. Some brass I have loaded for customers was not what I would call match quality by any means either.

Lazzeroni brass is big, expensive and from what I have seen with a few different rounds I have tested, not very good quality.

The WBY case is big, expensive and pretty soft, limiting the number of firings on a case.

This left me with the RUM case. The 300 RUM itself has a case capacity that is one grain larger then the standard 338 Lapua, at least the brass I measured. I'm sure some is larger, some is smaller but basically the same.

My round will be designed strickly for use in extreme range situations out of single shot rifles.

I am using, actually the 375 RUM case. The necks will be turned and then sized to .338". THe shoulder will be moved forward so that it is the same length as the 7mm RUM, roughly .250" long. I know those traditionalists will not like this but in a single shot rifle it will be plenty. After moving the shoulder forward, it will be sharpened up to either 40 or 45 degrees, have not fully decided yet and the body will have .015" taken out of the taper.

Basically it will be an improved 338-300 RUM with the shoulder moved forward just shy of .010".

Case capacity should be close to the improved Lapua with brass that is 1/4 the price.

Also this round will fit in conventional actions like the Rem M700, Win M70 or even the Sav if someone would want to.

My first one will be built on a blue-printed Rem 700 with a holland .250" thick recoil lug and a 36" Lilja straight cylinder barrel.

I will use a barrel mounting V-block and free float the remaining barrel and action to the stock.

I am hoping to get performance in teh 3050-3100 fps range out of this set up with the 300 gr MK.

THe optics will be a Nightforce 8-32 NXS and a Jewel trigger will also be added. The stock is still undecided but I have it narrowed down to three makers, all in the heavy tactical style.

I will either use a Holland "Quick Discharge" break or one of my own designs of similiar style.

Good Shooting!!!

50
 

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