I took a half dozen guys from my hunting camp down to a spot on the river where there is a 40 foot bluff we can shoot from. Down to the turn of the river where there is an even larger bluff is a little over 1K. We have access to a sand bar that is 750 yards from the bluff where we set up a target. I had brough 4 guns for them to try out, 7mm/338Lapua, 243AI,300WSM and my sporter weight 7WSM. I was surprised how well those guys shot. I have some life sized deer paper targets. I think there was one miss on the deer target and it was the first shot from a clean bore. About 20 shots in with the lapua sand in front of the target blew into the air. When we went down to the target we found the hulled out but unexpanded jacket laying in front of the target.
After everyone left I started shooting at pop bottles trapped in the current about 1K away. I decided to try it with my 7WSM without switching a bipod to the gun or dialing. I was amazed how close I came every time just holding the gun standing leaning over the back of the truck without even dialing. I am pretty sure that every shot would have killed a deer. It was only because I got lucky on my first hold that I was hitting so close, but those guys were impressed, actually so was I. Impressed and shocked. I had never tried shooting long range that way without a bipod or rest, it was fun and a lot more effective than I thought, shockingly effective.
