Black Diamond 408
Well-Known Member
Well i took my snipe tac on vacation with me to Wyoming last week. I had to make a couple stops on the way out for show and tell, a few guys have emailed me on seeing it. My cousin in Wyo is a long time elk hunter there, he has been saying that it is getting harder for him to hike around the mountains as he is getting up in the years. I told him about the long range hunting and the tools needed to do this. He owns a 300 H-H imp i made him 20 years ago and has been his main stay for elk. When i got there, Lander Wyo. I showed him the big casing with the 300gr Sierra bullet, he was very impressed with the size compared to his 300 mag. The first thing he asked was, "how hard does it kick" about like a 7mm mag i told him. We headed out to the foot hills to find a spot to set up a 1000yd target, i brought my Leica 1200 range finder to check the area. He had never used a Laser before and was very intriqued on its accuracy. The day before we rode ATV's up into his hunting area to check the distances he sees Elk but figures its too far to shoot. The longest shot he would have is 1185 yards, i told him that they are all very makable shots with some practice. Back to testing... I set up the target at 1000yds, we found a good spot along a burm to set up the ground cloth and rifle, i used the Bi-Pod and rear sand bags for rests, mostly a true hunting set up. He was surprised on how small the target looked at that distance. I used a standard sheet of computer paper for the center target spot on a 3'x4' piece of cardboard backing. He said that it resembled an Elk body. I sighted the rifle in at 100yds before i left Nebraska, the Exbal program said i needed 16.5moa for the 1000yd shot. MY IOR scopes bottom hash mark is about 17moa, so i told him to just put that on the center of the paper target. The wind was light from the right, 5mph or so. He touched off the first shot from a clean bbl, the dust cloud kicked up directly behind the target. He fired a second round and it too was on target. We drove out to the target to check the results. Both shots were on level center of the target, windage spread was 7" He was amazed that he even hit the target. The group was off to the left about 6" from wind drift. We went back to shoot another group and change the windage setting on the scope, moved it 5" right. The wind now was starting to pick up pretty good, about 20mph from the right. He fired three more shots, all three shots kicked up dust behind the targets. We drove out to check his shots, the wind out at the target was really blowing, i estimate it was 25mph or more, gusting. The windage move i made was now on the computer paper, still on dead level center. The group was 7" wide, two shots were 2" apart and one left of center, no vertical stringing! I have to emagine the wind gusts had something to do with it. We ended the testing as the wind was so strong now it was blowing sand and chunks of Sage brush. He was very impressed and showed his hunting buddy the target, His buddy said heck my gun does that at 100yds...He then said "ya i supose it does, this is 1000yds!" "WOW he said" I have another gun to build now. He now can see with practice the 1000 yd Elk shot will not be that difficult. I stressed that he needs to know the distance and propper scope settings. I sugested a NightForce scope for ease of come ups and using the redicle for the long shots. Any of the shots we made would of been well inside the kill zone for an Elk. It was a neat sight to see the look on his face when he could see the dirt fly at the target one second after he fired. All he could say was WOW!
My GF had my camera so i couldnt take pics, pretty much sage brush anyway.
I hope to do some more testing here at home. The loads i was using was 300 Sierra MK with
145grns of WC872 3400fps. It shoots .273 groups at 100yds
The bolt opens easy with this load, the temp outside was 87deg. Very little mirage.
All in all it was a good day of testing.
My GF had my camera so i couldnt take pics, pretty much sage brush anyway.
I hope to do some more testing here at home. The loads i was using was 300 Sierra MK with
145grns of WC872 3400fps. It shoots .273 groups at 100yds
The bolt opens easy with this load, the temp outside was 87deg. Very little mirage.
All in all it was a good day of testing.
