First off, I am not a self-proclaimed great shooter but what I am is a realist. This is also not for the experienced LR shooter as you will already know all of this. There are a lot of people, I imagine, who are lurking on this website that never post, who are just getting started into LR shooting and don't understand what it really takes to get it done on an animal at Longrange. They log on here and see posts where people have posted targets at 800-1000 yards and there groups are 4-5" which is all good but their group is about 8" off point of aim on their target. I know because I was guilty of it when I first joined this site. Look at my 4" group at 950 yards that would have gut shot a deer because it's so far off my point of aim is what it's really saying.
So with shooters on here who are just getting into longer range shooting, I set up my target at 800 yards...it is a 24"x24" target. I had a slight carbon ring in this rifle so I cleaned the crap out of it the night before. Even scrubbed the throat with JB. I got my kestrel 5700 elite w/applied ballistics out and bluetoothed it to my rangefinder and ranged the target and it sent the distance to my kestrel and it gave me the elevation and windage from the information that I stored in it for my rifle and load. The wind was blowing from 9 o'clock at 4mph which called for 1.5 MOA left. Elevation at 800 yards for this rifle is 15.5 MOA. I dialed and shot and the cold clean barrel shot is the one to the right of the 10" orange circle. That could have been me or it could have been the clean cold bore shot everyone dreads but the shot wasn't that far off.
I then shot 10 shots letting the barrel cool after each shot. I also re-verified the wind on every shot with my kestrel. On the 6th shot, I noticed that the wind had changed from 4mph from 9 o'clock to 4mph from 11 o'clock. So to show how far off even a small change in wind direction can change your shot placement, I left my windage turret set for 4mph from 9 o'clock and shot. That is the shot to the left of the orange circle. Windage correction for 4mph from the 9 o'clock calls for 1.5 MOA left to compensate. Corrections for a 4mph wind from 11 o'clock calls for 1 MOA left. Just that small of a change in direction results in being 4" off of your point of aim plus what ever the shooter error incurs.
As you can see from that shot left, if a deer was facing right, it would be gut shot andI you may be chasing that deer a ways.
Most people on here already know all of this but a lot of beginning shooters may get bold by their groups being small but not on their point of aim like others have posted pics of and think they can be successful at longrange shots on animals. This will lead to utter failure. I shoot a lot for practice at these ranges and am meticulous at reloading and as you can see, my 9 shot group with each wind correction is not SUPER tight but it is within the kill zone and that's what counts. My load is accurate and consistent but sometimes I am not. Just keep in mind that groups are important but hitting at your point of aim repeatedly is equally or more important and it takes a lot of work. I hope this doesn't come off wrong, I'm not a great shot and not trying to brag as you can see I pulled one shot high and the group is not outstanding. I just think to many people get carried away about their small groups without worrying so much about where the shots are.
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