Hitting Moving Targets

[Ian M]

Does anyone have a table or chart that would give the lead for running shots on game out to 500 or 600 yards.
Lets say running speeds are 20 mph (29.3 fps) and 30 mph. (44.0 fps).
Would be interested in muzzle velocities of 2600 and 3100 fps..
Are there any charts that will give this?
ian

 

[Dave King]

Ian

The "Thing", that little spreadsheet has mover data in it. It's computed by Time Of Flight (TOF) and mover speed in Feet Per Second (FPS). The is also an "offset" value as many sniper schools teach that the shot is released on the leading edge of the target. This is for the trap method or shooting movers.

The spreadsheet is on Peter Cronhelm's web site.

Here's the link
http://www.nucleus.com/~cronhelm/ballistics.html

Get the Ranging Ballistic Computer version. I'm assuming you have Microsoft Excel as you'll need it to run the spreadsheet.

For example:

2600 fps, .508BC, 175 grain bullet, 1500 ft elevation (ASL), temp 59.

20 mph mover

100 = 12.4 Mil or 43 inches (TOF .121 sec)
200 = 12.8 Mil or 88 inches (TOF .251 sec)
300 = 13.3 Mil or 137 inches (TOF .389 sec)
400 = 13.7 Mil or 189 inches (TOF .538 sec)
500 = 14.3 Mil or 245 inches (TOF .697 sec)
600 = 14.8 Mil or 306 inches (TOF .869 sec)

30 mph mover

100 = 18.6 Mil or 64 inches (TOF .121 sec)
200 = 19.2 Mil or 132 inches (TOF .251 sec)
300 = 19.2 Mil or 205 inches (TOF .389 sec)
400 = 20.6 Mil or 284 inches (TOF .538 sec)
500 = 21.4 Mil or 368 inches (TOF .697 sec)
600 = 22.2 Mil or 459 inches (TOF .869 sec)


Same as above but 3100 fps projectile.

20 mph mover

100 = 10.4 Mil or 36 inches (TOF .101 sec)
200 = 10.7 Mil or 74 inches (TOF .209 sec)
300 = 11.0 Mil or 114 inches (TOF .349 sec)
400 = 11.4 Mil or 157 inches (TOF .446 sec)
500 = 11.8 Mil or 203 inches (TOF .577 sec)
600 = 12.2 Mil or 252 inches (TOF .716 sec)

30 mph mover

100 = 15.5 Mil or 53 inches (TOF .101 sec)
200 = 16.0 Mil or 110 inches (TOF .209 sec)
300 = 16.5 Mil or 171 inches (TOF .349 sec)
400 = 17.1 Mil or 235 inches (TOF .446 sec)
500 = 17.7 Mil or 304 inches (TOF .577 sec)
600 = 18.3 Mil or 378 inches (TOF .716 sec)


I don't shoot this far at fast movers (I know your using this for data and not critters). For deer, I figure (Rule Of Thumb) ROT, 15 Mil lead for a broadside high speed run. I run the Leupold 3.5 x 10 to 3.5 power and use the 5 Mil bar as the 15 Mil "lead" bar. This is for 308 and the 223 I shoot.

Hopefully this data is correct, some will surely point it out if it's not, I'd hope.

 

[Ian M]

Thanks Dave,
I am thinking about making a chart showing lead using deer body lengths and portions of a body length. Deer are not all the same length but it seems that body length is what I always relate to when I am shooting at moving deer. I measured some chest to tail distances, got 43-45 inches for our deer.

Relatively few hunters have Mil-dots so I am looking for something else. Don't like inches, feet and yards for lead - no time for that when I am shooting at a running buck. Can relate to one and one half body lengths. Big hassle is oblique shots, throws this whole idea all to hell. Guess I will only shoot 90 degree shots from now on

Thanks again Dave,
I will send you my "chart", it is going into that article I sent yesterday.
ian

 

[Tim Behle]

Ian,

Point Blank also has lead data for targets up to 60 mph.

Unfortunatly, they think the wind never blows more than 10 mph and you would never want to shoot past 1,000 yards. Other than that, it's a pretty good program.

 

[Dave King]

Ian

I had a chance yesterday to try a new "sniper" mover system. The target speed was set to "walk" speed, about 3 MPH with a 90 foot track. The target itself is 12 inches wide and 48 inches tall (as you know, tall has no bearing on a mover). We shot at 240 yards on an oblique of about 60 degrees first so the mover effect was small but the target got pretty skinny. We then moved to directly in front of the target at 300 yards and did some shooting then went back to 600 yards. The wind was very cooperative and it only took 2 MOA to zero the wind out of the mover problem. We were getting a high percentage of hits in the calm wind. The lead we used was 1 to 1.5 MIL (POA to POI) depending on distance to target and shooter characteristics. We shot the "trap" method most often as it's hard to track a narrow target.

On the 240 yard shots we could get head shots (about a 6 inch width) with relative ease and the 300 yard shots were fairly easy too. The 600 yards shots got to be very problematic if there was a change in wind.

The mover traveled in both directions on a autoreturn rail. The wind problem would show up as misses on the mover in one direction and hits on the leading edge while moving in the other direction. The moral is:

"If ya gotta run when someone is shooting at ya, run directly across the line of fire AND into the wind, and run FAST, VERY FAST".

I like shooting the movers!!!