Long Range Rangefinder & Gear

1. A rangefinder that is consistent to 1000 yards is beyond what I am willing to spend, there are not a lot of them that will do it and those that will cost as much as the rifle I use. I use a Bushnell 1500 ARC, which is good to 700-800 yards in the mountains where I can range trees/rocks instead of game. Performance in the flatlands is worse.
2. Heck no. I use the tallest Harris bipod. If I need rear support I use part of my pack or clothing. Any other height bipod is useless if you need to shoot over something, or use from any position except prone. I prepare to make LR shots if I need them but I end up making a lot of closer ones requiring non-prone setups.
3. I have a cheap windmeter. Cost about $35. It works fine.
4. I print up a drop chart with wind drifts using the JBM program, which I have verified through field shooting. I do not hunt beyond 900 yards so I do not feel I need the extra accuracy of a field computer.
5. I have 10 rounds in a stock carrier on the rifle and 10 more in an ammo wallet in my pack. Never had a damage problem of any kind until the trip I just returned from, where inclement weather led to some tarish etc on the exposed rounds. I don't think it would affect their performance though.
6. This year I got an Eberlestock J107 pack, with a scabbard, to carry the rifle. I was left unsure if I really liked it or not. It was pretty hard to get the rifle out with bipod attached while wearing the pack. Additionally, the extra weight on my hips was a bit uncomfortable and I ended up preferring to keep the 12+ lb rifle slung over my shoulder anyways. The couple times I saw game I might have wanted to shoot I was glad I had the rifle slung, I would never have gotten it out of the pack in time for these sub-200 yard shots.

If you are in the mountains think about how you will determine angle. Either get an angle indicator mounted to the rifle (preferred), or a rangefinder that can do it. Past 700 yards or so it can make a difference at non-extreme angles.

Also, if you are in the mountains, get a scope level on your rifle.

 

1. What kind of rangefinder do you have that will consistently be accurate out to 1000 Yards? Lieca 1200
2. Do you carry any sand bags in your pack? NO. that would be very heavy, heavy is bad. Harris bi-pod and a light weight rear bag filled with rice (sealed ) or air-soft bb's.
3. What kind of instrument do you carry to dope the wind? I have a Brunton ADC Pro. It kinda sucks but its what I got. hunting I just use my eye for wind, but other feild conditions need to be read too (elevation, humidity...). Krestels are the best.
4. What kind of computer program do you use to determine your drop? JBM ballistics calc (web based ). I plan on getting either Exbal or LoadBase shortly, already got the PDA.
5. How do you carry your ammunition to protect it from getting damaged? In an ammo wallet on my hip, and one in my pack depending on if its a hike in hunt or not.
6. How do you carry your rife? Do you attach it to your pack? I use a front carry sling most of the time but if im hiking I use my J107 dragonfly. If I were to get a new pack I would get the J107M that has the extra large scabbard.

 

1. What kind of rangefinder do you have that will consistently be accurate out to 1000 Yards? Swarvoski
2. Do you carry any sand bags in your pack? Rice bag
3. What kind of instrument do you carry to dope the wind? kestrel 3500
4. What kind of computer program do you use to determine your drop? Ipod touch bft
5. How do you carry your ammunition to protect it from getting damaged? butler creek sling with bullet holders
6. How do you carry your rife? Do you attach it to your pack? Eberlystock Gunslinger|| and I love this pack and the ipod touch with that soft ware.

 

other than the leica crf 1600 and swaro laserguide your not gonna get much better than the crf 1200. I've ranged on deer to 1150 in good conditions, and 1300 on trees. All rangefinders will have difficulty reading in poor conditions (ie super bright out).
If you want more than what leica has to offer your gonna need to drop $2k for the rangfinder alone. And yes spotting scopes are very nice to have (i dont own one yet though).

 

Getting a Kestrel made a huge difference in the quality of my wind dope, wind is the single biggest hurdle to LR shooting after you get yourself under control and IMO not a place to save money!!

 

Here's the gear that works for my wife and me.

1. Swarvoski range finder hands down. If you ever plan on hunting antelope or mule deer out here in the west it's the only one that works without question.
2. I made a small rear bag that's filled with the smallest plastic beads I could find.
3. I use a Caldwell Wind Wizard. It's cheap and works great.
4. Nightforce Ballistic Program run on a Dell x51v I bought on ebay. It's protected in a Pelican 1020 case with 2 extra batteries.
5. I have a small ammo wallet from Cabelas, it holds 8 rounds.
6. Eberlestock X1 pack and it's awesome.

I've also picked up a spotting scope and I can't believe I went so long without one.

 

1. What kind of rangefinder do you have that will consistently be accurate out to 1000 Yards? Lieca 1200 CRF
2. Do you carry any sand bags in your pack? No. I use my day pack as a backbag and a Harris bipod. If I'm going to the range I'll take my bags filled with plastic beads.
3. What kind of instrument do you carry to dope the wind? Brunton ADC Pro
4. What kind of computer program do you use to determine your drop? I use an Excel program I got from LRHing's own Micheal Echele on a Dell Axim X30.
5. How do you carry your ammunition to protect it from getting damaged? In my daypack and some in my front pocket.
6. How do you carry your rife? Do you attach it to your pack? If it's one of my carry rifles it's on a sling. If it's one of my ambush rifles it's either in my Badlands 2200 pack or sitting in the backseat of my truck. (My Edge is +15#, my 6.5x284 is 21#, etc..)

 

Congrats on your first long range custom gun!!

Myself and a couple of friends have dove into the LR thing pretty deep in the last year. This past season we learned alot and got confused alot too..LoL.

We carried:

Leica 1200 and Swarovski range finders (2 because you never know when the battery was gonna go dead) happens at the worst time!!

A light bag, don't know what he had it filled with, but it wasn't heavy at all.

Kestrel for BP, RH, Temp and wind speed. Varified and compared against a Brunton Sherpa and local weather stations.

GPS for elevations

Dell PDA with Exbal program

Binoculars and Spotting Scope with short tripod (very important for the spotter to be able to see point of impact, IMO)

Rifle had an moa reticle, sling and short bipod, also had an ACD and Cosine Indicator. Ammo was carried in the shooting bag in the hard plastic cases designed for reloads.....I put foam in the top of mine.

Shooting bag also had a rollup mat....very very important to keep cactus out of your privates while shooting prone. Real handy for crossing Barbed Wire fences too.

All the other stuff (knives, water, liscenses, paper towels, ect,ect) were left in the truck which was within a quarter mile of us.

I was primarily the spotter/wind caller/Exbal operator. The shooter (it's his rifle) got a nice buck antelope at 625 yds. Not extremely far, but the buck was bedded and all we could see was neck and head. had to kinda guess where the shoulder was, but good teamwork altogether resulted in a DRT antelope. His head simply laid over and he never moved again!

Best of luck with your new toy!

 

1. What kind of rangefinder do you have that will consistently be accurate out to 1000 Yards? Leica 1200, however you will want one that can calculate true distance with heavy angle, and one that can shoot through weather, like snow, fog, etc. This one cannot do snow, fog, or rain at all. I know because I missed around 3-4 coyotes last year, tried to range moose that were only 350 yards away and in a light snow(could see farther than 500 yards) it couldn't range past 130. So keep those 2 things in mind.

2. Do you carry any sand bags in your pack? No, not unless you want to pack them for me, . I like the stoney point tripod with the tag along only for sitting and on knee shooting positions, you can adjust everything and it can keep the gun steady. Then for on the ground laying down the Versa-Pod. It does move and does wobble but shooting on steeper grades you can still move your gun to correct this instead of having a fixed bi-pod. It does force you to remain calm and collected and to make a good shot because you must control your gun and make it be steady and control the wobble and movement, however many don't like the wobble and movability it has, its up to you for that one.

3. What kind of instrument do you carry to dope the wind? I have a kestrel, its really small and compact so can fit in a pocket and does a lot of things, like temp, humidity, all sorts of wind gages.

4. What kind of computer program do you use to determine your drop? You can use a bc turret calculator. Actually I did find one company that makes turrets for any scope if you give them the data, otherwise Gunwerks has a program online you fill out with all the info and hit enter and there you have a complete list of calculated info for you gun and hit print. Then you can do what you want with it, and it was free.

5. How do you carry your ammunition to protect it from getting damaged? I have a 20 round hard case made by MTM. its works but not the best, you can still here the rounds shake and rattle in the case but good enough.
6. How do you carry your rife? Do you attach it to your pack? I have the Eberlestock J34, insanely good pack with the gun scabbard built in. Do the adjustments and the gun just slips in like a great fitting glove.

Then when you do shoot things long range make sure you can get to it, pain in my butt on more than one occasion . But it is insanely fun, so have fun with the new toy!

 

1. Bushnell Elite 1500
2. No, i use a folded jacket and a harris bipod
3. Kestrel 3500BT and Android phone with Shooter
4. See above
5. Uh, my pocket, lol.
6. Sling over the shoulder.

Spotting scope coming soon.