Looking for some tips

Clem Bronkoski

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Joined
Jun 23, 2019
Messages
469
Location
Locust Gap, PA
New guy here looking for some LR shooting tips. What do you consider the minimal accuracy for a rifle to have for shooting out to 600 yards and beyond? Stuff like that. For those of us "old school" guys, what king of cheat sheet do you use to record your necessary scope settings for yardage and windage?
Any info will help.
 
1/2" MOA is a great goal for a gun, it's fairly easy to get several factory guns to do that at 100 yards. A little more comes into play at longer range, like barrel profile, and quality, meaning barrel defects start to show up at 500 and beyond. But factory guns are a good start and are plenty capable. Just research the ones that have a reputation for accuracy. Optics are equally important. As far as cheat sheet, do whatever your brain needs to comprehend quickly. A simple notebook is fine for me, if... I don't have my phone. I always have both with me.
 
For hunting, I keep one of these taped to the side of the stock.
It's setup for 3000 ft. elevation and a 10 MPH wind.

stock-sheet.jpg
 
New guy here looking for some LR shooting tips. What do you consider the minimal accuracy for a rifle to have for shooting out to 600 yards and beyond? Stuff like that. For those of us "old school" guys, what king of cheat sheet do you use to record your necessary scope settings for yardage and windage?
Any info will help.
I keep a 'Dope' card in my stock pack and marked tape on the elevation knob on my scope as shown in the attached picture.
image.jpeg
 
I tape a little cheat sheet on the inside of my rear flip cap.
Then I have actual dope cards in my rifle pad/pouch
 
IMG_0914 (1).jpg
Scope dialing and range finding is too slow for whitetail hunting in most of my area in Georgia so I memorize distance to mileposts. I made a hold over/under cheat sheet for my stock. I use a single scope setting for my 168 Berger VLD's of "3" for a 300 yd zero and hold over or under at each of the listed yardages. If it's over 400 yards, I have to go up to "9.5" on the scope for a 500 yd zero and use the hold over/under. It just takes a couple of seconds to decide where to hold and send it. Each yardage shows bullet elevation and distance from the bottom of deers ribcage. ie: 200 yds is 4.3 " above line of sight so hold at 1/3 of body height from bottom. A whitetail ribcage is about 18" high and the vital area is about a 6" circle. My best result was a deer at 390 yards. I held on the back bone and put it dead center through the heart. The butcher could not find the bullet but the heart was a mass of jello.
 
I keep my DOPE on my waterproof wrist data card and ride it up to my offhand elbow. I don't like them on the stock, you can't see them easily when you need them without taking your eyes way off the target. There are accessories to attach DOPE cards to your scope rail but best to leave those on the competition course. For hunting they're snag magnets.

As far as minimum accuracy, depends on what you want to shoot at. A steel plate at 600yrds at a match could be 12-18 inches wide while the vital area of a coyote is very much smaller. Other than taking a class on long range shooting, I'd say that the rifle will not likely be the limiting factor. The shooter is almost always the limiting factor.
 
1/2 MOAS is a good measure. I keep my data on my iPhone. I also have backups on paper. Either is really a ready resource for what is in my head from experience.
 
A lot of good tips. Once I find my rifle's favorite load and then run a few round through my chorny I will have to figure out what my best method of keeping track will be.
 
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