moa question

[oilfield-trash]

Had a very successful cow elk hunt on the Mescalero Indian reservation last week. Shot my cow on the last evening of the hunt. The shot was uphill (15-20 degrees maybe) I ranged the cow at 534 yards. I set my scope to 8.5 which was 550 yards. I hit perfect height just a little far back. Bullet went in at the last quarter of the ribs thru the liver and out the gut. She ran about 80 yards.

A fellow hunter is telling me that my distance was bogus because I didnt use the angle of incline. So my distance to figure my MOA adjustment was bogus.

So he's saying - lucky shot. I hit where I was aiming - just left?

What do you think?

Rangefinder - Leica 1200
gun - 300 remington ultra mag - bedded,ported, trigger job yadda yadda yadda..supersniper scope.

 

[kiwi3006]

Shooting at an angle will reduce the amount of MOA needed. I am shooting a 162 amax at 3060 fps, zeroed at 100 yds. 550 yds needs 9.0 MOA, 550 yds at 20 degrees needs 8.2 MOA. That is 0.8 MOA less or about 4 inches less drop. So without correcting for angle a shot would be 4 inches high.

If you only need 8.5 MOA for 550 yds then you would probably be a little less than 4 inches high without correcting for the angle.

In the field angles are usually less than they seem, did you actually measure the angle or did you estimate it? Under 15 degrees the difference at 550 yds would only be an inch or two.

I'd call it good shot rather than luck, but you do need to measure and correct for the angle, particularly once the range gets out there. There are some good threads on here on correcting for angle.

Hope this helps, it got a bit long winded.

Stu.

 

[MagMan]

I just ran the numbers on my 6mm with .585 BC and it would have been 5" high.

still would have made a descent hit but when you are after the perfect shot all of the variables come into play.

So technically your friend would be correct in my eyes....not what you wanted to hear im sure. Would that 5" make a difference on an elk? Probably not but your yardage would have been different for sure.

Still a good shot and your buddy is probably just jealous hence the speculation.

 

[oilfield-trash]

I'm just guessing at the angle and didnt even take it into consideration on the shot. A cosine indicator will be the next gadget on order. I was standing on flat ground when I made the shot, about 150 yards or so from the start of the incline.

I just know it was a long walk. Heres a pic of my baby.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I have to agree with the comments in general so far. Terrain usually does look steeper than it actually is, Some quick math for 20 degrees @ 534 sighted distance works out to be about 503 horizontal yrd with a diff of 31 yds which equalls about 5 inches in drop in a 300 RUM at that range. Those are very simplistic calculations but fairly close for those inputs.

15 degrees might have brought it down to 3-4 inches drop diff.

In any case, it sounds like a good shot for that distance but lucky that the distance or angle were not much greater.

Congrats on your cow.