Shepherd scope deer shot at 1022 yds

[mark223]

A couple years ago Jerry K and I shot and filmed a 1022 yard shot at a small button buck. Jerry shot it, I called the wind and range. There was a lot of wind but it was only about 1/2 value and we were shooting from hay loft so we were physically out of the wind which, as you know, helps a great deal because the wind is not moving the "shooter" as well as the bullet.
YouTube - delmont223's Channel

the above link will let you watch the shot and show how we filled it. Hope you enjoy it ... mark

 

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Great shot, nice video, enjoyed it.
Congrats!!!

 

[FEENIX]

Sweet! Excellent marksmanship and team work. Thanks for sharing.

 

[sp6x6]

Wondered how some of this long range video is shot, bought a sheppard years ago. 80'S? Still have it on a 7mm RM SON uses, brings back memories

 

[Chas1]

Nice video...I liked the way the camera was taped to the scope...gotta luv duct tape. Excellent shooting, thanks for sharing.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Mark,

That was a great video and a great shot by your friend Jerry. Does your wife know about your habit yet?

Question... what was the MV of the bullet (if you know) and what was the SST's performance at that range? Did it expand? what was the damage? Did it exit?

On the RF reticles I'll share my opinion for the sake of the readers education and nothing personal intended. I have an NSX 5.5-22 with NP-R2 reticle (2MOA) and I used it once to range a 300 yd antelope while shooting a 300 WSM. It worked well. A lot more wiggle room at 300 yds vs 1000 yds. The average buck deer body is maybe 18" from brisket to top of back. I'm not sure what those Shepherd range circles are calibrated for? Anyway, a 1" error in guestimation or 1" variation in idividual deer size causes a 5.5% error in range estimation which is 55 yds @ 1000 yds, which equates to about 40" of drop difference. And a 1/2" error would result in 20 in drop difference. Dont take this as a flame becasue it's not. It's just an FYI for all the readers. My personal limit on using a reticle for ranging would probably be about 400-500 yds, but that's just me. I noticed you mentioned you had wind flag markers set up at 50 yd increments. Did you use them as backup and how did you did you determine the "exact" yardage of 1022yd?

Once again, enjoyed the video.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Magnumdude]

I won't consider shooting at a white tail beyond 350 (PBR). I'm just not good enough to stretch it beyond that and trust my wind reading abilities. With a RF, I can spin the elevation knob fairly well, but, when it comes to wind-reading, I'm illiterate.

 

[trebark]

awesome video! great detail.

 

[sscoyote]

That was a great video--probably 1 of the best i've seen--well narrated too, IMO.

Like MM said tho the reticle-rangefinding at those ranges is a bit tricky. I looked at the Shepherd catalog and if that's the Model 310 P1 reticle it is designed for an 18" back to brisket deer at all the ranges. If that's true then the "multiplier" in the mil-ranging formula for that particular circle's subtension would be 1000/18 = 55.56. It looks like that's a doe and it appears to occupy maybe 0.75-0.85 of the ranging circle back to brisket but it's hard to tell if the brisket can be easily resolved thru the camcorder. Figuring maybe 16" back to brisket for a doe, then the formula yields--16x55.56/0.8=1111 yds. which aint far off, but if u were +/- just .05 off in the interpolation (almost imperceptible really) that nets a range of 1185-1045. That's 140 yds. difference at that range or +/- 70 yds. Man that's pushing it for reticle-rangefinding. I would also almost say that that flag would help a lot. Would for me at least.

Great shot though figuring wind and all!!

 

[mark223]

sscoyote, you have an EXCELLENT eye for detail. Shepherd wanted to use our video for advertising. So in the film we just talked about the circles etc. How ever, how I ranged the deer was off of the MOA marks that go down the right side of the sight picture. You can't see them in the vid because when I attached the camera to the scope it loses alot of the sight picture. There is proabably a way show it all but not with my el cheap-o video stuff.

Also what you don't see is there were about 30 deer milling around together but this one finally walked off far enough to prevent hitting something by mistake and with all that wind or even a 1/4 MOA visual error, a mistake could have happened. Plus the range and wind flags were a great asset. As you well know, it is very good to know as much as possible about your ground and your target.

A local doe will go about 16 inches so we knew this this deer was a yearling by comparing it to the does it stood with earlier. I'm a deputy sheriff and my experience of measuring dead deer from car accidents tells me this deer is probably about 13" (which it was). I am not required to measure dead deer but I do because I like to shoot long range and since my job exposes me to a lot of deer, why not gather the data. The animal looked to be 1.25 moa thick. I did quick math in my head and divided 13 by 1.25 and got an estimate of 10.3. ( actual number should have been 10.4 but as I said it was was a quick in "my not so brillaint" head estmate) The MOA method of dividing the target size by the MOA gives an answer in 100's of yards so 10.3 = 1030 yards. That's how I did it and luck helped too because my mental error turned out closer to correct amyway. BUT, try to explain that to the "average" shooter and their eyes glaze over as soon as I say MOA. The circle method is very good to about 600, beyond that I use the MOA. It is MUCH easier and more precise to divide the MOA into halves or quarters than to divide a MIL into eights or tenths.

You are very observant, I'm impressed. But then, when I stumbled onto longrangehunting.com, I figured I'd be in a group of like minded people. So far I have been pleased with the folks I have found here.

 

[sscoyote]

Pretty good Mark. Nice to see that there are some out there that have an interest in the math part of this stuff. Well done!