What went wrong? Opinions needed.

[WildRose]

2 – I shot at the bull prone from a bipod. The gun was sighted in and practiced long range on a bench with a Lead Sled (I've since read "no-nos" about that). During pre-hunt practice, I did verify point-of-impact with a bi-pod, but only a few shots at 100 yards, and from the bench, not prone.

I see this is a likely probable serious issue. The effects of recoil on the gun in the sled vs your shooting it are dramatically different.

Any number of other factors could come into play as well but my advice is get off of the sled completely and verify your drops again from the bench and from the prone.

More importantly just set yourself up a couple of targets at 100 and 400yds and see if you can even get a decent 3 shot group.

 

[WildRose]

My first guess is you are dropping the but on the shot.

This is also my thought particularly if he was shooting at an uphill angle. Quite often people shooting off of a bipod uphill will let the butt of the gun slip down quite a bit trying to compensate for the angle. This will consistently throw shots high.

 

[WildRose]

Come on guys, he already conceded that he screwed up and is asking for help. We don't need to berate him. Mistakes are what push us to be better.

In all fairness I don't think he's berating the poor man just making a very good point.

All the tech in the world won't make us shooters if we aren't getting the fundamentals right.

I'm sure the OP would tell us all he learned a very hard lesson here he'll never forget and it takes guts to share it publicly like this.

Everyone new to the LR game needs to learn the importance of being confident and competent at any distance they are going to shoot because we owe it to the game we seek to give them the cleanest exit from this world we can.

 

[Canhunter35]

You should also preload your bipods by gently pushing your shoulder into the rifle. Kind of uncoil your back and relax into the gun

 

[Korhil78]

I think it is a combination of everything that was mentioned that contributed to your shooting high. Shooting off of the lead sled instead of shooting how you would be shooting in the field(off of a bipod), not using a rear rest and not preloading the bipod by pushing forward with your shoulder.

Consistency in everything is key when stretching it out. So go back out and practice while changing to all the things mentioned above and see what it does but start from the very beginning which is re-zeroing your rifle and going from there.

 

[Song Dogger]

New and valid point on preloading the bipod. I sorta subconsciously got away from that over the summer because the bipod cracked and split the fore end of my Fierce Edge stock. They've since replaced the stock (full warranty), reinforced that area, and I added a short picatinny rail to spread the bipod forces. Preloading is now added to my draft pre-shot checklist for field practicing.

 

[Orange Dust]

New and valid point on preloading the bipod. I sorta subconsciously got away from that over the summer because the bipod cracked and split the fore end of my Fierce Edge stock. They've since replaced the stock (full warranty), reinforced that area, and I added a short picatinny rail to spread the bipod forces. Preloading is now added to my draft pre-shot checklist for field practicing.

I'll bet if you go to the range, bench shoot the rifle holding the forearm on bags, not touching the forearm, shooting prone off bipod holding forearm, and again not touching it, doing it with and without a rear bag with and without preload, you can vary the POI at least 2 minutes. bet money on it.

 

[piute]

Many misses happen especially high misses when anticipating the shot and looking for the hit. Reflecting back on misses I've had I try to visualize the site picture when I squeezed the trigger. Most times I feel the that the hold was good only to realize my control at shot was less the ideal. Where was your site picture on the elk, 5"+ above the heart ? Shot at animal is always tougher than a paper target! Glad you got 'im!

 

[MAGA]

It's because you were messing with ballistic calculator devices instead of knowing through *experience* where and how to shoot

 

[Korhil78]

It's because you were messing with ballistic calculator devices instead of knowing through *experience* where and how to shoot

Both are great tools for shooting. The ballistic devices and the experience. But yes, you have to verify everything with a lot of shooting.

 

[MAGA]

Both are great tools for shooting. The ballistic devices and the experience. But yes, you have to verify everything with a lot of shooting.

Wittgenstein's Ruler:
Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table, you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.

 

[WildRose]

It's because you were messing with ballistic calculator devices instead of knowing through *experience* where and how to shoot

At long range it takes both to be consistent.

In the days before we had quality range finders even the best had to do a lot of estimating and guess work.

The more good accurate tools we have to go along with the experience the more precise we can all be.

 

[Orange Dust]

OK Guys, I am going to come out and say it. Not that long ago everyone I knew sighted their rifle in 3" high at 100 yards. Worked out pretty well to give the maximum point blank range of most anything with pointed bullets. We were taught to stay within that range. Light wind is no big deal, little problems in form go unnoticed, bullet still has gobs of energy and gets there quickly. I still zero that way today, and naturally know where to hold on close shots, and dial for those outside that wall. Unlike many of you I consider anything outside this long range. Seems like when that barrier is breached, everything is magnified by nearly a square of the distance. I have done everything right and still had two bad hits over 500yds just because the animal decided to take a step right when I pulled the trigger. Got both of those, but was lucky. If you want to shoot game outside this wall you need to bring your A game. Best advise you will ever hear is go to one or more long range shooting schools and learn good form. Then practice a lot. Taking up competitive shooting makes it less boring.

 

[WildRose]

OK Guys, I am going to come out and say it. Not that long ago everyone I knew sighted their rifle in 3" high at 100 yards. Worked out pretty well to give the maximum point blank range of most anything with pointed bullets. We were taught to stay within that range. Light wind is no big deal, little problems in form go unnoticed, bullet still has gobs of energy and gets there quickly. I still zero that way today, and naturally know where to hold on close shots, and dial for those outside that wall. Unlike many of you I consider anything outside this long range. Seems like when that barrier is breached, everything is magnified by nearly a square of the distance. I have done everything right and still had two bad hits over 500yds just because the animal decided to take a step right when I pulled the trigger. Got both of those, but was lucky. If you want to shoot game outside this wall you need to bring your A game. Best advise you will ever hear is go to one or more long range shooting schools and learn good form. Then practice a lot. Taking up competitive shooting makes it less boring.

Yep. Flight time beyond 400yds is a real thing people generally don't think about. One step from a deer or larger animal can easily be 2-4".

I'd rather shoot one walking than standing for that reason because I can easily compensate for the movement I can see.