Fiftydriver
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Well, I will admit that I was a bit pumped up by reading about GoodGroupers success and the other boys at 2000 yards. The weather was nice today and I had a bit of time so I headed up to my long distance range for a little shooting.
I have been using the 300 gr and 350 gr ULD bullets from Wildcat Bullets in my 338 Kahn and both have been shooting extremely well at 500 yards, averaging in the 1.5" range if I do my part. I really wanted to see what they would do at some serious range.
The farthest I have ever shot on paper is 1000 yards even though I have shot at targets of opportunity out to the 2500 yard range quite a bit, I have never tried to get a group on paper at ranges beyond 1000 yards but I was determined to do so.
I set up my target, sorry, no fancy pics of the shoot will get some when I test the 350 gr pills. Being limited by ranging equipment I had to make due with what I had, my Leica 1200. I set the 4x4 foot target up and also set a dialing rock about 10 yards to the left of the target board to dial in on before the group on paper was taken.
The target board was covered by white freezer paper and then 1 square foot piece of dark paper was taped to the center of the board. The 16 square feet of white really stands out on the prairie and the dark square was the perfect size to target on with the 16x SS scope.
After the target was set up I drove back to the rims overlooking the canyon I would be shooting across. These rims run along the sight path for a good distance so I parked the truck at one point and ranged back to the target, 1020 yards. I then left the truck there and started walking farther down the rims until I came to the property line. Lining the truck up perfectly with the target and taking a range to the truck I got a range of 770 yards. I marked the spot where the 1760 yard mark was and then went back to get the truck and drove it back and set up the gear.
With a 500 yard zero I dialed in the guestimate of MOAs to get me close to the dialing in rock at one mile. The rock was roughly 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. I leveled the rifle held a solid mil into the wind which was around 5 mph and let one of the 300 gr ULDs go.
The bullet landed perfectly centered horizontally with the target rock but 10 yards low. I dialed in more MOAs and took another shot. This one landed right around a foot high, again on center.
I took out 1 moa and then took a three shot group. SHot one cut the top edge of the rock on center, shot two landed just off the bottom edge of the rock and shot three landed on teh bottom edge of the rock. Looked to be a 14 to 15" group, I was plenty satisfied with this and felt confident getting on paper.
I was a little concerned as my velocities were running a bit higher in variation then usual, around 30 fps.
I lined the Kahn up on the dark center target using the first mil dot to the right as a aiming point to allow for the breeze. I tickled the 6 oz trigger and could see no sign of any dust around the target board, so far so good.
In preparing for the second shot, the wind picked up slighly so I gave another 1/4 mil into the wind and let the shot go. Again, no dust from the impact, again good.
For shot three the wind had settled back down so I took the same hold as the first shot and again no impact could be seen around the target. I had either landed all three on the target or I missed the hill!!!
Since I had only taken seven shots at this point I really did not want to pack everything up this early. I found a rock at which I guessed to be around 2000 yards away farther down the canyon. This rock was about 18" roughly square and made a good target. I dialed in for what I guessed was 2000 yards and let a shot go. At this range I allowed for two mils into the breeze and landed pretty much center again but about 30 feet down the hill. Obviously this was a bit farther then what I had guessed. I cranked in more MOAs and on the second attempt landed roughly 10 feet high. At this setting, the first mil dot up was nearly a dead center hold for the impact so I switched from the main crosshair to the first dot up on the reticle.
I fired three down range at the rock. The first landed about a foot to the right of the rock and about a foot low, the second dropped nearly 5 feet low for some reason, I was kind of baffled as velocity was within 5 fps of the first shot. Shot three landed at what seemed to be around a foot and a half higher then the first shot. SO I had two shots at what looked like around 18" apart and one that dropped well out of the group. I decided to take another shot to see what would happen with a three shot group. This shot looked to land on top of the first shot making a very nice three shot group less the dropped shot????
I decided I had better get back to the shop and actually get some work done so I packed up all the gear and drove the 15 minute drive back to the target. You know you are shooting some range when a round trip travel time is 30 minutes with a 4x4!!
The target was positioned roughly 100 yards off the trail so I ran up to see what if anything had landed on target.
I first noticed a bullet hole just below the 1 foot target square. As I got closer to the board I noticed the two holes on the bottom of the board that were so close I simply could not believe it. In fact I had to dig the bullets out of the dirt to prove it to myself.
As youcan see again, the only real group variation is vertical. This was common with all the groups I shot today. In fact all groups consisted of two shots close with one shot roughly 3/4 moa straight above those two. All were exactly this way except the one shot that fell out at the longer range shooting.
Also all group variation was totally vertical. Horizontal variation was around 10" at most for all the groups fired.
As youcan see these two landed pretty close. Now I am not saying this is skill by anymeans, luck is a beautiful thing at times, especially at this range. Its on paper though so thats all I care about.
The shot that landed in the center of the target board landed dead center headlong into a couple ton sandstone rock that was behind the target board. It actually penetrated about 4" into the rock!!
The Wildcat Bullets are built with an extremely heavy jacket so expansion at this range is rather limited unless heavy resistance is encountered.
As the scale reports this bullet lose very little to the rock on impact. Penetration is never a problem with the Wildcats.
After this I walked up to where I had targeted the rock that I guessed to be around 2000 yards. It was probably more like 2200 yards as it was across another small canyon that I could not pick out from the angle I was at.
The group was probably around 20" or so for the three good shots, I still do not know why the one shot fell out of the group so far???
Anyway, it proved to be a good test and the Wildcats easily performed up to my satisfaction.
When dialed in a Basketball would be in serious trouble of being deflated at 1 mile!!
Next up are the 350 gr pills to see how they compare at the same range. At one mile they should actually start holding more velocity and less drop then the 300 gr version that starts out around 250 fps faster.
Wind drift should be noticably less as well comparing the .820 B.C. of the 300gr to the .975 B.C. of the 350 gr bullet.
WIll be intesting to see. I will be sure to take my digital camera along for that test to get some better range pics.
Good Shooting!!
Kirby Allen(50)
I have been using the 300 gr and 350 gr ULD bullets from Wildcat Bullets in my 338 Kahn and both have been shooting extremely well at 500 yards, averaging in the 1.5" range if I do my part. I really wanted to see what they would do at some serious range.
The farthest I have ever shot on paper is 1000 yards even though I have shot at targets of opportunity out to the 2500 yard range quite a bit, I have never tried to get a group on paper at ranges beyond 1000 yards but I was determined to do so.
I set up my target, sorry, no fancy pics of the shoot will get some when I test the 350 gr pills. Being limited by ranging equipment I had to make due with what I had, my Leica 1200. I set the 4x4 foot target up and also set a dialing rock about 10 yards to the left of the target board to dial in on before the group on paper was taken.
The target board was covered by white freezer paper and then 1 square foot piece of dark paper was taped to the center of the board. The 16 square feet of white really stands out on the prairie and the dark square was the perfect size to target on with the 16x SS scope.
After the target was set up I drove back to the rims overlooking the canyon I would be shooting across. These rims run along the sight path for a good distance so I parked the truck at one point and ranged back to the target, 1020 yards. I then left the truck there and started walking farther down the rims until I came to the property line. Lining the truck up perfectly with the target and taking a range to the truck I got a range of 770 yards. I marked the spot where the 1760 yard mark was and then went back to get the truck and drove it back and set up the gear.
With a 500 yard zero I dialed in the guestimate of MOAs to get me close to the dialing in rock at one mile. The rock was roughly 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. I leveled the rifle held a solid mil into the wind which was around 5 mph and let one of the 300 gr ULDs go.
The bullet landed perfectly centered horizontally with the target rock but 10 yards low. I dialed in more MOAs and took another shot. This one landed right around a foot high, again on center.
I took out 1 moa and then took a three shot group. SHot one cut the top edge of the rock on center, shot two landed just off the bottom edge of the rock and shot three landed on teh bottom edge of the rock. Looked to be a 14 to 15" group, I was plenty satisfied with this and felt confident getting on paper.
I was a little concerned as my velocities were running a bit higher in variation then usual, around 30 fps.
I lined the Kahn up on the dark center target using the first mil dot to the right as a aiming point to allow for the breeze. I tickled the 6 oz trigger and could see no sign of any dust around the target board, so far so good.
In preparing for the second shot, the wind picked up slighly so I gave another 1/4 mil into the wind and let the shot go. Again, no dust from the impact, again good.
For shot three the wind had settled back down so I took the same hold as the first shot and again no impact could be seen around the target. I had either landed all three on the target or I missed the hill!!!
Since I had only taken seven shots at this point I really did not want to pack everything up this early. I found a rock at which I guessed to be around 2000 yards away farther down the canyon. This rock was about 18" roughly square and made a good target. I dialed in for what I guessed was 2000 yards and let a shot go. At this range I allowed for two mils into the breeze and landed pretty much center again but about 30 feet down the hill. Obviously this was a bit farther then what I had guessed. I cranked in more MOAs and on the second attempt landed roughly 10 feet high. At this setting, the first mil dot up was nearly a dead center hold for the impact so I switched from the main crosshair to the first dot up on the reticle.
I fired three down range at the rock. The first landed about a foot to the right of the rock and about a foot low, the second dropped nearly 5 feet low for some reason, I was kind of baffled as velocity was within 5 fps of the first shot. Shot three landed at what seemed to be around a foot and a half higher then the first shot. SO I had two shots at what looked like around 18" apart and one that dropped well out of the group. I decided to take another shot to see what would happen with a three shot group. This shot looked to land on top of the first shot making a very nice three shot group less the dropped shot????
I decided I had better get back to the shop and actually get some work done so I packed up all the gear and drove the 15 minute drive back to the target. You know you are shooting some range when a round trip travel time is 30 minutes with a 4x4!!
The target was positioned roughly 100 yards off the trail so I ran up to see what if anything had landed on target.
I first noticed a bullet hole just below the 1 foot target square. As I got closer to the board I noticed the two holes on the bottom of the board that were so close I simply could not believe it. In fact I had to dig the bullets out of the dirt to prove it to myself.
As youcan see again, the only real group variation is vertical. This was common with all the groups I shot today. In fact all groups consisted of two shots close with one shot roughly 3/4 moa straight above those two. All were exactly this way except the one shot that fell out at the longer range shooting.
Also all group variation was totally vertical. Horizontal variation was around 10" at most for all the groups fired.
As youcan see these two landed pretty close. Now I am not saying this is skill by anymeans, luck is a beautiful thing at times, especially at this range. Its on paper though so thats all I care about.
The shot that landed in the center of the target board landed dead center headlong into a couple ton sandstone rock that was behind the target board. It actually penetrated about 4" into the rock!!
The Wildcat Bullets are built with an extremely heavy jacket so expansion at this range is rather limited unless heavy resistance is encountered.
As the scale reports this bullet lose very little to the rock on impact. Penetration is never a problem with the Wildcats.
After this I walked up to where I had targeted the rock that I guessed to be around 2000 yards. It was probably more like 2200 yards as it was across another small canyon that I could not pick out from the angle I was at.
The group was probably around 20" or so for the three good shots, I still do not know why the one shot fell out of the group so far???
Anyway, it proved to be a good test and the Wildcats easily performed up to my satisfaction.
When dialed in a Basketball would be in serious trouble of being deflated at 1 mile!!
Next up are the 350 gr pills to see how they compare at the same range. At one mile they should actually start holding more velocity and less drop then the 300 gr version that starts out around 250 fps faster.
Wind drift should be noticably less as well comparing the .820 B.C. of the 300gr to the .975 B.C. of the 350 gr bullet.
WIll be intesting to see. I will be sure to take my digital camera along for that test to get some better range pics.
Good Shooting!!
Kirby Allen(50)
