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  1. #1
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    Range Report---Epic Day!

    Today was a monumental day. I did my first ever 'go for broke-see how far you can shoot' day...

    I went to a friend's ranch that is just over 500 acres big. They live about 20ish minutes from me. In their back pasture they have a 1500 yard rifle range set up with all different sizes and shapes of targets along the way. On another part of the ranch they can set up a special 1 mile shot if they want to. Of course I didn't need a mile but you get the idea.

    I didn't take my camera so here are some cel phone pics. The first one is from the shooting position. They have a solid little bench out there.



    They let me use a off road 4wd mule to get around...so after they showed me around a little I was on my own.

    I started shooting with a led sled mainly because I was trying to figure things out first...but later on in the session I was shooting off of a simple cheap bipod. I did have a little DOPE chart that I printed from Hornaday's site. That was my main (and only) reference.

    My first target I chose was 'out there'. I didn't know how far. Fortunately I had measured that one on the way out and it was a 24" plate. That's all I knew. I basically had to calculate the distance... which came out to be approximately 575 yards. At that point it was just a sophisticated guess...but after I dialed in I had no problems ringing the bell on that one. I could ring it from various positions... on the sled, on the bipod... I did not try free handing it though (not yet).

    After I did that for a while I had a gun malfunction...I almost had to cut my day short. I normally keep basic tools on hand but for some reason I walked off and left my allen wrenches at home. Fortunately I called up to the house and one of the guys brought me some tools... my brand new gas block had come loose. My gun would not cycle or extract or anything. I guess that's a win for UWone... I might be getting my gas block pinned pretty soon. For now though I will just loctite that bolt in there which I completely forgot to do when I installed it.

    Anyway I was back in business so I decided to try some other stuff. I tried to range out another target and I was basing it off of the one I measured... I didn't hit crap. After not very long I went down and measured the target.... it was an 18" plate not a 24" plate... so all my calculations were way off....

    I had an idea where the one was so I kinda half way stepped it off and found it to be an 18" square plate hanging at 650 yards.

    It was getting late so I went for it.... I checked my dope chart...

    I heard a ding so I thought I had hit it... so I went and checked...



    I was about 6" low off of dead center at 650 yards.

    That is by far the farthest I have ever shot. Now that I have a place that I can go to I might do some farther shots... but 650 yards with an AR15 isn't a bad deal at all. I was quite stoked by all of it.

    I can honestly say that I learned a lot about shooting today. I will DEFINITELY be going back for more action.

    Not to mention the guy who owns the place... his son is supposedly a professional shooter so his dad is going to get him to bring his stuff and him and I are going to shoot together. I am going to get some 1000 yard shots in.

    All in all I would call it a good day.

    PS... My rifle is a 16" AR15 with a Rainier Select Medcon barrel on it. My optic is a 1-4x Vortex Viper PST.

    My load is a 69 grain SMK over 24.3 grains of varget using Lake City brass and CCI #400 primers.

    For my 650 yard shot my hold over was between 24 and 25 MOA.

    For the 575 yard target I was right around 19 MOA hold over.

    PSS... I learned that the wind is a real pain in the ass when you are shooting at distance.
    Last edited by alamo5000; 25 June 2015 at 20:40.

  2. #2
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    Nice write up, enjoyed the read. Had a buddy have the same malfunction recently and he still hasn't pinned it.
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  3. #3
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    Alamo, if you want, you can grab a (good) ballistics program (which is it's own conversation) and then feed your data in for your round. You can then adjust the muzzle velocity in the program so that it makes the DOPE match what your actual adjustment was at that 650 yards. With that done, you can throw out the thing you printed from online and you'll have a much more accurate piece of data to shoot with.

    That's the cheap way to get a pretty accurate MV if you don't have a chronograph.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gatordev View Post
    Alamo, if you want, you can grab a (good) ballistics program (which is it's own conversation) and then feed your data in for your round. You can then adjust the muzzle velocity in the program so that it makes the DOPE match what your actual adjustment was at that 650 yards. With that done, you can throw out the thing you printed from online and you'll have a much more accurate piece of data to shoot with.

    That's the cheap way to get a pretty accurate MV if you don't have a chronograph.

    I have a cheap chrono a the house. When I was developing my reloads I got them pretty much spot on so I know my velocity. My hold overs and all that were right on from the DOPE page I printed...my velocities for my round are just shy of 2600 fps.

    My chrono is cheap but it got the job done.

    My wind meter though wasn't very accurate. It consisted of a couple of leaves off of a tree and wet finger

    Out at that range a 90 degree wind of 1 mph will blow you off target 7 inches sideways. That's the part I am going to need to study out more.

    I also didn't have any kind of laser range finder or any of that stuff. I just did the basic MOA measurement based off of an estimated target size and went for it. Once I figured that part out that was half the battle right there.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GOST View Post
    Nice write up, enjoyed the read. Had a buddy have the same malfunction recently and he still hasn't pinned it.

    Thanks! The last time I put a gas block on a loctited the set screws...that held fine....but for some reason I forgot to do this one. I will do that for a fix for now and see about getting it pinned.

    All I know is malfunction aside I had a great time. Now that I know what it looks like and where the targets are and all that I can go back better prepared.

    It was awesome. Sitting out there under a big oak tree all alone....overlooking that scene...it was nice.

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    Gotcha. I thought you were just using some "bulk" DOPE, but you were way ahead of me.

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    Great write-up - thanks for sharing ! Looks like a really cool place to shoot, congrats. 650 using an AR with only a 4x is Outstanding !

    I tried your windage tool (wet finger) in Montana shooting Pdogs - ending up wetting the middle finger for the wind a few expletives also used in the calculation.
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  8. #8
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    I use a similar load; 24.1gr RE15 and 69gr SMKs with my 16" Rainier Select barrel.

    For some reason my 18" match did NOT like them. Might bump it up to 24.3 and see if it's a charge I can use in both.

    Nice shooting. 650yds with a 4 power is good to go.

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    Very nice! Good report and that first pic is great, made me wanna hit the range.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry R View Post
    Great write-up - thanks for sharing ! Looks like a really cool place to shoot, congrats. 650 using an AR with only a 4x is Outstanding !

    I tried your windage tool (wet finger) in Montana shooting Pdogs - ending up wetting the middle finger for the wind a few expletives also used in the calculation.

    I think given some practice I might be able to do a little further... but that next target that they have up there is a good stretch out past 700 something maybe 800 yards. With a little practice I am sure I could hit the target at 700 yards... but at that point I am almost off the reticule. I definitely need to step up from the leaf and wet finger method... I am not sure what a decent portable wind meter would run me..

    It was kind of deceiving...Where I was sitting the wind was one thing because it was sort of blocked by trees... but out in the open where it opens up more there was A LOT more wind. I was just playing around with a ballistics calculator and for every 1 mph that's 7" break. 2 mph and you're already off target (if you were aiming dead center).

    Next time I go back I am going to practice that shot some more until I can do it pretty consistently. In between now and then though I am going to be studying windage . I need to know what kind of wind will be pushing my bullet how far and in what direction....if I have a head on wind, a tail wind, a 3/4 wind... a 1/4 wind...I want to know what all those do to a bullet.

    I have so many things that I want to try out. I was using the cross hairs to do a hold over. I didn't turn not a single knob on my scope. Next time I might try to dial it up. I think that actually might help me some mainly because the subtensions on the scope are so thin and they are not illuminated so sometimes they would get lost, especially as the sun started to cast more shadows.

    Holy crap though. I am still kind of stoked by it. I truly had a great time out there.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GaSwamper View Post
    Very nice! Good report and that first pic is great, made me wanna hit the range.
    That place out there was great! In the shade. Under a big oak tree. I think they said 550 acres (over 500 for sure).... a nice meadow... a good lane... I was out there all alone. It was actually quite serene. You didn't hear anything except nature.

    I thought it was kind of neat that when I would shoot it took over a second for the bullet to impact. It was kind of cool blasting one off the sound of the gun would dissipate and then a faint 'plink!' could be heard...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Former11B View Post
    Nice shooting. 650yds with a 4 power is good to go.
    Honestly I think I could maybe stretch it out a bit further than that... but the round starts dropping like a rock out there.

    My bullet dropped almost 14 feet at 650 yards. As I practice it more I will experiment around some and try to determine the distances to some of the farther targets.

    Like I said though I was tagging that 575 yard target like nobody's business. It was a tad bit bigger... 24" square vs 18" is quite a bit more forgiving. I did 10 shots on the 575 yard target off my bipod and I had 10 hits in a row there.

    Adding 75 yards and chopping your target size almost in half though makes it a whole lot more challenging.

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    Quote Originally Posted by alamo5000 View Post
    I definitely need to step up from the leaf and wet finger method... I am not sure what a decent portable wind meter would run me. I truly had a great time out there.
    Sounds like a great time. Just a suggestion ... Take a roll of surveyor's flagging tape and some rods (about target height when stuck in the ground). Stick a rod in the ground every hundred yards or so, and tie a nine inch piece of flagging tape to the end of it. The tape is so flimsy you will be able to see direction and estimate strength by how hard the tape is flapping. Cheap and easy. A wind meter at one location doesn't tell the tale. Hundred out could be from 9 o'clock at 5 MPH (small flutter) and at two hundred it might be 12 o'clock at 15 MPH. Winds swirl and vary over distance; but seeing the differences in your scope will help you guesstimate the dope. Most flagging tape is day-glow orange or chartreuse and easily seen in the scope if long enough.
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  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry R View Post
    Sounds like a great time. Just a suggestion ... Take a roll of surveyor's flagging tape and some rods (about target height when stuck in the ground). Stick a rod in the ground every hundred yards or so, and tie a nine inch piece of flagging tape to the end of it. The tape is so flimsy you will be able to see direction and estimate strength by how hard the tape is flapping. Cheap and easy. A wind meter at one location doesn't tell the tale. Hundred out could be from 9 o'clock at 5 MPH (small flutter) and at two hundred it might be 12 o'clock at 15 MPH. Winds swirl and vary over distance; but seeing the differences in your scope will help you guesstimate the dope. Most flagging tape is day-glow orange or chartreuse and easily seen in the scope if long enough.
    If you look at pic #1 ... I was actually sitting up on a hill... and it dips down and way on the other side it has a slight rise to it... that way you can clearly see the targets along the way. In between where I shot from and where that target is has a whole lot of very tall grass. The place hasn't been mowed in I don't know how long (mainly because of the rains). If you try to drive out there on anything heavy and you will sink axle deep. It's just now drying out. The weeds were more than waist deep, some places even chest deep out there. And thick.

    BUT I used that to my advantage. I was watching the weeds and the branches on the trees around me. You could see them moving when the wind blew. Seeing the weeds bend over though and saying 'that's 3 mph' is not that easy. I was just guessing. I definitely have homework to do. I hadn't studied out what the effect of the wind was at all before I went. That literally was my first time shooting out that far. What I need to learn though is what I said above about the 45 degree wind, the 90 degree wind, the tail wind, the headwind etc etc and what effect they have.

    I was kind of guessing at the wind speed and direction but knowing how far it pushed my bullet off course I didn't know. I started picking up on it pretty quick though especially on those times when I could see not only that I missed but by how far.
    Last edited by alamo5000; 26 June 2015 at 18:32.

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    I am going to go back out and give it another go for some long range shooting either tomorrow or Thursday... (cross your fingers that nothing stops me from going). It's been about 3 weeks since I did my first long range session so this time I am going to try and hone my skills a little bit more.

    Also the last time I went I was using the reticle to compensate for my MOA drop--- but this time I think I might try dialing it up using the top turret so that I can make better use of my illumination. A couple of things I learned during my last outing was that on my Vortex Viper since the hash marks are not illuminated when it got dim and the light was fading I was having a harder time using the correct hold over. The subtensions are very fine and against a dark background with fading light it's much harder to do. Hence if I dial it up I will be able to learn a little more (such as figure the exact hold over-- I am obviously pretty close, but I would like to know exactly) All this "about" stuff isn't cutting it for me.

    I am also going to try and get a better reading on the exact distances--again I am obviously pretty close because I was hitting the thing, but range estimation using MOA out that far is challenging using a target that size. An 18" target @ 650 yards is only 2.6 MOA. At that distance a ranging error of .1 MOA will put me off target already. If I guessed it was 2.5 instead of 2.6 that makes almost a 40 yard range estimation error...which will result in about a 3 MOA aiming error with my load...That alone doesn't leave much wiggle room. Long story short I am going to try and collect more precise data.

    Seeing the target isn't that hard. Getting that little lead pellet to hit it is a whole different story. Once I dial it in I will see if I can hit it 5 out of 5 and see what kind of group I wind up with at that distance. Again though I need to take away some of the guessing.

    Once I am more regularly hitting it, or when I know for sure some of the factors I will try to shoot doing different things. Standing, kneeling, just whatever.

    Anyway I have all that on my plate but I think I can do it... it's just going to take some paying attention and some trial and error. Hopefully I can get there within about 180 rounds

    Now all that said since there is a whole lot more turf out there and a whole lot more targets-- what are some other exercises that I can run? I am thinking another thing I might try is do some sort of drill where I transition different targets at different ranges and see if I can do it. Say like go 500, 300, 400, 200 yards and mix it up some and see if I can do a double tap on each target... something like that...

    Any kind of ideas of other stuff I might should try? If not tomorrow I can try another day... I can also take more ammo if need be...but I am trying to think of stuff that I can practice that will make me a better shooter.

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