Long Range Shooting Rifle Options

Yeah, pretty mind blowing what's possible nowadays. But I'm betting he's a super skilled marksman on top of the equipment. Here I am antsy to pop my thousand yard cherry.

 

Yes exactly. I’m sure it will be fine. If I were to go on some high dollar elk hunt, where you may not see something for a week, I’d want absolutely every advantage. I know a lot of people that prefer FFP even for hunting. It has its uses, and aslong as you practice with it, it works.

 

So what is the thought process on hunting on the lower end of your magnification? Easier to keep the animal in frame if it decides to move?

ugh, I gotta learn some more about hunting.

 

There is a lot involved especially when it’s windy but once you do it a few times it’s honestly just repetition. These days a regular $1000 6.5 will do 1000 yards all day long with any match ammo. The mile and further stuff is a learning curve, and costs a lot more to the “right” way. Sure you can sling rounds till you hit, but you’re not really learning much about the ballistics and environment around you. You can easily wrap up 15-20k in a good proven ELR rifle. If you aren’t hand loading and chronographing, I personally wouldn’t shoot much over 6.5 or 7mm stuff. Well and .308. I remember fire forming 338 lapua with factory ammo at 9$ a round….and if you’re not competing, the big calibers are almost a waste. Just a cool factor to have. And they also shoot extremely fast hit hard, and keep going for miles so a good backstop is a MUST. Like racing bikes, the stuff just takes time, and practice, and money.

 

Ya basically with the FFP on some scopes you’ll have to zoom in to see the reticle better which obviously makes the animal seem way closer. Which is why SFP scopes are favored by most people hunting. It’s definitely do-able. There is nothing wrong with it whatsoever. I’ve always used FFP. Just how I learned.

Pretty well the opposite with target and ELR stuff

 

Makes sense. As most of my shooting is at paper, steel, and cardboard enemies, i often prefer FFP for the 600-1k yard shots and just kinda make do with the low-mid range on closer stuff.

 

If a deer is 10 yards away, its a lot easier to find it on 3x than 15x.

 

Well that makes me feel a
little better. I did a LR school a couple years ago. We maxed out at 1200 yards. I was hitting a 24”x36” steel about 2/3 of the time with my $450 Savage .308 and $200 scope. Figure that I was shooting 3-5MOA, lol.

The scope really exposed its limitations at that range. I couldn’t see the steel all that well, it would just kind of white out. Fun and informative class though.

 

.308 is a great round. It just falls off fast. Depending on barrel length and bullet weight it’s typically beginning to go transonic at or around 1100 yards which makes it unstable and some bullets start to tumble. 3 moa at 1200 with 308 isn’t bad at all especially given the rifle/scope combo used. I’m actually helping a guy get into long range stuff right now that just picked up a tikka 308 and a vortex 5x25.
I shoot right in my backyard, and in Illinois the mirage is god awful, so a nice scope can make the world of a difference when your actually able to zoom in 18-20x and clearly read the mirage waves.
I think in all the crap I’ve acquired, buying and more importantly learning how to use a Kestrel is a game changer. With the correct info and atmospherics I can pull off first round impacts at a mile very often, even pulled it off some with little 6.5’s!

 

I’d like to get back into it, but we just don’t have any long distance ranges here in Md. And really having a big piece of land to shoot on is even better for that kinda shooting.


On a side note, I read the other day that a Ukrainian sniper had a kill at 2.3 miles or thereabouts. It’s just mind blowing to me that it’s even possible. I would think they had some very specialized gear/rifle/ammo to make that shot.

 

I'd reload this round which would save me a ton of money.

 

I'm looking into the round for larger animals; elk or bear, should the hunting opportunity presents itself. A trusted hunting buddy recently mentioned the cartridge. I thought I was set with a 308 but I was seeking other opinions on this cartridge. I'd be reloading the cartridge. It appears bullet weights in the 200 or so grains are the preferred go to weights.

 

Just comparing notes. The longest range that I'm aware of in this area (MD) is out to 800 yrds. Is that Fort Meade but that's not available to the general public. Other than that, you'd have to go to the eastern shore. Thats why I'm not been interested in long range stuff but I do wanna learn the skills necessary to achieve such shots. There's also a place in Black Bear, Virginia that some visit yearly.

 

And a FFP reticle is the size of a gnat's cock hair at 3X, hence FFP sucks for hunting without illumination.

 

A good listen is the Shawn Ryan show with Dallas Alexander. I believe they’re still the WR confirmed at like 2.2 or 2.3 miles. They took multiple that far too not just one. They were scouting for literally weeks and weeks so they hade their dope to every target there, so it was only a matter of time. Cool thing is, everything they used is available. It’s not some crazy super classified piece of kit. The main component was a Charlie Tarac. I believe they were shooting 50s of some sort, maybe 416s. They did talk about it but a lot of it got censored. However, back to rifle options-
I just ordered a new Accuracy international atx in 6mm creedmoor, so that’ll be fun. Super fast 6mm, will be cool to see how it performs especially coyote hunting.

 

The Bergara came in yesterday. off to the FFL today. He sent me a pic, looks Fning sweet! Range time later today, while it is close to 50 here. Ski

 

Got her home, and first 20 down the pipe for break in, and rough zero at 100. Being light and a "Magnum Creedmoor" it sure does kick more. I only had about 45 minutes of daylight, and was cleaning between shots for break in but, the Bergara trigger is light, and crisp. pretty pleased so far. Ski

 

I had a Fierce chambered in 6.5 prc. It was a cool gun, I end up selling it. It was way too light for target shooting. I think I shot about 50 rounds out of it. Great caliber though.

 

The shots were made using a Barrett .50 cal. Even though they were a Canadian team, they were using American rounds which were hotter than what they used for training. 2+ second bullet travel time? Heh, shoot, wait, miss - shoot again, wait. The shooter said their targets just kept walking like nothing was happening, until when of ‘em fell down.

 

This followed me home today. Length of pull is just about perfect out of the box. Won't know how the comb height will work for me until I get the optic mounted. I don't have a torque wrench that will work for such a low setting so I'll have to order one before I permanently mout it. I had enough club points to get 3 boxes of 140 gr eldm for almost free.