This is the ranch we mule deer hunt in December. I asked to come out and stretch out some rifles, and he said "heck yeah!" Lots of room out here. I brought my 7 Rem Mag, and 6.5 Creedmoor. James brought his 7 Rem Mag and his 6.5 Creedmoor as well, and his .338 Lapua Mag. It took three tries to get a place to shoot from and steel set where we could see it, but we persevered. It was sunny, and the steel was set farther than the range finder would reach. I knew that was going to be the case ahead of time, so I measured the targets and took notes, before we sat them on the valley floor. Once we got set up where we could see them we measured them in the reticle and did the math.

Size of target in inches X 27.77

divided by Mils = range to target in yards.

I'm not perfect at it, but we got close enough on the first shots to see a correction, and work backwards on the trajectory table. First target was correct, 790 yards. Second target we estimated it closer than it was because the round missed low. Dial up the difference, and look at the turret. Go to the trajectory table and see what distance corresponds with what is dialed in the scope. So if we dialed 12.7 Mils for 1155 yards, but to get a hit we had to come up another .5 Mil to 13.3, then we look at the table to see what distance 13.3 Mils matched. We shot the 6.5 Creedmoor first.

Target #1 8" tall X 11" wide 790 yards
Target #2 2/3 IPSC 1175 yards
Target #3 16" tall X 30" wide.

We estimated it at 1450 yards and took a poke with the 6.5 Creedmoors. I fired five rounds and neither of us could find a splash. I told James, it must be farther, and the bullet must be going sub-sonic. He fired five rounds and I could find where his bullets were going either. I said this is wasting powder this far out, time to step up the rifles. So we got the 7 Rem Mags in service. Both loaded with 180 Berger VLD Hunting. Once I got a hit, I checked the chart, and it was showing to be 1575 yards away. James hit it with his 7 Rem Mag as well.



For once the .338 LM bothered James the day before, so he had me shoot it. The barrel is too short, but it is loaded with 300 gr Berger VLDs.




We packed up just before dark and drove to the targets. Look what we found! Three hits from the 7 Rem Mags where the bullet struck sideways. That's pushing them as far as they will go! The three round hits are from the .338 Lapua Mag.

Well done. Love that country.

That is cool....looks like you two had fun. Now, back the concrete

180's in the 7 Mag that hit sideways? If so, what twist are you running on the 7 Mag- 9" twist? I've never seem them turn sideways like that.

Looks like a fun day

Same rifle you borrowed to try the 195's. 1:8.5 twist.

yep

Nice. I love and hate that part of Texas at the same time.

dang, that looks like fun.

How much elevation change was there between shooting platform and targets? Just curious if the degree of angle played a part of the first rounds misses?

Nice shootin!

I once hit a doe at 300 yards.. that pretty much sums up my "long-range" Experience

I had some 195's key hole yesterday at 200 yards. Round holes at 100, and almost sideways at 200 out of a 7 Mag.

It was significant. We were so busy ranging with the scope, doing math, checking DA and temp and how it changed know DOPE that we forgot to check decline angle even though we had a pendulum. But our first attempt misses were low. Had it been a miss due to decline angle, the misses would have been high. I do this all the time on flat ground and forgot one step, though. That's why it's important to just go shoot often. And it is so much fun changing the scenery you shoot in.

Very cool JG!

FiremanJG, that is some "smokin' hot" shooting. What a great country to hunt. I have been a mule deer hunting fanatic for many years.

looks like fun was had


any beers while the sun went down?

Looks like fun! What direction was you shooting?

That is cool seeing those sideways strikes, even if it isn't what you wanted.

We're talking about Garvey...I ain't gonna bet against that and I LOVE to bet

That is pretty friggin cool right there

That's awesome, and I hope to be doing that kind of stuff soon. I'm hopefully getting a ruger rpr this weekend. Now I just need to find a place where I can stretch it's legs.

South to north, with a north wind.

Head and tail wind suck! We had to hold right on every target, but the amount of hold varied greatly second to second.

Curious if at the longer range you noted spin drift and the coriolis effect?

Yeah figured the misses would be high. I e only had a hand full of times that cosine played an effect and none were ever past 300 yards. Good shooting