Beyond 1000 yards, Terrel county.

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

Awesome stuff!

Nope. I noticed a wind blowing my bullet around though. Same as I've said would be be the most important thing to overcome.

Still perplexed at the sideways strikes... I have seen keyholes before but never anything like that. 8.5 twist should stabilize the hell out of that bullet.

Maybe the bullet had slowed down enough, and for its' weight, it couldn't drive on into the steel. We found long bullet fragments from the bearing surface and ogive of the bullet. Usually when you find bullet pieces it is the base of the bullet.

I wouldn't think they would have gone unstable. What range do they go transonic?

The Kestrel and "Shooter" said we were still super sonic at that distance. I think it was predicted to go trans-sonic 150 yards beyond the target. It is puzzling.

That was going to be my next guess was it didnt have enough gas to drive it home. Crazy!

I'd still like a reticle up on a hog that far out. They're live ballistic test gel.

Yep, they do. If that bullet will punch a hole in a pig going in sideways, well, that would be something.

Figured you'd take a 308 just for grins?

I had one with me, left it at the ranch house. Would've been a waste of components.

I would have had to try it...

Good times, I love getting out like that and just stretching things out. I shoot a pretty fair amount here at work on my 200 yard range, but try and get out into the country every chance I get. Luckily that is pretty often. I don't have any big boomers, rifles that will really reach. My Creedmoor is the longest range rifle I own.

A month or two ago when we set a target at 1355, I had a couple of the 140 Hornady BTHPM from it hit the steel sideways like that. Shooter showed them going subsonic about 1250, 100 yards before they got there. Obviously those do not fly through transonic well. I also shot some 140 AMAX right beside them. They were supposedly going subonic about 1280, but they were still flying true, hitting point on, and didn't seem to be scattering. The BTHPM was all over the place.

It took three tries to get steel set, and a place to shoot from where we could see the steel. It's a 20 minute ride up top to get into firing position. Next time I go I'll take a .308 up with me.

Awesome. I could not hit from there, but would love to watch someone else try it.

Get behind the rifle, right beside me, and you'd hit it at will.

I've hit with a .308 to 1200 yards before. Never have pushed it into the teens.

Thats crazy the 7 impacted like that. That is stretching it out there though.

At 1000 yards I'm calling in ARTY or an Air Strike.

Can I have that number?

Per Chad's new findings I needed the bullet above 1340 fps to get predictable hits at extreme range. I just checked the numbers and it should have been 1375 fps at 1575 yards. So I still don't know the cause of the sideways impacts.

wonder if you have lost enough rotation on the bullets at that twist and flight time to loose stability, know that bullets loose the stabilizing rotation a little in flight just not as fast as forward velocity.

Next trip out see if 168gr bullets are still flying straight out that far. My bet is that they will be.

You want me to work up a load for the 7 Rem Mag with 168's ?

Hmmmm

JG how many total rounds down the barrel of the 7 Rem mag?

The new advertised bc on the 162eld was solid this weekend for me. It's just knocking on the 180 hunting vld bc.

Ummmmm....200-300 I think.

Dee, I need to try some. They'll be flying like a bat out of hell, out of this rifle.

The match only went out to 700 but I input the 652\329 bc into the kestrel and had no issues. My velocity is a good bit lower than you'll be at so it can only be better.

180's are leaving at 3030 fps.

Wouldn't doubt the 168's being north of 3100 fps.