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I took up long range precision shooting 6 months ago. Its been a long road of studying theory, physics, technique and plain ole practical experience. Read many books on the matter. My head is chock full of buzz words like, Minute of Angle, Milliradians, Mildot, front focal plane, wind drift, thermal mirage, vapor trails, bullet drop, yards, inches, meters, barrel twist, grains, and many more. The last couple of months has been ok, but it just didnt feel like I really got it, until today.
Arrived at the range and I had to re-zero the scope after taking it off to fix another issue with my rifle. When I arrived, I couldnt get on paper. 10 clicks here, 5 clicks there, I was all over the place. I finally started doing hold overs and found that I was 1.5 feet to the right. So Im there thinking in feet and inches. How many inches is a click at 100 yards? I had no idea. I tried 3 clicks, 10 clicks, 20 clicks, still, no impact. In desperation, I tapped the guy next to me. I noticed he was shooting in 6.5 Creedmor and sporting a Nightforce scope. He's gotta to know what he's doing, right? I'd lent him my spotting scope earlier as he forgot his. He was gracious, came over and helped.
As I said earlier, I've studied a lot of theory, but I didnt feel like I completely understood what I've read. I explained my predicament, and he asked me, "how many mildots off are you"? I looked into the scope one more time and saw 3 whole mildots. He responded "that's 30 clicks".
BAM! It hit me. Such a simple answer, but I got hit with an epiphany. There are 10 clicks for each milliradian on my turrets. Every 10 clicks is equal to the distance between each mildot on the reticle. Having a front focal plane scope, I dont need to convert to inches, I just need to think in percentages!
I put in the 30 clicks, BULLSEYE at 100 yards! Again, the two shots touching.
Peered out to 300 yards, first shot is off the 12 inch plate 1/3 of the way between mildots. I put in 3 clicks, took the shot, Ding! went the steel plate, BULLSEYE! Tried 500 and 600 yards, same thing. Man, I think I finally got it!
Learned a few more things thru the day. I took notes of the angle of thermal mirage relative to the wind and how much I needed to compensate at specific distance. Will be checking the validity of these numbers in the future. Sweet. Knowing how to properly compensate for misses, I was able to focus on ballistics. The Remington Premier Match 69 grain hollow point boat tail ammo I was using was hitting targets spot on from 100 to 600 yards based on the bullet drop table from the Ballistic AE app I had on my phone. The Norma 77 grain Sierra Match King ammo however was hitting low considerably at 500 and 600 yards. I estimated the difference between point of impact and dialed the compensation into the scope using my new found knowledge. Boom!, BULLSEYE! Plugged in the Point of Impact discrepancy into the Ballistic AE app. It recomputed and said the ammo was short 100 feet per second of velocity at the muzzle. With a recalibrated ballistic table, I was hitting multiple gongs in a row.
From then on, I was on the dot. I hit the 12 inch tall Rams and 8"x8" steel gongs at 600 yards consistently, even switching ammo. When I got really comfortable, I started practicing ranging with just the scope. The 18"x24" steel gong at 600 yards at Angeles Range, according to my computation, is actually 568 yards away. Turned my scope turrets accordingly , took a shot, 1 shot, 1 hit! Yay.
I also met a couple of guys from the country of my birth at the range who were really cool and made new friends. I let one of the guys try my rifle, and I watched the shot on the spotting scope. For the first time ever, I saw the vapor trail of my bullets as it dove into the target. Way cool.
It was a great day.
Lessons learned: 1. learning to shoot on multiple rifles with different scope, reticles and turrets was not a good thing for me. 2. Wolf Gold was grouping so, so at 100 yards, but was hitting gongs consistently at 600. Who knew? 3. I had a helluva time getting the bullet drop for the Norma 77gr vs. the 69 and 55 I was shooting. Results were also inconsistent compared to the rest. Not sure if its the ammo that inconsistent, or my AR doesnt like it over 300 yards. 4. Now I gotta figure out my MOA MOA scopes.
Arrived at the range and I had to re-zero the scope after taking it off to fix another issue with my rifle. When I arrived, I couldnt get on paper. 10 clicks here, 5 clicks there, I was all over the place. I finally started doing hold overs and found that I was 1.5 feet to the right. So Im there thinking in feet and inches. How many inches is a click at 100 yards? I had no idea. I tried 3 clicks, 10 clicks, 20 clicks, still, no impact. In desperation, I tapped the guy next to me. I noticed he was shooting in 6.5 Creedmor and sporting a Nightforce scope. He's gotta to know what he's doing, right? I'd lent him my spotting scope earlier as he forgot his. He was gracious, came over and helped.
As I said earlier, I've studied a lot of theory, but I didnt feel like I completely understood what I've read. I explained my predicament, and he asked me, "how many mildots off are you"? I looked into the scope one more time and saw 3 whole mildots. He responded "that's 30 clicks".
BAM! It hit me. Such a simple answer, but I got hit with an epiphany. There are 10 clicks for each milliradian on my turrets. Every 10 clicks is equal to the distance between each mildot on the reticle. Having a front focal plane scope, I dont need to convert to inches, I just need to think in percentages!
I put in the 30 clicks, BULLSEYE at 100 yards! Again, the two shots touching.
Peered out to 300 yards, first shot is off the 12 inch plate 1/3 of the way between mildots. I put in 3 clicks, took the shot, Ding! went the steel plate, BULLSEYE! Tried 500 and 600 yards, same thing. Man, I think I finally got it!
Learned a few more things thru the day. I took notes of the angle of thermal mirage relative to the wind and how much I needed to compensate at specific distance. Will be checking the validity of these numbers in the future. Sweet. Knowing how to properly compensate for misses, I was able to focus on ballistics. The Remington Premier Match 69 grain hollow point boat tail ammo I was using was hitting targets spot on from 100 to 600 yards based on the bullet drop table from the Ballistic AE app I had on my phone. The Norma 77 grain Sierra Match King ammo however was hitting low considerably at 500 and 600 yards. I estimated the difference between point of impact and dialed the compensation into the scope using my new found knowledge. Boom!, BULLSEYE! Plugged in the Point of Impact discrepancy into the Ballistic AE app. It recomputed and said the ammo was short 100 feet per second of velocity at the muzzle. With a recalibrated ballistic table, I was hitting multiple gongs in a row.
From then on, I was on the dot. I hit the 12 inch tall Rams and 8"x8" steel gongs at 600 yards consistently, even switching ammo. When I got really comfortable, I started practicing ranging with just the scope. The 18"x24" steel gong at 600 yards at Angeles Range, according to my computation, is actually 568 yards away. Turned my scope turrets accordingly , took a shot, 1 shot, 1 hit! Yay.
I also met a couple of guys from the country of my birth at the range who were really cool and made new friends. I let one of the guys try my rifle, and I watched the shot on the spotting scope. For the first time ever, I saw the vapor trail of my bullets as it dove into the target. Way cool.
It was a great day.
Lessons learned: 1. learning to shoot on multiple rifles with different scope, reticles and turrets was not a good thing for me. 2. Wolf Gold was grouping so, so at 100 yards, but was hitting gongs consistently at 600. Who knew? 3. I had a helluva time getting the bullet drop for the Norma 77gr vs. the 69 and 55 I was shooting. Results were also inconsistent compared to the rest. Not sure if its the ammo that inconsistent, or my AR doesnt like it over 300 yards. 4. Now I gotta figure out my MOA MOA scopes.
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