Harassing rocks at 1400 yards in the UP.

redneckdan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2007
Messages
329
Location
MN Iron Range
Over visiting family this weekend. Brought my .338 looppaa along, since I know of a large tailings flat relatively near by. If you know this flat by name, please don't mention it in a public thread. Big enough problem already with dumbasses ruining it. If you don't know it and want to, PM me.

Snuck away for a hour or so after dinner. Picked up a rock at my poor rock dump of choice and headed for the flat.

Set up at 1000yds, used a stick with some flagging tape to make it easier to find the rock. It was a 10" wide by 14" high chunk of basalt from a turn of the century copper mine.




It was actually still rather difficuilt to find the **** thing on the tailings field! I eventually found it, set up and dialed in. First shot was 1 click low and 4 right. I called the wind for my elevated position and neglected to acount for the fact most of the flight time would be less subject to wind drift. Forgot to move elevation from 1400 at home to 680 at the lake which gave me 1 click of E and I cut the wind call in half. Next 9 rounds actually hit the **** rock. I couldn't believe it! This is my first time ever shooting at 1k. I think the course sand helped a lot with my technique. I had much less bipod bounce. It was neat to see the cross hairs come back down on target then...wait...wait...wait...WHAMO!!

I drove back to the rock and moved it to 1400. I added another sighting market to help me find the smaller marked branch. The taped log is about 50 yards in front and shooters left of the target rock.




The log leaning over against the water backdrop was MUCH more visible. Here it is from the shooting position. Zoomed to 8x.



No zoom



First shot was correct E and 1 click left. I took off a click and 6 of the next 9 hit the rock. This long range thing is fun! I'm at about the limit of this load. It starts to go trans-sonic at about 1400 yards. The 225gr SST was chosen as a cheap learner bullet and my home range is limited to ~750yds. VLDs would be a waste. I think I will burn up the rest of these SSTs between now and the end of speed goat season then switch to the Berger 300s. By then the lakes should be frozen at home and my ELR options open up. The real fun starts week after next when I go to WY and learn the hard way how to call wind!
 
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