Erik Cortina is going to do the Backfire challenge

I guess I failed too. 496 yard shot at live badger. No rear bag off the hot hood of my jeep. AR15 if factory colt 1-7" twist. 75 gr ELDM handloads. Cheap prostaff Nikon scope. Although it just went over the badger by an inch. So if it was a moa target it might have hit it. DRT on the second shot using the reticle for holdovers. I don't trust the dials on that scope..
 
Cortina I'd love to see some of these long-range hunters with their 300-win mag or there 338 or any long-range big game rifle take this same challenge so they can see how ethical they really are.
And put them in real field shooting positions, not off bags and 15+lb rifles. Make them hike at least 3000ft of vertical to get the heart rate where it would be. Or if it's flat jog at least a mile if we're talking mountain hunting. If you're just sitting in a stand or blind, then resting heart rate would be fine as would the 15lb rifles.
"I'm good to 1000 bro".
 
Last edited:


Good challenge! Most folks had match rifles. Prone with a bipod and rear bag. Not as easy as people think.

I'd probably give the guys more than a 1MOA target. The vitals on a deer are bigger than 1MOA at 500. I really like how he's doing some of these to show how not easy it is. And they have all kinds of advantages here you'd likely not see hunting.

Seems for big game hunting these guys would use adult sized cartridges.?

So I guess they were interested in a target/comp scenario only, here.
The guns are heavy, but each one of them uses an appropriate cartridge for a deer at 500y with the exception of the 223.
 
EC said that a deer's vitals are bigger than 1 MOA and acknowledged that several of the hits would have resulted in a dead deer. It is a challenge so 1 MOA makes it just that.

It has already been mentioned, but the shooters showed up for the Blackjack challenge and shot this new one too.
 
Top