500 yard shots

[ronstone09]

I've finally been playing with my new 7mm rem mag build. It's on a whitworth interarms action that I killed my first buck with. At first I wanted to change everything but decided on just a barrel, bedded, & trigger work. I went with a 26" finished #3 bartlein 5r 1-9 twist barrel. This thing loves 168 Berger's. I've yet to load for it because it shoots the hsm 168 Berger vld & the federal 168 Berger hybrid so well. Yesterday was my first ever attempt @ 500 yards. I ended up with just over a 5.5" group @ 500. My question is would that be considered a good group? It's not a bench gun built strictly for whitetail & elk. My phone died before I shot the 500 group but here's two groups @ 300 with the federal being the best group. View attachment 152356View attachment 152357

Those are pretty good groups at 500 yes with factory ammo ! They would tighten down with handloads and seating depth !

 

[jasonco]

Tis the hunting season and that's an excellent 500yd group,with boxed ammunition, if that's your self proposed max limit?!
The time for fiddle fartin' around with loads is done!
I did my final ballistic truing, verification and sight-in yesterday.
It's time to get your gear together and get out and hunt.

 

[cajun]

I usually say you can expect your groups to increase by 50 sometimes 100% from a good bench setup to a field position depending on your field position and how good your bench set up is. So if your sand bagged in on a solid bench versus in the field with your lungs exploding and your heart racing trying to get a shot at that critter before it tops the next ridge etc. so in short moa may not be good enough in some situations but many times not. If your rifle is 1/2 moa to start with it leaves more room for error.

 

[Plinker147]

In short yes its a good enough group to hunt with at 5-600 yards and further if you can hold MOA. Go practice and get confident to hit the bulls-eye at that range in different shooting positions. That will have more to do with your hitting on your hunt than chasing another 1/4 MOA on the bench. After seasons you can tweak and reload if you want to get it better

 

[emp1953]

In my Sig 940SHR in 270win I had a 200yd zero with 51.2gr 4350 and 150gr Nosler Accubonds. Last year I had a biiiiig buck step out in a bean field 605 yds away according to my Leopold range finder. I dialed in info into a ballistics program on my phone and it said that I needed to elevate 48 clicks. Unfortunately my Nikon Monarch bottomed out at 44 clicks. I figured that last 4 clicks equated to about 6 inches at 600 yds. Every indicator I had between me and the deer was that the wind was dead calm. Through my binoculars I could make out dragon flies buzzing around where the deer was and they were not fighting any breeze. So I put the horizontal crosshair right on the top of the deer's back and let er fly. Recoil had the scope cutting my eyebrow and I didn't see the deer go down. Walked to near where I thought it was and ranged the deer stand til I was at 605 yds and quickly found a heavy antlered 9 point that went 225lbs. Got back to the lodge. dialed the scope back down those 44 clicks and found the zero was back to dead on at 200yds. Good optics that you know and trust are every bit as important as the rifle. And of course a deer that hangs around long enough for you to figure all this stuff out. By the way the shot hit 8 inches below the line of the back and 1 inch right of point of aim. He had been taking a step forward or else I would have hit a shoulder/leg bone.

 

[Joefrazell]

Show us some of your 100 yard groups if you have any on hand. Any factory ammo holding moa at 500 is pretty dang good. Also, unless conditions are perfect you can easily have quite a bit of variance in group size just because of the conditions. Moa is just fine for a hunting gun at these ranges. Once you fine tune a hand load you'll probably shrink those down a decent amount and potentially give you a little more effective range but that's when the conditions will drastically change your first round impacts. Out to 500 isn't too bad but between 500-1000+ takes alot of time and money spent in bullets, powders and barrels to get good enough for first round hits and clean kills.

 

[LeddSlinger]

Perfectly fine groups if 500 yards is your max distance.

I started doing all my load testing at 500 yards. 100 yard groups dont tell you anything. I've had one hole groups in the .2's at 100 turn to absolute junk at 500. Then decent 1/2" groups at 100 that are hovering around 1.5" at 500

 

[villagelightsmith]

My personal best is 0.085" at 100, 5 shots. But my hunting gun is far from capable of that. If everything is "right" (which it never is) and I have the time to settle in, 200 is about my limit, and I like them closer. A lot closer. I've passed up a lot of shots closer than that. Now if he was a sage rat, he would be flying for sure!

 

[Ernie]

I've finally been playing with my new 7mm rem mag build. It's on a whitworth interarms action that I killed my first buck with. At first I wanted to change everything but decided on just a barrel, bedded, & trigger work. I went with a 26" finished #3 bartlein 5r 1-9 twist barrel. This thing loves 168 Berger's. I've yet to load for it because it shoots the hsm 168 Berger vld & the federal 168 Berger hybrid so well. Yesterday was my first ever attempt @ 500 yards. I ended up with just over a 5.5" group @ 500. My question is would that be considered a good group? It's not a bench gun built strictly for whitetail & elk. My phone died before I shot the 500 group but here's two groups @ 300 with the federal being the best group. View attachment 152356View attachment 152357

The gun is capable, so the real question that I would have is, how good are you on cold bore shots from various hunting positions when under pressure? It is the same question I would ask anyone. Also, what conditions would I be able to keep it in the vitals on the first shot when shooting from hunting positions?
Good shooting!

 

[Hatrick]

Group are are great test of accuracy for the rifle and yourself. On a hunting rifle I tend to pay more attention to the first shot.

 

[Don A Parsons]

I normally see .5 MOA out of my rifles off the bench,,, on the good days...

Then 1 1/2" MOA or 2 minutes of Moose going free hand... Ha

We shoot the FTR up in our area,,, then go out to the crown lands to shoot features like clay banks,,, boulders,,, rock slabs,,, tree roots at 1000,,, 1300,,, on up to 1700 meters... The fun gun stuff while loaded hot...

After hunting season we will continue the long range stuff and predator control,,, its a great way to spend the off season along with ice fishing and archery on the frozen lakes...

Cheers from the North

 

[mtank]

The gun is capable, so the real question that I would have is, how good are you on cold bore shots from various hunting positions when under pressure? It is the same question I would ask anyone. Also, what conditions would I be able to keep it in the vitals on the first shot when shooting from hunting positions?
Good shooting!

Over the years of hunting whitetail I've shot from most positions. 3 of the last 5 were shot standing up & off the shoulder with the closest being 75 yards. Obviously in a real world hunting situation I'd prefer to be under 300 yards. 8 years ago the camp cook killed a 5x5 elk 40 yards from the kitchen tent while everyone else was deep in the timber. I don't think I'll ever get that shot. All I want is to have one in the crosshairs & make a one shot kill shot.

 

[Aussie Hunter Steve]

It's likely your rifle hasn't reached its full accuracy potential yet at 35 rounds.
I find a consistent rear bag a great aid for long range groups.