Going for 1000yds Tonight

[lerch]

Well tonight will be the first real attempt at a 1000yd prairie dog kill, my previous best was 710yds. Me and Bill Bailey are going out to dog town tonight after work and hopefully we will drop some lead on a dogs head a little over a half mile away. We are going to try the exbal program in a palm pilot and Bill seems to think it will really work good. Most of our shots will be with his 243 win using the 105 a-max but I am also going to try my 22-250 with the 55gr ballistic tips. Hope to be posting some pics tonight or tommorrow of me and Bill joining the 1k club in VHA.

Steve

 

[Fiftydriver]

Lerch,

Give 'em hell and good luck. Remember that get getting close to a P. dog at that range is an accomplishment so if you don;t get a hit right away, this is normal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif! Just keep at it. I always say you learn as much with a near miss as you do with a hit so just see what happens and have a good time.

Let us know how things perform even if there are no hits tonight!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[goodgrouper]

Good luck and may the varmint and wind gods be with you!

 

[Skinny Shooter]

Lerch, good luck.
Got my first 3 rounds off on a groundhog at about 1K a month ago and was 30 feet off. LOL
After the 1st shot, the groundhog just sat there looking around and then started to move. My next shot hit closer while it was moving and was holding off on elevation and windage using my mildots. On the 3rd shot it's really moving across the field and lobbed one in for fun. Never got much closer than 20 feet in back and below it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Couldn't get the lead worked out right. Figured if I hit a mover at that distance I'd have something to brag about. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Lerch,
Give 'em hell and good luck. Remember that get getting close to a P. dog at that range is an accomplishment so if you don;t get a hit right away, this is normal /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif! Just keep at it. I always say you learn as much with a near miss as you do with a hit so just see what happens and have a good time.
Kirby Allen(50)

[/ QUOTE ]

Does that count for 600 and 700 yard groundhogs too? I'm missing by an inch or so at times with the 308 and it gets a bit frustrating...
My longest is still at 522yards.
Allen

 

[Fiftydriver]

Allen,

Its all relative my friend. If someone is using a full custom heavy rifle and they have a decent level of skill, a miss at 500 to 600 yards would be unacceptible if by much more then the hair on the chuck.

Now if your shooting a factory rifle, 500 yards is a hell of long shot so you really need to relate the difficulty of the shot to the person and equipment used. Thats why its important to only compete to make yourself a better shot, not to try to match someone else because there will always be someone out there that will make you look like a fool.

Push yourself and your equipment and it will suprise you how fast you either outgrow the gear you have now or get much better at longer ranges.

I think we should bay alot more attention to our misses then hits. Hell on a hit, everything went correctly, just remember to do the same things and keep going but with misses, its important to understand why we missed. Not to make excusses for missing but knowing what caused the incorrect flight path makes correcting it easier down the road.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[bailey1474]

[ QUOTE ]
Now if your shooting a factory rifle, 500 yards is a hell of long shot so you really need to relate the difficulty of the shot to the person and equipment used.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess we'll be doing pretty good if we manage to kill one tonight. We're shooting a stock Savage 12BVSS .243 win.

I haven't shot it much at these extreme distances, but 400-500 yd shots have become very routine. I would say I probably have a 75% hit rate on pds @ these ranges. It'll probably be 0% @ 1000 and beyond!!!

 

[7Rumloader]

Look on the bright side bill! At least you will be out shooting and having a good time!
Good luck to you guys and I hope to see some pics of splattered 1K prarrie poodles on your next post! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Fiftydriver]

Bill Bailey,

Let us know how things go, hits or misses its all good at that range. Have a good one!!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[lerch]

Well this morning the sun rose on a new man, a man who had broken the 1k mark. We got out to dog town about 6:30 and immediatly found out we couldn't range anything.
This is a problem we have been having with the Leica 1200 scan lately, when it is a bright sunny day the thing just doesn't wanna work past 700yds. Well we ranged various objects and got an idea of where we needed to be to ensure we were shooting past 1k.

We set up our portable bench and I laid out in the bed of the truck to spot for Bill (I call him BJ). He cracked off the first round at what we figured was 1150 and was about 8" high and left of a dog, not bad for a cold barrel shot at a fairly unknown range.

He loosed a few more rounds and managed to shower dirt on at least one on his first five shot string. I decided to shoot my 22-250 and see what it could do, it did very little. I was shooting at around 1150-1200 and shots were only getting within about 12 feet on my good shots.

I quickly switched to BJ's 243 win and began launching shoots. Our method was to simply guess the range as best we could and plug this into the exbal program and then walk our shoots onto the dogs. Within a few shoots i sent one 105 a-max to within a few inches of a prairie poodles head.

After switching back and forth once more me and BJ still didn't have any dead dogs and we took a little break to gather ourselves.

The evening was already a success beacuse fo the several close shots and the realization of exactly how hard it was to hit a pdog past 1k. After a little while BJ got back on the bench and we started shooting at a different location where the dogs were less skitish.

The sun was setting and the Leica decided to join the party and do its job and we got some ranges on a large dead tree surronded by dogs, 1060.

Bj started the attack and within 2 shots had pdogs wondering why dirt was flying on them. We usually only shoot 5 shots each and then wait but BJ was so close I kept telling him to shot more. Out of probably 8 shots bj missed 5 by 3 inches or less.

He decided to give me a run at them and I used his same elevation adjustment. i had two dogs on a mound near the dead tree and one was looking in my direction so I let him know I was there. The bullet landed just to his side and he waddled down his mound a little farther. My second shot land just below him and kicked dirt in his hair.

I adjusted up two clicks and left the windage the same. I centered the target dot on his chest and touched the 10oz accutrigger. The dog simply waddled farther down his mound.

As I reloaded BJ said the pdog was acting funny and just as I got the scope back on him I saw feet flopping around in the grass, he was hit. Bj yelled for me to put another round in him to keep him from going in a mound but I wasnt sure where that shot landed.

I gave BJ back the gun and he scanned for a dog in the same area to shoot but none were around. We grabbed the camera and rangefinder and began walking down to the area.

When we got to the tree we saw bullet marks all in the mounds and grass and I **** near stepped on my dog. The 105 a-max had slipped in just under his back and the second round landed about 3-4 inches to his left.

After some hollaring and dancing and me screaming like a giddy schoolgirl we headed back to the truck. We ranged from the dead dog to the truck and got 1048, 1049, 1050 with 1049 coming up a few times.

We didn't take any pics at the site of the kill and I am sorry for that, but we did take some at the truck when we got back. This was done with a stock savage 12bvss and a Leu Vari X III 4.5-14x50mm with a target dot. Here are some pics and sorry if my literary skills aren't as good as FiftyDriver's but at least i'm trying. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Thanks
Steve

This is the pick I am gonna send to VHA for my 1k membership.

This is our setup.

This is the pdog down.

If I can find some more pics I will post them asap. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[bailey1474]

[ QUOTE ]
It'll probably be 0% @ 1000 and beyond!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Lerch proved me wrong!!! Let's see, 1/49=2.04%!!

All in all it was a great day. Many near hits despite a 10 mph wind in the early going. Infact, I think I would have had one of the little suckers if he had not moved in the 1.3 seconds it takes the bullet to get there.

I think if we set up in the same place everytime the ranging problem will work itself out. We'll learn the distances to certain landmarks.

My congrats to Lerch. Although I don't think he could have done it without such a finely tuned firearm and such precisely loaded ammo!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Kirby,

Those AMs better improve our hit %!!! I'm thinking something like 50%. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Have a good day guys.
B.J.

 

[Buffalobob]

Congratulations to you both. The story was good.

 

[ss7mm]

Bill Bailey:

Sounds like you guys had a great evening of shooting. Great reading also. Congratulations to Steve on his PD kill at 1049 yards also. Pretty good shooting by both of you with a stock setup at 1K+.

If you read one of Kirby's previous posts he has a rating of MORC at 1K (minute of rock chuck).

Sounds like you guys need him to also get a MOPD at 1K (minute of prairie dog) rating going also.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Steve,

Oh yes, those are the first symptoms of the disease, big smiles, holding up pieces of cardboard for the camera, holding bloody little rodents!!!

Its started my friend. From the sounds of it BJ was right there all night as well so its just a matter of time before hes nailed one as well.

Congrats, great story and nice pics!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[Fiftydriver]

BJ,

If I promise to build you a rifle that will score 50% on p dogs at 1000 yards, you have to promise me you will do nothing else but be my full time advertising system /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif!!

Sorry my friend, 1000 yards yards as you well know is a long poke with any rifle. I will get you a system to greatly improve your hiot percentages but I can not say you will be a 50% hitter at 1K with my rifles.

I will say that when you misjudge the wind or range a bit, you will miss by much less with the 270 Allen Mag then most rounds!!

Congrats to you as well, its just a matter of time the way you were dusting those critters.

Kirby Allen(50)