Re: Lerch and Bill\'s new Toy!!
Sorry to have been away for awhile but somebody's got to get off the computer and go kill things!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Especially those ones that slip you the finger!
At ultra long range, three things become more critical to the game that may not be as important at close range.
First thing is of course, BC. You definetly have that with your gun.
Second is bullet weight and mass. If you can't spot your misses with rocks flying, dust clouds, or grass rips then you won't have a clue where to go. The 250 grain bullet should work ok, but a 300 or 350 would be better.
And the third thing is barrel life. Unfortunately, no matter how good of a marksman you are, YOU WILL be shooting lots of ammo to practice and hunt with. If your going to try for a kill at 3700 yards, you can plan on shooting a bare minimum of 50 shots per practice session just to get a "feel" for your trajectory. By that I mean you will need to just plain "let loose" on some bullets and watch to see what the mirage and wind tell your brain they are going to do to your bullet. That last 500 yards from 1500 to 2000 ups the difficulty of how well mere mortals can "feel" what the conditions are going to do to your bullet. Past that, you really start to loose the ability to accurately "feel" the conditions with high percentage of accuracy UNLESS you practice it routinely. This of course means shooting routinely.
The old saying, "practice makes perfect" was never more true than in ultra long range shooting. Practice, practice, practice. IF it took you 10 rounds to get "used" to the feel of 1k shooting on a particular session, then I would plan on shooting a minimum of 30 shells for 2k under the same conditions and I would assume about 50 shells for 3k! This adds up to lots of shooting.
Kregg Slack didn't just go out and dump a 3125 yard pd dog in his first box of ammo. The video he sent me of his 2 mile gong shoots showed him shooting around 75 shots (I'm guessing because I haven't actually counted all the flags he stuck in the ground where the bullets impacted) just to hit it 3 times. And his gong was the size of an F250 hood or bigger!
Bottom line, as you witnessed by the 1500 yard attempt, it takes lots of ammo to get proficient at ultra range and even more ammo to get a kill on a rodent at that range. Not to knock the 7mm AM mag choice, but it won't be a walk in the park on barrels. Better hit that P-dog sooner rather than later. Of course, barrels are plentiful and your pockets are deep right?
BTW, what ever happened to the 1500 yard quest? Did I miss it in my absence? What, you figured it was too easy so you should double the distance?! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
