LRKM to almost 3K

[JARHEAD1371]

Very nice! That's one of the biggest things I miss about living out west. Out here I can't find a place to shoot over 200 yds, or even hunt.

 

[Broz]

Thanks guys for all the kind words. I promise to get some video soon. I could film it, but then don't know what to do with it. My son is going to help with that so in time we will have something.

Jeff

 

[Fiftydriver]

Stretched my LRKM is 338 Terminator +P out a little today. Condition were less than ideal with a gusting 7:00 wind from 8 to 12 MPH. and pretty bad mirage. But I managed to get 3 out of 4 into a hair over 1 moa at 2971 yards. Took 119 moa. Impact velocity was sub-sonic at 1025 fps, impact energy was 700 lbs, and flight time was 5.217 seconds. It was an "on time departure"

Pretty happy really. first round was exactly 1 moa low, dialed up and it responded accordingly. It is tough to spot hits at that distance, especially if you are counting "one thousand one, one thousand two........." But believe it or not I could see chunks falling off the face of the cliff.

Jeff

Very impressive for sure. What optical set up are you using, scope, rings, and moa in the rail. Reason I ask is because we are having to do some unique tricks to be able to shoot to these ranges with the NF 5.5-22x 50mm scopes because of the vertical adjustment needed and that's using a 40 MOA rail. As you well know, 3200 yards requires a BIT of dial up...... I am going to be getting a set of Ivey rings to solve this problem. I have used these on two different rifles and while I DO NOT believe they are consistant enough to be used as the primary adjustment system for long range shooting, they certainly are solid enough to give the rifle system an extra 100-150 moa of adjustment and then lock them down in place and then use the scopes internal adjustment to cover from 2500 yards and well beyond, well past 3200 yards. Got the Terrapin and love that RF. Next up the Ivey rings and then dramatically upgraded spotter. Hard to think about paying $550 for a set of rings but they sure make it easy to shoot at extreme range.

We have been playing at 3200 yards, not ready to report any results yet. The biggest problem we are having is spotting impacts as you say. I totally agree, it can be a serious pain in the rear to see impacts at these ranges.

We are shooting on relatively bare hill sides but the bullets are landing in dirt so it can be nearly impossible to spot impacts so in the process of really upgrading spotting equipment. Do not have any large rock faces to shoot at in my area, I can see where that would REALLY help.

Anyway, fine shooting as usual!!!

 

[Broz]

Kirby, The LRKM has some options for custom rails Shawn builds. Mine has the 65 moa option. The scope is the NF ATACR and I am sure what Shawn had in mind with this rail, they are a perfect match. These scopes are running close to 130 moa so the 65 is perfect and allows me to zero at 100 if I want. But I am zeroed at 200. The rings are the new NF 34mm 6 screw. This scope is great, I have been spotting my own hits at 2500 plus in most cases. It is unbelievable how much the extra 3x brings to the table over the NXS 22X.

I think I have about 126 moa of dialable elevation. That should get me close to 3K for a center reticule hold.

Jeff

 

[BrentM]

Awesome. Would love to be there and watch all that happen.

I can't get anyone to spot my hits lately at 1500 with my 6.5. The little bullet is not hitting hard enough on the targets I have choosen to shoot. On video I am able to see it sometimes but I have wasted a lot of ammo trying to get proficient and learn that distance. Hard to image 1300 is pretty easy to spot but then 200 yards further, nothing. Doubling that would be tough. NICE WORK.

 

[Broz]

I will offer a little trick I have used before. If you can drive to your target, stop and buy a bag of AG lime. It is a powder and pretty cheap. Spread it out around the target. Gives a nice white puff for your misses. A small rock painted black in the center works well for an aim point and will show hits to view later.

Warning, you will walk away with white boots after spreading it. Might want to take a rake too.

Jeff

 

[BrentM]

Thanks for that tip. Sounds like a great spotter training tool as well. Ami struggles with spotting and I am not always able to follow the trace in my Night Force. Perhaps I need to set up the spotting scope differently for her too?

As far as driving to the target area, my issue is that I have been in the back country and usually shooting across draws and access via roads is very limited. I am trying to shoot in normal hunting situations such as, different temps, elevations, wind etc. I am getting my butt kicked for sure. My goal is first round hits at what ever distance I can achieve. Now, knock on wood, I have been doing fine out to 1300 yards and if conditions were OK I would be alright taking that shot. I am hoping to get to 1500 someday, which I beleive the max limit for taking a wolf with this rifle.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Kirby, The LRKM has some options for custom rails Shawn builds. Mine has the 65 moa option. The scope is the NF ATACR and I am sure what Shawn had in mind with this rail, they are a perfect match. These scopes are running close to 130 moa so the 65 is perfect and allows me to zero at 100 if I want. But I am zeroed at 200. The rings are the new NF 34mm 6 screw. This scope is great, I have been spotting my own hits at 2500 plus in most cases. It is unbelievable how much the extra 3x brings to the table over the NXS 22X.

I think I have about 126 moa of dialable elevation. That should get me close to 3K for a center reticule hold.

Jeff

Excellent!!! Now I have to decide if I want to go with a set of Ivey rings or step up to a scope with higher adjustment range. The ATACR seems to be about the best option out there. I like the Vortex Razor as it has even a bit more adjustment range then the ATACR but wish it had a bit more optical power. 20X is a bit lacking at extreme range for spotting shots.

Throwing a set of Ivey rings on with 150 moa of adjustment range along with a 40 moa rail and a scope with 105 moa of vertical adjustment would certainly reach out a fair ways!!

Anyway, thanks for the information on your set up, very helpful to all of us I am sure.

How has the wind been treating you. Hopefully nothing like up here. Since the first day of fall, we have had a grand total of one day that the wind speed was under 18 mph and 5 days that its been over 50 mph sustained winds. Makes it a bit tricky to get any rifles set up with any real degree of confidence.

 

[Yrcan]

This is impressive for sure.
And makes it even harder for me to wait for my new barrel in my 338LM, which now will be 338LM Imp.

If it is ok, I would like to share a video that I did yesterday. I managed to set up my camera, and film when I shot at 2135 yards with my 338LM. Used 300 grs Scenar, and some 300 SMK's, pushed by 96 grs of Viht N570.
Mv is 2929, and ES is on the single digit. The barrel has 4300 rounds through it, and Coal has grown from 3.7 inches to 3.94 inches. Throat is very burnt out, and somehow I now can use 96 grs of 570, instead of 92 grs, which was max in my rifle when it was new.

There was a lot of wind, you can see the trees moving. I shot under 1 moa, and the last 4 shots are SMK, hitting a bit lower than the Scenar.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nelgqVeXmek&feature=c4-overview&list=UUdAUB-Fmhowf4BA3CJr-wJw]338LM at 1953 meters - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Broz]

How has the wind been treating you. Hopefully nothing like up here. Since the first day of fall, we have had a grand total of one day that the wind speed was under 18 mph and 5 days that its been over 50 mph sustained winds. Makes it a bit tricky to get any rifles set up with any real degree of confidence.

It's been ok. I was up and out early this am confirming drops on two rifles. A 6.5x284 and the LRKM. The 6.5 was easy as we only shoot it to 1000. I have the LRKM confirmed to be spot on to 1300 plus and a few cold bore hits at 1500 and 1760. But want to do a bit more confirming on the longer distances. The wind picked up and I came home. Suppose to blow from the west this afternoon with 25 mph gusts but diminish over night and tomorrow. I shot have spot on data to 2K by the weekend. The program id doing very well and getting along with the final velocity of 3210. I picked up an average of 12 fps with fully fire formed and sized brass. I was expecting a drop with temps in the 40's instead of 80's. But not the case. I guess 570 is pretty stable. I am confirming that too with test rounds at different temps letting the rifle cool to ambient temps for 30 minutes. This can all be adjusted in the program, but the less temp sensitive the better in the long run.

Lots of work and time goes into all this if you want cold bore hits at a mile plus.

Jeff

 

[Kiwi Greg]

Excellent!!! Now I have to decide if I want to go with a set of Ivey rings or step up to a scope with higher adjustment range. The ATACR seems to be about the best option out there. I like the Vortex Razor as it has even a bit more adjustment range then the ATACR but wish it had a bit more optical power. 20X is a bit lacking at extreme range for spotting shots.

Throwing a set of Ivey rings on with 150 moa of adjustment range along with a 40 moa rail and a scope with 105 moa of vertical adjustment would certainly reach out a fair ways!!

Anyway, thanks for the information on your set up, very helpful to all of us I am sure.

Kirby I use the ATACR, as Jeff says the difference in glass & the extra 3x top end power over the NSX are noticable.

I use a 20.7moa SPUHR mount & a shimmed 30moa rail which gives me 2.5 moa down & 130 moa up + the reticle, with a 100 yard zero, this will get me out past 3000 with my 375.

 

[Broz]

Yup! Come on Kirby, reach into that hot rod budget and spring for an ATACR. I have set up 3 and all were great. There are more in my future when I recover from all the stuff I been buying. Plus I better leave a little for the taxidermist this year...

Jeff

 

[Fiftydriver]

Yup! Come on Kirby, reach into that hot rod budget and spring for an ATACR. I have set up 3 and all were great. There are more in my future when I recover from all the stuff I been buying. Plus I better leave a little for the taxidermist this year...

Jeff

Ya, I have four heads coming due at my taxidermist as well!!! Can't cross the hotrod fund and gun fund or there is mass chaos!!!

 

[Broz]

As I work to get confirmed hits and dialed in accuracy for cold bore I am learning a few things. This morning I went out to shoot at a vertical faced rock I have a kill zone circle painted on (10 to 12") I got to my shooting location at 1660 yards ready for my cold bore shot. As I got out of the truck the wind was full value and brisk at a 6 to 8 mph favoring 8. I thought to myself that I would not be getting any solid data for cold bore at close to a mile in these conditions. I elected to wait for better conditions. As I started to drive off I thought, what the heck, I am here. I set up solid as I could get, dialed in 6 moa left and 38.25 moa up for the 1660 yards cold bore poke. Now with all the 338 shooting I have done in the past I must tell you that I didn't have a lot of faith with this wind and shooting up and across a canyon. I sent the round and to my surprise I was just on the outer edge of the kill zone circle. wow! I dialed another 1/2 moa for wind and put two in the circle and one high on the top edge.

What I am learning here is this. A big high BC bullet is your friend if you can push it to good levels of velocity. This rifle and it's velocity has made me much more successful for cold bore hits. I use to favor rifles that were a little slower and had more barrel life. I can always just dial a bit more, right? But witnessing what the velocity is doing for me has changed that mind set. Higher velocity rifles are much easier to shoot and will give you a smile more often. I don't think shooting slower rifles hurt my skill set a bit, in fact it made me be very careful with my wind calls. But now if I am a MPH or so off it is much less of an issue. The drifts are simply smaller.

Jeff