Necessary precision to kill something

[Marky_mark]

That's the other element that goes hand-in-glove with a long hunting shot: Necessary Confidence.

Don't lose it.

Exactly! Confidence in your equpiment is something that cant be overlooked

 

[fordy]

Gday Alex

We dont shoot aggs with hunting rifles and all those shots are not necessary. They bring in too much noise. If the rifle is a quality one, and you can tune, and shoot, then you will know its accuracy potential with very few rounds. You just dont have to fire 30 rounds to know how a load performs. I argued this with the Hornady pod cast too.

Would it be possible to outline a general rule of thumb on the procedure/process you use to work up a hunting load

& if possible a couple different ranges
Say 300,600 or does range not make a difference

on the last one above using a 10 in vital size zone do you consider a difference of accuracy on those say ranges for hunting
Eg do you consider a bug hole group ( let's say under 1/2 Moa for the guys like me who can't obtain that regardless of rifle yes rifle capable its me that's not ) is needed for both or happy with a Moa or sub Moa rifle capability ( let's say a 1 to .6 moa genuine rifle )

Hope it makes sense what I'm asking above

cheers

 

[Hand Skills]

Hey Fordy,

I cant speak for Alex, but give this thread a gander - it's jam packed!!!

Tuning for long range

I figured I'd take some time to share how I go about tuning a new rifle intended for long range hunting. I'll say up front I have tried every method out there and have settled on this one for a few reasons. First, it works. It has always provided me with loads that perform. Its fast and...

www.longrangehunting.com

I'm sure some things have changed since it was written in 2017, and I'll bet a lot hasn't.

I was just getting into long range at the time and I learned a LOT from that one. I am very grateful to Alex for what he shared here

Happy shooting!

 

[fordy]

Gday handskills

Hey Fordy,

I cant speak for Alex, but give this thread a gander - it's jam packed!!!

Tuning for long range

I figured I'd take some time to share how I go about tuning a new rifle intended for long range hunting. I'll say up front I have tried every method out there and have settled on this one for a few reasons. First, it works. It has always provided me with loads that perform. Its fast and...

www.longrangehunting.com

I'm sure some things have changed since it was written in 2017, and I'll bet a lot hasn't.

I was just getting into long range at the time and I learned a LOT from that one. I am very grateful to Alex for what he shared here

Happy shooting!

Thanks for that
One page in rest will have to wait for a little bit of a bedtime story tonight as work needs to be done & my coffee break is over
Thanks again
Cheers

 

[mntnflyr4fun]

100%.

People should go shoot in actual mountains at distance on vital-sized targets and realize chasing small groups and shooting a flat range or on a bench is not your best use of practice time. Most folks cannot call wind within 4 mph at their position, let alone at the target and in between. Especially in mountainous terrain.

Wind, updrafts, downdrafts, shooting position, brush/obstacles, slopes, rifle zero, heart rate, etc are legitimate hunting variables that nobody accounts for in stale shooting practice.

Then add a timer to up the pressure and folks really fall apart.

Exactly, in fact my path is not to try and dial down to the tightest group as sometimes I am shooting 600yds+ hanging off the side of a tree, or crowded onto a steep hillside stump etc. and my belief is that when the "real world" comes into play its not so sure that a range grop of 1 to 1.25" might not be the bad thing causing you to miss, it might be the good thing that gets you onto game. I have been hunting in the mountains for over 50 years, lots of big canyons, lots of elk in the freezer, so I dunno just old school I guess

 

[R. Cram]

I just prepare so I have a good rest if I'm going to take a long shot on an animal. It has not at all been my experience that practicing with a rest is useless. With a little forethought most of my hunting shots have been off a backpack with some kind of rear support. If we are talking longer range, unsupported shooting at game is something very few people should be doing. Heck there are already all the other variables like wind etc discussed on this thread.

I would agree with you and if you can get a rear bag and front support each time you shoot at game then practice the same way you are practicing in field position, however if you head for a concrete bench with a rest up front and sand bag in the back unless you are very tough and can carry all that in the field, I don't think that style of shooting teaches you any thing. Also way too often I am unable to shoot prone when hunting due to obstructions when I am that low so then a good sitting position with a sling can be used

 

[Joe-boy]

This is an entertaining thread.

In my point of view the main thing many of us have challenges in understanding is that at longer ranges the error caused by windage by far exceeds the inherent dispersion of the gun and the shooter. Even if you were a 0.0 MOA shooter and had a 0.0 MOA gun we'd be missing the target because estimating wind drift at extended ranges is super challenging and the wind speed and direction may be changing all the time. The same applies to some extent to other causes of dispersion, but the windage is by far the most important on extended ranges.

Very, very rare, if any, can really read the wind reliably and repeatedly to 1 mph or less. And 1 mph estimation error is enough to throw even a high BC bullet off the kill zone of most animals at 1000 yards. The error caused by slightly incorrect wind estimation even when using a high BC bullet is roughly 1 MOA at that range. Which equals to about 2 MOA gun which sounds terrible.

A good shooter with a good rifle and good wind call capabilities may have a relatively high hit probability even at distances above 1000 yards, but I'd say many of us make a big mistake by extrapolating the group size from 100 or 200 yards. The group size is one thing, but the location of the group is another thing. This can be also seen on shorter ranges; making e.g. five shots on three different days, starting from a cold, clean bore, and hitting a one inch dot on each shot is a lot less straight forward than one may think. Shooting a nice group is one thing, but centering the group repeatedly even at 100 yards seems to be surprisingly challenging to many.

 

[Korhil78]

Wind seperates the shooters from the trigger tuggers.

I just tug my trigger when there is very little wind lol. I shoot a lot and in varying conditions which teaches me what my limits are. I also pass this along to my son who also shoots a lot.

If the wind is going above 8-10 mph, I'll get closer.
If it's gusty, I'll get closer.

And by closer, it's 500 yards or closer where I know I can manage the wind call.

I also take my time setting up for my shots at longer range because I know I need to have all my ducks in a row for me to make a longer shot. If the animal walks off by the time I'm ready, so be it. I'll either try to find it again (usually at a closer range) or just try another day. I don't care if it's a 380" bull or a cow elk, they are all given the same patience when I'm setting up.

 

[Huntnful]

This was the setup for a 974 yard shot on a buck, packed pretty far into the back country.

This was the setup for a 154 yard shot on a pig 500 yards from the truck. I take stability seriously haha. I hate missing

 

[Korhil78]

Man..that looks like some fun areas to hunt.

Lol, Kuiu pants, stone glacier jacket, kings camo scope cover.

 

[dogz]

This was the setup for a 974 yard shot on a buck, packed pretty far into the back country.
View attachment 555496


This was the setup for a 154 yard shot on a pig 500 yards from the truck. I take stability seriously haha. I hate missing
View attachment 555497

I could see the bullet hit him, looks like it went in to the right of the diaphram and probably exited the back rear ham. Did you have to take shots after the video? Just askin as I've been around a bit of video if you know what I mean.

Pretty country by the way, no way to go across and come down on him from above?

Now no doubt Miss Piggy got flattened!

 

[Huntnful]

I could see the bullet hit him, looks like it went in to the right of the diaphram and probably exited the back rear ham. Did you have to take shots after the video? Just askin as I've been around a bit of video if you know what I mean.

Pretty country by the way, no way to go across and come down on him from above?

Ehhh not really. Not in steep, thick, burned timber. Very hard to relocate them coming down from the top.

This is the entrance.

This is the exit.

Only one shot.

 

[dogz]

Cool beans, from the vid it appeared that the shot hit a fair bit further back. Good shot my man!

Looks like a big body bugger eh

What state?