Re: Advice for my forst f comp
Ok, because it's not a factory load, forget option 1. Running the 178 A-Max through JBM with 1000 ft altitude, 60 degrees, 70% humidity, and 2" optic height, the estimate for your MV appears to be somewhere around 2760-2770 fps to give a drop at 300 yd of 4.0 MOA. You can play around with the numbers and see what you come up with. That MV with 178 AMax's would give you a drop at 600 yd of around 13.8-13.9 MOA.
Obviously, the shorter the distance, the smaller the drop you use for this type of reverse MV estimation (4.0 MOA @ 300 yd in your case). As such, short range data is inherently less accurate and will give a less reliable estimate of MV. However, even if the predicted drop using those MV values is in error by 1.0-2.0 MOA, that would only be between 6" to 12" off at 600 yd. Without taking windage into consideration, that should still easily put you in the black and you can use your sighters to get dialed further in from there. If your sighters are off the paper, it's that much more difficult to dial in for score. Anyhow, hope that helps and good luck in the competition.