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First time at 1300 yds.

jrob300

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Sep 7, 2009
2,492
6
Montana
Went out this morning with a setup (rifle, scope, bullet/load) that is semi-stable, which is a first after a looong period of development.

I'm fairly new to this LR thing unlike a lot of you. My prone needs a lot of work, and I suck at wind. Today wasn't too challenging as the wind was about 5-8 mph, 12 o'clock.

Shooting 208 Amax's out of my 22" 300WM, we set up first at 1100 yds. Using dope acquired from my last trip out with this setup (Oct.), I dialed in my elevation and put the first round on the upper right of the plate. Next round was about 4" away.

IMG_5100mod.jpg


Dialed out .2 mil of elev. and held a little left and the next two rds. hit about 6" vertically from each other on the bottom/left of the plate. I was thrilled. 4 shots/4 hits.

My partner set up to shoot and found that the SF on his scope had broken. Not good. He said the gong looked like a Q-tip under a microscope. I told him that I wouldn't make him watch me shoot all day, but I would like to move out to 1300, since I've never shot that far.

Dialed in elev. from JBM (I just added the difference from 1100 to 1300 as JBM says my 1100 should be 8.3 mil and in reality it's 7.8). First shot hit just right of center at the bottom of the plate. Dialed in another .1 and the next two hit about 8" apart right in the center of the plate.

3 shots/3 hits. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased.

Here's where we shoot:

IMG_5096mod.jpg


The white rectangle near the small tree is a 4'x8' piece of plywood at 500 yds. that we use for load development. We never got a chance to shoot at that today. The red arrow is pointing at the gong. It's starting to get really small.

We have room to move out and when my partner gets his scope back, we'll try for 1500 and then 1 mile. Might have to make a bigger gong. What size do you guys use for these distances?

Thanks for letting me share.

John
 
Re: First time at 1300 yds.

very nice spot, wish I had a spot like that here in AZ that I don't have to drive far. Also, nice shootin'!!
 
Re: First time at 1300 yds.

SWEET spot to shoot!
 
Re: First time at 1300 yds.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement guys.

I'd love to post pictures of 5 shots right next to each other in the center of the plate like I've seen elsewhere. But up until recently, I was excited if I could hit the plate at all at these distances. So, to hit first shot cold bore, then 4 for 4. Then first shot at 1300 with no confirmed field data, then 3 for 3. Well, I felt like I won the Super Bowl and the World Series at the same time. I had to show somebody!

We're not all at the same skill level here, and to those of you who aren't shooting this well, keep at it. It will come, if you put good practice to good theory.

To those who shoot better. Thanks for the advice, wisdom and encouragement to keep practicing and improving.

Looking forward to stretching the legs more on the next trip out. I will not be satisfied til I can hit steel at 1 mile.

John
 
Re: First time at 1300 yds.

There's lots of load data for the 208 in the 300WM thread, but mine is:

76.2g H1000 in Nosler/Federal brass, CCI 250 primers, loaded .010 off the lands (approx. 3.650" COAL)

77.2g H1000 in Winchester brass

These loads give me a fairly consistent 2860fps out of my 10 twist 22" barrel, but that's mostly because I shoot at about 4000" ASL. I could run them faster, but they shoot well at this speed.

I did not "copy" this load from anyone else, I worked it up for this rifle. Your rifle *may* prefer a different load also, but as it turns out this is very close to what a lot of guys end up with.

Keep in mind that the throat in my rifle is fairly generous. You could see fairly high pressures if you tried to run these loads with the bullet seated deeper, so start low and work up slow and watch for pressure signs. Lots of discussion on how to tell you're overpressure on this site too.

John