Range Report First time to 1000

[Hoodlum]

Well, I finally gave it a try... Woke up this morning to a sunny day with calm winds, and enough previous dry days to allow the field to dry enough to ride the Polaris back and forth to the target..... Shooting a savage 10 fcp 308. 180gr smk's with 43.5gr varget and lake city brass... By the time I got there and set up, the calm had turned into a non consistent 6-10mph wind blowing straight across the range.... It was also different from one end to the other as well... Several times, it felt calm where I was at, but could see the trees blowing at the other end....
So, to make a long story short, I carried 20 rnds, and got 1 hit on shot 18.... 2" high and 4" right of center.... I know, not very impressive, but I didn't have a spotter, and the ground was damp so the only way of knowing where I was hitting was to ride down, look for ground impacts, and try to adjust accordingly.... I ended up holding a 3 mill windage adjustment for the shot that hit...
Something that threw me off though, I have the shooter app on my phone, and have used it to determine velocities by shooting out to 500yds and adjusting until it matched the adjustments on my scope.... The velocities worked out to be around 2750fps, which called for 10.3 mills of elevation, but it took 11 mills to get on target... Going to have to do a bit more testing on that one...
I am looking forward to the chance to try it again... Next time I will try to get a spotter beside me, and hope for better results....
Hoodlum

 

[dmike]

Sounds like fun! I'm guessing you didn't chrono, I don't have figures for your load but I would have thought it might be closer to 2500-2550 for 43.5/180?

 

[Hoodlum]

I adjusted the program per temps, elevation, etc. and it came to 2625fps..... I was basing the adjustments off of 1 hit, but I did find impacts in the dirt/mud shy of the target so I know the 10.3 mills was falling short....

 

[lash]

As you just verified, it helps tremendously to know your muzzle velocity when using ballistic apps like Shooter etal.

Another thing that I found when shooting longer ranges is that using the G7 BC can get you closer more consistently. This is based only on mine and my friend's experiences with similar rifles, with him using Shooter and me using Ballistic. Once we changed to using G7 BCs our dope is almost always dead on. At least to the 1200 yds we've shot to so far.

Oh yes, and congrats on your first time out there! I know that each time I get to a new distance, I find it to be a thrill and a new challenge. Next, you'll be wanting to get consistent hits and then you'll be working on first time hits and accuracy. It never really ends.

 

[idahoorion]

Great fun for sure, I have not tried it with the loopy 308. I need flatter shooting and dust signatures for me! good on ya for smacking it!
Idahoorion

oh yeah, congrats on breaking that cherry!

 

[Hoodlum]

I need to study up on G1 and G7... Just for grins, I changed my BC on the shooter app to G7 and the mill adjustment for 1000 went from 10.3 mills to 7.9 mills without changing anything else... Not following how that's supposed to work....
Hoodlum

 

[damoncali]

If you change the drag function, you also have to change the BC- they're a pair. Using a G1 BC with a G7 drag function will give you nonsense results.