A big thank you to the members on the forum

[Love Life]

I was loading some .243 ammo today for 1,000 yd shooting, and paused to ask myself "How did I get here?".

How did I get here? I still have a couple targets on the wall of 4 inch groups I shot at 200 yds. I was very proud (still kind of am) of those groups. That was really the farthest I ever shot. Then one day I was posting about how I get really ridiculous about my reloading and somebody asked me "Are you sorting bullets with a comparator?", and I had to say "No". That one question really kind of started it all.

I had to research what a bullet comparator was and why it was important. Then that led down the rabbit hole of measuring shoulder bump, neck turning, blah, blah, and more blah.

Things might have died there, but then DK17HMR had to go about posting about ridiculously long shots. I thought to myself "Hey!! I wanna make long shots!!", and the race was on.

So, I started with a FN SPR chambered in 308 Winchester (Sorry DK17HMR, I know it should have been a 300 WSM), a $60 tasco varmint scope, a box of 175 gr SMK, some LC LR brass, and a big ol' jug of BLC-2 powder. I loaded some ammo, went to the range, and blasted out some 1/2 inch groups. I was amazed!!! WHO KNEW!! From there I practiced. I really never put much more thought into comparating and stuff. I just loaded and shot...farther and farther each trip.

As I pushed out farther and farther I ran into some monsters. Mirage and wind. Evil things they are. I watched the wind and just complained about the mirage until...that cat with the bomb mentioned something in code about reading mirage. Thanks to Felix, I started studying mirage. I watched my wind flags and the mirage to see how the correlate. Interesting stuff there. Thanks to that little one sentence posted by Felix, my shooting got much better. I was able to account for a lot guys that used to be out of the group.

However; I still had not started using a comparator. The more I read here, the more I realized it was important. So I started sorting by base to ogive using a bullet comparator. My groups shrunk even more (well, significantly less fliers). Good stuff.

After about a year of trigger time, I decided it was time to have the gun built to what I wanted. So a call into Tim (Goodsteel) was in order. The caliber I wanted was the .243 Winchester. I ran the numbers by Tim and he agreed that it made sense. So a reamer and a barrel were ordered and all sent to Tim's house. A couple of months later the Fat Lady came home in .243 Winchester!!! With trepidation I loaded my 1st test rds and hit the range. I was not disappointed.

From there it was all just walking out farther and farther with distance. In 2 years I went from shooting 100 yds only, to shooting out to 1,000 yds on a regular basis. I could not have done it all by myself.

There are too many members who helped me on my path, and I wanted to thank you all.


A goal was set and achieved.

Thank you!!

[BNE]

That's just cool. I'm a bit jealous.

[starmac]

Me thinks it would be nice to be able to see a target at 1000 yards, much less hit it. lol

[DougGuy]

Me thinks it would be nice to be able to see a target at 1000 yards, much less hit it. lol

Exactly! Good story Love Life. My shooting has come 180 degrees around since I joined here too. This is a place where the sharing and information tossed about can expand your knowledge of shooting and everything that goes with it 4x, while shrinking your groups 1/4 of what they were, all at the same time. Not a bad ratio at all.. And if you want to know how to cook, butcher, or preserve whatever it is you killed, just ask. I can say thank yous to a lot of members here too!

[pretzelxx]

First, fantastic read! Second I'm very jealous. I wish I hast he skill, time, and patience to get shooting that far! Not even sure there's room in the area for a thousand yard shot!

[Love Life]

Lots of sunburn and windburn. Lots of freezing days laying there in the prone. Lots of FUN!!!!

Pushing the barriers was the most important part. 1st was moving past 200 yds. Then wind and mirage. Then fatigue. Then all those weird things like spin drift, BC, 200+ inches of drop, etc.

One thing I find funny is that much of what goes into loading cast boolits directly translates to loading jacketed, but not vise versa.

[RED333]

Very good read, So ya got the groups down to one ragged hole yet at 1000 yards?
I am stuck at 100 yards(back yard range) and still cant get the one ragged hole.

[Love Life]

I still can't get one ragged hole. Some of my best groups might keep me off the wailing wall at a benchrest competition, but those guys are incredibly skilled hand loaders and shooters.

[Bullshop]

Awesome! I like that game too. Something that helped me was getting the Sierra Infinity program. It eliminates the guess work in trajectory and wind drift and gets you on target QUICK.
I recently sold a couple project guns to finance a new scope for a rifle similar to yours. The rifle is on a Savage action with a Packnor 28" barrel in heavy sporter contour with a 1/7" twist chambered in 6mm 284. The scope received this week is a 10X SWFA with the new MIL Quad ret and .1 mil clicks. This gun shoots 107gn VLDs really really good. Hope to get out real soon for some serious long rang with the new scope.
If your ever in south west MT come on over and lets go shooting.

[Love Life]

You will love your SWFA. I wish I had gone that route when I started, but I wasn't sure I would like it (long range shooting). You will really enjoy the matched reticle and turret of your new scope. Makes adjustments mucho easier and faster.

Here is the program I use for getting rough drop: http://www.shooterscalculator.com/

That will get me on target. Then I shoot the distances to verify actual drop. Once I have that I duct tape a card to the stock.

I'd love to come shoot with you and thank you for the invite. If you find yourself near the Reno/Carson City area I can take you out shooting and dog hunting. Ooooh and ground squirrels and jacks!!

[MaryB]

I consider myself lucky to get 2 inch groups at 300 yards with my Savage Axis 223... looking at longer range rifles but want something with knockdown in case I ever get a trip to AK

[reloader28]

Love Life, you and my brother would get along great. He built a 243 for long range too. Hes using A-max with excellent results.
1000yds is a piece of cake. Wait til you start shooting long range. Theeeen it gets tricky.:kidding:

He actually shot a decent group with it a couple weeks ago at 1850yds. Now he wants to build a 338 for some seriously long range.
Come on out. We have our own shooting range and can go to 3000yds with no problem.

[Bullshop]

1850 !!! WOW!!! That's over a mile! What kind of groups?

[reloader28]

I dont remember for sure, but I think it was around 12". I dont have any pics.
That dont sound impressive, but like you said, thats a LOOOONG ways.
I dont know anyone else that can do that, but thats what he likes to do.

He's aiming for 3000yds when he gets his new gun built.

Love Life, if you ever get up this direction in the summer, we can put you on picket pins at whatever range you want to try. They are not a big target. We just usually use 22's at 200 yds or so, but its alotta fun.

[375RUGER]

12" is way less than MOA at that range. It is impressive.

[OBIII]

I am sure that I have never posted anything that would have been of use to you, but I just want to say that I appreciate your appreciation of all of those whose post's have been useful/thought provoking. I have accumulated an awesome amount of knowledge from the members on this site, and while I may not agree with the way you see things sometimes, I will be forever grateful for what I have gleaned in my short time here.
Again, thank you for posting this. It speaks to your character.

OB

[Love Life]

Love Life, you and my brother would get along great. He built a 243 for long range too. Hes using A-max with excellent results.
1000yds is a piece of cake. Wait til you start shooting long range. Theeeen it gets tricky.:kidding:

He actually shot a decent group with it a couple weeks ago at 1850yds. Now he wants to build a 338 for some seriously long range.
Come on out. We have our own shooting range and can go to 3000yds with no problem.

The farthest I have pushed it is 1175-ish because I drove a little to far...

Boom.............ping.

[Bullshop]

At over a mile your grouping the size of the out house hole. I would do well to just hit the out house.

Yesterday I was doing some tilling and while taking a short break watched a plastic shopping sack get picked up by a whirl wind and pulled up by a thermal from the heating ground. I watched this thing continue to rise higher and higher until it finally went out of sight in the clouds. The local high spot here is Lima peaks at about 12,000 feet elevation. The clouds were way higher than the peaks so that sack went up to God knows how high when I could no longer see it.
This got me to thinking!?! What effect does such a thermal have on a bullet? You cant detect it visually and so at long range could be shooting right through one. Maybe the unexplained high hit? I guess this is where the VLD's really become important because they will minimize the effect.
I once read an account where some fellas from Idaho had a tower set up on the Snake river that they shot elk from shooting long range across the river. On this occasion they couldn't hit squat and couldn't even spot their hits to calculate corrections. They decided to fire a tracer across the canyon and it showed a major down draft or wind shear or call it what you will was pulling their shots at a steep angle down into the canyon. ARG!!!!
Another time I was shooting at the Quiggley match in Forsythe MT. On my turn at the 800 yard buffalo we had a storm blowing in and the wind was horrendous. It was blowing over spotting scopes and tents were tumbling by. I was shooting a 500gn spitzer boolit design in 45/70 starting at 1450 fps. Another fella was shooting a 38/55 with 1/12" twist with a 350gn I will call a semi round nose. We were the only two from our squad that were able to hit the buffalo. All others in the squad shooting lower BC boolits were missing high or low. It was amazing to watch! It was like there was a force field around that steel buffalo that pushed lesser BCs up and over or down and low. These were not near misses but were not even in the ball park and had us all scratching our heads. The wind coming across the prairie and hitting the hill the targets were on must have been rolling across in front of the targets pushing the low shots extremely low and the high shots extremely high. For what ever reason mine and the one other fellas shots with higher BC boolits seemed to penetrate that rolling wind and kept us in the game.
Its all so very interesting to see just what effect these unseen wind anomalies have on our best calculated long range efforts.

[MaryB]

Range challenge today for me was a massive grass fire right across the road. Fire department said I could go in but might have to evacuate down the bluff and across the river because the road would be blocked. I passed... smoke was so thick even the 20 yard pistol targets would have been tough

[Love Life]

SHeeooooot. With the winds we have had recently, even the Berger 105 Hybrids have been iffy...at 100 yds. Thank the lord for wind flags and patience. Two choices: Wait on conditions and spend almost 20 minutes per 7 rd group, or run the conditions and cook the barrel.

Also, it has been discovered that Ramshot Magnum in a 21 inch barrel is no bueno. It's fin until it gets dirty. Retumbo still works well, but H4831SC has snuck in to take the lead with the 21 inch barrel. Sure do miss my 26 inch barrel...

[dk17hmr]

Come on out buddy...this is from my longest shot 2163 yards.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/IMG_20121123_154321.jpg (http://s48.photobucket.com/user/dk17hmr/media/IMG_20121123_154321.jpg.html)

We shoot 1 mile a lot.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/IMG_20130628_085554_zps7689255c.jpg (http://s48.photobucket.com/user/dk17hmr/media/IMG_20130628_085554_zps7689255c.jpg.html)

My dad at 1 mile for the first time. With my 300wsm
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/IMG_20130628_082035_zps258c7d14.jpg (http://s48.photobucket.com/user/dk17hmr/media/IMG_20130628_082035_zps258c7d14.jpg.html)

I actually just broke the firing pin on my rifle so the bolt is heading back for a new one. We are looking at a 338 edge right now to get more distance, my 300wsm is starting to run out of speed by the time it gets out to 2200, the edge would get us to 3000 yards I bet. My shooting range goes out to about 2500 yards but there are places here to shoot 2 miles pretty easy.