What to plan on the one mile shot?

[hightime]

I found a safe place to shoot my 45-110 Ped. Sharps for the mile shot. I think the tall staff I have is good for that. I kind of have a plan , but would like to here what you guys think. On my previous range a 650 yd. shot was all I could get. I have good luck in hitting the gong 2'x 3' at least nine out of ten and I like my loads.
I'm planning on a huge white target, maybe 8' wide and at least 8' tall. I'm not sure how to check my shots. I might dig a safe pit for the spotter and then use a radio. I'm pretty sure my normal spotting scope won't pick out the shot at that distance, it might at the 1/2 mile. Maybe I can drive back and forth after each shot, that will take quite a while. I might even try a few shots at the 1/2 mile first.
I'm thinking this will be a hoot. Advice welcome. I'll be safe.

[waksupi]

If you try spotter in a pit, keep in mind the extreme angle the projectile will be approaching at that range.

[kokomokid]

Maybe I will get to try my 45-2.6 at that someday. I think you may need to look up some of Kenny Wasserbergers old post as he is probably the go to guy at that range. Cheek weld to stock may be a problem? LB

[451 Pete]

Hello Hightime,

I would suggest that you work your way out from your 600 yd. sight setting in 100 yd. increments. In looking at your rifle I am thinking that your sight staff is about 4 inch's long. We shoot one match every year at Camp Atterbury where we start at 1000 yds. and go out to 1200. We have talked about going out further but most of the fellas run out of sights. The 4 in. staff is too short to get much past 1200. You will probably also need a lace on cheek piece to get a reference point when you get that staff up into the higher settings. The target we shoot on for this match is 6 ft. high and 10 ft. wide using the old LR military target as the 6ft. x 6 ft. center of the target. This is the view of the target at 1200 yds.




For 1760 yds. you may need or want something a bit larger for shooting the additional 560 yd. past where that photo was taken from.


Just my thoughts ... Pete

[Tom Myers]

hightime,

Just for kicks I ran some calculations to see what the estimates would be when shooting at 1 mile.

A 530 grain Lyman Postell bullet should launch at around 1450 fps if boosted by 110 grains of Swiss powder.
Using the real world B.C. 0f 0.36 for the Postel bullet, then at 1760 yards the remaining velocity would be in the neighborhood of 624 fps.

The time of flight should be about 6 1/4 seconds.

The apex of the trajectory would be 166 feet at a point 975 yards down range.

The launch angle would be about 5 1/2 degrees so, if you have a 36 inch sight radius, your sight setting would need to be 3.37 inches above your 100 yard zero.

The incoming impact angle calculates out to be 8.7 degrees

Not saying that these values are what will actually happen but it is fun to see how close the prediction will be to the actuality.

[Lead pot]

Tom.

Working from memory, I think the sight setting Kenny had was 3.40 on his sight staff. A 100 yd zero on a Shiloh long range exp. would be around 36. That would make your estimate a little high. But figuring the BC you used might make it close because they used a higher BC bullet.

Kokomo you can forget the cheek weld at that range you shoot that rifle like you would a M-79

[leeggen]

Higtime, just keep us upto date as to this mile long shooting. Sounds fun!
CD

[hightime]

That's cool, thanks guys. 166' ? Really?
I called my 36 year old son and he wants to join in. He's got the same rifle in 45-120. We are wondering if we might use a actual telescope.

[Don McDowell]

Your sight doesn't have enough elevation, and pretty good chance it doesn't have enough windage. Until you prove your loads out at 1000, shooting that extra 700 yds might be quite the exercise in burning powder and throwing lead down range for little to no gain.
At the Wasserburger mile shoot they have a spotters pit inside an old boiler placed about 300 yds short and a bit to the upwind side of the target.

[hightime]

Your sight doesn't have enough elevation. Really Don? I thought the 5'' sight was enough. Is there a taller one?

[rhbrink]

Could put a spacer under the sight base?

RB

[Tom Myers]

Hightime,

Just for fun, and if you care to, could you give is the particulars of your load and sight setup? Powder? Charge Weight? Muzzle Velocity? Sight Radius, Sight setting at 100 yd zero Sight Staff Height (available elevation value) and finally the bullet ( If a custom bullet, then weight, Nose radius, tip type, size - etc.).

Somewhere, I have a piece of software that calculates long range trajectories and takes into consideration the angle of the bullet trajectory and the effect of gravity as it pertains to increasing or decreasing the bullet velocity on the upward and downward legs of the trajectory path. It even takes into consideration the density of the air at the varying altitude of the trajectory. Amazingly precise and accurate, I wrote the program using the algorithms developed for artillery before the advent of computers.

If I can locate the software and plug in the data, perhaps we can learn something.

It would just be an exercise in predicting a long range trajectory and is not just about getting it right the first time. Getting it right means that nothing very useful was learned. Getting it wrong and then determining what went wrong is the real way to learn something.

[Don McDowell]

Your sight doesn't have enough elevation. Really Don? I thought the 5'' sight was enough. Is there a taller one?

Are all 5 inches of that staff usable? I'm thinking probably not. Most reports from the Mile shoot will indicate that a grease groove bullet needs to have something in excess of 386 points of elevation to get to the mile target. That match is shot at about 4600 ft elevation. Rule of thumb they use to determine if a person can shoot the mile is if there's at least 2 inches of adjustment above the shooters 1000 yd zero.
So just for kicks and grins you may want to spend some time testing your loads at 1000 yds, get them to the point the bullet is landing point on making nice round holes in the target with probably no more than 3 moa groups.
Good luck with your trials and tribulations on this long range stuff, it will be interesting to see how your results compare to the other folks that have participated in the Mile Match.

[357Mag]

Hightime -

Howdy !

You might want to augment your ability to see bullt holes in paper @ 1,000yd by use of " Shoot-N'-See " types od products.

I used these placed like an overlapping grid, and didn't have to travel all 1,000yd to the target to be able to make-out the " glowing " bullets holes via use of a high magnification scope.


With regards,
357Mag

[jhalcott]

You CAN make your own "shoot and see " targets. Paint the surface of the backer with "day glo" paint. Cover this with a thin plastic sheet stretched tight. Paint the plastic with white paint with a black bulls eye. The bullet will cause the tight plastic to shrink away from the hole leaving the bright under coat visible. I have used these at over 300 yards with varmint rifles to check loads while in the field. My local ranges have 200 yard limits! Certain stores will carry wider rolls of "saran" or plastic wrap. I bought 3 rolls of 36 inch wide plastic wrap from Ollies. A couple cans of spray paint and some tape (to hold it stretched over the backer) and you have a 30" target.

[hightime]

Well guys remember I don't shoot for competition, but I sure love to shoot. Don I'll do what you said about the 1,000 yards. On my home range I only have data at 600. After sight in at 600, I have 2-3/4'' of staff adjustment left. That does sound like trouble, we'll see.
Tom, I use Starline brass, 110 gr. Goex 1F though a 24'' drop tube and 3/8'' compression, a cardboard wad then a RCBS #82084 530 gr. round nose bullet with SPG lube. I don't know the fps. I was guessing 1,400.

My sights are on one mark at 100 yds out of seventy. Like Don said even though there are eighty marks only seventy are usable. There are twenty marks to the inch. The sight radius is 37 - 1/2''.

I love the ideas for painting the target. Good one. I'll do it.

Owen

[dk17hmr]

Come on out and you can test it out at my range. I have a large sand hill behind my target that makes it easy to see a miss. My dad and I shot his 45-70 out to 1350 yards and we were able to see splashes.



We tried 1 mile but didn't have anywhere near enough elevation on the sight and couldn't see a splash. But my dad loads his 45-70 light and slow...405gr at 1350-1400fps. A larger bullet going faster will make a splash.

You are going to want a large target a couple sheets of plywood would work, we were shooting at my 30x30 steel plate I use for extreme distance with my scoped rifles, it was hard to locate in the little peep sight.

I have often thought of having a guy up front at about the 1000 yards line. If I were to that they wouldn't be inline with me and the target.

[hightime]

Cool that sounds like a hoot. WY is a long way from northern MN. I did just get a Bronco from there. I wonder if the 45-110 has much more range.

[2AMMD]

dk17hmr.... I live in Maryland. Getting worse every year. Nice to see some people still have their rights (and space). Beautiful country too.
Any jobs out there?

[Don McDowell]

Hightime, on average, you'll need 15 minutes (3 marks on the staff) elevation for every 100 yds beyond your 600 yd setting .