Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting What distance is "long range"?

Today, for the first time, I was able to get to the range and shoot my new 6.5-06AI. Originally I had put a spare Leupold M8 4x on it just so I would have something to shoot fireform loads with. I later swapped scopes with my Rem M700 .30-06 which had a Burris Fullfield II 4.5-14xAO with Ballistic Plex reticle. That left me with two rifles that needed to be zeroed.

I started at the 100 yard covered range to get on paper and set the point of impact at 100 yards, about 2-1/2" high for both rifles. My fireform loads were pussycats in the AI, 140g A-MAX over 49.0g H4831SC running a very consistent 2669fps to 2680fps for a six-shot sample. (Hornady lists 49.4g at 2800fps for the standard 6.5-06.) My .30-06 load was another pussycat, 168g A-MAX over 51.0g BL-C(2) for about 2635fps average.

Here's a .25-06 necked up to hold the 6.5mm 140g A-MAX and a fireformed 6.5-06AI case.


After satisfying myself at the 100 yard range I headed to the longer range where I put clay pigeons on the 400 yard berm and painted the steel gongs at 500.


My first shot with the 6.5-06AI was at a 500 yard gong. Having never fired the rifle before today and only then out to 100 yards for sight-in, I had to guess at the bullet drop. The third hash mark down from center in the Ballistic Plex reticle seemed appropriate and it was � I rang the gong three times in succession. In the picture below you can just see the two orange gongs to the right of the 500 yard target boards. (The long, horizontal dark line in the center of the picture is the shadow of the target boards, visible below the boards themselves. The shorter dark line just above it is the shadow of the 600 yard boards.)


More shooters arrived and a cease fire was called to set up targets and I took the opportunity to move one of the gongs back to 600 yards. When the range went hot I decided to try using the lower thick-thin transition point for aiming. I cranked the scope up to 14x and promptly missed the 600 yard gong, just off to the right. Holding just to the left of the gong fixed the problem and I rang it several times in a row before deciding to let the barrel cool.

Next up was the .30-06 with its pokey 2635fps loads. The Leuplod M8 has a fine crosshair reticle and I had to guess about the holdover. Nevertheless my first shot rang a 500 yard gong, as did each successive shot.

Letting the .30-06 cool, I tried a couple shots at the 400 yard clay pigeons with the 6.5-06AI but couldn�t quite get the windage and elevation � flying dirt showed hit was easily in the kill zone of even an antelope, but a miss is a miss. I bounced back and forth between the two rifles, ringing the 500 and 600 yard gongs with both. Too easy. Another cease fire was called and I put a clay pigeon on the 600 yard berm. My first shot with the 6.5-06AI was just to the right, the second just over the top. The third shot hit it pretty much dead center, leaving the lower half more or less intact. Not bad for randomly selected fireform loads...


Another cease fire and another clay pigeon on the 600 yard berm. My second shot took it out.


I tried the 400 yard pigeons again, and this time I got the windage and elevation correct (there basically wasn�t any wind but the scope was set to shoot a bit to the right). Several pigeons bit the dust before I called it a day.

Including the sight-in rounds, I fired only 24 .30-06 rounds and 44 6.5mm-06AI fireform loads during the course of the day. The .30-06 proved to be quite capable of hitting the 500 and 600 yard gongs with a simple 4x scope and the 6.5-06AI, which I had never fired before, was able to take out clay pigeons at the 600 yard line with randomly selected fireform loads. (I had a jug of H4831SC that I don�t use any more and Hornady had a 6.5-06 load � a marriage made in heaven.) In fact, the most difficult shots I took all day were the first few shots at the clay pigeons on the 400 yard berm. While I don�t claim to be a great long distance shot, I think this experience demonstrates that one needn�t shoot hundreds or even thousands of rounds with a particular weapon to be able to place bullets in the kill zone at ranges out to 600 yards.

It was all much easier than putting bullets in the kill zone of a running animal at 50 or 100 yards...