Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Effects of Altitude on My Bullet

To the OP,

At this point with time running out before your hunt, I'd go to JBM ballistics and run your load through the basic trajectory calculator with a 200 yard zero, 22.75 inHg Absolute Pressure, 50 degrees, 30% humidity.

Zero the gun at 200 when you get here and take note of the drop table's MPBR. Use a rangefinder and don't take any shots longer than MPBR. You probably won't have to anyway.







They all need it.

Very pragmatic advice.

Whoops, put my last comment in rca's box.

Scopebite65: I used to live near and sight in my Hunting Rifles on the tide flats area of Seattle - the elevation was literally 25 feet or so.
Then I would take my Rifles and go Hunt the very high country of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Montana.
Indeed my bullets would fly a tad flatter (1" to 2" higher at 100 yards!) and almost certainly a tad faster there in the thinner air.
So I got into the habit of sighter shots once at altitude.
Notation made and worked with.
The air is only 85% as dense at 6,000' altitude as it is at sea level (zero feet altitude).
I have forgotten the density of air at 10,000' (about as high as I have Hunted big game).
I now live at 5,400" altitude and my Rifle ranges are at 5,900' and 6,000' respectively so those worries are now alleviated for the most part.
Best of luck to you down New Mexico way this fall.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Just Google ballistics calculator and plug in the info. Will give you everything

I will definitely do all the ballistic charts & sight in upon arrival. It is just much more reassuring & interesting to hear all the advice & comments. I have hunted in the Fairplay, Colorado area a couple of times around 8,000' - 10,500'. I have only checked my zero. Never saw anything worth shooting. I am probably more worried about my conditioning than the flight of my bullet. If I am huffing & puffing too much, it won't matter what my 300 win mag does. Looking forward to the experience. I will be hunting with Toby Joe Truby. I hunted Texas whitetail with him a few years back. Great group of guys and a great hunting experience.

You're on the right track, as far as conditioning vs trajectory. Good luck!

Some time the hard part is finding a place to shoot at altitude. Easier said than done. Where I hunt, you don't show up at a lodge at 10,000 ft and stroll out to the rifle range to shoot your rifle. We hike in and pitch a tent. And I don't like shooting anywhere close to the area we hunt, so what to do?? Shoot in someone else's hunting area?

You don't have to shoot at or near your camp necessarily including the exact elevation. If you do a little research I bet you can find a some western town nearby with some kind of community or county range. Failing that find some public land or any place you can get access to and put a box out at two hundred and check zero. It may be very slightly different than back home; for example, if you came from sea level or nearly so.

If you've done due diligence trigger work back home including ballistic programming for your load for your hunting elevation you can confirm zero at several thousand feet below hunting elev and still kill game up higher at four hundred yards.

The thread of minutiae!!

I've been shooting elk, deer, and antelope in the high country of CO, WY, and NM for 25 years and never carried a chronograph or played with a ballistics program. Shoot the rifle, adjust as needed and hunt don't play master sniper and things will go well.

It really is that easy.

Hunting should be fun, not a PhD dissertation.

Who said we weren't having fun.

Obviously the members of this forum spend more time thinking about rifles and shooting than the average Elmer Fudd.

When I assist younger hunters these days they expect that 500 yard shots on game are the norm from watching TV hunting shows designed to sell fancy rifles.

Some of the folks here are very capable of making those types of shots but it isn't something I recommend to hunters who haven't prepared. Keeping things as simple as possible is the best advice I can give and the OP has gotten plenty of well meaning advice from jbird and others that is the opposite of simple.

I think once you are sighted in at 200 yards at your hunting altitude or even at sea level with a 300 Win mag everything 300 and in is point & shoot. Top of the back gets you to 400 on a calm day. Farther than that get closer.

Elk hunting isn't a long range shooting contest, its more of a scout, hike, climb, sneak, jog, catch your breath, shoot quick before they disappear activity.

The best hunters kill elk with a stick and string so we rifle hunters should be able to close the distance to under 400. But it is interesting to hear the different opinions.

I'm not advocating long range shooting here just noting the realities of ballistic programs verified by actual testing at home, confirming zero if you can before you hunt, and how far range-wise within a couple of inches that'll take you at altitude. The caveat being, "if you are capable."

Obviously most game can be and is taken at much shorter distances than four hundred yards.

Tx, if you get a good ballistics program, enter good data on velocity and BC so that your drops match the program, you can run the numbers for the higher altitude and be very close.

Running the Strelok (free) and Ziess (paid) app on my phone. It is interesting to reticle-range and bust few elk-rocks at distance and inclination.
But I wouldn't go overboard and too concerned. Elk are huge with a huge kill-zone.

You do everything right, no mistakes on target. There is a real good chance that bullet will find it's mark.

Clear misses have really stupid excuses.
Can't say I ever heard altitudes adjustments as one one them.

Knowing you equipment ranks way up their!
Up there with an extra pair of socks.

Depends on the load. Tend to sight in at 70 -80 degrees at 1000 ft. In one rifle, At 4000 ft and above and 45F or less H 4831 shoots high but not enough to miss. Imr 4831 shoots about same because of slight loss of velocity w/ lower temp.
I have an altitude and temperature cheat sheet that works real well to 400 yds.

Good advise here, fact is most elk are shot inside 300 yards. Do use a ballistic calculator and sight in accordingly.
Good luck on your hunt, beautiful high desert country there. Do drink a lot of water, the humidity there may run in the single digits to low teens. It may take a lot longer than you will be there for your thirst to acclimate to your need to drink.

If your going after elk, you will need a gear bearer and someone to help carry the elk out. Especially if you are going to use all the modern gadgets created for elk hunting.

Lots of water and goodies powder. Use common sense with over exertion. And hope I see a shooter close to the truck. :-)