Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting So is .338 Extreme the ultimate?

Not really, I spotted and shot my Blacktail buck last year at 892 yards with a 5.5-22x56 Night Force and that deer was alot smaler than any elk or 55 gallon drum.

Where did you get the 12MOA low at 425yd. I scanned my target at 425yd. I set up the scope to zero there. Moved up from this point. For close in shots there's a grid recticle to take care of that.

From that I understood you were 12 inches high at 100 yards from your 425 yard zero. And then took an additional 12 MOA to reach 1025.

What is your muzzle velocity and what bullet are you using? from that I can maybe get a better idea of what your drop chart should look like assuming a 425 yard zero.

When I am shooting at an animal at long range I do not like to leave a margin of error that you are leaving yourself with your 1 MOA per fifty yards theory. I like precision if I am shooting at an animal. In no or light wind conditions I expect my bullet to hit exactly where I aim, not within 10 or 12 inches of my point of aim. Here is a pic of a antelope I shot a couple weeks back with my 243Ai at 556 yards. I swear that if I had been shooting at a 1/2 inch target spot on this goat I would have hit that spot. It does not always work out that way....heck I even miss em sometimes. I missed two 600 yard does year before last and also missed a 1200 yard oryx because of stupidy on all, but at least in long range a mistake usually results in a clean miss. The more experience I get the odds of me drilling them through the vitals increases. 556 yards is not really long range but it illustrates my point...and gives me a chance to brag a little.

Good shot Eddy and nice pronghorn. I'll get back to you after the weekend on the info. I reloaded a bunch with a new short cut 7828 which I never used before and now liting the jugs with the Fed215 , so I may be past 3000 ft/sec. Will double check this weekend. Does your program have an input for varying bc? Too get an accurate drop chart you need a varying BC. The BC starts at .768 but changes as the speed changes??? Go figure.? Is there any program out there that can track this Match King bullet accurately. Also have a pound of Retumbo to try out. Will be going out hunting next week for an Elk for my shooting bud. Thanks all for your input.

exbal does allow for multiple bcs. The assigned value for the 300 smk is as follows 2300 fps and higher is .768 from 2300-1800 the assigned value is .76 below 1800 .75

I have not played with of the g7 BCs yet, but I am thinking that chart I posted from JBM calculations may use that form factor.

I cannot compare my feeble skills with a rifle to some shooters here that I know are truly gifted. On paper, I have no problem with extreme shooting. I don't agree that you could call this hunting by any means. While some may be skilled enough to consistently shoot a target at this range, ethically you have to account for the fact that a deer or elk would simply walk away after the trigger is pulled. Bullet flights times at these ranges are measured in seconds!! How far can an elk walk in two seconds? I marvel at the training and discipline that go into shooting at extreme ranges, but draw the line at calling it hunting. Its a stunt per and simple!

kevinh1157,

I am curious why you came to the Long Range Hunting to give us your worthless opinion?

+1

I thought like you also for many years. But nowaday the special bullets, special barrels, pricey scopes with all them knobs on them, ballistic programs etc...seem to do alot better than my dad's old 303 with open sights.

Using the 300 grain Match king HPBT at .768BC.
Muzzle speed registered this weekend at 2910-2920 fps. Using 94 grains of 7828 SC-IMR and Fed 215. After dropping 1 grain of powder saw 3 ft drop at 725yds. Now have to adjust to 9 on the 825yd setting. Zero still at 425. 6 inch high at 100yd, 8 inch high at 200yd, and back to 5 inch at 300 yds. zero at 425yd. Take with grain of salt, I just eyeballed the holes and didn't spend much time shooting at this distance. ONly one shot at each distance but shot 50 rounds that afternoon. Temp cool requiring extra shirt and humidity low. Didn't do do good shooting that afternoon. I had afew drinks the night before and I found that I wasn't very steady. 50% hits at 825yds hitting steel plate 16x20 inch. Need a timney trigger should be here in 4 days.

BA - How do your superior ballistics account for what a game animal will do in the 2-3 second (or more) flight time of the bullet. Just my opinion, but shooting big game at those distances in nothing short of a stunt and is irresponsible. How many times have you had to have a spotter to walk a round into a prairie dog, much less a deer or antelope?

Cinch and ringman - phugue off, opinions are all you see on this forum. Some are well reasoned and worth listening to. Then there are yours.

kevinh1157.....

IGNORED

700 yard cow elk.
shot is centered nicely, isn't it ?

338 rum launching 250 grain sgk sbt's at 3,052 fps.

What I have on my current big gun is a fixed 20x... I've shot a drum,a black one in a plowed black field at whatever was a bit over a mile 1700 and some yards I just don't recall exactly any more. Fired a 3 shot group to see the size and yep, had elevation good actually but missed the wind as much as I tried to figure it all out. But then grabbed a mil dot and fired a 3 round group and checked that and did that 3 more times driving over to chekc the groups and paint between shots. My average group size between all of them was right at 13 inches or just a hair over, best group was centered and just under 8 inches appx.

As to holding on a basketball, I held at 802 off a backpack prone, and 14x scope, easily on a softball size white patch of hair on my caribou.... I couldn't do that without a lot of practice many years ago but can now and happy to do it. With a sling and no rest on a computer program my prone wobble is just under .5 moa. Get me to a pack, bipod or bags and its much less.
I agree seeing a basketball the first time in the brush could be an issue, but isn't that like game, you gotta find it first, once you've found it, aiming is easy.

Kevin-- I can tell you how we deal with TOF issues, you learn to read animals. Lot of them are shot bedded. Lot of them are feeding, but you kinda know when they are gonna move etc... as to suddenly being spooked, well that actually covers anyone thats shooting at any distance with about any weapon. Excepting that if we are dealing with TOF of a second or more, the animal will probably be a clean miss by us, but a wound by folks shooting closer.

And I"m not advocating shooting long for the fun of it, though its a lot more challenging than learning to stalk up closer. What I have advocated is get as close as you can, but use whatever skills you have in the meantime.

Jeff

Kevin
To answer the walk a round into a target issue, if it takes that most of the folks that would shoot, know better and won't. And some that might, IE if in doubt, take a side shot and adjust and then fire. I"ve done that once, across a canyon that had a weird feeder side canyon and I wasnt' quite sure if I had figured it all right, something around 950 yards. Shot at a softball sized rock to test the wind call and nicked it on the bottom, spun to the animal and it decided to walk off and was too nervous after that and never really stopped to settle down though it did pause now and then. Of course that TOF wasn't much at all but I didn't feel comfortable with any of those shots.

We are getting back to the old argument here, you are casting stones at folks that shoot better than most, put way more time in it than most, probably even yourself though I dont' know you, and have enough time behind the stick to be very sensible in shot choice. Compare that to how many weekend warriors that never shoot a box of shells a year, fire away at deer at 100 yards freehand that are MUCH more dangerous wounding wise than we'd ever be.

I am proud to say that of all the animals I've fired at beyond 400 yards, I've made great shots on every last one of them. Never missed. Never wounded. Shot one twice because he stood there after the first hit so decided after that hit to try to hit him again. Worked fine on that one too.

Jeff

Rost495 - Thanks for your response and explanation.

Replies can be civil and stay that way and worst case we can always agree to disagree.

I'm the one that has to sleep at night. And I often refer to a shot about 4 yeras back or so... at a young buck, a chip shot with my AR15, less than 80 yards, with a rest and a red dot sight, I smacked him in the heart, or so I thought, we followed bright red blood through the swamp and could not figure out why he kept going... went back to the scene after jumping him??? and missing him in a thicket with a couple of fast shots, and seeing his front leg flop a bit on the run.... at the scene I find this tiny vine I couldn't see without magnification... and I'd hit it, probably opening the bullet prematurely and deflecting it. Wishe I'd have missed totally.... but didn't. Though we followed that deer for the better part of 5 hours or so, I'm sure he didn't die from the wound at all, but it still bothers me.

So some of these issues here are very personal and individual and as I"ve said many times, I won't shoot unless i"m 200% sure of killing. Regardless of the situation. I've let deer walk that I am 99% sure I could have killed but just didn't have that last 1% of confidence. Hit em, sure thats usually not an issue at all, but clean kill, that is an issue. And I've even had to forgo head shots either to not getting rid of a neck pulse beat or them getting out past 300 yards etc.....

I think you'd find most of the LR bunch to be much more anal about shot choices than most hunters out there. And as I said, practice a lot more. I know that when I did shoot a lot in a year, it could be up to 10K rounds or more a year. Thats more rounds than most will ever see or fire in their lifetimes.