I am trying to gain knowledge here, so please help me out. I have been plugging numbers into a ballistics calculator and comparing them to my actual experience and they don't match. I live in Michigan and target shoot somewhere around 700 feet elevation. might be 650, but its low, one way or the other. I will zero and target shoot at home and be all great. Get to Wyoming for pronghorn and I constantly shoot way higher. The ballistics charts basically tell me my POI should only change about 3" out to 500 yards. I am entering all the data for each location. However, real world, I shoot a foot or more high at 500 compared to Michigan. Then on to Colorado and it gets even worse as elevation goes from 5000 to 8000 where we hunt. I'm Obviously missing something in the calculations. Any insight?
Example: Boone and Crocket reticle
Michigan 200 yard zero, 2nd cross at 360, third at 440, hash at 525
Wyoming, 200 zero, 2nd cross about 380, third 535, dont know hash or post
Colorado, 200 zero, 400 second cross, dont know other marks.
I have since started using a CDS dial and still working on the details, but so far good to 515 in wyoming and 640 in Michigan. dial is off a bit in Michigan, but pretty close. actually shot high and finally caught up at 640. 300 was high, I was high at 415 and 530 (had to under dial the yardage to hit).
When I leave all factors the same and change the atmospheric conditions, elevations change very little. Humidity had almost zero effect. Pressure had about 5" difference at 1000 yards and so did temperature. elevation had the biggest impact. All that said, out to 500 yards, according to the charts, it should only add up to about 3" difference at 500 yards.
What am I missing?
