Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles A Girl, An Elk, A 243 Win/105VLD and 688yds makes elk steaks

like the urge to procreate?....

Thanks! I have a freezer full off steaks, sausage, summer sausage and jerky. The missile range was a fantastic hunt. I've been twice and it is always a lot of fun!

Forgot to ask, which 6.5 were you using?

6.5-06 with a 26" barrel, about 2950 muzzle velocity.

Madmooner,

My results have also been very positive. While I am pretty lazy and inept, once in a while I am also really lucky and stumble into something at closer range.

I always figured your bullet had better work up close as a first priority. After you are sure you have good �normal� range performance then you can start to use long range performance as criteria in selecting your hunting bullet.

I would have no qualms shooting an elk right in the shoulder at 50yds with the .243 Win/105 VLD and have seen it work successfully in that exact situation.

John, I appreciate the sense of humor you've shown throughout this discussion.

Holy Berger [bleep]! I guess a full body mount is outta the question.

To those that have a problem with just dry firing and coaching, you have never taught/ coached shooting. I took my second "daughter" to the range this summer. She had fired one round out of a rifle in her life(24yo) and with 10 minutes of coaching and dry firing, she went 7 straight @ 595 yards, keeping her shots inside 1 1/2 MOA with the rifle below. The doe shot was 675 yards. Shots out to ~700 are really not that hard with the right set up.

Here is a more PC picture. I think I've found a new cape for him.

That is a very big pronghorn! I am guessing at least 16 inches.

Very nice John and congrats to the young lady!

The responses to this post are kinda funny. In teaching long range classes and training guys to shoot long range, I will say that its WAY easier to teach women. They don't think they know everything and actually listen. My fiance has never shot a gun before and is slightly intimidated by them. So I set her up behind my comp rifle, dialed the scope, called a wind hold for her, and she put 5 shots in under 3" at 878yds. John has put in enough time and knows exactly where his rifles shoot, as do the rest of us that shoot long range daily. I wouldn't hesitate to use my 243 Rogue with 115's on elk out to 700 if I had to, mainly because I know exactly what it does. At 5000 ASL, it still has 1335ft/lbs of energy at 700 yds. Not ideal, but would definitely get the job done.

Was there much wind on the range that range day with your daughter or when you shot the doe? Wyoming winds makes hitting things pretty hard for me. I agree that on dead calm days it is pretty much a matter of LRF, dial, and apply basic rifle marksmanship principals to a good setup like yours to hit. However, with MT blowing and CO sucking it is always windy in WY . Are you self-taught on reading wind or military trained?

I've had similar experience with the 7mm 168gr VLD's:

I would say that is similar!

you know is a shot more ethical if its from a good rest, accurate rifle and good equipment, tested equipment, fired at 600+ yards or an off hand shot at 275 yards?? The more long range shooting I do I would rather take a good rest and the longer shot anyday.

thats really cool seeing what a 105 vld will do. that class of bullet really takes the 243 into a class of its own.

john, what kind of speeds are you pushing those to. my load from a 24" 243 ai is 3130 fps from h4831 sc. could go a bit faster but the pockets in the lapua brass loosen faster than I like beyond those speeds.

John when using the vld up close are you still aiming high shoulder? Just curious where you recommended.
P.s. will the greybull stock ever be available for any other actions? Love mine on my 7mm.

wow!

"Wow" to the amazing long shot with a 243, and "wow" to the 40 pages of ...um... "discussion" that followed.

wow.

I would shorten up the 275 yard off hand crack by quite a bit, but in general,one is "science",and the other is "art".

I agree in general principle given the average shooter's offhand capabilities. I actually LOVE shooting offhand and am fairly good at it, but I also feel reading the wind for long shots has a degree of "art" to it as well.

A good wind meter will give you the windspeed and direction at the firing point ,but we all know it is never constant all the way out to the target. Lot's of things to judge and calculate.

One the doe shot, I was using 1/2mil right wind. For Shyla's shots, she dialed 1.5 mils left wind. Self taught. I shoot ~3000 rounds of center fire rifle a year. There is no substitute for trigger time. i shoot over 300 days a year, and prefer to shoot when the wind is blowing hard/unpredictably. It pays off.