[DRT]

Two weeks ago I needed a little time away from everything. I went to visit my father in law and go shooting. I had purchased a ISPC 67% ar500 steel target and stand and wanted to shoot long range. We put it up on a hill, and turned around. We looked at a spot and I tried to use my Bushell Range finder to see the distance. Not enough reflection off the tree bark. My habit is to have a 3 reflector sign on a short stand near my target (same distance) so I can be at my shooting spot and get an accurate distance from a LONG ways off (furthest I've gotten is 1100 yards with the 1000 yard bushel). We drove up to the spot anyway.
It ranged at 565 yards.
I had also bought a magneto speed chronograph in hopes of getting good velocity data to help the ballistic app. I could not get the thing to register so it was discarded. I was also having problems with what the app said I should be dialing up for elevation and what I was actually seeing through the scope (Leupold 6-20x50mm on the Savage .223 and Leupold 4.5-14x50mm on the Rem 700 .308). I was shooting factory black hills 75 gr .223 and federal gold metal match 169 gr .308.
After getting the elevation correct, dialed a little windage, I was hitting the IPSC target pretty easy with the .223. I had a 8" popper target placed as well, this was MUCH more difficult with the variances in the breeze/wind. I switched to the .308 and had the same difficulty with the app (come to find out later i was using the g7 drag function and when I switched to the g1, the drop giving in the app was dead on to what I dialed), but was on target a lot faster. Man, the .308 really lays a wallop on steel at 565!! I'm guessing a 10 shot group was about 4 inches. I didn't measure or anything, but my point of aim (the carriage bolts) was pretty much my impacts.
My father in law was skeptical about the .223 shooting that far, but once I got on target, he realized it wasn't hard. Then I had him shoot it! It was hard for him to get prone on the hill where we were, but he hit the IPSC on his second shot. I had to explain and show him how to use the rear bag to hold everything still. He's never really shot prone with a bag (which was my sweatshirt rolled up because I forgot the bag at home! LoL). He was impressed with the 308 as well. (This is the same rifle I've shot my deer with; which this year was about 55-60 yards after checking it out this trip out there.)
His girlfriend asked about shooting a deer at 565 yards. I told her the rifle is completely capable. I just having shot it at distance enough to read breeze/wind for a humane shot. I'll stick with the under 100 yard shots!
Thanks for your time reading my post.
I'm also toying with how to record the shots to post them. I bought a "shot spot" camera which works pretty well. Now I just need a spotting scope with a high enough magnification to capture everything at 565+ yards.

Here is a link to a video of my boy (now 10!!!!! where has the time gone) shooting the .25-45 sharps I built at 300 yards. This is shots 3-5. He got SUPER cocky and started saying the line from "home alone" after his hit... "I'll give you to the count of ten to get your dirty, no good...." He forgot which drop composition hold I told him on one of the shots, which is really clear because of how high over the target it was.
I was holding the rear of the rifle on the bag and he was in charge of lining it up and pressing the trigger. I asked him how he liked it. "Eh, it was good I guess." LoL kid cannot hit a 16 oz can at 30 feet with his bb gun and thinks 300 yards is "eh?" LoL I guess I still have work to do!
Stay safe and have a great new years!
DRT

 

[lightman]

That sounds like a fun afternoon!

 

[koger]

The farthest shot I have had on deer is 510 yds, walking quartering away, 60 yd recovery. My 2nd longest shot is 425, deer trotting fast, first shot was behind it, got on it again, pulled out front a body length and kept swinging, dropped at the shot.. The best long distance shooting has been with my Savage, 6.5x284, that I built with a 30" benchmark bull barrel, 142 gr Sierras @3100fps. I was shooting 1100yds on a private range in a nearby county, with a slight 2-3mph tailwind, managed to shoot a 5.5-5 shot group.

 

[TinMan]

Don't have any data for steel, but my longest for a PD is 481 yds with a M70 in 223 Rem, and 623 yds with a Savage 12 in 220 Swift. Both were 1 shot kills.

 

[charlie sterner]

I've shot a few deer nearing 300, and antelope at 350 or just a bit more. My dad and I doubled on PD's in WY in 2003 at 750. It only took me about 5 shots to get one, then he sat behind the gun and hit one on the same mound the very next shot with my 700 in 243 shooting an 87 gr Vmax. But my most memorable was the shot at the DOME with Randy, Shane and the Harber boys as witnesses. Hit a spray paint can lid at 1428 yards with my 6x47 Lapua shooting 95 gr Sierra Match Kings. Surprisingly that only took about 5 shots to dial in, and I was out of elevation in my turret. I was using KY Windage (or elevation in this case) holding tree-top high over the target!!! Here's a pic, I'm standing at the scene of the shot, the tip of the bullet I'm holding is pointing where the paint cap was sitting. Extra paint cap for size reference.😁 FWIW, the Harber's and Shane both had very near misses before I connected. If it was a deer, it might have been killed by them. Awesome visit to the Dasher DOME I'll never forget!

 

[Kermit in Va.]

Yep...I was there for that shot...

 

[JRinKY]

Got a Chikin at 387 yd once.
Ain't no record but 1 shot 1 kill.
Don't get no Sighters on live targets.
Seen Voldoc kill a PD at over 1000 with the Savage .20 BR I think it was. He's world famous and all for that shot.

He killed one at 1430 or something with a BRX. That wasn't 1 shot 1 kill. I swear he was aworkin that Bolt so fast he had 3 in the air at the same time.
Birdog I think bought the rifle from him.

 

[was skruske]

place holder


A couple years ago out in Montana on a prairie dog safari, JR & I were the last two left. I had my bench set up for shooting long with a Salvage 260rem. The rhetorical question was simple "I wonder how far I can fling a bullet with this thing?"

We picked out a suitable rock that would provide some visual clue of an impact. I put a few rounds out toward the rock & walked the last three rounds into the same general place. Now, not many folks would be satisfied with an 18" group especially with hand prep'd ammo, an F-class action, Krieger barrel & NightForce optics. But I can live with that kind of accuracy at
1921 yards.


Point of aim was a little brown patch directly above the "7" 3rd left tick mark.

I'm standing on the rock that was about the size of a small house. The point of impact of the three rounds were about 3 feet below me. You can see at least two of the light colored spot were the bullets hit.

 

[dk17hmr]

I have plenty of opportunity to shoot long I have several kills between 500 and 600 yards on big game. Oddly enough antelope aren't in that category I have never shot on further than 260 yards, and the furthest was actually with a 22-250.

I usually try to get as close as possible so I can get a headshot on game animals. I killed 7 animals this year and only one was over 225 yards, 3 were headshots.

My longest impact on steel was 2163 yards with a 300wsm. That was super fun when I had time to chase distance, when my wife was working on her master's degree and we didn't have kids. Now anymore I get dope out to about 1200 yards and shoot smaller targets at closer ranges.

 

[Kevin Gullette]

With my 20BR on pd's, my longest was 792 yards in 11 shots. But my "best" shot was 781 yards in 3 shots.

Yeah....I know....Doc kills me......

Friend Of The 17......and 20
Kevin

 

[lightman]

Thinking back about my longest shots and I don't compare to you guys! I nailed a Prairie Dog at a ranged 615 yards a few years ago in Wyoming with a 223 shooting Sierra Blitzkings. I don't remember how many shots it took but it was more than one. A Coyote at 501 yards with my heavy barrel 300WSM shooting 168 Bergers. That was a good shot. Some of my proudest shots were on Prairie Dogs in Oklahoma shooting at an unknown distance. I was shooting under the bottom strand of a fence and nailed several. Later on I walked out there and ranged back to the truck. They were between 318 yards to about 320 yards but I had 48 inches of windage dialed in for the wind!

 

[Doug Roberts]

I'm still a proud member of the Voldoc 75 Yard Club!

 

[219DW]

May,2004. I had been shooting Prairie Dogs for almost 20 years but had never shot much past 400 yards. Never bothered with ballistic charts didn't have a range finder just sighted in at 200 yards and held high past that. That day in late May I was laying on a pond dam shooting my Ruger No. 3 .219 Wasp at dogs in a valley that was about 350 yards wide. I was shooting mollied 55gr V-Max at 3400 fps out of the Shilen 14" twist barrel. Saw a large adult dog in the middle of a large bare patch on a flat on the other side of the valley. With all the bare dirt around the dog I thought it would be a good time to try a long range shot. Scope was a 6.5-20X40 Leupold with mildot. First shot held a little more than 1 mildot elevation and a little windage, bullet struck at least 50 feet short. I kept walking the shots in till I hit it with about the eighth shot. I watched as it crawled about 10 feet and stopped apparently dead. I Grabbed a light weight No.3 .22 K-Hornet and started to step off the distance to the dog. While down in the valley I was out of sight of where the dog was but easily found the bare area where it was. Found the spot where it was hit and a blood trail for about 10 feet then nothing, no more blood, no body, no hole for at least 20 feet. There were eagles in the area and one must have swooped in and carried it off while I was out of sight in the valley. Stepped it off out and back and came up with 665 yards by far my longest shot at that time.
Since then I've had a No.3 rebarreled with a 8" twist Shilen barrel to try for a 1000 yard prairie dog. Shooting the 75gr .224 A-Max at 3200 fps I was able to hit one at 916 yards my last time out which was June 2013. The case is a 1.900 long 30-30 with 35* shoulder. I was up 23" from a 200 yard zero.

 

[TinMan]

Nice story, Dave.

 

[George Foster]

Very nice story, I really enjoyed it.

 

[Challenger007]

A wonderful story! Have you thought about becoming a writer? Write at least short stories to begin with. I think. it would be interesting, because you know how to tell the story consistently, understandably and interestingly.

 

[[email protected]]

My longest shots to date was probably 3 years ago at a long range friendly shoot weekend where the longest shots were a genuine mile on a big steel plate. This range was marked out from 100yards out to 1 mile with steel gongs/plates at various distances.
The bloke who organised the shoot was shooting a 7mm SAUM and was hitting the steel gong at the mile mark reasonably consistently as were a few others including my mate with his .308.

I was using my Mk3 No.1 SMLE .303 with the battle sights which are graduated out to 2000yds and 180gn Sierra Pro Hunter SP's so as a joke I said that all this high tech junk you boys are using plus all this picatinny rail and high tech scope junk is ok but I reckon I can get fairly close with this old clunker and the original open sights.

I had 1 bloke with the spotting scope calling my shots and although I didn't hit the gong at the mile but according to old mate there were a few that went very close to hitting it with shots going either high, low or just off to the sides.
The funny part was after firing the shot there was a bit of flight time obviously so I was sitting up after the shot for probably 2-3 seconds I reckon it was before the shot was called.

 

[savage.243]

When my son was stationed in Colorado Springs we shot 1075 with the creedmoore using 140 eld. It was a very windy day, but we had good success, zeroed at 300, then I think to 550, then maybe 850 and on to 1075. Fun day definitely and awesome range.

 

[DRT]

When I was younger (about 7), I had thought about it. Now, I'm several decades older, nothing is out of the realm of possibilities. Thank you for your kind words!

A wonderful story! Have you thought about becoming a writer? Write at least short stories to begin with. I think. it would be interesting, because you know how to tell the story consistently, understandably and interestingly.