Long Distance Shooting / Hunting - The Addiction Has Begun

A few years ago the wife and I were in a shady neighborhood in a hotel (not everything looks as good as it does on the internet). She was sending me down to a liquor store. When I got back I joked about her standing in the bathroom window and covering me with a 270 Sako Rifle.

She asked why any of the firearms we already had wouldn't do the job?

Well, I explained... It's a good 600 yards to the liquor store. Our rifles are good out to 100 yards, 150 yards, and if you are really good, 300 yards.

And just like that she mandated that we procure a longer distance fire arm with my next bonus check. So I got a copy of the "Long Range Shooting Handbook" by Ryan M. Cleckner and set about learning and selecting a rifle.

I wanted a 6.8 Western but the Pandemic, Winchester, and Browning killed that project off faster than an Ethiopian Chicken. Started looking at .270 but I wanted longer higher BC bullets and they weren't making the 270-FAST yet. Figured 6.5 Creedmoor was a great learning platform and reasonably cheap all things considered.

Snagged a Ruger American with a 24" tapered bull barrel and the Magpul furniture. Slapped an Arken Optics scope on it and a Magpul bipod. All in the whole set up cost me right at about $800ish bucks.

All totaled, I've put almost 80 rounds through it, including sighting it in, and yesterday I finally got to stretch it out to 500 Meters. Consistently ringing a steel gong that was about 12". The range I was at didn't let us down there to measure but it looked like I put two 3 shot groups with in about 6" of each other. Hard to know since the steel was just all one color.

I know this is nothing Olympic and there's probably 30 guys on here that can part the hair on a gnats ass at 1000 meters. But I'm pretty excited and I can still feel the tentacles of addiction gripping me this morning. Can't wait to get out there again and put it on paper where I can walk out and retrieve the target.

 

The 6.5 is a GREAT round.
It’s pleasant to shoot.
Have you looked into reloading yet?

BTW, a “fast” 270 is a 7mm Magnum.

 

NOOPE! Not going to reload.
Watched several people go down that rabbit hole. Know when to say when...

Although, they did it for the mass production of cheap 9mm and 223 target ammo. I can see where a smaller set up for a few precision bullets might make sense.

 

Every rifle is different.
You can build the load to your rifle.

Is it worth it?
Not until you get good enough to make a custom load worth it.
I never have been that good. I’m happy if I am in the kill zone of a deer at 300 yards.
And most of the self ammunition can do that.

 

338 or 300WinMag reaches out real far too

 

They do, but you pay for it in recoil.
That’s the beauty of the 6.5……..Recoil for range is sweet.

 

Trying to keep recoil down for the wife and barrel life up. Also trying to keep the cost of a learning curve down too.

Funny story... I was in a gun shop back during a time when there was a heated debate about guns in the legal and political circles about 12 years ago. You couldn't buy a gun hardly. They were drastically marked up and everyone was buying everything. No ammo to be had either.

This customer was in the store picking up his brand new $5,000 338 Lapua rifle and $2,000 scope. The guy at the desk was going over the gun with him, unboxing it showing him how it works and talking about shooting long range. Then the customer comments, "Oh I don't think I'm shooting it that far. This is my first gun purchase and I'm just getting it for home defense to keep next to the night stand." The gun shop employee and I look at each other and ask him how big his property is? He said he lived in a duplex in Phoenix, maybe 1,600 square feet. We tried to explain to him that this was not the gun for him. The employee even told him that since he had not taken possession yet and had not left the store, he could get a full refund. But no - the guy wanted the only gun he could get his hands on.

So he walked out with a $7,000 set up and a 10 round box of 338 Lapua (if I recall the box of ammo was like $75 at the time too). Off to go defend his homestead duplex from being overrun by I don't know, Hondas and Toyotas?

 

If I'm reaching out in the 600, 700 yrds..I'm using a hogsaddle anyway and the weight of the 300WM keeps it all stable

 

It's a lot of fun!

A couple bits of input:

You should start looking into ballistics solutions ASAP. The Long Range Shooting Handbook was written well before the proliferation of effective laser rangefinders, local atmospherics collection, and ballistics apps and doesn't do a great job of explaining how to use these systems to achieve first round hits on unknown distance targets. I would do a few things to ensure you've got your ballistics squared away for UKD targets:

Get accurate velocities for your rifle with your ammo under every temperature extreme you expect to shoot. Even stable powders do change velocity with temp and if you're hoping to take game with your rifle at range you need EXACT velocities. This can be an oldschool Caldwell, or more conveniently a Labradar or Magnetospeed. Relying on drop to calculate velocity is trusting your BC and atmospheric data which is troublesome at best and not worth risking wounding a critter over.

Get a laser rangefinder effective on reflective targets out to 2-3x the distance you expect to range your expected hunts. Deer are naturally nonreflective/camouflaged critters, and as such need good ranging equipment to ensure good ranging. I've been using a Sig Kilo to good effect.

Local atmospherics are a necessary part of that equation. Kestrel systems are very effective methods of collecting temp/pressure/humidity to create effective dope. It can be standalone, use integrated ballistics apps, or be tied to your phone's app. I use a Kestrel Drop D3 for now, and when I return to serious long range shooting I will upgrade this to a Kestrel running Applied Ballistics software.

There are good phone apps you can use to get good ballistics solutions when fed with accurate atmospheric, ballistic, and rifle data. I use Strelok, but now that it's been embargoed by the state department I expect to buy the Applied Ballistics app, which is supposed to be as good or better.

A 100 FPS swing is a 7 inch elevation swing under normal circumstances at 600 yards with a 143gr ELDx from a 6.5 creedmoor, which would take you from dead center vitals hit on a deer to outside the vitals. Being off by 25 yards of ranging at that range is 9 inches of miss. I really can't stress enough how bulletproof your system for atmospherics, ranging, and dope need to be to hit UKD targets that you cannot miss. On live game, a miss isn't always a clean miss, it's often a wounding hit and a critter that suffers and dies slowly somewhere you can't find and recover it.

Edit:

Oh yeah. You can't forget to validate all of it on UKD targets afterwards, ideally ones that you can make deer-sized with a marked vital-sized killzone. If you can keep 100% of cold-bore hits inside the vitals at a given range, you're good enough to hunt to that range.

FWIW, this reply is as much for anyone who stumbles on this thread as for you.

 

Another aspect to consider: What is your final end game for the rifle? Personal / home defense? Target shooting? Big game hunting?

If the goal is target shooting, I agree that a rifle that combined acceptable recoil with desired distance should primary. So something in the 6.5, .270 class would be a great initial choice of caliber.

If you are thinking big game at long distance (>400 yards), then you seriously need to consider impact energy of the round at likely distances. Smaller caliber bullets will lose a lot more on longer flight than a larger caliber round. So I would suggest .30 caliber as the bare minimum, and seriously to consider .338 an up.

If you are primarily looking for a self defense rifle, I would personally feel a 6.5/.270 to be the bare minimum for ranges >400 yards. I would personally prefer a .30 caliber round, or possibly a .338. Also, another benefit for larger caliber rounds as self defense, a larger round is also going to be more effective at neutralizing an incoming vehicle if that might be a consideration. Or if your intended target is hiding behind some sort of minimal cover. Or even may have some level of body armor. I'll just leave that to one's imagination so I don't get into a prohibited topic

 

Hand loading high precision stuff with Lee hand loader dies is cheap. The time per round is pretty high compared to a turret (especially a fancy progressive) but the price for the gear is right and once you have your load figured out and your dies set, it's something you can do 10-15 at a time chilling in the evening on weeknights to prep for an outing.

A very inexpensive step up would be a turret press - set your dies and do a whole batch one step at a time. Again, if you're not going for high volume, this is something you can set up, crank out a batch, and break down and put away easily.

 

Yeah. I never got into “worst case, what is better”.
The probability that the person on the other end is wearing armor is low.
And if they are, there’s probably more than one of them
And they got better equipment.

99% of all the the gun fights I seen and or know about, no one was wearing body armor.
(Some of ones that were, also got killed)
The fact is, when someone starts shooting. They typically just start shooting.
I’ve known people that were shot, and people that did the shooting.
Other than the few officers, none were wearing armor. None knew they needed to wear armor because they didn’t know they were going to be shot.

I’m of the mid set, “be proficient with your firearms, don’t create a bad situation, and stay out of bad situations”.

I’m not a police officer, swat team member, or in the military.
I don’t expect to be shooting individuals that “may be” wearing armor.

 

My over arching goal with any firearm is to be able to pick it up and reach a proficiency level greater than about 80% to 90% of shooters - Pistols, Revolvers, Rifles, Shotguns, Semi-Auto, Bolt, Lever, Pump, Whatever. It is about the discipline of focusing mind and body and letting the firearm become a part of you or an extension of you. To practice firearms the way some people practice yoga - balance and meditation. And not the way some people practice golf - if I buy more expensive clubs, I'll be a better golfer. I want to know my limits and be confident in my abilities.

Beyond that, this specific rifle is, like all other firearms, expected to fit the role of target shooting, hunting, and defense AND be operable by all members of the family. The wife is recoil sensitive. First time she shot an AR she took one pull and set it down. It was too much. She's gotten better about it and shoots the AR now but she doesn't go often enough to advance beyond her current level of sensitivity. My daughter, on the other hand is a Thump-Junky. She stepped up to the 12ga at age 14 when she barely weighed 100lbs. Mostly bird shot and I haven't put her behind 000 Buck 15 Count High Brass Magnums yet but one day, when she's done using her shoulder for anything meaningful - LOL.

I did about two years of research, reading books, watching videos, talking with guys that hunt LD and compete LD. I knew exactly what I wanted and needed in a "forever" rifle. Buy once, cry once. Then I had to compromise significantly due to supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. I also had a purchase window. When the CFO (wife) approves the diversion of funds from the bonus check that PO comes with a spend window or it gets sucked back into the general fund. Given constraints, I opted for a cheaper platform and scope that fired a cheaper round. So far I have to say that this set up exceeds my every expectation and probably will exceed my skill (and eyes) for the foreseeable future. Again, it is still a learning platform. You only gain so much through theoretical study. Sooner or later you have to see your heart beating in the reticle to begin to understand how to control it.

As far as the roles, yes eventually I want to be proficient for all three out to 1000 yards, maybe further. But I'll caveat that with:

• Target Shooting - Always fun and certainly a worthy past time / pursuit!
  
  
• Hunting - I can't imagine wanting to hike out 1000 yards, quarter an elk, and then haul it back 1000 yards, especially considering that those 1000 yards will go over hills and valleys. But if I NEED to, then being able to is preferred. I think hunting at 500 to 600 yards will probably be my limit. And probably limited to deer.
  
  
• Defense - I'm in an HOA with curvy streets. Means the longest "Home Defense" shot I can take is probably 50 to 75 yards. That's already too short for this rifle and other rifles are better suited. It's also much longer than just about any court would let you legally use "Self Defense" as your reasoning and judgement. Keep in mind that you will be judged by 12 Quinoa eating Non-GMO Vegans wearing Faux Leather Shoes fresh off the boat from the Peoples Republik of Klown-afornia-stan. But sure... If we ever enter the Mad Max Days, it would be nice to sleep a little easier at night knowing that I can keep distance as my friend and push the perimeter out beyond "untrained goober with an AR/AK ranges." I don't spend a lot of time in this use case scenario though, and I don't let it live rent free in my head because I know that's a 0.0000981% chance of happening in my life. Keep in mind, I'm 50 and at a much greater risk of probably 5000 other things killing me in the next 20 to 30 years than having to fight off chrome huffing water / gas hoarders.

 

This whole long distance hunting craze is just a bad idea. Very few people should be shooting big game beyond 400 yards and for the vast majority even that is beyond their skill. Shooting off a bench and shooting at game in the wild are very different. I passed on a deer a few years back at 270 yards (I have a range finder) as there were too many bunched together and I didn't have a solid rest. Just wasn't a good shot.

 

For all of those here considering longer range shooting, or any distance shooting really, may I suggest the following: Project Appleseed | Project Appleseed (appleseedinfo.org) This is basically a 2-day rifle marksmanship class emphasizing the use of a sling from the prone, sitting and standing positions. A history lesson is part of the instruction but there is quite a bit of trigger time putting theory into practice. Locally, I paid $75 and a range fee so it's a serious bargain with qualified and vetted instructors.

 

Excellent Recommendation! I totally forgot about Project Appleseed.
Going to look into it again. IIRC (and as soon as I click on the link it will probably confirm) they are good teaching you if all you have is a 22 bolt action rifle.

 

Most people shoot some sort of a semi-automatic .22 with a detachable box magazine like the Ruger 10-22 but a bolt action with detachable magazines would work. A tubular magazine might be a challenge given the nature of some of the drills that require magazine swaps mid-drill, but the instructors find a way to make it work. Some people use AR's, but it depends on the class. Some shoots are rimfire only, but others allow for centerfire as well.

 

I can vouch for Project Appleseed. The fundamentals taught at the 25m are excellent for any shooter, and their KD course of fire is a good intro to adding DOPE, dialing, MPBR, and wind calls to the equation.

 

A Known Distance shoot is what I'm doing next, then a Pistol Seed.

 

The time would have been the mid-1980s. The place was various soybean fields to the west and north of a little town in Southern Indiana called Oakland City. The gun was a heavy barrel Ruger in 25-06, and the targets were these hairy little creatures called groundhogs. I would pick a friend up after he got off work and we would take my CJ and spend hours driving up and down gravel roads looking for half moon bare spots out in the soybean fields. Almost all the shots were at least 100 yards plus because any closer and by the time you got the vehicle stopped and a gun out the groundhogs were in their hole. Made no small amount of kills in the 200 to 300 paces range. A few 300+ shots, but I'll admit at that range you start to burn some ammo to make a kill. We did find a group of groundhogs along these railroad tracks that we shot at many times with no luck. I finally paced it off to 618. The problem was all I had was a duplex reticle on my scope, and figuring out the hold over was all but impossible at that distance.

I had, and still have, a Lee handloader that I used to reload one case at a time. It was tedious and time-consuming but I was just single young man so time wasn't at a premium. I still to this day when out with the family can't help but check out the soybean fields for that half moon shape. Unfortunately, I believe the explosion in the coyote population has drastically reduced the amount of groundhogs.