DAY 1: 672 Yards
Made the trip out to a canyon that I frequent... It's an amazing place for watching sunrises, glassing up Javelina, Coyotes, Coues Deer, Mule Deer, Big Horn Sheep, Mt. Lion, and endless Quail. It also represents very common shots that are taken here in Arizona during big game hunting, so I practice here quite often. The road getting into the canyon is a mix of two track roads, nasty washboarded washes, and some steep climbs that require 4WD and a decent lift/large tires. I've seen dozens of peoples rifles lose zero by just riding in the backseat of my Jeep, or their own vehicles on these roads. I've also winched out a few guys who didn't take me seriously when I said I don't think their vehicle was up for this one.
The Rifle:
Tikka T3X Chambered in .260
Shooting 129 Grain SSTs
Maven RS1.2 Scope
UM Tikka Rings/Level Bubble
Rokstock
High Desert Bottom Metal
This is a proven, reliable, and accurate setup that has been a very effective field rifle. It's on its 3rd barrel, 4th rifle stock, 2nd bottom metal, and 4th scope. Once the Maven scope and Tikka UM rings were installed onto the action several months ago per
@Formidilosus method, it hasn't once been touched to adjust the 100 yard zero. Thousands of miles in vehicles, thousands of rounds through the rifle, and it won't come off that zero!
Setting Up For The Shot:
Got my tripod setup on a table and found a dead tree in my Meopta 15's at the top of a ridge line that I have shot at many times. It ranged at 672 yards from the shooting position with my Meopta 8x50 RF binos. I made the hike down the ridge I was on, into the canon, across a finger ridge/wash out and then climbed up the very steep canyon wall to place the target. Here is the target...
And here is a video of the shooting position. Basic prone field position using my pack as a rest. A few options to choose from as a rear rest, or to be moved up onto the pack (which was the case). Shot ended up being small UM orange bag on top of pack under the Rokstock Spartan/Pic Rail, Molinator V Shape down long ways on top of wadded up sweatshirt, along my off hand under the bag/sweatshirt to complete the rear rest. Both of these bags and a puffy sit in the top of my pack, on top of my 15's on every hunt. Puffy was swapped for an orange sweat shirt this morning.
The Shot!
I used the Kestrel to get a good wind reading at the target while setting it up, it was coming in due East as a head wind, steady at 6-9 MPH with gusts reading 13-17 MPH. I had the luxury on the walk back to get a wind reading down in the bottom of the canyon. The due East wind turned into a right to left quartering wind at half the speeds they were at the target. The steep cliffs to the South were deflecting the wind down into the canyon.
Back at the shooting position the winds had picked up even more. I noticed the target was moving in the wind a bit more as well as the all the bushes. The wind at my binos was from 3 o clock swirling to 1 o clock when I started recording the video.
Shot process... I grabbed the Kestrel and headed to the rifle. Loaded the magazine and chambered a round, safety on. Got a final wind read of steady 13-16 MPH with gusts clicking to 24 MPH. Made a quick judgment call taking into account the head wind at the target, and told myself what to hold for wind. Next I adjusted the bags around to get an ideal front and rear rest and got comfortable ( I had not once set up onto the rifle before taking the shot).
You may not be able to hear but I then dialed the turret for elevation. I then checked my rest by wiggling a bit while still maintaining my sight picture; I then zoomed into about 8-10X. You should be able to hear the safety clicking off next, and then... Bang. That entire process from walking back from the binos/video screen, to getting the shot off, was 39 seconds. Longer than I'd like while hunting, but for this, it all works great when the target doesn't move.
I easily spotted my shot but could not tell at all if there was a bullet hole in the target, even cranking the scope up to 14X. So I began the long hike back to the target.
The Result:
I'll let the video and photo do the talking on this one. Overall I am very happy to have a dead animal considering all the variables with this particular shot. I did over dial for the head wind at the target, but my horizontal wind hold was near perfect. I was able to just sneak it into the 10" circle! Looking forward to day 2!
Day 2: 672 Yards
I left the same target up across the canyon and somehow my duct tape held to the dead Mesquite tree, despite some high winds all day yesterday and this morning. The cardboard was pretty badly folded over and was flapping in the wind, but went ahead and used it anyway.
It was windy with higher gusts this morning than yesterday. Sustained winds were 9-12 MPH but there were very long lasting gusts clicking over 27 MPH on the Kestrel.
Setting Up For The Shot:
Today I went for a seated shot, in a comfy backpacking chair, my Big Agnes Skyline UL chair. I pretty much always bring this on hunts now and always use it for scouting trips. So much nicer than sitting on the ground/lightweight pad and it gets me up a little higher to be able to glass over brush and cactus, etc. From pulling it off the side of my pack to getting it setup does take about 25 seconds, so something to keep in mind if a target animal is on the move. It's usually used more often when I'm already setup and glassing and want to switch from glassing on the tripod to getting ready for a shot.
The Shot!
Same range from the Meopta binos as Day 1 shooting off the pack, 672 yards. I hit record on the phone and everything was still on the table, hadn't moved everything to the chair yet or gotten a sight on the target yet. So the video is in real time of inserting bipod, extending legs, loading mag, chambering round, safety on, get a wind reading, dial for elevation, get comfortable, gather sight picture, crank zoom to 8-10ish, breathe/make sure rest feels good, hold for wind, safety off, bang.
I did a better job reading the wind today despite it being higher wind gusts. Yesterday I was overthinking it with the head wind reading I got at the target, not realizing and paying attention to the fact that the wind had also shifted at the target.
Day 3: 920 Yards
Went out to a different location this morning to set up. I've shot here A LOT so I know roughly what the yardages are to most things in this area. There is a popular glassing rock outcropping that is lava rock in the middle of some desert flats, it's PRIME mule deer country.
I also saw 4 desert big horns on the way in, this smaller one didn't mind me taking my time to get the binos and tripod out and get a photo.
The Setup:
I set up my gong on the lava rock outcropping and drove back to a power line access road, where I had ranged one of the big metal power poles at 1,103 yards from the gong. Got off the road and drove into a spot where there was enough of a clearing in the cats claw brush and jumping cactus to have a clear line to the gong.
I got setup and ranged the gong at 920 yards. Wind was 4-7 MPH, barely any gusting at all, nice and steady from 2 o clock.
www.youtube.com
The Shot!
Video speaks for itself and shooting at the steel is always more satisfying. I had a perfect elevation dial, and a really good wind hold. Should have held a touch more for the wind, but it is in there!
www.youtube.com
Day 4: 814 Yards
The Setup:
Today I basically just reversed the shot I did for shot number 3. I set the gong out on the power line road and then drove the Jeep up to the lava rock base. I climbed up and got my gear all setup, just like I would if I was glassing this spot.
Today was a seated shot in my lightweight backpacking chair, long Spartan bipod snapped into the Rokstock. Ended up with pack on my quads/lap and a I stuffed an empty bino harness under the flat bottom of the stock. The Rokstock REALLY shined in this position as a traditional hunting stock would have been a lot trickier to get setup with a stable rest. Between the flat bottom, how perfectly it shoulders with the high comb, and my hand immediately going into the proper shooting position, I am just tickled to death with this stock. The shot was in this position...
www.youtube.com
The Shot!
Very calm this morning with almost no wind. 1.5-3.5 MPH from 10 o clock is all it was blowing at the gong.
Hopefully the audio comes through on the video okay, on my PC with headphones it's good. As soon as a I shot it felt really good but felt like I tucked it a little bit low. I chuckled a bit because I thought I would have missed low, but then I saw the gong swing through the scope and then heard the ping of the steel.
www.youtube.com
