How are you training for long range?

[Macintosh]

By far wind will be one of the major limiting factors. I don’t buy into the idea that it’s ok to blow off legs, completely miss, or have gut shot animals and simply walk your shots in as a normal way of doing business. That’s slob hunting when done up close and there’s no free pass simply because the shot is long. If you can’t hit the deer vitals on a cold bore shot you’re trying to shoot too far - you just proved it’s too far. I’m guessing the wind direction is usually the same and from the same angle at your range - those easy conditions won’t be there in the field.

I’m not sure what kind of animal you’ll be hunting or what the conditions will be, but in many forms of hunting speed will be important. Training for 700 yards is great, but if your system is too slow to get a quick shot off at 300 yards, it’s just as much of a missed opportunity. Practice estimating range without a rangefinder is important - electronics are the weakest link, yet some guys are beached whales if the range finder goes down. On a 300 yard and under shot I’d argue ranging is costing opportunities - those should be quick with no scope adjustment, no ranging, no messing around, just bang bang. Most guys can estimate 400 yards with +/- 50 yards with practice.

Under pressure people resort to how they practice, for better or worse. If you always practice a bad habit on the range with the assumption while hunting you’ll do it differently, that will cost you. If your system is overly complicated it will cost you when things are happening fast. Hunting coyotes in the sage is good practice, for a number of reasons, but they are easy to lose track of the more you look down at your scope. Having a perfect firing solution doesn’t help if you lose track of the animal, or it walks behind a tree because it took too long.

This year someone will lose an animal because they dialed a distance, didn’t get to take the shot, worked closer, jumped the animal and became confused because their practice didn’t include dialing the scope back down if a shot isn’t taken. I laugh every time I notice my nephew hasn’t dialed his scope down, and we take a quick shot at a closer rock - I’ve already shot and he’s dicking with the scope.

There is a dick around chart with points awarded for everything humanly possible to screw up. In the first 5 minutes shooting with someone it’s pretty clear how at risk they are to screwing up a difficult shot, by how much they struggle with easy things.

Hope you have a great hunt and knock the snot out of whatever it is.

So, I often have a different perspective than taperpin, but in this case I mostly agree. Keep in mind I am not a “long range hunter”, I am a “close range hunter that enjoys shooting (matches, practice and hunting) at longer range and aspire to be more proficient at longer range”. In a match I can shoot at 1000+ but hunting it would take the worlds best rest, time, and zero wind for me to shoot past 500 yards. Thats still definitely “long range” in my book. I dont accept shooting at an animal if I think my first-round vital hit is not a high-odds shot, and it would take a situation that highly favors a follow up in order to try even that, ie if the animal runs i’ll still be able to see it and make a follow up.

To tp’s point, for me a big part of long range practice is getting firmly dialed on a system so that my longer range habits dont hinder me at normal range where most of my shots happen—stuff like always dialing back to zero, zooming back to 3x, building positions quickly that arent prone, practicing my quick drop dope at normal ranges so Im not consulting a reference where I dont need to, my system is simple as possible, etc. I think its relatively easy to practice the longer range stuff without creating bad habits, but I do think it requires being intentional about it.

A few thoughts.
Ranging practice is good, but its highly dependent on location. I can estimate range very well here at home where I have familiar topography, vegetation, etc…your brain cues in and uses those things as a reference. Pick up and move to wyoming in antelope country and you lose all reference and are lost again. Move over to colorado and the scale is still different. Dont even get me started on alaska. Estimating is good, just keep in mind if you are traveling to a very different area your sense of scale will be off, so a laser rf may be more necessary than at home. I CANNOT reliably estimate to within 50 yards at 300-400 when I travel to the west. Maybe you can, but test and verify so you can recalibrate on location.

Also, agree that you need feedback to learn. I say you NEED a bigger target if you arent getting feedback from misses. If you dont want the “false positive feedback” from a bigger steel target, at least hang a sheet of plywood or cardboard behind the steel so you can see where you missed. An 8” wide target at 750 yards is basically a 1.0 moa target side to side (7.85"=1moa @ 750)-- you are 100% going to occasionally miss off either side with even a breath of wind call error…how do you know what is wind and what is your cone or wobble if you dont even know what side of the target you missed on? You said the gun shoots 10-round .8" groups--can you reliably hit a 1moa target, cold, at 100 yards if you have to build the position each shot? If not, it’s definitely not happening at 750. Use a bigger target if you want actionable feedback.

And be ruthless in your self-imposed range in the field on a live critter. Easier said than done, easy to be overconfident (this is me pointing at myself), but IMO worth being on the conservative side.

 

[GreyBeck]

Smart to do cold bore. Angle has messed with me recently. Every range is flat. Shooting up or down 15-20degrees changes the range vs LOS. Would save time to practice with changing angles because seems chances pop up at the most inconvenient of times and it’s just seconds to get a shot.

 

[hereinaz]

Smart to do cold bore. Angle has messed with me recently. Every range is flat. Shooting up or down 15-20degrees changes the range vs LOS. Would save time to practice with changing angles because seems chances pop up at the most inconvenient of times and it’s just seconds to get a shot.

Shooting up and down at an angle also changes the recoil movement of the rifle, making shots land higher if recoil is not managed. The mass of the rifle is also at an angle to the body in many situations. When the gun is tipped muzzle up, the recoil impulse is in different proportion to gravity and angles, and the rifle jumps more.

 

[WKR]

Kudos for the work and effort. Keep at it. You are doing a lot of good stuff already.

Get a bigger target, paint vital size, and be brutally honest with yourself. You can’t learn without feedback.

A 6 mph wind?

You didn’t say what cartridge, but my 6.5 creed is 14.4 inches of drift with a full value 6 mph wind at 750.

If we assume the wind died to 3 mph, and you held for 14.4”, then you get drift of 7” off your point of aim. Assume your gun is an moa gun, then you are stacking errors that take you out of the vitals st 750.

If your position is not built well enough, you are adding more error.

650 to 750 is a big jump in drop and wind. Wind at 640 is 10 inches.

You have to know the ballistics and develop the skills to shoot long range in the field.

And, it’s why I usually limit my long range hunting shots to early morning and late evening when the wind dies down. In virtually no wind situations I have high confidence.

I'm shooting my 25 creedmoor with the 133 bergers, which is a 6mph gun with that load.

Which I think is why sometimes I miss that little target at 750. Its for all intents and purposes a 1 moa target and I'm shooting a 1 moa load, so with any kind of shooter error or bad wind call is going to be a miss.

I'm going to take a bigger ipsc target out there today and swap them out.

 

[TaperPin]

I CANNOT reliably estimate to within 50 yards at 300-400 when I travel to the west.

Good points, I’m also at a disadvantage when in unfamiliar territory. I had to chuckle when over by Grand Junction in a little valley covered with giant sagebrush - the stuff looked just like our sage, but double in size, made everything seem half the distance, and it was worse than if I had never seen sage before.

 

[Loo.wii]

I have an upcoming hunt where I expect there to be opportunities at long range. So I have been implementing a self imposed cold bore challenge everyday, once I become comfortable at the set distance I move the target back and resume the daily cold bore shot.
This week, starting Sunday, im at 750. Yesterday I go out and hit the cold bore and a follow up just for good measure, today....whiffed on the cold bore and a follow up, Yesterday was a consistent 5mph wind that was easier to call then today with a 6mph that was variable and I over compensated both times I shot.
I wonder though if my target is to small? Its a 8×12 ipsc, which actually is a good size representation of a deers vitals but at 750, if I miss its hard sometimes to see which side of the plate I'm on and what to correct. Should I step up to a bigger plate and paint a kill zone size aiming point ?
Anyhow, I'd like to hear some recommendations on what more I should implement into the training regiment and also what some of you guys do to train for upcoming hunts.

I am training field positions too, but keep that 600 and in. The cold bore stuff is if I get an opportunity where I can be prone or fully supported

Do you have a trainer rifle in something cheaper than your hunting caliber?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

You are going to find that your shot to shot discrepancy has far less to do with wind, and everything to do with shooting ability, I think you know this already. Make a horizontal hold or dial correction and then miss "the other way", is what you are likely going to see in most cases out there by yourself, and with someone being more towards the novice side of wind calling...

Unless you are REALLY good at reading wind and making a true long range rifle shot wind call (think along the lines of not just holding up a Kestrel at your gun) you will just be fighting yourself on corrections. A good spotter sitting next to you with real time feedback, with you already having the next one racked and ready for the correction is really the only way; otherwise it takes too long and the wind has changed and your chasing your tail.

 

[Macintosh]

Good points, I’m also at a disadvantage when in unfamiliar territory. I had to chuckle when over by Grand Junction in a little valley covered with giant sagebrush - the stuff looked just like our sage, but double in size, made everything seem half the distance, and it was worse than if I had never seen sage before.

I have some very embarrassing stories about wildly misjudging the size of something upon showing up in an area and not being accustomed to the scale. Couple years ago I spotted a herd of antelope in an opening in the sage just below a grassy slope. The mirage was pretty bad and I could only see them through the sage, so all I could see was a few splotches of the buff color, a little white, and some occasional movement. it was a very low-point unit with a zillion tags, and we hadnt found a single goat on public, so we hiked a mile around to stay out of view, hiked along the other side of the hill, and crawled up over the rounded top to avoid being skylighted. pricked my unit several times with cactus spines, ate some dust, scraped my knees and elbows, but finally crept into a little wash 200 yards from their location. Peering over the crest of the slope thru my bino's I looked for the herd goat...and saw a colony of very antelopey-colored prairie dogs. Definitely got my scale wrong on that one.

 

[hereinaz]

I'm shooting my 25 creedmoor with the 133 bergers, which is a 6mph gun with that load.

Which I think is why sometimes I miss that little target at 750. Its for all intents and purposes a 1 moa target and I'm shooting a 1 moa load, so with any kind of shooter error or bad wind call is going to be a miss.

I'm going to take a bigger ipsc target out there today and swap them out.

750 is a long way. 8” is an admirable target size. And, just a little error makes a big difference.

Fortunately, if you practice on that, you’ll know your skill and load. Then, on game animals you get a little wider target for the most part.

If you can, add in some practical training. I go in the desert and take a hike with my pack and practice cold bore shots and building positions shooting rocks.

 

[Poser]

I'm not a "long range hunter" by any stretch, but I'll reinforce the suggestion that shooting on a flat range with the intention of hunting mountains is not preparation.

I spent quite a bit of time shooting at steeper angles this summer after not being able to get properly setup for a steep angle shot last year. I killed an elk this season at 263 yards with a +27 degree shooting angle. Having practiced setting up for steep angles, I was able to set up for such a shot in a matter of seconds without too much thought.

To further complicate matters, shooting across canyons involves complex winds with often 3-4 wind variables at long distances. If you are shooting from a North facing slope that is cold and in the shade to a sunny, South facing slope that is warm and sunny across a canyon with a running creek whipping wind down stream + a prevailing wind, its going to be dramatically different than a flat range. If terrain is steep, setting up a stable shot is also going to be dramatically different as everything wants to slide downhill.