LR Rookie's Race to 1000

[Howard Mee]

Before you read another word... ​

Put your big kid pants on.
THIS IS NOT a conversation about shooting animals at 1000 yards.
I chose a 1000 because I'm guessing that most everyone would agree that 1000 is a "long" shot.
Please do not take this to mean that I intend to hunt animals at 1000 yards.
Please do not take this to mean that I want to argue with you if you shoot animals at 1000 yards.
Thank you and enjoy!!

​

The Equipment:
Rifle - Ruger American Predator: 6.5 Creedmoor
Scope - Vortex: Viper PST GEN II 5-25x50 (EBR-2C Reticle)
BiPod - Spartan Precision: Javelin (Long Version)
Ammo - Hornady: Precision Hunter 143 gr ELD-X

The Goal:
12" gong at 1000 yards.

I wanted to see if a regular, timber hunter who has never prepped for a shot past 300 yards could:
1. Hit a gong at 1000 yard.
2. With a reasonable amount of practice time
3. With a hunting setup
4. For a reasonable price

The Lack of Trust
I didn't trust that the levels were actually level, so I "trued" the two against each other.
I didn't trust the taper of the barrel and I didn't trust the scope caps, so I double-leveled the barrel.
I hung a long level on the wall and aligned the reticle before I cinched down the scope rings.

​

June 2nd: The first day at the range we zeroed at 200 and shot through the Chrono.
June 11th: The second time shooting. I re-verified at 200.
The first 3 rounds were just under 2" but I kind of fell apart after that.

​

June 12th was the toughest day of the journey.
I painted the gong and built a frame to hang it. The rest of the day was spent driving in search of a safe place to shoot.
I eventually found a great spot around 6 pm.
I had enough time to verify my 200 yd zero. It was good.
After 200, I stepped back to 400 but ran into more problems.
A data field in my shooting app had gotten wonky and my data was coming in crazy (asking for 24 MOA at 400yds ?!?)
Later that evening, I reset the defaults, re-entered my info and waited for sunrise.

June 13th.
I shot at 400 yds. I hit 2" low and dead center.

I pulled back to 1000. The best rest was at 1008 yards.
I cranked the dial and hit the gong first shot! (30.75 MOA)
How crazy is that?! I couldn't believe it.
It hit low center.

​

My next 2 shots were low off target. They were all grouped 4" wide and 6" deep.
I ran the app.
I ran some mental math.
Cranked up 2 clicks (from 30.75 to 31.25 MOA)
The next three shots were too high.
The first and second groups were almost evenly split.

I made a second correction.
Cranked down one click and split the difference. (31.00 MOA)
The next 2 shots were back to back hits! So gratifying...

​

After the last two hits, the winds picked up and I was out of the game. If you look in the top right corner of the picture above, you can see a pretty tight pattern by the mickey mouse ear. I'm not saying all 3 of those were from the same setting, but two of them were for sure. The winds were carrying me off target. I couldn't tell where I was hitting without driving down that off-road goat trail again, so I called it a success and came home.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to get out again before my 30 days are up.
When June ends, I'll be posting a full gear review.
If someone can help me figure out how to post videos... I can post clips of the successful hits.
Thanks for reading! Please chime in and tell me what you think about the process.
Maybe by the time we have a good visit, I'll have this barrel broke in ;-)

 

[BRTreedogs]

Off to a great start. Glad to see someone just jump into it. I was intimidated for years. Best thing I ever did was to just do it.

 

[elkguide]

Good shooting/planning.

Feels good to "kill" that gong at such a distance!

 

[Rob5589]

Nice shooting! As you found out, app data is just a starting point. Conditions change which can affect POI, which is the exact reason to keep a data book to log all pertinent info during the outing.

 

[orelkaddict]

You're off to a great start!! Be sure to have a notebook with for keeping notes on everything, it will help you in the future. Have fun ringing steel!!

 

[rope]

Good start to a very addicting hobby. I did not catch what app your using. Some apps allow for corrections, for instance start at 300y use your data dial up your E/W confirm data, correct/if any what needs to be. Then work up 100y increments to 800 then 50y increments until you get to where you want to stop.

Well done!

 

[Hmr]

I’ve had surprisingly good results with the ISnipe app. I was very skeptical when a buddy of mine was using it, but now I am a believer. Had first round impacts at 1k with a .308.

 

[rope]

JBM, Leica and applied ballistics are the three that I use, once each have been corrected using confirmation shots they are good. Last is gathering DOPE then making DOPE cards and attaching it to the rifle.

 

[Howard Mee]

Good start to a very addicting hobby. I did not catch what app your using. Some apps allow for corrections, for instance start at 300y use your data dial up your E/W confirm data, correct/if any what needs to be. Then work up 100y increments to 800 then 50y increments until you get to where you want to stop.

Well done!

I'm use Ballistic AE. It's not super high end, but it allows for multiple data adjustments. I like it do far.

 

[Howard Mee]

I'm planning on getting out again this Thursday-Saturday and doing some more shooting. I'll let you all know how it goes!

 

[907to406]

I'm use Ballistic AE. It's not super high end, but it allows for multiple data adjustments. I like it do far.

I ran Ballistic AE for quite a while but it continued to give me skewed data like you experienced while shooting at 400 yards so I switched to the "Shooter" app and it's been pretty consistent. Occasionally I'll reference Ballistic AE but for whatever reason it still continues to give me some insane dopes from time to time so Shooter is my go to now.

 

[Howard Mee]

I handed my brother the rifle @ 535 yds. 2 shots. 2 Hits.
I had 2 other buddies shoot the rifle at 325 yards. Both had hits on the gong.
Pretty much "plug and play" so far. I love this set up!

 

[Howard Mee]

Update: as of June 2nd I had never really shot past 250 yards, maybe? On July 15th, I’ll be slinging lead at Branded Rock Canyon attending one of their Precision Shooting Courses! Feels a bit like a whirlwind. I also feel a like the poor kid at the rich school. I spent more on ammunition this week than I did on the rifle itself… This Ruger American Predator is gonna get a workout.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Awesome man.
The knowledge is the power.

 

[robby denning]

Update: as of June 2nd I had never really shot past 250 yards, maybe? On July 15th, I’ll be slinging lead at Branded Rock Canyon attending one of their Precision Shooting Courses! Feels a bit like a whirlwind. I also feel a like the poor kid at the rich school. I spent more on ammunition this week than I did on the rifle itself… This Ruger American Predator is gonna get a workout.

I keep hearing about Branded Rock. I saw Broz was there last week. Let us know all about it and what you learn. We love pics too.

 

[Baron85]

The hardest part of long range is getting accurate data ( distance, wind, atmosphere) and then having accurate dope. The actual shooting part is not hard if you have someone giving you the data. My wife first time at 1k was easily hitting 12” steel and even hitting some clay pidgeons. My sister and brother in law same thing on the steel.

It is really impressive how far the sport has come and how much easier and cheaper it has gotten to get into the sport. When I started it was hard to find a factory rifle that could be consistent at 1k without a lot of upgrades or customs. Same with scopes. Now you can buy glass and rifle for under 1k each and they perform

 

[Howard Mee]

Branded Rock facilities are phenomenal. First class session is tonight.

 

[Howard Mee]

The hardest part of long range is getting accurate data ( distance, wind, atmosphere) and then having accurate dope. The actual shooting part is not hard if you have someone giving you the data. My wife first time at 1k was easily hitting 12” steel and even hitting some clay pidgeons. My sister and brother in law same thing on the steel.

It is really impressive how far the sport has come and how much easier and cheaper it has gotten to get into the sport. When I started it was hard to find a factory rifle that could be consistent at 1k without a lot of upgrades or customs. Same with scopes. Now you can buy glass and rifle for under 1k each and they perform

Agreed

 

[robby denning]

Branded Rock facilities are phenomenal. First class session is tonight.

Posh!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BRTreedogs]

Holly smokes $5900 smakers????
Sharpen that pencil and learn alot.