Recently missed a caribou on a hunt of a lifetime. What caused the miss?

[Elite]

Did you get out and check your zero?

Heading out now, Got delayed yesterday


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[The Guide]

Heading out now, Got delayed yesterday


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Not now. Did you verify your zero upon landing in camp and before you went on your hunt? Always verify an in the field zero after flying! Lots of forces are placed on mechanical equipment during takeoff and landing.

Jay

 

[MallardSX2]

You suck at shooting. Get closer.

 

[HuntHarder]

Good ole' MallardSX2 with yet another Dipshit comment. You are on a roll with contributing nothing....

OP- Check zero and get back to us

 

[rickyw]

I didn’t read every response here, but how was the wind? Could the thermals have pushed the bullet closer to the mountainside and therefore under the belly?

 

[Wrench]

I just ran the numbers on my 260ai which is very close to what you are shooting. 32* drops me to 4moa at 400yds.

That puts 12" of daylight on your reticle.....

Food for thought.

 

[Wiscgunner]

I’m curious why you think my ballistics were not tested and verified?


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No ill intent meant, simply assumption because you haven’t given us much data to go on.

What was you mv with that rifle/ammo?
What was your predicted holds for wind?
How much wind was there?
What direction was the wind?
Was there an up draft or down draft?
Was the rifle completely dry?
Was it raining?
Had it rained?
What solver are you using?
Scope height input?


Such a limited amount of info in the original post asks the readers to simply guess and assume But if you really want help identifying the problem a better description of your scenario would allow readers to attempt to replicate you situation. This would help eliminate data setup. Retesting the rifle after to check zero would help identify equipment issues as well as disassembling the rifle from the stock to see if you have collected junk in the barrel channel. Info about your scope mounting procedure such as torque specs, rings used, witness marks, etc would also help diagnose your issue.

 

[Laramie]

These threads...smh. To the op, did you really expect to find an answer here that wasn't critical? Why not answer the questions from the guys trying to help you find the answer? My gut tells me Mallards was likely correct.

 

[The Guide]

These threads...smh. To the op, did you really expect to find an answer here that wasn't critical? Why not answer the questions from the guys trying to help you find the answer? My gut tells me Mallards was likely correct.

To get 7.4 MOA come up at 410 yards with a 32⁰ look angle, I had to take the 140 ELDM down to 2465 FPS. I think an input is wrong in his calculations. If you assume a 110 fps loss from a 20" barrel and box velocity being overstated, the same drop at 32⁰ and 410 yards is 6.5 MOA. If you say he has a fast barrel and a lot of fast ammo that gives actual box velocity of 2710 you get a 5.9 MOA drop at 410 yards. All signs point to him having shot over with his calculations, not under. My assumptions are scope didn't hold zero and zero wasn't verified in camp before hunting, range finder gave a bad range, or something in the shot process is causing error at that distance.

Jay

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Heading out now, Got delayed yesterday


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What’s the word?

 

[Nine Banger]

What’s the word?

We're all waiting.

 

[Jason Snyder]

you get a 5.9 MOA drop at 410 yards

But that’s only 6” difference in POI, I wouldn’t think that would cause a complete miss on a caribou. They are fairly deep top to bottom, correct?

 

[Elite]

Not now. Did you verify your zero upon landing in camp and before you went on your hunt? Always verify an in the field zero after flying! Lots of forces are placed on mechanical equipment during takeoff and landing.

Jay

Yes I did then also.


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[atmat]

I’m betting against the Leica, personally.

Sorry to hear this OP. Major bummer but you’ll bounce back!

 

[Elite]

Checked zero and it was good at 100 yards. Unable to take a long shot due to the range I was at.

So with the range finder not in line of sight mode and it using rifle mode which takes the angle into effect and spits out the correct yardage for the shot. I still got 7.4 moa on my dope card.

MV is 2615 fps and factory 140eldm

There was hardly any wind at the moment so I did not hold for it


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[rickyw]

Could be the range finder

 

[Lawnboi]

Could be the range finder

Ranging up hill is also difficult, easily pick up something in front of the animal

 

[mtnbound]

Checked zero and it was good at 100 yards. Unable to take a long shot due to the range I was at.

So with the range finder not in line of sight mode and it using rifle mode which takes the angle into effect and spits out the correct yardage for the shot. I still got 7.4 moa on my dope card.

MV is 2615 fps and factory 140eldm

There was hardly any wind at the moment so I did not hold for it


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Not knowing all of the environmental details but using your MV and bullet. I get 4.9-5.7MOA.


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[eric1115]

Your shoot-to was 410? That means your LOS distance was around 580 yards if the angle was 32° by my calculations (ballistic, not trigonometric) to get the same elevation correction in my calculator.

Trig function puts the LOS at ~485 to get a horizontal distance of 410.

That's a pretty big discrepancy between EHR and a LOS/angle solution.

Regardless, a high angle, 500 - 600 yard shot is no chip shot by my estimation. You should stop thinking of it as a 400 yard shot.

 

[ljalberta]

Based on some quick test runs with only partial information. 4DOF and Shooter are giving me different come ups. Closer to 7 moa with shooter and closer to 4.5 moa with 4DOF (garbage in, garbage out). In my experience, if something was incorrectly entered, you can get some wacky results from some of the calculators.

I didn’t complete all the info and I don’t know the details of your particular shot.

I would guess either shoot error or calculator error if the scope has retained zero and accurately tracks.

I should note that this is based on the distance being an actual 410 yards. And 410 not being the angle-compensated distance that your rangefinder provided.