Shooting High

[DeadlyDilly]

Hey everyone! I'm new to shooting longer range! I have a sig kilo8k with applied Ballistics, and i have Strelok Pro. I have entered all the information about my gun into these calculators. I have a a Desert tech Srs M2 in .338 Lapua. Its a awesome gun and I love it.

My question is: If I'm zeroed at 100 yds and seem to be shooting high at 500 (haven't had time to really verify on a piece of paper) what exactly do I change on the calculator to get more dialed? I have heard of changing bullet coefficient and also FPS. If this is the case what way do I change these things to get better out come? How do I choose between fps and Bullet CO? Which way do I adjust these numbers to get the proper bullet movement?

I have had a hard time researching the proper answer for this and all the videos and articles I've looked into only barley touch the subject. Once I know what I'm doing ill go shoot targets at 500, 1000, and 1500 to try and get more dialed.

The reason I think I'm high is because i shot over a deer at 530 yards twice, then i aimed at bottom of his shoulder and nailed him dead on in lungs. I'm guessing I'm 6-8" high but will confirm once i knew the remade to fix the situation.

Thank you

 

[Matt Cashell]

You need to shoot at a target with a horizontal waterline and see where your impact is actually hitting compared to POA.

I tend to true the muzzle velocity.

Have you chronographed the load recently? New barrels tend to speed up a bit.

 

[SDHNTR]

Slow down. Stop shooting at animals until you have this figured out!

What are you using for velocity currently and how did you verify? Chronograph? Or did you shoot for drops (doesn’t sound like it)? Or did you just wing it (sounds like it)? How exactly did you confirm your zero?

 

[BjornF16]

1. Make sure your 100yd zero is accurate (unless you are TK-421, use a minimum 10 shot group)

2. Use MV Truing versus BC manipulation

See this thread for MV Truing description: https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/painless-load-development-mine.238400/page-9#post-2740195

 

[DeadlyDilly]

You need to shoot at a target with a horizontal waterline and see where your impact is actually hitting compared to POA.

I tend to true the muzzle velocity.

Have you chronographed the load recently? New barrels tend to speed up a bit.

Yes I've done a average mussel velocity of 10 shots on a lab radar dopler chrono I have not reloaded my own ammo for it yet

 

[Macintosh]

Triple check that your zero-distance is actually correct. If you are really zeroing at 98.4 or 101.2 yards, do not write 100 yards into your computer. I've only been to a handful of ranges where the "100 yard target" was actually at a true 100yards from my rifle on the bench as verified by my LRF. I was always told to true velocity out to 600-800 yds or so, and then as a second step to true using BC at longer range just above subsonic. I've always just trued using velocity though, the post in the link above is essentially what I have done with reasonable results.

 

[DeadlyDilly]

Slow down. Stop shooting at animals until you have this figured out!

What are you using for velocity currently and how did you verify? Chronograph? Or did you shoot for drops (doesn’t sound like it)? Or did you just wing it (sounds like it)? How exactly did you confirm your zero?

Killed 3 deer, an Elk, and a moose with it this year. Its fine under 250 yards but after that it starts to creep up. I use a Lab Radar Doppler chronograph which I did 10 shots and took the average velocity of those 10 and put into calculator. I have not done drops, and I did not wing it as far as I know. What do you mean how did I confirm my zero? Is there a different way to confirm other than shooting 100 YDS? I can stack holes at 100 yards all day long with it.

 

[JakeSCH]

Likely other things are in play to be 1.5 MOA high. Did you sight in at 100y on your tripod? Or did you sight in on a bench and take 500y shot on the tripod? Very different recoil


Also for the sigs, are you dead on a 100y or did you enter in the offset on the app? If you are high on paper it needs to be entered as a negative distance. I learned that the first time i stretched to 600y with my sig2400.

 

[DeadlyDilly]

Triple check that your zero-distance is actually correct. If you are really zeroing at 98.4 or 101.2 yards, do not write 100 yards into your computer. I've only been to a handful of ranges where the "100 yard target" was actually at a true 100yards from my rifle on the bench as verified by my LRF.

I do this at my own house and the barrel is at exactly 100 yds from target based off the Kilo8k

Likely other things are in play to be 1.5 MOA high. Did you sight in at 100y on your tripod? Or did you sight in on a bench and take 500y shot on the tripod? Very different recoil

Extremely good point i did not think of. I 0 off shooting prone. The deer I'm talking about was off the tripod. I will test tripod at 100 and see what happens.

 

[Flyjunky]

Have you verified anything past 100 yards or did you just get zero at 100, plugged your numbers into the calc., and then decided you were good to go at distance?

How good a gun shoots at 100 isn't necessarily going to tell you how it's going to do at longer ranges. You need to verify out to the distances you want to shoot first.

 

[SDHNTR]

Same lot of ammo?

 

[eric1115]

Step 1, confirm your zero. If it were me, I'd shoot 5 from prone if you are "stacking them" (i.e. a .75 or less 5 shot group. Next, check zero from the tripod. I'm guessing this is where the lion's share of the issue is. You say you're new to long range, I'm guessing your positional recoil management and natural point of aim are the culprit, especially with a .338 LM. Confirm exact range from scope (not muzzle) to target.

Step 2, confirm velocity. You mentioned using a LabRadar, so check your velocity while confirming zero.

Step 3, if your velocity and zero are spot on, check environmental inputs on your calculator. This is not going to be a big enough factor to cause those misses, but it may be a partial cause.

Step 4, and I can't stress this one enough, shoot a metric shitload of .223 or .308 before next hunting season. It would be hard to imagine a more perfect example of the "can't buy long range proficiency" sermon that gets preached here (and elsewhere) consistently. I'm not going to take the time to look up what your SRS/NF/can, RRS, Kilo 8K, plus ammo cost, but if you had added guessing 10-15% to that package and picked up a .308 or .223 Tikka and a case of ammo and shot it at distance in field conditions, 99% you'd have had that deer in one shot and 100% you'd be a better long range marksman.

 

[eric1115]

Also, when you say new to long range, what does that mean? What does your current stable of rifles look like? Do you have rifles that you can practice with more than you can with a 338? How much shooting at targets have you done past 500 yards?

How many rounds do you have through your 338? What ammo are you using?

 

[DeadlyDilly]

Shooting high with a 338 Lapua could easily be lack of recoil management over gear or solver issue.

Attached is the checklist from AB regarding setting up your solver. Make sure you're using the correct units. Specific to your question, and assuming there's no shooter/gear issues, adjust MV in supersonic and adjust BC in transonic to true your solver.

Ill check this out thank you

Have you verified anything past 100 yards or did you just get zero at 100, plugged your numbers into the calc., and then decided you were good to go at distance?

How good a gun shoots at 100 isn't necessarily going to tell you how it's going to do at longer ranges. You need to verify out to the distances you want to shoot first.

The farthest range I was able to shoot at before the season was 300 Yds. I don'thave pictures but it was shooting pretty nice at the time. It was a touch high tho maybe a inch or so. I didn't know enough to really mess with it at the time.

Same lot of ammo?

Yes sir

Step 1, confirm your zero. If it were me, I'd shoot 5 from prone if you are "stacking them" (i.e. a .75 or less 5 shot group. Next, check zero from the tripod. I'm guessing this is where the lion's share of the issue is. You say you're new to long range, I'm guessing your positional recoil management and natural point of aim are the culprit, especially with a .338 LM. Confirm exact range from scope (not muzzle) to target.

Step 2, confirm velocity. You mentioned using a LabRadar, so check your velocity while confirming zero.

Step 3, if your velocity and zero are spot on, check environmental inputs on your calculator. This is not going to be a big enough factor to cause those misses, but it may be a partial cause.

Step 4, and I can't stress this one enough, shoot a metric shitload of .223 or .308 before next hunting season. It would be hard to imagine a more perfect example of the "can't buy long range proficiency" sermon that gets preached here (and elsewhere) consistently. I'm not going to take the time to look up what your SRS/NF/can, RRS, Kilo 8K, plus ammo cost, but if you had added guessing 10-15% to that package and picked up a .308 or .223 Tikka and a case of ammo and shot it at distance in field conditions, 99% you'd have had that deer in one shot and 100% you'd be a better long range marksman.

I will confirm range from scope next time instead of barrel. I do think the tripod and recoil management is a big issue I ran outside and shot 5 rounds a few minutes ago and they were kind of all over the place for 100 yds, once it stops raining as much ill shoot 5 prone. I did 16 shots with my 6.5 PRC on the tripod as well and bullets were touching so maybe its more so recoil than anything. The angle i was shooting at the deer was pretty steep as well so that could have been a factor with recoil.

I will use the 6.5 PRC to shoot more and become a better long range marksman. I'm not trying to buy the proficiency I understand I'm the biggest flaw out of all my equipment that said I do shoot a lot and have been shooting for many years and something with this deer just felt off and I have been trying to learn this calculator as well so that I can eventually true it up even if its not the problem in this case.



Here are the shots I just did off the tripod (standing) with .338 and 6.5 PRC. The 6.5 was off .5 Mils and has been adjusted I'm also a very shaky person I have had a lot of trouble even holding binoculars since I was little. Now I put them on a tripod and it works well. The gun on a tripod might just be a personal issue for me in general. With the 6.5 being about 7 Pounds lighter I was really able to hold it more steady but I get side to side movement on both.

 

[DeadlyDilly]

Also, when you say new to long range, what does that mean? What does your current stable of rifles look like? Do you have rifles that you can practice with more than you can with a 338? How much shooting at targets have you done past 500 yards?

How many rounds do you have through your 338? What ammo are you using?

It means im new to all the fancy stuff. Range finders, tripods, nightforce, Ballistic calculators and all that brings, the math and terms. Before the current setup I used a 7mm with a Shepard scope on it and would just hold based off what fit in the circle.

Don't really shoot at many targets but I'm changing that, the main reason was I live in WA and the rules for target practice on public land is basically you cant target practice. Longest range within 4 hours is 300 yds. Im also a generational hunter and my father and grandfather taught me everything I know and they both would prefer Iron sites on a 30-30 instead of the stuff were talking about lol.

Probably have shot 150 or so I've only had it 2 years and the first year I was busy running my company instead of shooting but now I have more help and have more time for practice!

 

[ID_Matt]

Like @TK-421 mentioned, my bet would be a positional or recoil issue. A suppressed 338 Lapua isn't exactly a kitty cat, and is going to be fairly sensitive to body position and recoil management.

But before I did anything, I wouldn't just assume its high because of a few shots on game in probably an awkward position. I would go verify first. If you are still shooting high, double check the basics - perfect zero and velocity. 1.5 MOA off would be a lot of velocity or BC to adjust out

 

[ID_Matt]

I can stack holes at 100 yards all day long with it.

Bet ya a dollar

 

[SDHNTR]

Most importantly, don’t shoot when you’re high!

 

[Flyjunky]

I’ll say it again. You don’t know anything until you know what it’s doing at distance. Put it on paper at 500-600 so you know exactly what is happening.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Tall target test? Is the scope dialing accurately?