I'm almost brand new to this sport and I'm starting to shoot at a 1000 yds now. I'm not hitting it consistently yet. Unfortunately, I don't have a partner who can look through my spotting scope and tell me if I'm missing left, right, high, or low. I'm shooting a 6.5 CM and the recoil makes it impossible for me to see where the shot hit unless it makes new paint dents or rips the paper. But if the shot is so wide that it misses the target I often can't tell where it went. Sometimes no dirt kicks up or I'm moving my scope all around and just can't tell where I hit so I can adjust. I've seen some spotting scopes with cell phones or cameras attached to them to video the shot which can then be replayed...but in testing some of them at the range I'm not good enough to see where wide shots hit all the time. It does seem as the more experience people can look at the same image and see the shot far more often but I'm not there yet. I came across ShotMarker (https://autotrickler.com/pages/shotmarker) and that seems pretty close to what I'm looking for...but in the YouTube videos it only shows the ShotMarker showing shots that hit the target. I assume that I could rig the ShotMarker's sensors to be far wider than just the target (say 6' x 6', or whatever the maximum is) to capture both shots on and off target. This is a lot of text to ask, What is the best way for me to be able to consistently learn if my shots are wide, up, down, etc.?
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Best tools for spotting shots?
- Thread starter rogerg12
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Sounds like you need a little help with your fundementals as you should not be coming so far off target from recoil that you can not see impacts at 1000 yards. What rifle and scope? What power are you on? Do you have a brake?
First things first, if your position is disturbed by the recoil of a 6.5CM, your position sucks. Get some professional instruction, sign up for the online training, do something about that right now.
Target placement and backdrop will certainly affect the ability to see impact. Seeing trace is a learned skill, you need to spend some time on a quality spotting scope watching shots go down range. You need to understand the trajectory and WHERE you should be looking in the scope and how it should be focused. You look above the target, at the max ordinate point and about half the value of the wind call up wind. One of the reasons we run thePR7 class in teams like we do is you learn just as much from spotting as you do by shooting. Even if you just sit behind some random shooter at a match, get some time in learning how to spot trace.
Camera systems vary in their ability based on resolution. An iPhone 6 on a spotter is about the minimum for really seeing well.
The Shotmarker frame can be made quite large, but it must be very stiff. I use them for the XLR class and have the 1500m frame 8'x10' to use with a 15" aiming point, suspended on the frame by strapping tape. I can't say enough good things about the Shotmarker.
Target placement and backdrop will certainly affect the ability to see impact. Seeing trace is a learned skill, you need to spend some time on a quality spotting scope watching shots go down range. You need to understand the trajectory and WHERE you should be looking in the scope and how it should be focused. You look above the target, at the max ordinate point and about half the value of the wind call up wind. One of the reasons we run thePR7 class in teams like we do is you learn just as much from spotting as you do by shooting. Even if you just sit behind some random shooter at a match, get some time in learning how to spot trace.
Camera systems vary in their ability based on resolution. An iPhone 6 on a spotter is about the minimum for really seeing well.
The Shotmarker frame can be made quite large, but it must be very stiff. I use them for the XLR class and have the 1500m frame 8'x10' to use with a 15" aiming point, suspended on the frame by strapping tape. I can't say enough good things about the Shotmarker.
What they said^^^^^
If your not seeing your impacts with a 6.5 your positional fundamentals need work.
Even with my 338 I easily see hits and misses in my scope.
Wasn’t always so but I got some good instruction and a lot of practice.
If your not seeing your impacts with a 6.5 your positional fundamentals need work.
Even with my 338 I easily see hits and misses in my scope.
Wasn’t always so but I got some good instruction and a lot of practice.
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Begara B-14 6.5CM, scope is Athlon Cronus BTR 4.5-29x56, and I'm usually on 29 (perhaps that's the problem), no brake, yet.
I have taken two professional classes and neither instructor said anything was wrong about my position. I have a quality spotting scope, I think. It's a Athlon Optics Argos HD 20-60x85 spotting scope. I did a fair amount of sitting behind different scopes and iphone6 setups while my co-students shot and that's when I learned I'm not yet great at spotting the shots. The instructors probably saw 90-95% of the shots and I was lucky to see 50% of them. I'm thinking from the above poster's comment that maybe dialing down my magnification from 29 might help me stay on target when the recoil happens.
Thanks for all your comments.
Personally that's way too zoomed in. You really should be at 18-20x which should still be plenty for long range. Lots of guys run at ~15x which should help spot impacts and trace.
Thanks, I think that is the consensus of what I'm doing wrong. Thanks, everyone, for your comments.
Yeah drop the power down a little but even at 29x you shouldn’t be so far off target that you can’t see the hits. Pick up a brake and try it out. The rifle is threaded so a good self timing brake will be easy to put on. Between the brake and dialing down a little you should be able to spot your own shots.
