Ventured out for the now 3rd Annual Parma Mile shoot. Driving in it was looking a little sketchy, the fog was hanging low and visibility was 100 to 200yds, the dew point was the same as the temp so the it was hanging in there, but once the sun came up it burned mostly off... kinda of, as we were shooting, where we were at it was clearing up but the target position had fog rolling in over the hill and was making the target a little hazy, especially the farther we moved out.
FYI: We use a target camera system for spotting with a TV...
The Targets 48" plate, and 24" plate, and antenna and camera system behind steel plates... 48" is the choice for today.
Today's match was at 4 firing position's, and I added a 5th position for kicks... 1405/1758/1995/2215 and just for fun...2634yds... (That's 1.5 miles, well 7yds short, but I'm rounding up. ;D)
Today was the first time I had my 338 Edge put together with all my gear and shot the mile, so I started the day with a quick trip to the 100yd line for a field zero.
Gear Review: Savage Action, PacNor Barrell 1:10 twist 28" with a custom 5 gill brake, Choate USS stock, Rifle Basix trigger at 1.75lb's, 20 MOA EGW base... I just ordered in a set of Barrett ExRings with a 20/30MOA adjustable slope, and a Bushnell 3.5-21x50 with a G2 Reticle.
I set the Barrett rings at the 30 MOA setting, so that gave me 50 MOA on the rifle or 14.5 mils. The scope has 34.4 mils of adjustment, I did some math and thought that I would be able to zero the rifle with the 14.5 slope base about 2.7 mils off the bottom of the turret at 100yds... I was wrong
With that amount of slope, my zero is at 250yds... BUT the good news is, this is a Extreme long range rifle, so having a 250yd zero doesn't bother me, and that gives me all 34.4 mils of adjustment in the scope to shoot which is around 2500yds before I have to goto holdovers on the scope... life is good... zero complete, let's go get some data to true the load at 1400 and shoot.
1400 Yards - Actual 1405yds, Rob had the fancy Vectronix Laser range finder... love that piece of gear.
View thru 40x spotting scope at 1400 yards...
Time 1000/Temp 30deg/Station 27.46/Humidty 50% (not actually, I just always use 50%)/ Shooting at approx 285degrees at 43.830 for coriolis
Wind: Tricky... at shooting position it was 5mph tailwind, at the target, when we started the wind flag was not moving...
Dope: 10.7/.5L Final Dope 11.7/.5L
First shot was low by a mil... this was a truing shoot so I dialed one more mil to 11.7, and followed up with 4 hits on the 48" gong hits were center and to the left
Entered the data in Shooter to true the data and off we went to the mile position
1760 Yards - Actual 1758 (The Mile Shot) If you zoom in on the photo, you can see the gongs on the hillside...
Time 1045/Temp 40deg/Station 27.43
Wind: Tricky again, blowing at the target around 5mph, nothing at the shooting position.
Dope: 17.1/.5L Final Dope 17.1/0
First shot was good elevation, but off the left edge... took the .5mil of wind out for zero wind, and hit the next 2, 4th shot was just off left edge and holding right edge I hit the 5th shot. Wind picked up at the target, and I didn't catch it.
2000 Yards - Actual 1995
Time 1130/Temp 40deg/Station 27.41
Wind: Same as before, still or tailwind at shooting position, wind blowing right to left at target at times.
Dope: 22.1/.5L Final Dope 21.6/.5L
First shot was high, just over target, dialed back .5 mil and proceed to crank out 4 more shots on target... center and left of center target. This was feeling really good... although, after the 15th shot I was starting to feel the recoil. Inputed new holds to true the data further on Shooter. Calculated speed was 2830fps, and we are super sonic to 2050, so from here on out we enter the transonic and subsonic areas of bullet flight... I am using G7 BC's.
2200 Yards - Actual 2215
Time 1230/Temp 38/Station 27.38
Wind: Same... still at shooting location, and right to left at target
Dope 26.9/.7L - Final Dope 26.5/.7L
First shot was high, in fact I hit the frame holding the gong, but wind was good. I was using zero wind, and only adjusting for Spin and Coriolis. Correction was made, down .4mil to 26.5... next shot was a hit towards the bottom of the gong and the next 3 were misses, but just off the bottom, and tried holding high and sent one back over the gong. On one of the shots I wasn't paying attention to my scope level, and the scope was canted when i pulled the trigger, I attribute that to one of the misses... the others to wind... at 2200 the wind starts pushing my 300gr Berger OTM around, much more than it was at the closer distances... this is also in the transonic zone and the bullet is not as stable... at least that's my observation... maybe I just need to shoot more at this distance. ;D
That concluded the match, a lot of fun, the 338 really gives you the confidence at distance, when I was using the 308, while it was fun to poke at a mile... and I was successful with it, I just didn't have the confidence that I find I have with the 338 Edge... once I get on... life is good.
Now the bonus shot!!! Since we had the target camera out, and I had bullets remaining, and Rob was with us with the laser range finder that works... we went to the top of the farthest hill that we can shoot from and see the target...
Range 2634yds... 1.5 miles is 2640yds... I am going to round this shot up to 1.5 miles and call it within the margin of error 8)
I got as far back as possible on the hill, looking thru the scope I was looking thru the grass and could just barely make out the white blob at the target... it was not very clear, it was 130pm and the mirage was coming into play and at 21power on the scope, the mirage and the little haze at the target made for a very difficult view.
I run out of elevation at 34.4 mils, that's 2500 yards, and I need 38.5 for 2634... I set the scope at 34 mils, and then used the G2 reticle to hold the 4.5 mils that I needed, which was available to me at 21x with the FFP reticle... I really like this scope and reticle, while it was not clear thru the grass and mirage, I'm not sure any scope would be clear at this distance... this last fall I used a Premier Scope and dialing it back to around 18x at 2600 was still hazy... but that's 3x the price of this scope.
The G2 has hold over's every .5 mil, so holding 4.5 was easy... 1L of wind was called for, and that was correct. The spotters were on the TV and looking thru some glass, so off we went.
First shot - No call, they thought it was high
Second shot - Holding 4 mils on center of target - Low, wind good, just under it
Third shot - Holding 4.5 mils on bottom of target - Low/Right... just off of corner.
Fourth Shot - Same hold, left edge - Low but good wind
Remember... I'm hold on a fuzzy object that is bare visible thru the tall grass, I should have moved forward 20 yards, but I wanted the 1.5 mile hit.
Fifth Shot - Same hold, left edge.. favoring the bottom 1/4 as much as I could. HIT!
It took me 5 more shots to get back on target, the next few shots, it didn't dawn on me that I had switched from the loads I had just put together to the loads that the previous owner had loaded... different lots of H1000, possible slightly different brass... these shots were higher so they were going faster... and I ended getting my last hit at 1.5 miles with a 3.5mil hold on the bottom of the plate... zero wind.
Life is good, I'm lobing them in there at 1.5miles, and needed the spotters to do it, but I'm happy, happy, happy as they say... 1.5 mils with a 338 Edge, and probably one of the cheaper ELR rifle setups you can put together. Yes indeed, Happy Thanksgiving!
FYI: We use a target camera system for spotting with a TV...
The Targets 48" plate, and 24" plate, and antenna and camera system behind steel plates... 48" is the choice for today.
Today's match was at 4 firing position's, and I added a 5th position for kicks... 1405/1758/1995/2215 and just for fun...2634yds... (That's 1.5 miles, well 7yds short, but I'm rounding up. ;D)
Today was the first time I had my 338 Edge put together with all my gear and shot the mile, so I started the day with a quick trip to the 100yd line for a field zero.
Gear Review: Savage Action, PacNor Barrell 1:10 twist 28" with a custom 5 gill brake, Choate USS stock, Rifle Basix trigger at 1.75lb's, 20 MOA EGW base... I just ordered in a set of Barrett ExRings with a 20/30MOA adjustable slope, and a Bushnell 3.5-21x50 with a G2 Reticle.
I set the Barrett rings at the 30 MOA setting, so that gave me 50 MOA on the rifle or 14.5 mils. The scope has 34.4 mils of adjustment, I did some math and thought that I would be able to zero the rifle with the 14.5 slope base about 2.7 mils off the bottom of the turret at 100yds... I was wrong
With that amount of slope, my zero is at 250yds... BUT the good news is, this is a Extreme long range rifle, so having a 250yd zero doesn't bother me, and that gives me all 34.4 mils of adjustment in the scope to shoot which is around 2500yds before I have to goto holdovers on the scope... life is good... zero complete, let's go get some data to true the load at 1400 and shoot.1400 Yards - Actual 1405yds, Rob had the fancy Vectronix Laser range finder... love that piece of gear.
View thru 40x spotting scope at 1400 yards...
Time 1000/Temp 30deg/Station 27.46/Humidty 50% (not actually, I just always use 50%)/ Shooting at approx 285degrees at 43.830 for coriolis
Wind: Tricky... at shooting position it was 5mph tailwind, at the target, when we started the wind flag was not moving...
Dope: 10.7/.5L Final Dope 11.7/.5L
First shot was low by a mil... this was a truing shoot so I dialed one more mil to 11.7, and followed up with 4 hits on the 48" gong hits were center and to the left
Entered the data in Shooter to true the data and off we went to the mile position
1760 Yards - Actual 1758 (The Mile Shot) If you zoom in on the photo, you can see the gongs on the hillside...
Time 1045/Temp 40deg/Station 27.43
Wind: Tricky again, blowing at the target around 5mph, nothing at the shooting position.
Dope: 17.1/.5L Final Dope 17.1/0
First shot was good elevation, but off the left edge... took the .5mil of wind out for zero wind, and hit the next 2, 4th shot was just off left edge and holding right edge I hit the 5th shot. Wind picked up at the target, and I didn't catch it.
2000 Yards - Actual 1995
Time 1130/Temp 40deg/Station 27.41
Wind: Same as before, still or tailwind at shooting position, wind blowing right to left at target at times.
Dope: 22.1/.5L Final Dope 21.6/.5L
First shot was high, just over target, dialed back .5 mil and proceed to crank out 4 more shots on target... center and left of center target. This was feeling really good... although, after the 15th shot I was starting to feel the recoil. Inputed new holds to true the data further on Shooter. Calculated speed was 2830fps, and we are super sonic to 2050, so from here on out we enter the transonic and subsonic areas of bullet flight... I am using G7 BC's.
2200 Yards - Actual 2215
Time 1230/Temp 38/Station 27.38
Wind: Same... still at shooting location, and right to left at target
Dope 26.9/.7L - Final Dope 26.5/.7L
First shot was high, in fact I hit the frame holding the gong, but wind was good. I was using zero wind, and only adjusting for Spin and Coriolis. Correction was made, down .4mil to 26.5... next shot was a hit towards the bottom of the gong and the next 3 were misses, but just off the bottom, and tried holding high and sent one back over the gong. On one of the shots I wasn't paying attention to my scope level, and the scope was canted when i pulled the trigger, I attribute that to one of the misses... the others to wind... at 2200 the wind starts pushing my 300gr Berger OTM around, much more than it was at the closer distances... this is also in the transonic zone and the bullet is not as stable... at least that's my observation... maybe I just need to shoot more at this distance. ;D
That concluded the match, a lot of fun, the 338 really gives you the confidence at distance, when I was using the 308, while it was fun to poke at a mile... and I was successful with it, I just didn't have the confidence that I find I have with the 338 Edge... once I get on... life is good.
Now the bonus shot!!! Since we had the target camera out, and I had bullets remaining, and Rob was with us with the laser range finder that works... we went to the top of the farthest hill that we can shoot from and see the target...
Range 2634yds... 1.5 miles is 2640yds... I am going to round this shot up to 1.5 miles and call it within the margin of error 8)
I got as far back as possible on the hill, looking thru the scope I was looking thru the grass and could just barely make out the white blob at the target... it was not very clear, it was 130pm and the mirage was coming into play and at 21power on the scope, the mirage and the little haze at the target made for a very difficult view.
I run out of elevation at 34.4 mils, that's 2500 yards, and I need 38.5 for 2634... I set the scope at 34 mils, and then used the G2 reticle to hold the 4.5 mils that I needed, which was available to me at 21x with the FFP reticle... I really like this scope and reticle, while it was not clear thru the grass and mirage, I'm not sure any scope would be clear at this distance... this last fall I used a Premier Scope and dialing it back to around 18x at 2600 was still hazy... but that's 3x the price of this scope.
The G2 has hold over's every .5 mil, so holding 4.5 was easy... 1L of wind was called for, and that was correct. The spotters were on the TV and looking thru some glass, so off we went.
First shot - No call, they thought it was high
Second shot - Holding 4 mils on center of target - Low, wind good, just under it
Third shot - Holding 4.5 mils on bottom of target - Low/Right... just off of corner.
Fourth Shot - Same hold, left edge - Low but good wind
Remember... I'm hold on a fuzzy object that is bare visible thru the tall grass, I should have moved forward 20 yards, but I wanted the 1.5 mile hit.
Fifth Shot - Same hold, left edge.. favoring the bottom 1/4 as much as I could. HIT!
It took me 5 more shots to get back on target, the next few shots, it didn't dawn on me that I had switched from the loads I had just put together to the loads that the previous owner had loaded... different lots of H1000, possible slightly different brass... these shots were higher so they were going faster... and I ended getting my last hit at 1.5 miles with a 3.5mil hold on the bottom of the plate... zero wind.
Life is good, I'm lobing them in there at 1.5miles, and needed the spotters to do it, but I'm happy, happy, happy as they say... 1.5 mils with a 338 Edge, and probably one of the cheaper ELR rifle setups you can put together. Yes indeed, Happy Thanksgiving!
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