Weather around here was actually decent today, 45-50 and sunny. Grabbed my FN and field pack and went out to practice at a local friend's farm.
Setup in the haymow of his barn, overlooking a river. On the far side was an inactive construction site against the hill with a couple of 55 gallon drums used as burn barrels. The sun was bright and the range in excess of 700 yards, so the laser rangefinder was out. After verifying my zero on a poor shrub at 530 yards, I moved to the drums...
One drum was upright, but its bottom partially obscured; the other lay on its side at about a 30 degree angle to me. I mil'ed the drum length to be 1.0 mils; a 55 gallon drum is 35" tall; the MilDot Master sez 975 yards. I dials in 36 minutes of elevation allowing an extra MOA against my ballistic table for the cool dense air and taking a click out for a slight full value tailwind. I send a 175 grain SMK downrange, only to see it plink in the bank way above the can. I take out two moa, and send two more downrange, but don't observe a strike.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Time to move from firing point to target point, about a 3K round trip allowing for finding fjording points on the river. The long and the short, no strikes on the barrel, and no discernible bullet impacts in the soft, cow-shortened pasture around it.
Finally arriving back at the barn with my boots half full of water, it is now after 4:00pm and the sun is starting to hide behind clouds on the horizon. Lo and behold, I can now range the drum with my rangefinder.
837 yards. (!!!!!)
WTF.
Then it hits me; <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">the barrel I mil'ed was lying at an angle to me. I wasn't milling it's true length.</span></span> The angle was enough to make the barrel appear only a little under 30 inches high, and that 5 inch error was good for a 150 yard error in range estimation.
Lesson learned.
Oh: I sent one last round to the barrel with 26moa elevation in the scope, and was greeted by an eruption of Busch and Miller Lite Beer Cans out of the top of the barrel as the round made obvious contact with barrel center mass.
The School of Hard Knocks and Experience, one never graduates.
Setup in the haymow of his barn, overlooking a river. On the far side was an inactive construction site against the hill with a couple of 55 gallon drums used as burn barrels. The sun was bright and the range in excess of 700 yards, so the laser rangefinder was out. After verifying my zero on a poor shrub at 530 yards, I moved to the drums...
One drum was upright, but its bottom partially obscured; the other lay on its side at about a 30 degree angle to me. I mil'ed the drum length to be 1.0 mils; a 55 gallon drum is 35" tall; the MilDot Master sez 975 yards. I dials in 36 minutes of elevation allowing an extra MOA against my ballistic table for the cool dense air and taking a click out for a slight full value tailwind. I send a 175 grain SMK downrange, only to see it plink in the bank way above the can. I take out two moa, and send two more downrange, but don't observe a strike.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Time to move from firing point to target point, about a 3K round trip allowing for finding fjording points on the river. The long and the short, no strikes on the barrel, and no discernible bullet impacts in the soft, cow-shortened pasture around it.
Finally arriving back at the barn with my boots half full of water, it is now after 4:00pm and the sun is starting to hide behind clouds on the horizon. Lo and behold, I can now range the drum with my rangefinder.
837 yards. (!!!!!)
WTF.
Then it hits me; <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">the barrel I mil'ed was lying at an angle to me. I wasn't milling it's true length.</span></span> The angle was enough to make the barrel appear only a little under 30 inches high, and that 5 inch error was good for a 150 yard error in range estimation.
Lesson learned.
Oh: I sent one last round to the barrel with 26moa elevation in the scope, and was greeted by an eruption of Busch and Miller Lite Beer Cans out of the top of the barrel as the round made obvious contact with barrel center mass.
The School of Hard Knocks and Experience, one never graduates.
