Yesterday I took the LMT 20" 6.5cm out. I am shooting factory hornady 140gr ELD-M ammo. Right now the barrel has 100-120rds of this ammo (and only this ammo) through it, so my MV is a little slow, trued with AB app to 2514FPS out to 700 yards. Everything from 300 to 700 was no problem. 900 made me look like a fool.
The shooting line and targets to 700yds are in the wide open fields. The wind was coming from left to right gusting from 4-12mph, and the wind would switch from 12 to 10clock. My gun appears to be a 6mph gun based on my holds.
The 900yd targets are surrounded by trees and not in the open at all. The mirage at 700 was horizontal but the mirage at 900 was difficult to see (10x binos and Mk5 5-25). The 10x binos weren't strong enough to see mirage at 900 and Mk5 was the same result. If I cranked up the magnification, it didn't seem like I was cutting through the 700yd mirage, so backing down the magnification I watched the vegetation and trees.
According to my AB app, I should've been around 1.2mils for a 6mph wind at 900 from 10clock. I tried bracketing the plate C-zone silhouette giving more room in case the wind was stronger. Since it's all trees and tall grass, I couldn't spot any splash. I could not see bullet trace either. I was on about 17x at 900. I went bold and put my 2mil marker on the center of the plate thinking it may hit left or right. Nothing. I could see the horizontal mirage at 700 and vegetation moving, plus my wind at my shooting position. I started watching this patch of small trees about 40 yards in front of the 900 yard targets. These trees would either be standing still or would whip around in a 360* manner. So I started reducing my wind call thinking I was adding too much. I started getting desperate and would hold .75 (PR2 reticle) and even just left edge hoping to get some indicator. I tried splitting the difference between wind at my position and what the vegetation was showing at 900. Nothing.
After much frustration, I drove down to the 700 yard targets and felt the wind was doing the exact opposite of my shooting position. It would go from 12 to 2clock and velocity was less. Over a few hours of shooting, I spent 60rds of ammo total from 300 to 900. So I was doing my best to take the time to evaluate wind conditions, switch from binos to scope while observing mirage and veg.
I did get hits on the big square plate at 900 but I couldn't see any new impacts or paint splash on the target. I just placed my center dot on the left edge which gave me almost 2mils worth of windage on the plate. I was at a loss doping that wind at 900 today.
Long story short, what methods do you use for shooting at targets that are sucked into tree lines with vegetation showing nothing to whipping around? I owned it from 300-700 but after that I got my teeth kicked in.
I included a photo of the range that was taken through my leupold 10x binos with gopro camera. The 700 yard targets are on the left. I was shooting the silhouette to the right of the square plate. At 900, I was shooting the silhouette under #4 and circle plate at #6.
The shooting line and targets to 700yds are in the wide open fields. The wind was coming from left to right gusting from 4-12mph, and the wind would switch from 12 to 10clock. My gun appears to be a 6mph gun based on my holds.
The 900yd targets are surrounded by trees and not in the open at all. The mirage at 700 was horizontal but the mirage at 900 was difficult to see (10x binos and Mk5 5-25). The 10x binos weren't strong enough to see mirage at 900 and Mk5 was the same result. If I cranked up the magnification, it didn't seem like I was cutting through the 700yd mirage, so backing down the magnification I watched the vegetation and trees.
According to my AB app, I should've been around 1.2mils for a 6mph wind at 900 from 10clock. I tried bracketing the plate C-zone silhouette giving more room in case the wind was stronger. Since it's all trees and tall grass, I couldn't spot any splash. I could not see bullet trace either. I was on about 17x at 900. I went bold and put my 2mil marker on the center of the plate thinking it may hit left or right. Nothing. I could see the horizontal mirage at 700 and vegetation moving, plus my wind at my shooting position. I started watching this patch of small trees about 40 yards in front of the 900 yard targets. These trees would either be standing still or would whip around in a 360* manner. So I started reducing my wind call thinking I was adding too much. I started getting desperate and would hold .75 (PR2 reticle) and even just left edge hoping to get some indicator. I tried splitting the difference between wind at my position and what the vegetation was showing at 900. Nothing.
After much frustration, I drove down to the 700 yard targets and felt the wind was doing the exact opposite of my shooting position. It would go from 12 to 2clock and velocity was less. Over a few hours of shooting, I spent 60rds of ammo total from 300 to 900. So I was doing my best to take the time to evaluate wind conditions, switch from binos to scope while observing mirage and veg.
I did get hits on the big square plate at 900 but I couldn't see any new impacts or paint splash on the target. I just placed my center dot on the left edge which gave me almost 2mils worth of windage on the plate. I was at a loss doping that wind at 900 today.
Long story short, what methods do you use for shooting at targets that are sucked into tree lines with vegetation showing nothing to whipping around? I owned it from 300-700 but after that I got my teeth kicked in.
I included a photo of the range that was taken through my leupold 10x binos with gopro camera. The 700 yard targets are on the left. I was shooting the silhouette to the right of the square plate. At 900, I was shooting the silhouette under #4 and circle plate at #6.
