View Single Post
Old December 26, 2012, 09:41 AM   #5
solocam72
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 15, 2012
Location: Great Northwest
Posts: 222
I toatally agree!! I've been an avid reloader and shooter all my life. Me and a friend decided to try the long range stuff out, we use to be able to fish the rivers for steelhead and animals were plentiful enough we looked forward to deer season, game dept took away steelhead fishing, (I sold my drift boat) and deer hunting has gotten pathetic to say the best! (I moved to idaho )

anyway it got to the point we had nothing to do for entertainment so we thought what the heck let's try long range shooting, we both planned to shoot our 7 Rem Mags, my friend went with a burris scope and used the dial system, I chose the zeiss with built in reticle out to 800 yrd (Rapid Z 800) its really hard to find places there you can shoot past 6 or 8 hundred yards.

Anyway we both had loads worked up for our rifles that shot an inch or less at 100 yrds, we shot 140 grain nosler ballistic tips, I mounted the new zeiss scope and figured I was as ready as I could be, I had even built a nice portable shooting bench, I loaded up and headed out to the one place we could get out to 800 yrds and met up with my friend, we set up misc targets including gallon milk jugs filled with water, we were shooting into a really nice dirt bank and it was easy for the spotter to see where you hit.

I set up at 700 yrds on one of the water jugs and let one loose, my friend called the shot 3 feet or so low, I got ready again and squeeeeezed the trigger, again 3 feet low! I had just spent nearly a 1000 dollars on a zeiss scope that didn't work! I was smokin mad! I got home and called zeiss, the guy started asking me ballistic questions and as a handloader I could answer everything he asked with ease, bullet weight, B.C., velocity, altitude, etc.

After a minute or so on the phone with him and giving him all my data he told me my 'Optimum power setting was 10.32' I thought to myself what the hell? I bought a 4.5-14 power scope but the upper power settings were useless, I bought a 14 power scope to shoot 14 power at long range!

Anyway back to the range we went, set up again and I adjusted my power setting down to what looked like 10.32, zeiss has little marks showing a quarter and so on so I was sure it was close. I held on the exact same target at 700 yrds and exploded it, everything worked flawlessly, but everything I do changes impact, elevation, barometric pressure etc.

I have learned a system that works well for me but it has taken a lot of time and dedication! if I were to try a shot like that on an animal everything would have to be PERFECT, no wind, I need to know my elevation etc............ there's way more to it than one might think!!! Amd get ready to open your wallet and be generous!

Last edited by Art Eatman; December 26, 2012 at 09:53 AM. Reason: Paragraphs...
solocam72 is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03981 seconds with 8 queries