600yds today

[Scotchmo]

I spent the day with my friend at his 200 acre ranch in the Cambria hills, setting up a 25”x23”x0.5” steel plate target at 600yds with a hit indicator light. We used my 7mm and 308 builds to shoot. I guess the steel plate was too heavy as we rarely saw a hit indicated with the 105gr 7mm, but occasional hits indicated with the 171gr 308. After lunch, we drove the UTV back down the valley and saw that we had actually been hitting the target more than we thought. 6 hits with the 308 and 8 hits with the 7mm. The larger impacts mostly in the upper half were probably from the 308, and the smaller hits mostly in the lower half were probably from the 7mm. I plan on setting up a 12”x12”x3/8” steel plate next to the larger plate. That lighter weight plate should allow better activation of the hit indicator.

 

[rodjava]

That's very impressive at 600 yards. When we shot together last month at a 500 yard targets, you were also on the money!

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

That's a fine job Sir! Pretty good grouping with the heavier lead. It's cool to see the wind hold and trajectory based on the ricochet pattern.

 

[Scotchmo]

That's a fine job Sir! Pretty good grouping with the heavier lead. It's cool to see the wind hold and trajectory based on the ricochet pattern.

We held for a left to right wind on most shots. But some of that is from the spindrift which would be there regardless. It’s significant (almost 3moa) at that distance.

 

[Motorhead]

Nice shooting Scott & John !!
That is way the heck out there no doubt.

 

[Long_Shot]

Looks like 14 hits on a 2' square. That's a large target even at 600.
My only question is out of how many shots fired?

 

[Scotchmo]

Looks like 14 hits on a 2' square. That's a large target even at 600.
My only question is out of how many shots fired?

I consider a 4 MOA target to be a good size for practice. There was at least twice that many shots. So the hit rate was not great. More misses than hits. We did another session after that one and I did light up the indicator 3 out of 5 shots with the .308. That’s kinda my baseline goal, better than a 50% hit rate on a 4 MOA target at any distance I care to shoot. Though with the way some long distance matches are going, that’s no longer good enough. You’ll need a 100% hit rate on targets as small as 2 MOA out to 300yds. In the three way shootoff at RMAC this year, they had a 1’ (2 MOA) target at 600yds. Derrick Wall won by hitting 2 out of 5, though he only needed one hit to win.

At some future session, we plan on using my wireless target camera so we can actually see our hits and misses, and compensate accordingly, rather than just shooting with the same dope every shot.

 

[Caliber 22]

In the old days a 4moa iron sights CF rifle was considered good for hunting but they did not hunt long distances like today. I say your 2'x2' plate is perfect, you can eventually do smaller groups on the same plate. It is frustrating to shoot and not knowing where your misses is going to.

 

[Frank in Fairfield]

You will find most of your misses impacted in the ground below your target.
Gravity, you know?

My son shoots at a measured mile with his .300 Winchester Magnum.
From on top of a very high hill (mountain).