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New World Record Air Rifle Shot : 1250 Yards - AirForce Airguns .357 Texan

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So after months of planning and practicing I have finally hit my goal of a 1200+ yard air rifle shot with my big bore .357 AirForce Texan. This video is the full documentation of my successful 1250 yard shot at a 21 inch "gong target" (metal trash can lid) shooting over a lake onto an island on a remote backwoods lake in Northern Michigan.

The longest documented Air Rifle shot previous to this attempt was 1108 yards from Carl (aka VeryBigRifle on YouTube). His efforts are amazing and his video shows him hitting a target many times at 1108 yards. Carl is shooting off of a bench rest with a highly customized .257 AirForce mod and I learned a lot from his efforts. Thank you Carl for all that you do for this sport.

I chose to shoot off a bag and I am shooting a relatively "stock" AirForce Texan as far as the guts. The only thing I did to the guts of this gun is have the barrel fire lapped. It is a stock barrel and twist rate with stock valve and bottle. I am using the Mad Dog stock which does help firm up the frame. I am tethered to a 4500 PSI Carbon Fiber tank with a Huma external regulator which is set at 3200 PSI on compressed air. Over these last few months I have learned a ton from so many people in the industry that include marksman and manufacturers alike.

A special thanks to AirGunDepot.com for setting this path with their Long Ranger Challenge and to many others like David Williams from Hunters Supply - Ron Goodhall from High Arc Hunter Ammunition - Al Clark from Aeromagnum Ammunition - all the marksman on GTA and AirgunNation forums and many others who have have talked with along the way. The final result was shooting a 174 grain High Arc Hunter Raptor Hollow Point cast bullet at 920 FPS with the adjustable scope base at 480 MOA - Hawke Frontier 5-30x50 Scope totally maxed out on elevation (roughly 550 MOA-ish) and holding 3 Mil Dots over the target with windage turret cranked all the way and holding 3 Mil Dots for wind at 1250 yards (GPS and Google Earth confirmed).
 
Great shooting, that's some serious hang time. I counted about 6 seconds in the air. I think you had your target in the wrong spot. I saw at least 5 shots that would of hit the target if it was just off the bank in the water. You had a good group going there. Thanks for the effort and sharing. Looks like your having a ball and that's what it's all about..
Jimmy
 
"jking"Great shooting, that's some serious hang time. I counted about 6 seconds in the air. I think you had your target in the wrong spot. I saw at least 5 shots that would of hit the target if it was just off the bank in the water. You had a good group going there. Thanks for the effort and sharing. Looks like your having a ball and that's what it's all about..
Jimmy
Ya- the wind kept shifting on me and the temperature went up about 15 degrees over the 4 hours I was out there. Early morning extreme long range shooting is key I think right after sun up. The mirage effect was getting really bad. In my actual shooting scope the mirage and target clarity was much better than what you see in the junk Simmons spotting scope my camera is mounted to. I did so many ballistic calculations on this shot testing so many different bullets and FPS levels - etc - etc - etc... At the end of the day you just have to shoot and adjust. These ballistics calculators are good at getting you close, but the x factor is REAL ballistic coefficient of the bullet and your wind conditions. Thanks again Jimmy for talking with me months ago as I was starting to get into this!