Long Range Rifle Porn

[bullsi1911]

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My Ruger American Predator in 6.6 Creedmore in a MagPull stock with a Redfield 4-14 scope, running at 800 yards

[Pegasus]

I thought I'd better wade in with my; much less impressive, target rifle. A Norwegian Kongsberg target rifle in 7.62mm. The range is at Blair Atholl in Perthshire, Scotland. The range picture is from the 1,000 yard firing point. You can just make out the targets; white squares with black bullseyes. No scope sights in this game. Short range shoot is over three distances; 300, 500 & 600 yards and the long range is then at 900 & 1,000 yards. All shot prone with 2 sighters and 10 to count. I did once win the coveted bottle of whisky at the 1,000 yard shoot. Tenth shot anywhere on the target and it would be mine. I managed to finish with a V Bull. Happy man! The range is on the private estate of the Duke of Atholl. Interesting fact now; the Duke of Atholl is the only private citizen allowed to have his own army known as 'The Atholl Highlanders'. You can find bits on You-tube. Mainly ceremonial but none the less trained as proper soldiers with all the combat kit too.

Very nice. What aperture sights are you running on it. My old Carl Gustav G98 has Parker-Hale sights with an assortment on apertures for the front sight, for each distance.

In ICFRA, CMP and NRA parlance, 300,500,600 is mid-range, and 800,900,1000 is long-range. Short range is inside of 300.

I mostly shoot 1000-yard anymore, with the occasional foray at 600.

[Pegasus]

My Ruger American Predator in 6.6 Creedmore in a MagPull stock with a Redfield 4-14 scope, running at 800 yards

The 6.5 Creedmoor has gained quite the following since its inception. Can't use it in F-TR however, so I stick with the .308 Winchester lovingly handloaded, shooting heavy bullets.

[Zee]

My boy and my father shooting 800 yards several years ago with my 32” Krieger Full Bull .260 Rem on 40x Action w/ 3oz Jewel and McMillan stock.

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[Chiro1989]

Beautiful range. Any hunting allowed?
OOP, sorry, was responding to T'owd's post

[T'owd Mon]

Pegasus, yes Parker-Hale sights. Only trouble is that they are from a .303 and the graduation scale is a bit off. Set for 800 yards they are spot on for 900 with 7.62mm. rounds. Just a matter of counting the clicks really from a zero at 300 yards. Oddly this rifle seems to come into its own at longer ranges. Never did shoot good groups with it at 300 but it would consistently put them in the bull at 900.

Yes indeed, Atholl Estates do offer deer stalking and grouse shooting: https://atholl-estates.co.uk/activities ... /stalking/ Best place to stay is the Atholl Arms Hotel. https://www.athollarmshotel.co.uk/ The Castle is worth a visit with an amazing display of firearms there. https://atholl-estates.co.uk/blair-castle/the-castle/

[Freezer]

I like it! 1000 yards without a scope, impressive. What model is it and have you modified to fit you? From what I read, the rear sight is not a peep but, a diopter? Tell us more.

Diopter sight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diopter_sight

[Freezer]

Mike, you have certainly given us something to read. I would love to take my wife there for a week, maybe two! She is a decentant of the Keith and Danskin clans and traces her ancestors through Mary Queen of Scott's. The food alone would be great. They do not talk about their bar, but I saw they make their own ale. Fishing, hunting, shooting, history, old weapons, decor.... "If I was a rick man, dilly dilly di..."

[Freezer]

Ok back to the subject at hand, This a 1909 Argentine action, with a 26" Shilen light varmint barrel, chambered in 6.5-06 with a modified Weatherby trigger, thumb tang safety, 4.5x16 Leupold VXL scope and a Boyd's At-One stock. I need to change the rings and do a load work-up, this project has taken a long time but is 95% complete.

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[Pegasus]

I like it! 1000 yards without a scope, impressive. What model is it and have you modified to fit you? From what I read, the rear sight is not a peep but, a diopter? Tell us more.

Diopter sight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diopter_sight

Let me take this thread on a slight tangent for a little bit and explain a few things. 1000 yards without a scope is not difficult at all, what is more impressive is when this is done without a bipod or front rest, but rather with a sling. But let's get back to the sights. When I first started competing in fullbore high power rifle competition, in 1981, the target at the time was 12 feet wide and the V-bull was something like 21 inches, if my fading memory is correct. I think the 5 ring was 44 inches in diameter and that was black. My target rifle was Mauser 98 with a 30inch barrel. As a front sight, there is a small tube with a slot to put in a little ring with an aperture (hole). I have a set of rings with varying size apertures. The size of the aperture matched the black on the target at specific distances. The smallest aperture was for the 1000 yards line and then the next smallest was for the 900 yard line, and so on. Now, the read sight is on a scale with knobs for the rear peep sight to go up and down. The bar holding the peep sight has a dial on it to move the sight left and right for windage adjustment.

Now, I haven't shot with this rifle for maybe 30 years, I had transitioned to Service Rifle in the nineties and then F-class in the naughties. So this is from memory still young.

We would start the day at the 300-yard line and there would be two or three shooters to a mound (target). I would set th rear sight to the elevation for 300 yards from my logbook, and then guage the wind and set in windage. I would not the settings for that day, with my observations in my logbook. Then we would start shooting. The first one (on the left), would shoot first and the other shooter would call out the score and record it on the card. The shooter would record his result in his logbook and acknowledge the score by saying "thank you." The next shooter would take the shot withing 45 seconds of the "thank you," record the results in this logbook and acknowledge the score called out by the other shooter with "thank you" and rinse, repeat for 2 sighters and 15 rounds. It was quick. We would dial in corrections for each shot, and record those in the logbook.

Shooting was aiming the rifle at your target and then putting the front aperture on the black of your target. You always aimed for the black dot and hope your dialed in corrections were correct. The rear sigh was just a blur and since it was a peep sight, you knew you were fine if you could see the front aperture sight correctly.

When I finished my string, I would dial in the elevation for the next yard line, according to my logbook and either zero out the windage or record the current setting for the start of the next yard line. There was a lot of recording going on. Logbooks were critical.

The .308 target rifles were much more accurate than the .30-06 so in the 1980s the target size was reduced to 6 feet by 6 feet at long range and while the aiming black remained at 44 inches, the rings shrunk. The V-bull or X-ring is 10 inches in diameter, and the 5-ring or 10-ring is 20 inches (~2MOA) in diameter.

Service Rifle was a whole lot more difficult, for at least 3 reasons. 1- The NM AR-15 has a 20-inch barrel, very short sight radius. 2- The 5.56/.223 round runs out of steam at 1000 yards. 3- The sights on the service rifles suck. The front sight is the regular post with the wings on either side. Doing 1000 yards with that rifle is a huge challenge. I never shot my NM AR-15 at 1000-yards, I stayed in XTC from 200-600yards. I only got back to 1000-yard when I started in F-class in the naughties (2005 was my first F-class match).

[Pegasus]

Another important aspect of LR rifle systems is the ammunition used. Below, you see two of my handloads. On top is my 1000-yard match load, consisting of a processed Berger 200gr bullet in a lovingly prepared Lapua Palma case. This one is on its fifth load. On the bottom is one of my test cartridges with a 175gr Nosler CC in a prepped Winchester case. The 175 Nosler impacts by thermometer (tall) target at virtually the same elevation as my Berger 200gr bullets at 100 yards. It's a great method to set up my scope for 1000-yad using test ammo for the initial shots on target.

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[Jayhawker]

A golden oldie...one of the Savage Sisters
Savage 10FP 20" .308

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[Jayhawker]

The other Savage Sister...Savage 110FP .300 Win
Mag...

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[Jayhawker]

My most recent acquisition Springfield M1A National Match , .308 (of course) in an Archangel stock...I have yet to determine how much of a " long range" rig she is.....

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[Pegasus]

I like that last one you show, Jayhawker. I'm partial to wood for the classics, but that's an interesting chassis and probably help when using the scope.

Looking forward to reading about how it performs.