Found the Magic Mile...Again!

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  • PredatorDown
    Warrior
    • Jun 2014
    • 239

    Found the Magic Mile...Again!

    I decided I wanted to stretch it out to a mile again here recently, but was tired of the amount of holdover I had to use in order to get there. I was shooting with my Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP in a 50 MOA Aadmount, and had to hold over 40 minutes to get me there! Not only that, with it in the 50 MOA mount the closest I could zero was 700 yards.

    Those two things kept me from attempting the mile again for close to a year.

    I finally decided to get the Nightforce SHV 4-14x56 with MOAR reticle and try again. The scope has 100 MOA of adjustment in the turrets, so I was hoping that with the 50 MOA mount I would be close to keeping my 100 yard zero. I wound up 6" high at 100 yards, but I'm fine with that. The vast majority of my shooting with this rifle is 500+ yards, so it's not too much of a bother to me. Not to mention it should be right around a 350yd zero, not the 700 that I needed with the Vortex.

    I've got exactly 100 minutes of adjustment in the turrets from my zero, plus the 30 MOA reticle that is a SFP, so if I needed more holdovers I could always zoom out.

    According to iStrelok, I would need 109 minutes to get me there. I knew this would be a little low due to the G1 drag curve (still haven't come up with a G7) and dropping well into the transonic range, but I figured it would at least get me close. I wound up needing 122 MOA (185') of drop!

    I went out with a new shooting acquaintance that had only recently started shooting 1000 yards with his .308 and had never shot further. We set him out a 24" x 24" plate at 1200 yards to hopefully get him a new personal best, then drove out and hung my steel at 1760.

    I let him go ahead and get set up and shoot the 1200 first, and after hitting 4/10 he was pretty happy with his new personal long range record. After his 10, we let his barrel cool down while I got set up for the mile.

    I didn't have very much ammo with me, but wanted to see if I could make something happen. We originally left the phoneskope off, to make it easier for him to spot my first sighter shots. Looking back, I wish we hadn't. Because this is where things got really interesting. I set up and fired some sighter shots with FACTORY Hornady ammo. My first shot was about 30 yards short, and I was able to progressively walk it in from there. I wound up making contact on shots 4, 5, and 7 with the factory ammo! And not only that, all of my misses were within a foot of the target once I was dialed in!

    After my first string of 10, we drove down to check the targets and take pictures. I just couldn't believe that the factory ammo shot that well! We set up and got the pictures, then drove back to set up and shoot again.

    After he fired 10 more at his target at 1200, I set up for the mile again. This is the only video of an impact with the factory ammo, so I chose to share this one. I went on to hit another 2 shots with my remaining 5 rounds after the video ended.

    All in all, it was a hell of a day to be out shooting and pushing into the realm of what most people wouldn't even consider as possible for this little cartridge!

    **Not sure if the video will work or not. When I'm trying to view it on my desktop it says it's been moved or deleted, but on my iPhone or iPad it's still there. Stupid photobucket...**







  • kbarnes12
    Warrior
    • Nov 2011
    • 186

    #2
    Wow that must be really fun to do.
    sigpic
    Guns kill people the same way forks make people fat.

    Comment

    • LRRPF52
      Super Moderator
      • Sep 2014
      • 8569

      #3
      I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't shot Grendel at ELR before.

      The Hornady factory load is what I shot at 1200 with the first time I tried that distance, and it was scary accurate and repeatable, and from a 16" to boot.
      NRA Basic, Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, RSO

      CCW, CQM, DM, Long Range Rifle Instructor

      6.5 Grendel Reloading Handbooks & chamber brushes can be found here:

      www.AR15buildbox.com

      Comment

      • jawbone
        Warrior
        • Jan 2012
        • 328

        #4
        outstanding! and this time you get the flower petals to go with it.

        Comment

        • VASCAR2
          Chieftain
          • Mar 2011
          • 6218

          #5
          Great shooting and the link for the video works on my IPad, amazing!

          Comment

          • mongoosesnipe
            Chieftain
            • May 2012
            • 1142

            #6
            not to take away from elr shooting but it isn't quits as complicated as we like to think don't get me wrong a cold bore first round hit would be an incredible feat but most of the shooting kind of seems to revolve around walking the bullets in after getting close to where we need to be with ballistic apps the key is consistency consistent load, consistent rifle, consisting shooting conditions ...... since the introduction of rifling we have been pushing things to the limit check out bpcr mile shooting it typically requires 500+ moa but they do it

            having a bullet which preforms consistently while traveling through the trans-sonic barrier which the 123 amax seems to do quite well is probably the most critical part of the equation

            that said good shooting and it is amazing to doing with a little cartridge coming out of an ar-15 it certainly goes against the trends of others chasing elr with 338 lapua, 408 and 375 cheytec, 50 bmg and the like
            Punctuation is for the weak....

            Comment

            • Beerswimmer
              Warrior
              • Dec 2015
              • 130

              #7
              Impressive!! I'd love to go out there and shoot up at altitude. Here I'm only between 600-800ft above sea level.
              UT ALII VIVANT !!!

              Comment

              • bwaites
                Moderator
                • Mar 2011
                • 4445

                #8
                It's amazing just how good that Hornady Factory Match load is. I've shot it at 1000 yards in competition and had very good results. It's a wonderful baseline load. You might be able to tweak a load to get it better, but it's incredibly consistent in a lot of different guns.

                Comment

                • LRRPF52
                  Super Moderator
                  • Sep 2014
                  • 8569

                  #9
                  Originally posted by mongoosesnipe View Post
                  not to take away from elr shooting but it isn't quits as complicated as we like to think don't get me wrong a cold bore first round hit would be an incredible feat but most of the shooting kind of seems to revolve around walking the bullets in after getting close to where we need to be with ballistic apps the key is consistency consistent load, consistent rifle, consisting shooting conditions ...... since the introduction of rifling we have been pushing things to the limit check out bpcr mile shooting it typically requires 500+ moa but they do it

                  having a bullet which preforms consistently while traveling through the trans-sonic barrier which the 123 amax seems to do quite well is probably the most critical part of the equation

                  that said good shooting and it is amazing to doing with a little cartridge coming out of an ar-15 it certainly goes against the trends of others chasing elr with 338 lapua, 408 and 375 cheytec, 50 bmg and the like
                  Most factory bolt guns that pack 2-3x the powder capacity are not capable of this type of accuracy at 1 mile.

                  Anybody want to guess why?
                  NRA Basic, Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, RSO

                  CCW, CQM, DM, Long Range Rifle Instructor

                  6.5 Grendel Reloading Handbooks & chamber brushes can be found here:

                  www.AR15buildbox.com

                  Comment

                  • PredatorDown
                    Warrior
                    • Jun 2014
                    • 239

                    #10
                    Thanks everyone! I need to get out and get some target cameras set up. I'd be really interested to see what happens on impact. All my impacts at a mile have mostly fragmented, but left behind the flower shaped jacket.

                    LRRPF, I'd be really curious as to your reasoning about the higher capacity cartridges. At North Springs today, I was able to keep 4 consecutive rounds on steel with my 270wsm before pulling a called shot high right. Minus the pulled 5th shot, the remaining 4 measured 16.5". Mind you this isn't a factory gun, but it is still the factory barrel that's been threaded. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's a combination of poor triggers, non-bedded action or floated barrel, but as much or more than anything else it's the shooter developing a flinch from the higher powered cartridge

                    Comment

                    • LRRPF52
                      Super Moderator
                      • Sep 2014
                      • 8569

                      #11
                      Twist rate, mostly on .30 bores. The 270 WSM factory guns normally have a 1/10", as does the 270 Winchester, so they are spun fast.

                      Some of the .338 LM rifles even have a 12 twist, and will come apart at around 1500-1600yds with some of the longer projectiles. Put a 1/10 in them and they can extend. Ulfberht uses a 1/9.3" twist.

                      Put a 1/9" twist in a 16" .308 and you will have better reach than a 26" .308 with a 1/12". Within 800yds, the 26" 1/12" will spank the 16" all day long, but then come apart as you push out. Some guns are more forgiving than others, maybe due to slightly tighter bores, but fast twist is the way to go.
                      NRA Basic, Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, RSO

                      CCW, CQM, DM, Long Range Rifle Instructor

                      6.5 Grendel Reloading Handbooks & chamber brushes can be found here:

                      www.AR15buildbox.com

                      Comment

                      • PredatorDown
                        Warrior
                        • Jun 2014
                        • 239

                        #12
                        That's true, I hadn't thought about twist rate. Now if only my 270wsm was a 1:8 twist so I could stabilize the new Berger 170gr EOL's!

                        Those new Berger EOL bullets have really got me thinking about building a 7RUM in the future as well. Their 7mm 195's have a BC of .755/g1 .387/g7! I'm just not sure that the 7SAUM I currently have in the works would have enough capacity/velocity to make it worth picking over the 180 Hybrids. Either way, the barrel on it will be fast enough to stabilize them...just in case

                        Comment

                        • mongoosesnipe
                          Chieftain
                          • May 2012
                          • 1142

                          #13
                          Originally posted by LRRPF52 View Post
                          Twist rate, mostly on .30 bores. The 270 WSM factory guns normally have a 1/10", as does the 270 Winchester, so they are spun fast.

                          Some of the .338 LM rifles even have a 12 twist, and will come apart at around 1500-1600yds with some of the longer projectiles. Put a 1/10 in them and they can extend. Ulfberht uses a 1/9.3" twist.

                          Put a 1/9" twist in a 16" .308 and you will have better reach than a 26" .308 with a 1/12". Within 800yds, the 26" 1/12" will spank the 16" all day long, but then come apart as you push out. Some guns are more forgiving than others, maybe due to slightly tighter bores, but fast twist is the way to go.
                          most factory guns are not intended for shooting elr with heavy bullets i have seen 300 wsm and ultra mags with 1/12 because people like to shoot the 150s at 3500 to kill deer faster at 100 yards most factory loadings don't get into the heavy bullets because people want speed, as for why you would get a 338 lm with a 1/12 i have nothing thats just dumb but i think the trg used to come in that twist might have been 1/11 idk but it was slow is for caliber

                          308 168smk dont tolerate the trans sonic transition well from my understanding but if you have a bullet that will 6.5 123 amax 308 190smk with appropriate twist and the gun groups well at close range and the ammo is consistent chances are you can take it out pretty far
                          Punctuation is for the weak....

                          Comment

                          • newb
                            Warrior
                            • Feb 2015
                            • 162

                            #14
                            Awesome!

                            Comment

                            • customcutter
                              Warrior
                              • Dec 2014
                              • 452

                              #15
                              Congrats on a new Milestone! pun intended....

                              Comment

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