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Long range rifle/gear talk

seanjq

Active member
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1
What's in your bag? (scopes, rangefinders, etc...)
Where's everyone shooting?
 
What's in your bag? (scopes, rangefinders, etc...)
Where's everyone shooting?
Depends on where you are shooting, what you are shooting, and why you are shooting. Example; for my hunting set up I have my sig cross in 6.5 creedmore with a 6-24x52 sig optic. I also have a monocle for target verification and a standard vortex range finder. I made my own hunting vest able to carry a camelback, extra/spent rounds, and calls. My range bag however has a range mat, vortex spotting scope, and my normal rangefinder. The high desert has a lot of BLM land. Unless otherwise posted, you are allowed to shoot there.
 
My coyote gun is an AR-15 style chambered .223 wylde with a 5-25x venom pst gen II, MOA reticle. I have a dope chart in a paper notepad, a rear bag, two mouth calls, and a hi viz hat with a black coyote sun shade attached. While hunting I usually shoot off a tripod and call them in.

For distance I just range with the reticle.

A coyote body is roughly 12 inches tall. A humans shoulders span roughly 18-22 inches. A white tail deer chest is roughly 18 inches deep.

Distance = Target Size X 95.5 divided by the MOA you measured.

With a coyote as an example…

12 inches X 95.5 = 1146

Say you look through the scope and the coyote’s body is 2MOA…

1146 / 2 = 573 yards

After a while, you begin to associate how far things are by simply looking in your scope at your target provided you are referencing certain targets regularly.

Now that I know the distance I can reference my DOPE chart and place a shot.

I would adjust elevation -9.3 on this particular rifle and fire while holding in the center of the crosshair.

I’ll often hold over as well. Sight in, see it’s about 3 MOA tall, I already know I’m just shy of 400… etc. so shots take about 3 seconds to get off rather than using the rangefinder, putting it down, sighting in, etc. which just takes more time.

Wind calls are more of an experience thing. You have to know your rifle well. I’m never outside of +/- 2.5 MOA on this setup.

I can reach out to 1000 yards with this rifle.

For longer distances at BLM land I’ll use a rangefinder but I don’t see much use in practicing with it that much as most hunting in CA is well under 1000 yards. Deer basically walk up to you here.

For technical long distance I use an AR-10 style chambered .308 with a Leupold Mark 5 HD 7-35x MOA reticle

Don’t really use a rangefinder there either… the furthest I’ve gone out is about 3/4 of a mile, ~1350 yards.

The steel target is 18” tall so same logic applies.
 
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