The time gap between pulling the trigger and the ping of steel. (I was shooting .338 Lapua from an AI chassis. Guess the yardage.) I love that pause! Stretch it out to 1000 yards and you can make a cup of instant coffee while you wait. Hey I said instant. What do you like best about long range shooting?

 

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46 COMMENTS

    • Probably a pretty close guess. My back of the envelope calculation came to 250 yards. Assuming Robert was using a 250 grain bullet, the average .338 Lapua velocity over that distance would be around 2750fps. It would take 0.27 seconds for the bullet to reach the steel and around 0.67 seconds for the sound of the ringing steel to return to his position.

  3. Sadly, I don’t get to do it all, these days. 100 yards is the longest range close to where I live.

  4. What I like best about LR shooting is that hopefully next month I will get to pull the trigger on a target further than 200 yards for the first time at Camp Butner (right next door to Bernie Madoff). Was supposed to been able to do it this month but the House and Senate had other ideas.

  6. My sportsman’s club is building a 300 yard rifle range. Now all I need is a rifle that can reach that far, which shouldn’t be hard. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery for a good rifle on a budget? (say under$750) Just going to plink with it, not planning to hunt. And I’ll need a good optic as well…

    • Savage in .308 (easy to find). I am working on a non accutrigger gun and the stock trigger is still superb. You can usually pick up one of the “kit” models for <$400. SWFA sells a fixed power scope in 6, 10, 12, 16, & 20 power for ~$300.

      You should be ringing steel in no time.

    • Jim – Remember the rule: Better to have good optics on a budget rifle than budget optics on a good rifle. Go bolt action and do a $400/$400 split rifle/optics. If you can’t keep a zero, you will hate the gun.

    • I’ve had great luck with the Primary Arms 4-14×44 Mildot FFP Nick reviewed on here awhile back. I’ve got it on an AR 15 build with about 200 rounds through it in 3 range sessions. It does a great job retaining zero – I haven’t had to mess with the zero since I set it last summer.

      I did hear the one they mounted on a .338 Lapua couldn’t handle the recoil and failed, so YMMV, but from my experience it’s a great optic in the $200-$300 range.

      Here’s a link to PA’s site:

      http://www.primaryarms.com/Primary-Arms-4-14X44-FFP-Scope-p/pa4-14xffp.htm

      • A .308 Savage and Primary arms 4-14 FFP would be good, add a good bipod and you should be in the clear.

    • A .223 with a 1-in-9″ barrel pitch. 69g Sierras or 68g Hornadys. A Savage with a Leupold VX-II (these are actually the VX-IIIs of the previous range) will be a good combination, and cheap to shoot with reloads. With that barrel pitch, cheap bulk 55g bullets can be used for practice and plinking.

  8. 300 yards long range…..really? Any AR 556 can handle that….in a sitting position…open sights…with instant coffee.

    Bench rest, 1K with a tripod & no wind, and a berm break….please. You only get your shoot stamp if your prone, open field with wind from 3 directions.

    What I do like about long range is the the discipline required. Controlling breathing, wind read skills, body position. All translate to shooting well any non crew served weapon at any range.

  9. The best thing about long range shooting is long range shooting, because i don’t get to do it nearly enough.

  11. I like long range (600+ yds) shooting because it combines the science (math/physics) with a big helping of art – reading the wind.

  12. I’m also guessing 300. 400 max if you’re shooting hot loads.

    Making steel ring at long ranges makes me smile and happy, happy, happy.
    Although these plates are costing me aplenty. .50 API rounds are kind mean.

  13. That connection/bond you get from firing your rifle. One round, destined to hit the target. That’s what I live for in the bolt action world.

  14. Would you consider 600yds long range? Thats the farthest I’ve shot(and hit anything)

    MAKES ME FEEL LIKE A BADASS, even though I’m not… 🙁

  15. For an extra challenge try BPCR with things like a Winchester 1885 hi wall in 45-90 blackpowder and tang sights ( front sight should also have a bubble level to guard against cant) i do it with paper patched slugs of 540gr and 87 gr of ff Swiss black powder my local range only goes out to 390 yards wher I can make groups of Around 6 inches if the winds are not gusting too badly. about Once a year I get to visit a place with 1000 yard steel as well a target pits and my best ever 5 shot group was a touch over 14 inches in admittedly carm air
    you folks out west Should try another fun game if oy have a largeish target out past 500 yards with dry dirt around it. Take a sitting position and with your sidearm to to hit it I have done this when I lived near Denver in the 60s with pistols from 1911 and SAA .45 down to a .32 ACP PPK . The game is to see how many hits you can get out of a cylinder full or magazine. You sight along the side of the pistol and it is like mini artillery practice one shot over one under and correct for wind age and fire for effect… You will be amazed at how quickly you can pickup this skill and hit something the size of an abandoned car at ranges that will astonish you. And it is amazing fun. The sitting on the ground position bracing your arms on your knees helps a lot with the repeatability but the dusty ground is needed to make spotting your shots easy

  16. What do I like about long distance shooting??
    Same thing, the wait to hear the bullet slap.
    In my case it used to be my Marlin 336 in 357mag.
    Load a 38special anything……….pull the trigger have a smoke or cup of coffee.
    Then hear the “Ping!!!” or slap a few seconds later.

  19. 300 yards? Seated? With a .338? Really?

    With my “Remington 700″ .308 on a KRG chassis, standing behind a tripod, 800 yards is boringly simple. I have to stretch it over 1000 yards to get a non-zero miss rate. For a .338, you need to go well over 1km to even get close to a challenge.
    Unless he’s hitting 2” steel plates at 300y…but I doubt he is.

  20. The best thing about long range rifle shooting is also the best thing about short range pistol shooting.

    It’s the shooting.

  21. There is just something straight up satisfying about long range shooting, and bolt-action rifles in general.

  22. I love doing the math, settling into position, doing more math, doing some figuring, squeezing the trigger, and then discovering if my math and guesses actually worked.

  25. That moment of peace, breath exhaled,body relaxed, the whole world faded away except for the target and that warm rifle. Pistols are tools, Shotguns are a blast, but becoming one with your Rifle is freaking Nirvana.

  26. imho, the best thing about long-range rifle shooting is not needing to blow through tons of ammo. after 20 or so 30 06 rifle rounds you are somewhat willing to stop shooting.

    • I tend to agree, though in my case it’s due more to the ridiculous price of ammunition. My rifle has very little felt recoil. It’s fantastic.

    • S.Crock, try reloading. Since I started reloading for my .30-06, the cost of ammo dropped to about one third of factory loads and my accuracy increased dramatically, the felt recoil is reduced and I’m not sure why. Probably because the factory rounds are loaded hotter. I’m using 165 gr. boattail Speer bullets with 58.5 gr. of H4831SC powder behind it. Anyone out there want to make your Winchester .30-.30 a virtual tack driver? Hornady came out a couple or three years ago with the Leverevolution polamer tipped 160 grain bullet with the reccommended IMR 8028 powder behind it and made the brag in print that using this combination would make a Winchester model 94 a virtual tack driver. I swapped out the buck horn rear sight for a peep sight and using 29.5 grains of IMR 8028 powder and the 160 grain Hornady pointy bullet described above achieved a two inch group @ 100 yards over about a est. 10 inch group with factory 150 grain rounds, with the added bonus of being able to hit a eight inch steel at two hundred yards with each shot, plus the reduced felt recoil that let me shoot more than a twenty round box and go home without a bruised shoulder and a headache. I don’t know why Winchester made the model 94 without a cheek rest on the stock. My Model 70 bolt in .30-06 always, as an old friend used to say, kicked like an army mule and I didn’t use it much for target practice because of the recoil until I started reloading. Now, because of the scarcity of bullets and powder I have to limit my shooting. I saved all my -06 brass and scrounged what I could at the range for close to 20 years before I started reloading, so brass is not a problem. Brass is not a problem anyway because I can get all I want at the local sporting goods store now. Powder is still hard to get.

  27. The look of abject horror when explaining to an anti-gunner the hold over of 4mills on a 600 yard target, then Adjusting for wind being able to hit it 3 for 3 when that ask why does Anyone need to be able to do that?

    And I reply need has nothing to do with it because I can

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