7/14/2010 - Longest Yet - The Big 800

Today at about 8 p.m. I decided that I was going to take advantage of the calm summer night and do some shooting. I through some stuff in the truck (including the 4-wheeler) and took off. When I got out there I jumped on the 4-wheeler with the GPS and the target and started off. I didn't really have a distance in mind when I set out, but as I rode over to the various distances that I had previously plotted, 800 seemed like the place to set up. After I pulled a bunch of the tall grass in front of the target, I rode back over and tried to get my heart rate back down and set up the shot. I soon realized that I had forgotten the tarp I lay down on, and the coat I usually use the support the butt of the rifle to keep steady. This time out was going to be roughing it in the dirt and weeds with nothing but me to steady the butt end of the weapon. Time to find out what you are made of, and see if you can do it a little more like the snipers do.

My data cards seemed to indicate that I should need around 98 click of elevation, so that was my starting point. The conditions were near perfect. No wind. Well, maybe just a slight breath of a tailwind, but a simply beautiful night for shooting. I squeezed off 4 relatively good rounds. From what I could see from the dust kicking up (about a full second after the shots), I was hitting a little high and left. I used the 4-wheeler to check it out, and sure enough, I had missed the target high and left. Here is the good news though, I had a VERY tight grouping in the ground behind the target. Encouraged by those results, upon returning to the gun, I took two of the clicks back off of the scope. I also gave my self 2 clicks to the right, and tried 4 more shots. From what I was seeing in the scope, watching the dust fly, it still seemed to be high and left. By this time, I was losing daylight and I didn't think that there would be enough light for another trip over to confirm my suspicions. I did what any good marksman would do, I followed my gut and pulled 2 more clicks out of the scope, while giving myself one more click to the right. (Did I just call myself a good marksman...I digress) I took 2 last shots with this scope setting and packed up the stuff at the truck.

I was right. The second grouping of 4 all missed high and left even after the initial scope adjustments. The second adjustment and last 2 shots are shown in the picture. In summary, today it took 94 clicks of elevation and 3 clicks to the right to make this happen at 800 yards.