7/17/2010 - 1000 YARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday is over.  Today I am a new man.  One of my goals this year was to accomplish the 1K shot.  Today was my first ever attempt at 1000 yards, and I am not disappointed.  Earlier in the week, I shot at 800 yards, which were longest shots I had ever attempted up to that point.  That was then, this is now.  I am in a new world.

Last night I started my research, playing with the numbers with my online ballistics calculator (http://www.biggameinfo.com/BalCalcAdv.aspx).  Taking the results from Wednesday's outing into consideration, I tried to work the numbers to match up with those results at 800 yards.  I hoped that if I could get the math to work at 800 yards, it would get me close at 1K.  It did.  The data card was showing that I would need 137 clicks to reach the 1K mark, but I had a suspicion that it wouldn't take quite that much.

Promptly at 6 a.m., I set out for the range, having loaded the truck completely the night before.  Once at the range, I used the 4-wheeler to drive over, and climb the hill to where I would set up my first ever attempt at the ominous distance.  Strangely, my shots earlier in the week at 800 didn't seem that far (relative to other shots I have taken), and my mindset this morning was optimistic.  I really didn't have any reason to be overly confident, and I wasn't.  Still, I had an underlying optimism that can't really be put into words.  Once back at the truck, I started my usual ritual to set up the gun, scope, and overall position.  I closed my eyes after putting the ear plugs in, and concentrated on my breathing for a few moments, attempting to slow my heart-rate in preparation of the task ahead.   No wind, perfect conditions at about 75 degrees, and 25.37 on the pressure.

Without trying to analyze things too much, and without giving any thought to the distance my target was from the muzzle, I took aim.  I think that subconsciously my mind was fooled into thinking that the target appeared small in the cross-hairs, only because the magnification in the scope was on a lower setting than usual.  Strangely enough, I was not intimidated.  My first shot was no surprise to me at all: clearly high and left.  One of the funnest parts about shooting at these distances is that you have time to re-acquire the target in the scope before the bullet's impact.  It takes a little over 1.5 seconds to reach the target at 1K.  Suspecting this might be the case, given what happened to me earlier in the week, I took 2 clicks of elevation back out of the scope, and gave myself 1 wind-age click to the right.  What followed that decision was magic.  Although I could tell that the next 4 shots were landing closer, the distance was too great to see the bullets making marks in the paper.  By watching the dust kick up, I was realistically expecting to find one, if not two of my shots having found their mark in the target.

After the long drive over to, and up the hill, I stepped off of that 4-wheeler a new person.  After making the initial scope adjustment, the 4 shots that followed had all found their mark.  At 6:45 in the morning, I let out a yell that could be heard for miles.  Words cannot describe the satisfaction welling up inside of me.  Shooting was over for today.  Time to go home and record the results.

In summary, it took 135 clicks of elevation to paint this picture using a 1000 yard paintbrush (and a Savage 308 with 175 grain Black Hills Match ammo).  Let it be known that on July 17th 2010, I broke the 1000 yard barrier. Yesterday is over.  This is a new day.