1/22/2011 - Foiled Again!!

Determined to not repeat last weeks failure, I gave the scope 138 clicks (5 more than last week) in an attempt to score hits on my target at 1000 yards.  Conditions were very similar to last week.  The temp gauge on the truck registered 29 degrees.  I squeezed off 5 rounds of Black Hills Match 308 from the Savage 10FP, using the Vortex Viper Scope.  It's pretty disappointing to drive all the way over to the hill, and then hike up only to find that you have not registered a single hit in the paper for the second week in a row!  As you can see, the elevation was pretty good, but I got pushed off to the left.  From the thermals that I could see in the scope, I didn't think that would happen, but there was a slight breeze at the target when I was checking it out.  I didn't notice any breeze when setting the target up, and there didn't seem to be any wind from my firing position.

1/15/2011 - Live and learn

Early this morning, before the sun came out, I set up another target at 1000 yards.  The last successful attempt at 1000 yards had been on October 1st 2010, and the dope on the Vortex Viper scope with these 308 loads was 133 clicks.  I knew that it was colder today, but I didn't know how much that would affect the bullet trajectory so I used the same input of elevation.  As you can see from this picture it produced less that desirable results.  You can see that all 4 of my shots were low.  The density of the air had a dramatic effect on my shots.  I think it was about 25 degrees when I was shooting.  133 clicks was not enough for today's conditions. Gun: Savage 308, shooting Black Hills Match 175 gr. with the Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44

 Somewhere off in the distance is my target at 1K yards.

This is a view from where the target was.