8/13/2010 - Friday the 13th, Soapstone Basin

We went camping up to Soapstone Basin again with Mom and Paul.  This time we were camping by a meadow where I could do some shooting.  The longest shot that I could find, without shooting across a road, came in at 500 yards.   I set up the target early in the afternoon, and scouted out the shooting position.  After dinner, and just before sundown, when the conditions became optimal for shooting, I set out on my hike to the firing position.  I had given Karen one of the two-way radios before leaving so that I could have her go over and call out my shots.   Once I was in position, I checked the firing data for a lower altitude and different conditions, but I figured it was a good starting point.  It suggested 11 MOA, or 44 clicks of elevation.


With the sun setting behind me, I fired my first two shots, and then called Karen on the radio to go over and check it out.  She indicated that I had put one of the shots into the duct tape and the very top of the target (not shown in the photo), and we deduced that the other must have gone barely over since she couldn't see two distinctly disturbed areas of vegetation around.  I dialed back to only 40 clicks (10 MOA) and produced the 4 shots seen here in this photo for 500 yards with the Savage 308 using Black Hills Match 175 gr.  It was a ton of fun!  I asked Karen on the radio if she could see me, or if she knew exacly where I had been shooting from, and she had no idea where I was!  So I sat up on the small ridge where I had been laying down, and she could still see nothing.  She could not see me till I stood up and waved.  That was pretty cool since she obviously knew the general direction the bullets were coming from.  I had been watching her, giving her directions, and asking her questions, all while she didn't know my firing position.  I was wearing a long sleeve camo shirt, my old Denver Bronco's hat, and the old tan Carhartt pants.  Aside from the hat, my clothing was a pretty good match for the grassy hill I was shooting from.  Elevation was approximately 9200 feet, temp approx. 65 degrees.

7/24/2010 - 1000 Yards...it worked once, so why not try again?

Shooting long distances is a funny thing.  It seems that the variables are endless.  Muzzle velocity from shell to shell, ballistic co-efficient, altitude, density altitude, barometric pressure, temperature, wind, thermals, sight elevation, line of sight, point of aim, lead, hold over, data cards, parallax, focal planes, elevation adjustment, clicks, minutes of angle, milli-radians, zeroing, ranging, ballistics, bi-pods, heart-rate, breathing, scopes, recoil, and caliber.  Wait, I have just forgotten what rifle I am shooting!  This morning I made my second attempt to conquer all these variables with mixed results.

I left the house at 5:35 a.m. hoping to beat the wind.  That was almost successful.  After unloading the 4-wheeler and riding over to set up the target, and get back, there was a slight left to right breeze.   I really took my time setting up the tarp, and the rifle, hoping that the wind would die down for a moment.  After about 10 minutes, I figured that it might not get any better than it was right at that moment.  By now, it was about 6:15 a.m. and light enough to make the shot without any problem.  Using last week as a guide, I entered 135 clicks into the scope.  I didn't dial wind-age because last time I zeroed the wind-age dial after making my hits.

The first shot was clearly high and left, missing the target completely.  This is becoming a trend as of late.  I can't really say that I was surprised about hitting left because I did have wind pushing me that way, but how far that wind continued downrange, I couldn't tell.  This being the case, my plan was to shoot one shot, and then make an assessment as to how much of a correction to enter into the scope.   Two clicks to the right, and two more shots still seemed to be hitting high.  Up to that point, I had not touched the elevation knob, since the conditions seemed almost identical to last week (65-70 degrees and 25.40 on the pressure) when 135 clicks seemed to be exactly the formula for good hits.   I could not argue with the dust though, so I backed it down to 133 clicks of elevation.  The next two shots punched the cardboard.  As shown in the picture, I needed another click or two, toward the right to counteract the wind.  I think I'll use this target again once I get dialed back in with the next batch of bullets (I'm all out of the Black Hills Match 308, 175 gr).  The re-loads I have are not as fast as the Black Hills Match, so I don't know how they will perform out at these distances.  This is not to mention that they are 168 gr bullets with lower BC values to boot.

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.

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.

5/31/2010 - For the Record

Today I went shooting with Paul, and Danny. They were shooting their guns to get them sighted in. I set up a small target at 600 yards. According to the best ballistics card I can find, I need 15 MOA of elevation to reach 600. After dialing 60 clicks, I put 4 shots just over the target. It's really odd because I used this same data for my 425, 500, and 700 yard shots. All of those were bang on...

5/17/2010 - 500 Yards

It's nice to know that even when dealing with some wind, 4 great shots in a row are very possible.  Today I tested the new scope bases at 500 yards.  After I had the shot all set up, I realized I didn't have the bullet drop data with me.  I called Karen and had her look it up for me.  She indicated that at 500 yards with this setup, the chart said I needed 11 MOA in the scope.  Trusting that to be the case, I dialed 44 clicks of elevation.  Truth be known, I actually shot one shot and watched the dirt kick up about 5 feet low!  I then realized that you have to do more than the math on 11 MOA, you also have to dial it in!  After the scope adjustment, I was ready again.  There was a steady crosswind where I was shooting, but I couldn't see the grass moving at all over by the target.  I decided that I would hold the crosshairs on the right hand side of the cardboard to compensate for wind.  I tried as best as I could to get an idea of the shot placement based off of the dirt kicking up.  My best guess was that I was hitting a little high and to the left, but I decided to shoot 4 good shots at the same place and then walk over to see the results.  During my walk over, I fully anticipated to find that I had missed the target high and left.  Much to my surprise, it was 4 of the most consistent shots to date.  There was one grouping in late January that was possible better, but that was only 425 yards.  This is most definitely sub MOA.  It's about 1/2 MOA actually.  It measures just under 2 inches vertically, and just over 2 inches horizontally.  It amazes me that the data I am getting from those bullet drop calculations can get me this close.  Notice how accurate the elevation is.  I was shooting 175 gr. Black Hills Match 308 ammo.  I only wish that I didn't have any wind.  Had I been able to hold dead center (it's been since about January since I was able to do that), this might have been a really impressive picture!

5/7/10 20 MOA Scope Bases

Today my 20 MOA Nightforce Scope bases got a test run.  20 MOA bases point the scope downward in relationship to the bore. This gives you added elevation travel from the scope (since you really never need to adjust down, when you are zeroed at 100 yards). Overall, my Vortex Viper Scope has 258 clicks of elevation from the bottom to the top. This of course translates to 64.5 minutes of angle in elevation travel. Since at the factory, they make sure that the scope will be in the middle of it's elevation travel when held level, you really only get about 30-32 MOA of "up" elevation travel with a normal setup.

With the 20 MOA bases, it points the scope "down", meaning you need to compensate with the elevation knob to enable a zero at 100 yards. This is great because now after zeroing at 100 yards, this is what I have left for adjustments on the scope: 176 "up" clicks (44 MOA), and 82 "down" clicks (20.5 MOA). Since calculations seem to indicate that it will be around 36 or so MOA, to get the bullets in the vicinity at 1K yards, the rig is set up for the shots (more of less).

These pictures show that for whatever reason, I am not yet (with this current stock gun setup) claiming any better than 1 MOA at 100 yards. Interestingly enough, once I was sighted in with the 175 grain Black Hills Match ammo, I shot in the same basic place using my 168 grain hand-loads.

5/7/10 More for the Chrony Lovers

60 Degrees

8 Shots Black Hills Match 308 175 Grain BTHP

Low: 2584
High: 2645
Avg: 2613
Extreme Spread: 60.99
Standard Deviation: 20.07

10 Shots - 308 Win., 168 gr Sierra Match King, 42 Grains IMR 4064, Laupa Brass:

Low: 2567
High: 2633
Avg: 2588
Extreme Spread: 65.93
Standard Deviation: 18.73

4/6/2010 - More Chrony Results

Today I decided to get a bigger sampling of my .308 and .243 reloads. With the last time only getting 3 shots with the 308, and 4 shots with the 243, I had since decided that I need a bigger sampling. I can't wait to do this with the Black Hills match 308 to compare. He is the low-down. 50 Degrees F.

10 Shots - 308 Win., 168 gr Sierra Match King, 42 Grains IMR 4064, Laupa Brass:

Low: 2568
High: 2640
Avg: 2605
Extreme Spread: 71.70
Standard Deviation: 18.92

10 Shots - 243 Win., 105 Hornady A-Max, 41 Grains IMR 4350:

Low: 2836
High: 2910
Avg: 2863
Extreme Spread: 73.67
Standard Deviation: 21.42

3/27/10 - New 100 Yard Zero - Mixed Bag

After shooting through the chrony, I tried to reset my zero with the hand-loads on the .308.  Amazingly, I had to bring the scope up 20 clicks at 100 yards to get back to zero!  That is 20 clicks higher than the 168 gr. Black Hills 308 Match ammo.  It was very gusty at times, (about 3 p.m.) and my results were not very consistent.  I wonder if shooting the bullets so close to the ground was effecting the shots adversely.  From where I was shooting, the bullets were getting, possibly closer than 4 inches to the ground, about 20 yards in front of me.  It was making a ton of dust along the ground, which I haven't really had happening before.  I kept on shooting more than I normally would have to try to figure out if if was the wind, or interference from the ground, or just that my hand-loads are not very consistent.  I think I will be loading them hotter next time to try to get rid of some of the space inside the casings.  If you shake the bullets that I loaded last week (both the .308s and the .243s), there is more space in there than there is in the Winchester Super-X factory ammo.  I will need to compare with the Black Hills Match ammo on both the muzzle velocity and the amount of "empty space" in the casings.  As you can see, these groupings are not very good.  Some shots are okay, but overall, they are like 2 MOA groups for the most part.  I am not impressed.

3/27/10 Shooting Chrony

Today I bought a Beta Master Shooting Chrony.  I tested some of my loads and here are the results.

(In hindsight, I didn't get a large enough sample for most of these shots, so take it with a grain of salt.  The 308 group was only 3 shots, 243 group was 4 shots.  In later tests I ran 8-10 shots in the string and I think that is a better way to show actual performance.)

Savage .308 168 gr Sierra BTHP Match 42 grains IMR 4064:
     Low: 2620
     High: 2634
     Avg: 2624
     Extreme Spread: 13.69
     Standard Deviation: 7.54

Savage .308 Winchester Super X 180 Gr.
     Low: 2665
     High: 2691
     Avg: 2677
     Extreme Spread: 26.67
     Standard Deviation: 11.53

Ruger .243 Hornady 105 gr A-Max 41 grains IMR 4350:
 
     Low: 2856
     High: 2916
     Avg: 2879
     Extreme Spread: 59.19
     Standard Deviation: 26.24

Ruger .243 Winchester Super X 100 gr soft point

     Low: 3033
     High: 3077
     Avg: 3049
     Extreme Spread: 43.94
     Standard Deviation: 16.67

AR-15 .223 PMC 55 gr FMJ  ???

     Low:2722
     High2770
     Avg: 2749
     Extreme Spread: 47.99
     Standard Deviation: 18.35

3/21/10 - Wall of Fame

It speaks for itself.  These are the fruits of my labors.  Well, at least the fruits of my shooting labors over the last 6 months, give or take a few. 

3/20/10 - Reloading - Shooting the Bottoms

Today I spent the morning reloading at Dad's house.  We spent the night last night, and then later today, we went out to shoot at The Bottoms.  I loaded 100 .308s and 100 .243s.  On the .308s I used the Sierra 168 gr. match tips with 42 grains of IMR 4060 power.  I figured that would be a good starting point.  On the .234s, I used Honady A-Max 105 gr tips.  pushing the .243 bullets is 41 grains of IMR 4350.  Once I got going, it took me about 2 hours and 20 minutes to load 100 shells if I didn't trim the cases.

After loading, Dad and I drove to the Bottoms to see if it was too muddy, and to try to range out some of the distances with his car GPS.  Since it doesn't really give you accurate line of sight distances between way-points (because it is geared toward navigating streets), we went back home and tried to load those points onto his computer to figure the distance.  Well, that didn't work out too well.  We went back down with Karen and the kids and set up a target.  Using the mil-dots in my scope, I estimated the yardage to be almost exactly 500 yards.  I used data that I had for the Black Hills match ammo as a guide, and dialed 44 clicks into the scope.  It wasn't even close.  That shot was about 2 feet low.

We had a little wind coming from left to right too, so I was holding off the target to compensate for that.  Dad and Kaylee were by the target with 2 way radios calling my shots.  It was a little frustrating trying to figure out where these new handloads were hitting as far as elevation goes, but by the time I had shot 11 round, I was able to put the last 4 shots onto the paper as shown in the picture.  If I didn't have the wind messing with me, I think I would have had a very impressive grouping.  Take the two shots right by the bulls-eye for instance, and couple them with the one to the left 3 & 1/4 inches away.  That 3 shot grouping is well under 1 MOA, given the distance.  Those shots were achieved by holding clear off the cardboard to the left.  The shot to the right of the circle was one shot that I didn't notice any wind from where I was, so I held right on the bulls-eye.  After the shot, Dad told me they they still had wind at the target, hence the result.

All told, I ended up having to dial 61 clicks into the scope to get these shots.  That makes me really worried about the muzzle velocity of the bullets I loaded.  If my calculations are close, that means that I can't be getting more than about 2350 fps out of them.  That would not be good.  I really won't know until I get the rifle zero'ed at 100 yards (I didn't even attempt to do that today), and get a chronograph to shoot through.  I have really got to invest in one of those.

3/16/10 - Woman with a Gun - Kentucky Windage

The weather was so beautiful this afternoon that we decided to take a trip as a family to the range.  Karen, Kaylee, and Konnor all got to come with me to the range today.  Kaylee got to shoot a .22 LR for the first time in her life.  She liked that, but had a hard time reaching the trigger.  Karen shot the Glock too.  It's only the second or third time I remember her shooting a pistol since we have been married.  Some women wouldn't pose much of a threat to an intruder even if they had a gun.  Karen on the other hand,  well, let me put it this way; you wouldn't want to mess with her.  This is a warning to all:  she knows right where the gun is, she knows how to rack the slide to load it, and she could most definitely kill you with it!  She can put bullets on target, and she isn't timid when shooting.  She put two or three rounds in to a cup at about 17 feet, and then proceeded to unload the rest of the clip on some other target further away.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

At the rate I am going, I will never have any bullets for the .308 (I need to reload), so I shot the cheap ammo out of the .243 again today.  I'm going to have to sit down one day and find out how much elevation I can get out of the Burris Scope that is on the Ruger, so that I can get some indication of how far out I can use the scope.  Right now, all I am doing is using the BDC reticle for holdover estimation.  Since I know pretty much exactly how to aim for the 425 yard distance, I haven't moved the scope knobs for a while.  Not exactly an exact science, but if I hit what I am pointing at, what difference does it make, right?  

While Karen and the kids went for little hike up the hill, I set up the first grouping.  I had a little wind, but I thought that it was mostly coming at me.  I should have known better.  Five shots, and only one of them even grazed the target.  I mean that.  I barely grazed the target with one of the shots.  The other 4 missed wide right.  I did end up seeing bullet marks in the ground behind the target which seemed to indicate the missed shots.  So after a long walk back, I set it up again. Armed with new information, I held about a 14 inch crab into the wind, and was able to get 3 of 5 generally on target as shown.  As to the location of the other 2 shots in this group, your guess is as good as mine.  Difficult to say whether this was a product of the ammo, or the conditions.  I doubt it was my mistake, but with a trigger like this gun has, I guess that is a possibility.  My guess is that the 2 close hits are a good representation of the consistency of the shots, and that the windage variability with the third shot is due more to atmospheric conditions, than the shooter on this one. 

Back to the .243 - 3/13/10

I'm out of bullets for my .308, so today I went back to the Ruger .243.  I've got a whole bunch of the cheap Walmart Winchester Super-X (crappier than all get out in my .308) 100 gr ammo, so I decided to use some of that up.  It was a breezy morning, and given the fact that I have lost all confidence in the Winchester ammo, I decided to shoot at about 110 yards (I don't know the EXACT distance for this one).  I haven't shot seriously at 100 yards for a while, so I figured it was a good change of pace, and would give me a good idea of how reliable the box of bullets that I was shooting was.  As seen in the picture, 6 shots were placed in a fair grouping for the distance.  Four of those shots, on the other hand, are definitely 1/2 MOA.  I cannot complain at the crap ammo when it makes those types of shots.  The stuff shoots okay out of the .243, but I will never buy it again for the .308.  In fact, now that I am getting more serious about precision shooting, I don't think I will buy any more of it all together.  

Even though the breeze was strong, it would die out every few minutes to be quite calm.  I didn't feel like I'd had my fill yet for the morning, so I took another target over to my 425 yard stump.  It's nice sometimes to just be outside on a walk to enjoy the morning, so I didn't mind the hike.  It is strange to walk that far, and then realize that the bullets you are about to shoot will cover that distance in about a half of a second (.473 seconds, but who's counting, right?).  

Once back at the truck, I set up the gun, and the shot again.  I concentrated on getting my breathing back to normal as I put in my hearing protection.  Here comes the wind again.  I have been dealing with wind in my shooting for the last few weeks.  It has definitely taken it's toll in accuracy, but I guess those are lessons that are important to learn.  I waited for a few minutes to see if it would die down a bit.  I could see the tall grass around the target swaying quite a bit, so I knew that the wind was even stronger at the target, compared to what I was feeling.  Once I noticed the swaying grass slow down, I used the same elevation hold that I used the last time at this distance with this gun.  I figure that the cross-hairs on the scope are fine for 200 yards, the next line down would be for 300, next line 400, next line 500...you get the idea.  Given that formula, I held the target in between two lines (what would equate for 450 yards generally).  I held on the right edge of the white plastic backing to compensate for wind, coming from the right to the left.  There was one of the seven shots that I didn't feel as confident about, and I was not able to see a single one of the shots from that distance. 

All things considered, (wind, and the amazingly long, hard trigger pull on this gun) I am pleased with the shots I placed.  A close look reveals that the 4 closest shots (in relationship to each other) are about 2.5 inches apart vertically, and about the same horizontally.  That almost exactly matches the 1/2 MOA grouping that I was able to print from 110 yards on the previous target (remembering that a 4.25 inch spread would represent 1 MOA at 425 yards).   It might not qualify for 1/2 MOA, but it is under 1, and I cannot expect any better given the ammo, wind, and factory Ruger trigger.  I was glad to see that my windage holding was just about right today.  That is an improvement over my last outing (with the .308), and that is what matters.

Turns out the .234 is no slouch

For all of you out there that have ever fallen asleep during a discussion of external ballistics, this is not the post for you.  Unless you are suffering from insomnia, and desperately need to get some hard core rest in the next 30 seconds, I suggest that you move on.  Those that didn't heed my warning and are still reading, now I can talk openly with you about ballistic co-efficients, windage, and foot pounds of energy without running the risk of scorn.  Doesn't it feel great that we can communicate on this deeply personal level?
Okay, down to brass tacks.  It turns out that the .308 using 168 gr. Sierra BTHP Match bullets shot from 2650-2750 fps will experience a bullet drop at 1000 yards of about 386 inches.  The ballistic co-efficient (hear after denoted as BC) of that round is .462-.424, depending on the velocity.  The .243 105 grain Hornady A-Max bullets I have, boast a general BC of .500.  I looked up the BC for the Sierra 107 gr. BTHP Match bullets and they fall in at .527-.495, (velocity dependent, from 2900 fps at the muzzle).  This higher BC means that the .243 will only experience a 309 inch drop in 1000 yards.  Not only does the .243 round out perform the .308 in the amount of bullet drop, it gets there faster.  Time of flight (here after denoted as ToF) for the .243 is 1.495 seconds, while the heavier, slower .308 takes 1.688 seconds to impact the target.  This flatter trajectory means that the .243 round will be more forgiving with regards to mistakes in the range estimation of any given target, than the .308 round will.
The particular .243 round we are discussing also out performs the .308 round with respect to wind drift.  If we examine a 10 mph wind coming at 90 degrees, the .308 round will drift 105.1 inches.  The smaller, faster .243 will only drift 81.1 inches.  I suspect this is due in part to the shorter ToF.
The one area where the .308 will out shine the .243 is the amount of energy the round has.  Assuming you can get your 168 gr .308 round to 2750 fps at the muzzle, you will have 2821 ft/lbs of energy.  The 105 gr. .243 round at 2900 fps, will give you 1961 ft/lbs of energy.  That means the .308 has 860 more ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle.  However, lets take a look at the 500 yard, and 1000 yard markers for a closer look at how each round bleeds energy.  At 500 yards, the .308 is down to 1271 ft/lbs.  That means that it has only retained 45 percent of it's energy.  The .243 round is down to 998 ft/lbs at 500 yards.  It has retained just shy of 51 percent of its energy.  At 1000 yards, the .308 round is down to 534 ft/lbs.  It has only retained 18.9 percent of the total energy it once had.  The .243 is down to 463 ft/lbs at 1000 yards, meaning that is has retained 23.6 percent of its total energy.  So although we cannot argue that the .308 round has more energy at all ranges, it is interesting to note that it bleeds off energy faster than the .243.  For the purposes of this discussion, I say that makes the .243 a more efficient cartridge with respect to external ballistics. 
If you are still awake after reading this, I congratulate you on the tremendous feat you have just accomplished. I suspect, that it was much harder for you to read this and remain coherent, than it was for me to write it.  I hope you learned something, because I sure have.  The .243 is no slouch, ballisticly speaking.

2/27/10 Wind 2, Kyle 0

The heading says it all really.  I am blaming today's less than stellar performance at the range on the wind.  We all know what that really means: I underestimated the wind again today.  I guess the issue is that just because I only have a light breeze from my shooting position, there are larger wind currents flowing down the canyons that I have to shoot across to get 700 yards to the target.  As you can see in the pictures, it was rough.  After my first 5 shots, I decided to walk over to the target instead of drive over.  The entire time I was walking I was excited to see really good shots right next to the bulls-eye.  When I got to the plywood, I could hardly believe what I saw.  What I saw was nothing.  Not a single shot in the 4x8 ply!  I wondered if perhaps I had dialed 77 clicks of down elevation.  A closer look at the ground beyond the target told the story.  I found where my shots were landing. I had missed wide left (yes that was the general direction of the wind from what I could tell).  I actually did find 2 of the five bullets there in the ground.  The only redeeming thing about the situation is that I think I had at least 3 (or more) shots in that very small area, by the looks of the disturbed dirt. 

After a 700 yard walk back to the truck, I was determined to out shoot the wind.  For the next five shots, I held about 3/4 mils to the right.  As you can see in the photo, I printed a really good grouping of 3 shots that landed on the ply left and low of the aimpoint.  In the wider photo, you can see a shot that landed about level with the bulls eye (my stray shot?).  My guess is that the 5th shot that didn't manage to hit the plywood was just left enough to miss the wood, but still in the same grouping with the other 3, but I will never know.

Both times I walked up to the target I was genuinely surprised to see that I didn't break the paper multiple times.  Those 10 shots were the last of my 168 gr. Black Hills Match 308 ammo.  From here on out (mostly), I hope to be shooting my own hand-loads.   We shall see how that goes.

Ranging out the range

This is for all of you out there wondering what 1000 yards looks like.  I took the picture standing in the back of the truck where I shoot from.  You'll have to click on the picture to really check it out.  The tree stump at 425 yards is about 18 inches in diameter,  but is barely visible at that range.  When I stood a 4'x8' plywood board up at 700 yards, it blends in with the surroundings and I thought it had blown over for a minute or two just the other day.  Then there is the thousand yard distance...no, those are not weeds on that hill...they are trees!  Not just little trees.  They are 12 to 15 feet high!  The picture is deceiving, because that is a pretty steep hillside.  As is turns out, 1000 yards is a long way... who knew?

I'm a sucker for flashlights...

Don' you just love a good flashlight?  I have many flashlights, but I think this one is my favorite. It is really bright, and it will shine for like 8 or nine hours on a set of batteries.  I decided that every good flashlight needs carrying handles, so I got that flashlight holder to go with it (and the sling to hold the flashlight holder).   I topped it off the with  the  holographic sight, so I always know where the focal point of my flashlight is.  Just so you know, if you are lurking around inside (uninvited of course), or outside of my house, there is a decent chance that I will point my flashlight at you (for educational purposes that I won't go into here).  I have another one (not pictured) that works really well with the smaller flashlight companion.  I keep the flashlights in the bedroom with me, because you just never know when you are going to need to see in the dark.

This looks like it would hurt

Just in case you are wondering what it might feel like to be shot with a .308 at 700 yards...lets examine what happened to the steel frame that I was using to stand my target up with today. Keep in mind that it had to go through the plywood first.