Range Report: Going the Distance

[shooter521]

Hey, INGOers!

Recently, fellow INGOer 42769vette, aka Alan from A&A Optics - High Quality Scopes, invited me to come and shoot at his family's farm near Richmond. He said that they would start planting in a few weeks, which would prohibit use of their 750 yard range. So I decided to take him up on his most generous offer sooner rather than later, and made the trip down today. Weather forecast said sunny and 70+; I arrived to heavy cloud cover and showers. Not to be deterred, Alan suggested we shoot suppressed .22s from inside the barn while we waited for the rain to pass. Oh, we can "only" get out to 150 yards from there? Twist my arm.

I broke out my Savage MkIIFV-SR/Gemtech Outback II-D/Nikon Prostaff rig, while Alan shot his CZ-452/Huntertown Arms/Vortex Viper setup.

Our shooting position from the barn loft

A couple quiet guns ready to sling lead

Vortex Viper scope on a CZ-452... lotta scope for a little gun, but wicked accurate!

Alan's CZ dope... yeah, he's done 300+ yards with a .22LR. STUD.

View from the gun (the white smudge is just in front of our 100 yard target)

Multiple targets - only the first two were visible from the barn loft; the nearest one is a 3" piece of steel (hung on an oblique angle, so it presents a 1" to 2" target) at 100 yards; the orange one is a pepper popper at 150 yards

I have a ~50-yard zero on my scope, and the BDC reticle allows me to (theoretically) get out to 150 yards without having to dial in any changes. It seemed to work pretty well with the CCI Subsonics I normally favor, but round-to-round inconsistency with other ammo types proved frustrating (I haven't found the Gemtech-branded subsonic .22 to group well out of anything I own – which is odd, since CCI loads it for them).

While I continued to shoot .22s from the barn, Alan ducked out to mount a brand-new (as in, the truck showed up while we were shooting) Vortex Razor HD scope on his Savage .308 rifle, in preparation for the day's main event. He got a rough zero on the gun from the barn, before we packed up and headed outside.

That scope is one bad mamma-jamma!

Alan locking down the turrets after zeroing

Close-up of Vortex Razor HD turrets with lots of numbers and stuff

 

[lovemywoods]

That looks like so much fun!!!

Thank for sharing part of your day.

Did the .308 get zeroed later?

Also, kudos on the pictures. Great use of light and shadow. Shooting into a bright background is difficult. Well done!

 

[shooter521]

By the time we were done messing around with our .22s and getting the .308 sighted in, the rain had passed and the clouds were starting to give way to sunshine, so we adjourned to the adjacent farm field, which allowed access to several other targets at various distances. We decided to just go big or go home, and set our sights on the steel IPSC torso at the 750-yard mark... which I quickly discovered was a LONG ****ING WAY AWAY.

Yeah, that orange speck inside the red circle is what we were shooting at

A bit bigger view of the 750-yard target

A close-up after we drove out to check the target, finding some fresh .308 and .223 hits

Alan went first, with me spotting for him, and we managed to get his .308 Savage on steel without too much trouble. Seeing the hit through the scope but not hearing the "TING" of the steel for a full two seconds was an entirely new experience for me, as was seeing the vapor trail of the bullet (totally bad-ass, and quite helpful in calling misses) – I can see why long-distance shooters find it so addicting.

I brought my Savage 10FP-SR .223 bolt gun (which I had put a total of maybe 20 rounds through), wearing a new-to-me Nikon Monarch UCC 5.5-16.5x44 scope that I had just mounted and boresighted last week, but had not actually fired. Now up to today, the longest distance I'd ever shot was a shade over 400 yards, and that was a couple years ago at troy_mp's family farm near Seymour. I do not consider myself a rifleman at all, and I was shooting a basically new gun with a new optic setup.

Alan manned the spotting scope, and had me on target in 5 shots.

After we'd had our fill of bolt-gun fun, we broke out our AR-15s to see if we could replicate our success with semi-autos wearing 1-4x optics (mine a Burris TAC30, his a Vortex Viper PST). His rifle had the better optic, mine had the better trigger, but with a little bit of work, we both were able to achieve multiple hits on steel. At 750 yards. With a 16" barreled AR-15. That was, I think, even more fulfilling than doing it with a bolt gun with a high-powered scope.

After that, we drove downrange to do some close-range work with my brand-new .300BLK SBR, which proved to be our only letdown of the day. Turns out either the gas tube roll pin exited the vehicle on the first shot, or one had never been installed in the first place, leaving me with the world's coolest straight-pull bolt action. The ONE TIME I buy an assembled upper instead of building my own. Go figure. It will be fixed tomorrow.

HUGE thanks to Alan for having me down and sharing his shootin' spot. He knows an absolute crap-ton about long-distance shooting, ballistics and optics, is willing to share that knowledge freely, and does so in a way that even a dope like me can understand ("explain it to me like I'm six," I said). No wonder his optics business is taking off!

More generally, if you ever get a chance to stretch your rifle's legs beyond (or in this case, WELL beyond) your comfort zone, do it. It's a hoot!

 

[Que]

Man, this is some great stuff!

 

[ddavidson]

So did that 750-yard mark go ding?

 

[sgreen3]

Wow, thanks for sharing. Looks like alot of fun. An some really nice surroundings.

 

[shooter521]

So did that 750-yard mark go ding?

With the .308, it's still pretty audible. With the .223, sometimes you hear it, sometimes you don't. It helps to have a suppressor.

Visually, .308 gives you a better vapor trail, but .223 gives you a more visible bullet splash on target. Both are a whole lot of fun to shoot at distances that make most folks go WTF.

 

[42769vette]

So did that 750-yard mark go ding?

as shooter said its very hard to hear a 223 with hearing protection on. you can hear about 1/2 of the hits that way. without ears on you can hear them pretty well. the spotter will actually call the hit before you hear anything.

with a 308 hearing protection doesnt matter you still hear it.

great write up. from now on ill provide the range you do the aar and we will call it even

also thanks for the gas block. the my blackout parts came in and i put it together. i dont know why i didnt think to buy some ammo with the parts. now i have a brand new toy and no ammo

 

[42769vette]

That looks like so much fun!!!

Thank for sharing part of your day.

Did the .308 get zeroed later?

Also, kudos on the pictures. Great use of light and shadow. Shooting into a bright background is difficult. Well done!

the 308 is still not sighted in. its close enough to make hits but the razor has locking and un locking turrets. you can unlock them and it does away with the clicks. you sight it in and re lock the turret. that way there is no chance of being "between clicks" to get a precise zero. when you re lock the turret it locks the clicks in and sets your zero stop. basically i got within a few inches of zero and moved on so i didn't waste time.

if you look at pic 1 you can see the hole i have cut in the barns hayloft for rainy day shooting

 

[Caleb]

I always wanted a long range gun...think my k31 could reach out to 750yards with a good scope mounted on it?

I'd must have to butt in and tag along, much about scopes I'd need to learn about...

 

[42769vette]

I always wanted a long range gun...think my k31 could reach out to 750yards with a good scope mounted on it?

I'd must have to butt in and tag along, much about scopes I'd need to learn about...

ya its capable, consistancy might not be the highest but it can be done

 

[Caleb]

ya its capable, consistancy might not be the highest but it can be done

What rifle/caliber would provide better accuracy than a k31? What are some things to look for in a scope that can help you shoot 700+ yards?

 

[the1kidd03]

Man, I miss distance shooting....it's so much easier to find on a base....there's nowhere around here outside of a 2 hour drive to Ft. Wayne

What kind of price ranges you have on good scopes for .308 to reach out?

 

[42769vette]

What rifle/caliber would provide better accuracy than a k31? What are some things to look for in a scope that can help you shoot 700+ yards?

any modern 308 (among a slew of other calibers) will be fine and cheap. yesterday i was using a 550 dollar plain jane factory savage.

as far as a scope rifle and formost would be quality rings and bases (not exactly scope but in the same ballpark)

2nd and just as important is number 1 is tracking. if the scope is not repeatable to me its worthless. you can use holdovers but as you shoot 600+yards you will find your aiming at the fork in the tree behind the target wich is not the best for consistancy.

3rd would be a 30mm tube. a 30mm tube allows more travel allowing you to dial out to longer ranges. if your shooting a 1 inch hunting scope with 30 moa of travel you are not going to dial to long range without running out of travel

 

[42769vette]

Man, I miss distance shooting....it's so much easier to find on a base....there's nowhere around here outside of a 2 hour drive to Ft. Wayne

What kind of price ranges you have on good scopes for .308 to reach out?

ive got scopes that will reach 750 anywhere from 450-2000.

i know you planned to go the the 1500 stop by and take a look. those prices are for scopes you dial out to range not hold

 

[Fenway]

Fantastic post shooter.... Alan you have made some INGOers jealous!

 

[Caleb]

any modern 308 (among a slew of other calibers) will be fine and cheap. yesterday i was using a 550 dollar plain jane factory savage.

as far as a scope rifle and formost would be quality rings and bases (not exactly scope but in the same ballpark)

2nd and just as important is number 1 is tracking. if the scope is not repeatable to me its worthless. you can use holdovers but as you shoot 600+yards you will find your aiming at the fork in the tree behind the target wich is not the best for consistancy.

3rd would be a 30mm tube. a 30mm tube allows more travel allowing you to dial out to longer ranges. if your shooting a 1 inch hunting scope with 30 moa of travel you are not going to dial to long range without running out of travel

Ok, what suggestions would you have for a long range(700+) scope? Mil dot? Lumanated?

 

[42769vette]

Ok, what suggestions would you have for a long range(700+) scope? Mil dot? Lumanated?

mil dot vs moa is always a big debate in the lr shooting community. bottom line is it doesnt matter. they are both units of measurement and thats it. its like if i said "that post is 1 mile away", and you said "its 5280 feet away" neither answer is better they are just diffrent units of measurements.

pick 1 and learn it. military shooters learn mils so most shooters who learned in the military like mils better.

illumination really doesnt matter either. illuminationis like 4x4 on a truck. even if you rarly use it you are glad you have it when you need it. most of my scopes are illuminated but some of them have never had the illumination used. but its niceto know its there if you need it

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

What? No long-range Glocking?

 

[Kedric]

+1 to those jealous of the set up!

Also, FANTASTIC write up and love hearing about an awesome day shooting like that.

Kudos to you both on a great day with great people!