Accuracy tall tales..,

My longest shot measured with my range finder was 326 yards. I knew it was long, so I walked to the dead dog and shot back to my car to be sure of the distance. I killed him with the 5th shot from my Remington VSF .223 and my very accurate hand loads. The final and lethal shot, I held a few inches high and a few left. I subsequently bought a Rem 700 VLS .243 and spent considerable time building accurate loads and practicing at the 300 yard range. With perseverance and practice I managed to kill several dogs at 300 yds, but I abandoned the idea and sold the gun because I missed a good deal more than I connected. I still shoot lots of dogs, but most under 200 yds with my 17HMR.
I now shoot with my buddy who is a long distance competition rifle shooter of considerable skill; much better than I am. His equipment is hand built and wicked accurate. We haven't tried for ultra long p-dog shots yet but he has video of shooting a couple at 275 yds with his 6mm. Setting up the video depends entirely on a patient and dumb p-dog. Next spring he'll try for longer shots. Last story. He also built a 6.5CM for deer and 2 weeks ago he shot a doe through the heart at 350 yds.

When I was kid in high school I saw my neighbor kill a flying quail with a shotgun at what had to be maybe 75-100 yards. It got hit with one single pellet in the back of its head

As for prairie dogs, I’ve found the wind more challenging than the distance. As Nature Boy said above, if the town hasn’t been shot in three or more years, many will just sit in place if you are using a moderate caliber like a .223. My .22-250 was loud enough that it sent them down

Another true story, not a tall tale: My dad, brothers, and I were sitting in the car having given up on waiting for prairie chickens to fly over us in the field. Having eagle eyesight in those days, I spotted a single bird coming our way. So, we jump out of the car with our guns, hoping he'll fly our way. In fact, he did, but flew down and lit in a weedy ditch about 100 yds in front of us. So we walk hurriedly over to the ditch, again counting on my eagle-eye to know where he went down. Guns ready, we crept into the brush. I told my brother, "He should be right where you're standing." He bent over and picked up a dead bird. Later when we skinned it, the bird had one pellet in his breast. I can honestly say I harvested a prairie chicken WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT. I was given the credit since I spotted him and guided us to his final resting place.

My son and I went on a Pdog hunt in Wyoming back in 2015 (he was 12). We started at 8:30 in the morning and quit at 4:30 when the ammo ran out.

I was shooting my .308 M1A and he was shooting a .223.

What a blast! Glad I don’t live up there. I’d be wearing out 3 or 4 barrels a year

someguy2800 said:

I’ve seen some big fish stories in my time, but this puts them all to shame.

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I don’t see that as outlandish. If anyone understands the concept of area saturation, understands there are only so many times one could fire at that target and not happen to hit the bullseye.

Nature Boy said:

My son and I went on a Pdog hunt in Wyoming back in 2015 (he was 12).

[…]

What a blast! Glad I don’t live up there. I’d be wearing out 3 or 4 barrels a year

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That’s no joke! When I was young, we still had pdogs in western KS, and we’d take a dozen rifles between a handful of us to be able to let barrels cool while shooting other rifles on rotation. The last “regular access” I had would have been almost 5yrs ago now, I was working a lot in western nebraska and had relationships with farmers up there. With nothing else to do while stuck on the road working, my colleagues and I would go sit over the fallow corners of crop circles and burn pdogs at least once each week.

Ammo expenditures were a strategic line item to be made to fit into the budget!

These days, I only make it about once per year, and end up paying through the nose for access. But there’s not much else in the world which I find as relaxing as sitting a field bench over a pdog town all weekend. Hell, I’d rather that than sitting on a beach anywhere in the world.

Nature Boy said:

My son and I went on a Pdog hunt in Wyoming back in 2015 (he was 12). We started at 8:30 in the morning and quit at 4:30 when the ammo ran out.

I was shooting my .308 M1A and he was shooting a .223.

What a blast! Glad I don’t live up there. I’d be wearing out 3 or 4 barrels a year

View attachment 1123339

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AHH...Your son is shooting a Remington 700 VLS. Same gun my brother shoots. Great rifles and very accurate. Thanks for the picture

I can’t think of a shooting sport that hits the target 100% of the time. If you do, it’s too easy. One is simply trying to improve their percentage of hits. Anyone that wins a competition simply misses less than the other guy.

redneck2 said:

I can’t think of a shooting sport that hits the target 100% of the time. If you do, it’s too easy. One is simply trying to improve their percentage of hits. Anyone that wins a competition simply misses less than the other guy.

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My bullets hit the ground 100% but I make no further claim.

mavracer said:

LOL you can lose your wallet with thinking like that.View attachment 1123252

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I had a setup kinda like that. It made some fast car people feel stupid.
My question is. How much are they allowed to modify their AR?
My truck had modded suspension, a different transmission, and a 410 cubic inch small block that made over 500 HP NA.
That's the equivalent of having the original lower receiver, gas tube, and maybe the bolt.

Bfh_auto said:

My question is. How much are they allowed to modify their AR?

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They're limited by the rules for NRA service match rifle.
They are most certainly not rack grade M16s, they'll have match grade barrels and be shooting Black Hills 77gr SMK Mk262 or equivalent.
The big limits are the 4.5X glass and the 4.5# trigger.
I've got an old WOA iron sight service match upper they're capable of great accuracy.
https://www.whiteoakarmament.com/white-oak-precision-brux-service-rifle-upper-brux.html

So, true story. I once shot a shotgun shell primer out of the hull, that was about 44 million* yards away. True story! Bit hard to judge the exact distance, but once I turned around it was an easy shot... And only 100 yards away.

All kidding aside, I have a severe tendency to hit things with cold bore shots I could never shoot a group on. And that makes me lucky, not good. I have seen some truly unbelievable shooting from unsupported positions while hunting that could never be duplicated, but they happened. A 2" rubber ball at 600? Sure. Now do it again...

*The circumference of the earth is roughly 44 million yards.

I've pulled off some decent shots over the last 57 years. Deer at 400, a coyote laying down at 264, even shot a 3 shot group "ONCE" that measured 2 1/2" at 500, but I won't tell you about the deer that I missed today at 135. Nope, ain't gonna do it.

Captcurt said:

a coyote laying down at 264,

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I hit a moving coyote at 130 yards with a shotgun slug. In all fairness, it was an 870 with a rifled barrel and 4x scope, shooting off support. I had it sighted at 125 yards. Off a good rest it would hold tennis ball size groups

My friend I was hunting with told me to not waste a slug. Boom.....flop

But, since some here think that is impossible and a lie, I guess the dead coyote I drug back to the truck wasn’t real after all

Nature Boy said:

Prairie Dogs will sit there and let you walk your rounds in, particularly if you’re shooting over a dog town that hasn’t been hunted in a while.

As a result you can make some really long hits that sound impressive if you aren’t counting all your misses.

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True dat! I count all my shots and if the aforementioned 625 yard dog had sat around for a while longer I might have nailed it!

Captcurt said:

I'm not impressed. I heard one guy claim that he hit a running pronghorn at 600 yards. Top that!

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I'll bet he even has the empty case to prove it!

Lot's of internet discussion on super accurate long range rifles...and the scopes necessary to wring out the last smidgeon of accuracy way out and beyond...but those same discussions usually fail to make mention, let alone emphasize, the effects of wind. Here's some dope on Sierra's excellent .308 Palma Matchking launched at 2900 fps with a 300 yd zero. With a 1/2 MOA rifle/scope/shooter, that's ~3" of mechanical accuracy at 600 yds...few of those combinations around despite the claims...

At 300 yds, impact is dead on the cross hairs for elevation, but with a 5 mph cross-wind at 90 degrees, you'll see 3.3" of deflection; at 600 yds that wind drift is now 15".

Now take the same 300 yd zero and decrease the cross wind to 3 mph. Two mph of reduction results in a drift at 300 yds of 2" and the 600 yd drift is now 9".

Point being that a high dollar rifle and scope combination does not buy long range, first shot, cold bbl. accuracy...of equal importance (and far more difficult to attain) is the shooter's ability to judge wind velocity and direction.

In the real world, there are no wind flags spaced conveniently 100 yds apart; the shooter's ability to read mirage, smoke, dust and grass/leaf flutter while judging the cross winds is vital.

First & only shot, cold bbl. hits, take a true expert...there are very, VERY few of those around.

Best regards, Rod

My best once ever group was one hole (three shots) at 300 yards, 22-250 50g Nosler BT from a Shilen DGA rifle.

My Marlin HMR at 100 yards. The red dots were warm up. The black dots are three shots each. I did have a little crossing wind but this is Kansas so it is always blowing:






This rifle is severely limited by the cheapaxx BSA scope with a cross hair that completely obscures the little dots when zoomed in. It needs a much better scope and I think it might go hole for hole. Once in a while with luck maybe . Red ball at 600 yards, maybe my Savage could do it in 6.5CM, maybe:



But it would need more scope than it has and maybe someone who is a better marksman than I behind the trigger . Below, 3 and 5 I was shooting at, number 4 I shot to hit. Remington Marlin 1895 SBL and if I recall that was Hornady LR 325 FTX ammo.



But I will not try for a tiny red ball with it at 600 yards. That would be pure luck and make a really good tall tale .

When my boys were little 30 years ago I modified a clay pigeon thrower to launch sheetrock mud,bucket lids. We built recurves to knock them down. The lids come out HARD..... to get a shot off,going away in under 20 yds is flippin tough to do. Typical shots are 25 -40.

My boys would race each other to pick up the few misses. On a good day I'd nail 18-20 out of 2 dz. 50% hits are the norm... but holy moly it is addictive. Hit the launch pedal with your foot,haha.

someguy2800 said:

My neighbors dad used to let us shoot pigeons in the barn with a recurve bow and blunt arrows. I think we averaged about 200 misses in a row but the one that finally hit a pigeon was “a great shot!”

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someguy2800 said:

Some of those marlins are amazing shooters. My lithgow 17 hmr is close to that but I think the marlin would take it.

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Thanks, it does shoot good. I have the DIP bottom metal, a Rifle Basix target trigger and I epoxy bedded the action and made sure the barrel is free floated of course. I got the rifle really cheap because the stock is cut crooked and there was a rebate at the time I think it was. It has the target barrel pre-fluiting. Since that day it also got a DIP rail. Just needs a much better scope.