Long Range for Beginners on a Budget

Hi guys. I wanted to offer some advice on the cheap beginnings into shooting long range. I speak from the experience of someone who has until recently had plenty of time behind the sights but at 35 and closer yards. I offer a cheap, quite safe, and fun way to enter into this world. It is good for those who are beginners and a good way to introduce inexperienced folks into this world.

I began with a crossman phantom 1,000 .177 caliber pellet rifle. My house is located in some dense woods and there are no houses for about 300 yards. I shot at squirrels who try to nest in my house mostly but one day I decided to see how far I can take this baby out to. I bought a 3-9x50 bushnell scope that was on sale for $40 at walmart and installed it. Fast forward a year and a half and I shoot a coke can at 300 yards on a closed golf course down the street from my home.

I realize that this is a firearms forum but I think the unique conditions involved with shooting this rifle are great to learn basics on a small scale. This rifle shoots 10.5 grain magnum pellets ( I find they carry better past 150 yards) at about 700 fps. The windage on these shots can be extreme. A 10 mph full wind drags that little pellet about 30 inches off target at 150 yards. I do not own a laser range finder but I do my measurements off google earth and I place my targets infront of trees that I can recognise when I get back home. At 100 yards the vertical compensation is about 3 feet and it gets absurd from there. I practice holding over, and clicking back and forth at ranges that are relatively near and far from me. I even keep a semi serious dope book for this rifle.

I hope everyone can see how this is good practice when money is tight or when life gets busy enough that we cant make a trip to the country for some more respectable ranges. I have introduced a few friends to firearms via this route. These friends did not care for firearms at all, but I was able to teach them gun safety, and put their foot in the door to our world. In fact, a couple friends have even purchased firearms and began going to ranges because of their experiences with me. I have taught all of my girlfriends and their younger siblings to shoot and they all have loved it. younger kiddies ( 6 years old and younger) get a tad frustrated at first but you would be suprised how fast their little minds pick this stuff up.

I suggest this rifle for several reasons. It is rather heavy and gets them ready for how heavy rifles are. The trigger pull is pretty stiff ( 7-10 pounds) but smoothe and is good for practicing trigger control basics. It has a safety that prevents the gun from being loaded or fired when it is on thus allowing the use of a safety to be included in the instruction. It isnt very loud and finally there is the cost. The rifle cost me $75, the scope, $40, and pellets $35 for 4,000.

Shooting 300 yards is challenging with this weapon and I can say for certain it has vastly improved my trigger control and in teaching ran safety has made me even more concious about safe gun practices. I HIGHLY recommend this to everyone here, even those who already shoot long range.

The coke can isnt a 1 shot hit. It takes me about 7-10 shots to hit it. I can hit a milk jug 1 in 3 shots. Yes it is crazy hold over but it helps that I am shooting down hill. I am sure about the distance, like I said in my description I looked it up on google earth and that is the length they gave me. 304 point something yards. Quite frankly I dont care if you dont believe me. I dont know you and your opinion about my feats of accuracy mean less than nothing. Bragging wasnt the point of the post. I was trying to introduce a new training idea for those who have gun hesitant friends/kids. It is good practice and replicated long range shooting in a smaller scale environment. The can usually is knocked down, sometimes it stresses the metal and makes a tear hole but doesnt go in. other times it goes in but doesnt go completely through.

As I see it all of you have ignored the point of the post. If this is what I can expect when I discuss my experiences here then maybe I am on the wrong forum. Elitist shooters and mall ninjas only right?

The rifle is zeroed at 100 yards, the base is one of those real tall bases that lets you see through to use the iron sights. The rail the rings clip to sits 2.5 inches off the top of the reciever; I measured it with a ruler. Even with that much heigth I have to crank the adjustments about to the end and hold over some. I know it seems far but I shoot that thing every day. The target sits in a wooden box infront of the same tree and I take atleast 100 shots every single day. Either before work or after. I pull my car off and take a padded vice bolted to a chunk of wood. I clamp it in and start clicking out almost to the end of my scope's settings and then aim about 6 feet high. The grass hasnt been cut there since it was foreclosed on by the bank about 3 years ago and because the target is down hill I can see most all the high grass which helps me with windage. It took me over a month to be able to hit that thing once in a single session, but about 40 cans of 500 and a little over 14 months later I can hit it.

I have seen vids of pcp guns shooting 200+ yards and I found one video of a person shooting 400 yards with their pcp gun. I also found videos of people shooting 22 lr at 400 yards. Those vids helped inspire me to try this out. If they can do it then I figured I could too. At 300 yards I would say I get peach crate accuracy ( 1 foot by 2 feet) which is well above moa. I can see how high up on the tree to aim so frankly the issue isnt heigth. Moreover I am shooting at known distances over and over. I had to learn to guess windage and that is what messes with my accuracy more than anything.
I am sorry if I seem agressive but I am a young man, all I have is my balls and my word. Someone calling me a liar is very serious to me. Still we digress....