I've competed at 800-1000 and shot buffalo matches out to 1250 or so, both with irons. They're all using pretty big targets. From the NRA rule book:
So a 6' backing board. I never had issues seeing the black, and I'd swap out my front insert to give me just enough daylight around it to be centered. When we shot with the BP guns, we only set up every other tgt because a missed wind call would often end up on the next shooter's TGT.
Camp Perry had unusually clear air. It might be due to the fact the backstop was Lake Erie and the lake breeze was cool and probably free of dust. The bulls on the 1000 yard targets were generally clear. That is not the case at several 1000 yard ranges in the South that I have shot at. I don't understand the optics, but with a post sight, I could not approach the bull as it disappeared in the heat, humidity, mirage. Post sight shooters often used a frame hold, that is the front sight was at the bottom of the target, you had to add elevation because the ten ring was still in the middle. Target frames would flicker and move in the mirage. Groups with frame holds were looser and scores with the service rifle were always lower than the guys with match rifles.
Most of the later long range matches I shot the course of fire was 20 shots for record with unlimited sighters in a block time. Shooters would show up with new loads and rifles, only having short range zero's. If they hit the berm you could tell them they were low. If they were shooting above the target, ranges like Camp Perry don't have a dirt backstop to see a bullet impact, and everyone gets frustrated. I have pulled for shooters who burnt up almost all of their block time getting on target. No happy campers on the line or in the pits! Hitting at long range is not a gimme.
And, I am going to state, unless the long range hunter has actually tested his loads at on target, he does not know if the bullets are stable or not. This is a topic not addressed by the in print crowd, as they test at most, 100 yards away, and make claims about 1200 yard performance based on their 100 yard targets. Not all bullets are stable at distance. I don't know if they tumble below supersonic, or at some random velocity, but bullets tumble.
these bullets were stable at 300 yards
tumbled at 600 yards
this was a shocker, 190 grain match bullets in a 308 Win. the actual string velocities are on the target. These bullets should have not gone sub sconic at this distance, according to the book values.
at 300 yards, stable.
600 yards, unstable
other bullets, same rifle, stable.
Stable at 600 yards does not prove stability at 700 or 775 yards. And yet these long range hunters are flinging bullets at distance, assuming they will go where aimed, and they really don't know what the bullet is doing at distance. They would be more ethical if they cut the distance between the animal and themselves, but they really don't care.
I am glad I don't have to justify the hunting habits of attention seeking narcissists who treat living creatures as disposable props in the story of their legendary lives.
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