What's Your Choice?

[CB900F]

Fella's;

You're laying out a thousand yard range, it's oriented with the prevailing wind, there's no land or backdrop considerations, and the distance markers are up to you. Let's say that the obvious shorter distances are: 25, 50, and 100 yards, and they're a given, OK? But beyond that, there's a lot of choices.

You could be very conventional & simply stake in 100 yard intervals out to the maximum. Or, 300, 600 (it seems to be a popular distance on many ranges), and 1000. Possibly 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000. Another set might be 250, 500, 750, 1000.

What's your choice and why?

900F

 

[HRnightmare]

I like the 250, 500, 750 and 1k idea...It's very precisely intervaled BUT day for .223 as an example. It may not be best bet. Because a 50yd zero is also good for a 200yd zero? All of (of memory) so 50,100, 200...may be better.

 

[rcmodel]

I would at least follow the NRA / CMP range yardages used in competition.

Somebody, sometime, might want to practice on a certified NRA range before going to Camp Perry to try to win the national individual trophy!

You will have to sort out the details from the rules.
http://www.thecmp.org/NM/Rifle.htm

I don't think you will find anything much in the rule book about 250, 500, 750, or 800 though???

But I haven't read it cover to cover & memorized it since I used to shoot in it years ago

rc

 

[Bobson]

I would set markers in 100 yard increments all the way out to the max distance, whatever it might be. Reason behind it is it would help me quickly learn how my rifle/ammo work together in terms of ballistics, and get some good DOPE. I'm a complete novice when it comes to long-range shooting, but this makes practical sense to me, and I've not yet had an experienced long-range shooter suggest it's a bad idea.

Question:
>>> When building a home range, how can I know exactly where 1,000 yards is from my designated shooting platform, without going out and buying an expensive range-finder I won't use again (or at least, not often)? I know range-finders don't have to be expensive, but the less expensive models seem to only be good out to a few hundred yards, and I would imagine they're also far less precise. So how is this typically done? If it is via a range-finder; well, I guess I'll need to get one. Just curious if there's a more practical method.

 

[1911 guy]

If I were making a range for my own use, it would have the following ranges:

10, 25, 50, 100, 300, 500, 750 and 1,000 yards with flags at 50 yard intervals for wind. This would cover everything I want, from handgun to long range rifle.

 

[vaupet]

I would use a marker every 100 yard and the flags are a very good idea.

@ bobson: how to do it?

you have to be in a two man team and need 20 markers and a two meter long red and white "jalon", typically used in land survey.

jalon is placed at the end point (more or less)

person one stands at the shooting platform and sights in person two on the other end of the 50 metres (or yards) measuring tape, to get a straight line to the red and white marker.
person two places marker at 50 m (or y)
person one goes to the marker
repeat

this is the way is was done for centuries before optics and electronics took over

have fun

 

[bannockburn]

I would probably be fairly conventional and have 100 yard increments past the first 100 yards. Be interesting to see what a 1000 yard range is like as the farthest I have shot at on a public range has been 200 yards.

 

[Loc n Load]

Range & markers

I shoot weekly on a 1000 yd range....the range is marked in 100 yd increments with 18" steel gongs hanging off to the edge of the main shooting lane.....Our shooting position is on an elevated spot and if I need to establish a yardage in between the markers I simply go down range and use my laser range finder to lase my shooting position until I arrive at my desired yardage down range.
The range runs East and West with us shooting to the West. The impact gongs are useful for developing your "dope" on your come ups or downs at various ranges.....then we can set up a paper target to fine tune the zero. The gongs are also useful for learning to shoot at various yardages w/o having a bunch of paper targets and frames down range....and the shooter has feedback when his/her round strikes the steel gong.
WE use a Kestrel at our shooting position to judge wind.

 

[HexHead]

I'd go with every 100 yards, if for no other reason scopes with BDC are generally marked in 100 yard increments.

The flags for windage would be a nice touch.

 

[Sav .250]

I would at least follow the NRA / CMP range yardages used in competition.

Somebody, sometime, might want to practice on a certified NRA range before going to Camp Perry to try to win the national individual trophy!

You will have to sort out the details from the rules.
http://www.thecmp.org/NM/Rifle.htm

I don't think you will find anything much in the rule book about 250, 500, 750, or 800 though???

But I haven't read it cover to cover & memorized it since I used to shoot in it years ago

rc

You hit the nail right on the head..................

 

[WNTFW]

I would mark in 5 yd increments to 25 or 50. 25 yds out to 100 or 200 yards and 100 yards out to max range. I would also mark the distance for silhouette shooting. 40, 60, 77, 100 for small bore silhouette.

With this marking scheme you could shoot pistol, archery, airguns and rifle. I am assuming a private multi-use range. Sounds like overkill and it is. I shot at so many unmarked ranges I am overcompensating for it.

 

[Ed Ames]

Depends on several factors including whether it is private, public, or between, how I am measuring, and whether the shooting position is fixed or if you can drive up/down the range (hope so for changing targets).

For anything I would be making (in other words, private and set up for me to drive my jeep up/down to set up target holders) my inclination would be to mark 0, 25, and 50 with railroad ties or the like, then 100, 200, 400, 700, and 1000 with gongs/plates.

That gives you shooting distances of 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000 yards, plus a few others, with a little bit of moving the shooting position around. Move up to the 100 yard and 700 becomes 600, etc.

 

[Trent]

Fella's;

You're laying out a thousand yard range, it's oriented with the prevailing wind, there's no land or backdrop considerations, and the distance markers are up to you. Let's say that the obvious shorter distances are: 25, 50, and 100 yards, and they're a given, OK? But beyond that, there's a lot of choices.

You could be very conventional & simply stake in 100 yard intervals out to the maximum. Or, 300, 600 (it seems to be a popular distance on many ranges), and 1000. Possibly 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000. Another set might be 250, 500, 750, 1000.

What's your choice and why?

900F

Regarding NRA courses;

I would do (if it were up to me), 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 600, 800, 900, 1k.

Those are Palma (800, 900, 1k), NRA across the course (200, 300, 600), midrange prone (600) and longrange prone (1k) distances.

The 50 /100 can be used for NRA smallbore (DEWAR, conv. 3pos).

25 is good for Appleseed type stuff and initial sight in on scopes that can't be bore sighted (10/22, et al).

If it were my personal range and I had the space I'd also put stands at 440 and 880 (1/4 and 1/2 mile). For no other reason than "Just because".

Hard to give advice beyond that without knowing the purpose of the range; e.g. if you going to run matches, it'd be a must to have pits and move the firing line back from the target line - too hard to see the bullet holes at 300+.

If it's a practice range, better to have a fixed firing line so multiple shooters can shoot at different distances.