Holiday long range shooting, how many bullets do you think hit this?

Bandits

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I just got back home from my holiday break out with family in Manitoba. It was a lot of fun, got to do some hunting, target shooting and relaxing.

On the note of shooting, my brother and I finally got to do some much needed long range shooting. We decided to start some load development with the 338 LM at 450 yards in the local gravel pit. Needless to say we found our load and were hunting for a place to stretch its legs a little further.

In our search for longer distance, we found a nice 1000 yard sloping field and decided to warm up with the 308. Our target was a margarine lid on a 4x4 piece of half inch plywood. Sorry no pictures of the ‘range/field’ we were using, forgot the camera. Anyways, we dialed up the 308 and squeezed off a couple of rounds. To our surprise they were on target, although soon began to climb after a few rounds warmed up the gun and us. Unfortunately we only had 11 rounds between the 2 of us and our first sets were used to get us ‘dialed in’.

Normally we shoot at paper, but when the weather broke we grabbed the guns and ran for the hills to try and get in a little fun while the wind was down. We each took a 3 round set out of the last of the ammo we had, then decided to go check the target to see what we had done.

So for those of you who shoot at plywood on a regular basis, you might be able to help us in confirming/denying what we think happened. Here is a picture of the piece of plywood cut from the target.

picture1.jpg

picture3.jpg

picture2.jpg


How many bullets do you think struck this? I figured it might help to post a picture of the back of the target.

picture4.jpg


It seems to be split a little wider on the one hole than the other. And yes we measured the holes’ size, the one on the left measures just under 0.3” wide and the right one measures approximately 0.4” wide.

Although we are anxious to try our hand at 1000 yards again, it will have to wait for a little while. At least until we can get more components to make some more rounds up. And yes, we appreciate that repeatability is king among long range shooters. But this was fun and 'may' never be repeated although we will certainly keep trying.
 
Well it says 3 shots on the target so im gunna get 3 shots hit it. Bet your wishin ya didnt pull one of them eh? :p

Its tough to tell if 2 or three hit but i feel we can give ya the benefit of the doubt and call it a one holer for two with one flyer on the third. And even if you missed on two on target at 1000 yrds is pretty good for a load development/ tryout shoot.
 
I have shot ply a few times, the backsides tend to depend on the wood grain within the middle layers of the ply. If you hit a knot or patch or harder wood, or if the bullet tumbles, then it could end up looking like two holes rather then one.


That said... call it three shots. :D
 
Let me get this straight. You shot a .7" center to center, 3 shot group at 1000 yards with a factory barrel and 168 gr bullets. Me thinks you over estimated your distance by a "0".
 
Let me get this straight. You shot a .7" center to center, 3 shot group at 1000 yards with a factory barrel and 168 gr bullets. Me thinks you over estimated your distance by a "0".

Don't be hard on the guy, you were not there, and everybody gets a once in a lifetime shot.

That said, I have and old dead analog clock in my basement, and it still reads the time right... TWICE a day!!! :D
 
Let me get this straight. You shot a .7" center to center, 3 shot group at 1000 yards with a factory barrel and 168 gr bullets. Me thinks you over estimated your distance by a "0".


I am the first to say #### happens.....but I am with Maynard on this one
 
2 shots and the other 20 rounds miss the plywood



but I must say, I looks like a 3 rounds groups in the back of the plywood.

Im in if you buy a loto-max for this week-end ;-)
 
Let me get this straight. You shot a .7" center to center, 3 shot group at 1000 yards with a factory barrel and 168 gr bullets. Me thinks you over estimated your distance by a "0".

That is probably in the world record class no doubts...

Thk

1000 feets perhaps?

Or if it is 2-3 hits out of 23... Well that can happen.
 
I have shot ply a few times, the backsides tend to depend on the wood grain within the middle layers of the ply. If you hit a knot or patch or harder wood, or if the bullet tumbles, then it could end up looking like two holes rather then one.


That said... call it three shots. :D

Thanks Kevin for the information on the plywood. This is exactly what I was looking for. As this was our first time using plywood we are skeptical ourselves as to what actually happened. And you may certainly be right. The wood may have had a knot in a middle layer and caused it to break wider than normal.

We certainly did notice that the bullet strikes were seriously elongated in the vertical as the bullets were striking on a rather severe angle. This to us makes sense, as the bullet is likely trans-sonic or subsonic by this point.

As for the rest, apparently some can count and others can't. 11-6=5. That is all we had. It took 5 to get dialed in, leaving 3 per person. Seeing as I and many second graders I can do that and having fingers to count to ten (used a toe to get to eleven for the round count). I could walk it, or use one of those fingers to push the button on the LRF a couple of times, which is what we did. We used to bushnell elite 1500 arc. We took the measurement a couple of times from the target position and using the truck (big shining metal thing) to get a good reading. And as expected the LRF gave a couple of readings plus or minus a few yards.

I can certainly appreciate skepticism, and I am myself, that 3 rounds landed in such a nice spot. Personally we were just looking for others experiences with plywood as a reacting target as a means to remove/introduce doubt as to whether or not that second hole is in fact two bullets.

And yes s**t happens, but sometimes it is nice to be lucky! But I suppose that if we played the lottery and won, this would verify our dumb luck?
 
The oblong hole on the left is typical of 168s past 700m. The bullet came in nose down and unstable. You have two hits there in my opinion. The third probably missed altogether.
 
Here is pretty much the same thing but on a larger target and with 178 AMAX doing load development.

drfrip.jpg


Yes from up there

242fq0w.jpg


Looking through this

2d824n6.jpg


Another picture...wait..whats that? a factory gun IMPOSSIBLE!!!

110m7b8.jpg


Yes i missed the main target. No i didnt care about group size. No i didnt take a million shots. Yes i was pissed i didnt hit the main target. And again no i didnt walk all the way up that damn hill in -35 degree weather with a 10mph crosswind just to take pictures.
Yes it is possible and Yes i think you pulled one of those 3 shots.
 
I think it likely that one of the bullets became unstable, giving you the oblong hole for one of the hits. One of the 3, a miss.

That being said, with a factory barrel, factory rig, that's pretty cool.
Who's to say, blind luck didn't play a part and maybe you did get a 2 into 1 shot.

Kinda neat!
 
Here is pretty much the same thing but on a larger target and with 178 AMAX doing load development.

drfrip.jpg


Yes from up there

242fq0w.jpg


Looking through this

2d824n6.jpg


Another picture...wait..whats that? a factory gun IMPOSSIBLE!!!

110m7b8.jpg


Yes i missed the main target. No i didnt care about group size. No i didnt take a million shots. Yes i was pissed i didnt hit the main target. And again no i didnt walk all the way up that damn hill in -35 degree weather with a 10mph crosswind just to take pictures.
Yes it is possible and Yes i think you pulled one of those 3 shots.


hey dont get me wrong Factory guns can do it! and the 178 Amax will do it the 168......not so much
 
Here is pretty much the same thing but on a larger target and with 178 AMAX doing load development.

drfrip.jpg


Yes from up there

242fq0w.jpg


Looking through this

2d824n6.jpg


Another picture...wait..whats that? a factory gun IMPOSSIBLE!!!

110m7b8.jpg


Yes i missed the main target. No i didnt care about group size. No i didnt take a million shots. Yes i was pissed i didnt hit the main target. And again no i didnt walk all the way up that damn hill in -35 degree weather with a 10mph crosswind just to take pictures.
Yes it is possible and Yes i think you pulled one of those 3 shots.

Nice shooting! Seems like we both might have pulled our third shots. I must admit we were happy to have a head wind instead of a cross wind. But you are right, going all that way to look at the target in the winter sucks!
 
Another vote for Maynard's skepticism.

Not familiar with the specific bullet - but I have experience with Sierra and Berger -- and I can say that 168s ar not my favourite, but fine at closer distances. Fine at 800y, and even 800m (880y) They seem to go to hell at 900y and things don't improve at 1000y after that. My theory on that is that they start running out od steam around 890y. Too heavy to start off as fast as the 155s I like at 1000y, so they are slower at longer range. And not as efficient as the heavier (and proportionately longer) 175s that I also like at 1000y, which start off slower, but probably keep more speed for longer.

Serioulsy - In a match long, long ago to test this I fired clean f-class targets at 800, 900 and dropped 2 points at 1000y with 155s. Same rifle and match, I fired 168s in subsequent relay. Clean at 800 and started pulling misses at 900, 1000.

I call bull**t on 168s hitting ANYTHING you actually aim at at 1000y. (Perhaps you can load a 168 up in a 300 Win Mag and fire it at 3200fps and prove me wrong on THAT.. I would understand -- but you can't fit enough powder in a 308 casing to get the steam you need to keep a 168 a useful speed past 800m)

My suspicious mind is leaning towards the range being misrepresented. The odds of getting 1000y paced out accurately... When I tromp around in the snow I gotta figure I've gone a kilomtre based on how fat and old I am and it sure feels like I've gone a mile and a half - but my GPS always tells me a different story. (grin)

How did you determine this was 1000y? Laser? GPS? Map?

If this was actually only 900y or less --- it is still a hell of a group. Good job.

If this was really 1000y and seriously with a 168gr bullet, I gotta say that they gotta hit "somewhere" just like lightning has gotta hit somewhere and somebody's gotta win the lottery... Fire another group, or another couple shots into that one and see.
 
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