First time out with my Remington 700 - Thompson-Okanagan BC.

illae

illae

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So - I was up in the Thompson-Okanagan for a family trip, and brought along my rifles in the hopes that I could meet up with a friend for some shooting. That turned out to be a wonderful time up in the hills shooting in a very beautiful piece of BC. I hadn't taken my Remington 700 out since sighting it in at a 50-100 yard distance, so I wasn't sure how good I would do. This was my first time ever, out shooting at this distance. We didn't have a range finder - so the estimates of how long we were shooting are all that, estimate. Probably horrible estimates actually :) We estimate the farthest target to be 450-475 yards - so feel free to correct me if I am wrong :)

The location:

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The target I had set up was a 6" circular gong, on a wobbly sawhorse - if you look in this photo, and find the neon orange sign, then the white dot - the saw horse was setup and 1/2" up and 1/2" over, on the photo, in relation to the white dot.

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Shooting while my buddy spots me:

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Another view of the area:

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Behind us was a beautiful vista, going down into a valley in between a some rocky cracks - absolutely stunning area and an amazing day. I guess I sighted in my rifle correctly, because I hit the gong on the 8th shot, and was able to hit pretty much any target we had up there, after that. Like I said - it was my first time shooting this sort of range, so I was very proud of myself. I really love this sort of shooting - taking my time to set up a shot and sending it where I wanted it to go. I can sort of see the appeal in plinking away at a crappy shooting spot, but this - this gave me absolute satisfaction with every round I put on target. I left feeling that the 50 rounds that I shot in about 2 hours time - was well worth the trip. I need to start working on the fundamentals of figuring out MOA and mils and mrad and all that - so that I can make decisions on where I want to shoot with authority rather than a good guesstimate. I was saying to my girlfriend on the way back - that I would be happy with only owning the two rifles I took up there, my 10/22 and Remington 700.

Now for the bad part of this excursion. 2 blown tires, 4 hours on the side of the road, flatbed tow into town, $650 in new tires and an additional 250 in fluid flushes in my differentials. All of that was absolutely coincidental as the road up was a-ok.

And as I am firm believer in leaving places as I found them - me and my buddies spent 20 minutes picking up all our brass - ALL of it. .22 included.
 
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nice shots dude! where was that? I travel down to the kamloops/shuswap area all the time and now that I have my pal i plan on bringing a rifle or two. This gets me pumped to pick up my 700 next month!
 
Congrats man! ive got a R700 sps tactical with the 16" heavy threaded barrel about to show up any time now! super stoked! lotsa places round here to stretch out her legs!
 
illae said:
I need to start working on the fundamentals of figuring out MOA and mils and mrad and all that - so that I can make decisions on where I want to shoot with authority rather than a good guesstimate.
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good on you for wanting to learn the proper way of doing things! some good starter advice - MOA and mill (mrad) are 2 very different systems, both have similar formulas for range finding but they are different! depending on your scope , first or second focal plane, will greatly effect the out come of said formulas, a SFP scope, weather MOA or mil retical, will only work for hold overs / range finding at a certain magnification (usually 10x, or max) while a FFP scope, will work at any magnification. ideally you want your scope adjustment and retical to match, MOA/MILL . saves alot of math!
 
TargetGuy said:
Congrats man! ive got a R700 sps tactical with the 16" heavy threaded barrel about to show up any time now! super stoked! lotsa places round here to stretch out her legs!
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Unfortunately my drive to get here is about 3+ hours, so it's not really a day-trip sort of spot. I wish the lower mainland had more spots like this that weren't covered in spent shells, brass and garbage.
 
ultimate_monkey said:
good on you for wanting to learn the proper way of doing things! some good starter advice - MOA and mill (mrad) are 2 very different systems, both have similar formulas for range finding but they are different! depending on your scope , first or second focal plane, will greatly effect the out come of said formulas, a SFP scope, weather MOA or mil retical, will only work for hold overs / range finding at a certain magnification (usually 10x, or max) while a FFP scope, will work at any magnification. ideally you want your scope adjustment and retical to match, MOA/MILL . saves alot of math!
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Thanks - I am finding that this sort of shooting is suiting me right down to the ground, so I want to make the most of it. And that means foundations. My scope is a Millett LRS-1 with mildot reticle. The specs for it can be found here. The turret adjustments are in .1 mil and from what I can tell it is a a second focal plane scope - which, if I am understanding that correctly, means that at 12.5 magnification - from mildot to mildot, it is 1 mil (according to the manual).

All the formulas and figuring out which system to use is likely what is going to trip me up. Unfortunately I don't know anyone that knows this sort of stuff, that can come out with me and walk me through it - so there will be a LOT of trial and error on my part ;) That's ok though - I like learning!

Thanks for your reply.
 
If the retinal stays the same size when you zoom in and out its SFP. If it grows with the image FFP . With out looking into like an online PDF manual or something . You are correct that at a set magnification the mill system is true . Out side of that its not a true milder system .

Seeing as you have a mil scope use the mil system ! It's pretty simple . At the top of this page there is a post with a list of "beginner" shooting tips and tricks videos they are worth a watch . One is specifically how to use the mil system for range finding . I'd link you but I'm on my phone haha. A bit of reading and there will be a lot more trial with much less error !

Any thing I can help with feel free to shoot me a PM. Or post here and ill do my best to help ya out
 
ultimate_monkey said:
If the retinal stays the same size when you zoom in and out its SFP. If it grows with the image FFP . With out looking into like an online PDF manual or something . You are correct that at a set magnification the mill system is true . Out side of that its not a true milder system .

Seeing as you have a mil scope use the mil system ! It's pretty simple . At the top of this page there is a post with a list of "beginner" shooting tips and tricks videos they are worth a watch . One is specifically how to use the mil system for range finding . I'd link you but I'm on my phone haha. A bit of reading and there will be a lot more trial with much less error !

Any thing I can help with feel free to shoot me a PM. Or post here and ill do my best to help ya out
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Right on - thanks for that! I'll pop up and take a look at the videos and see what I can learn today :) Also - thanks for the offer of help! Where on the island do you go shooting long range? I am often over there as I have family up and down it - and would you like some company?!
 
Shibby! said:
Looks like fun!

Hard to say in pictures, but looks to be around 350-450.

Keep the site clean and enjoy it!
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Thanks - I wish we had rangefinders to figure out specifically where we were shooting. I was basing it off of seeing the 300 yard mark at PoCo Fish and Game, and knowing we were shooting out quite a bit farther than that.

Kept it clean! Spent a bunch of time cleaning up brass and garbage.
 
illae said:
Thanks - I wish we had rangefinders to figure out specifically where we were shooting. I was basing it off of seeing the 300 yard mark at PoCo Fish and Game, and knowing we were shooting out quite a bit farther than that.

Kept it clean! Spent a bunch of time cleaning up brass and garbage.
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Using a tarp or large sheet helps with that. Or just not kicking them out with bolt guns.

You can get a good idea of distance from scaling with your scope. I think that's what the videos above mention. If MOA, just zoom to max (assuming it's not FFP) and measure target of known size at the distance you are shooting. If 6", see what it measures MOA. 1.05 (or 1 is close enough for closer shooting).

It'll give you rough distances, or at least as accurate as you can measure.

Or cheat and use a GPS / range finder. I use GPS personally because the range finders only work out to 600-750 yards unless you spend big bucks. My GPS is accurate enough to ~1-2 yards @ unlimited distance. It's something I already owned.
 
Shibby! said:
Using a tarp or large sheet helps with that. Or just not kicking them out with bolt guns.

You can get a good idea of distance from scaling with your scope. I think that's what the videos above mention. If MOA, just zoom to max (assuming it's not FFP) and measure target of known size at the distance you are shooting. If 6", see what it measures MOA. 1.05 (or 1 is close enough for closer shooting).

It'll give you rough distances, or at least as accurate as you can measure.

Or cheat and use a GPS / range finder. I use GPS personally because the range finders only work out to 600-750 yards unless you spend big bucks. My GPS is accurate enough to ~1-2 yards @ unlimited distance. It's something I already owned.
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I had a blanket down, which is where most of it landed - we just spent the extra time to track down the .22 stuff and .17 that got missed - didn't want it to look like a scrap heap.

I didn't even think about using a GPS to measure yardage - very cool. I'll also try the trick above, when I get out next. Thanks for that!
 
illae said:
Thanks Cal - I generally clean up whenever I can. This was the second spot in two days that I shot at - and I cleaned up twice as much brass as I shot at the other spot.
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We should all do that so those that don't feel guilty and maybe start doing their own.

Our spots are a disaster. Very few people do it and within a season or so they look like a garbage dump. It's a damn shame. Hence why I am finding a private location and keeping it private.
 
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