Being a noob to the 1000yd thing, and having ups and downs with it, well, my brain went into overdrive -
Shooting lighter recoiling 223 and 6mmBR to 1000 wasn't that much of an issue - 223 misses were usually wind related, and the 6mmBR, once doped, was actually boring. However, my 308 was an enigma! One shot hit, next 2ft left, next 3ft right, but vertical bang on...WTF I asked myself!
So after some educatin', the one thing i was not using, that most LR shooters did, was an anti cant device/level... read up on it, and it seemed like that was my issue - small cants mean big misses - at least that was a plausible explanation... so i ordered a couple of bubble levels for my rifles - in the meantime, to test my theory of why i am missing, i set out to the 1000yd range. I set a 10" gong on its holder, which was about 10ft up an a-base gravel mountain - super easy to see bullet hits (or misses in my case!) - at the base of the hill, directly below gong 10ft, i placed 7 rocks, all rather large (melon sized or DD), about 8 inches apart, 3 on each side of 'centre' below the gong...
Backed up 1000yds to the bench, shot at the gong - but made sure my vertical crosshairs were lined up with the one rock directly below the gong - shot, missed, doped scope, shot 3, 3 hits, nice little group on the metal plate! Yuppie!
So then i canted my rifle to line the vertical crosshair to the outside rock, port side, crosshairs on gong - fired a shot, YOWSA! shot hit 2 gong widths right, or almost 2 ft right from gong! shot again, same thing! Canted rifle same amount to starboard, fired, and hit about the same distance to the other side of the gong! Hardcore proof right there that canting will add up to a miss!
I couldn't believe the difference that made - i am guessing i moved/canted my rifle chamber about 1/8" inch each time when experimenting with above shots - or - am 'guessing' 5 degrees. It was certainly less than recoil would have moved the rifle. I tried to calculate the amount of horizontal travel of the bullet with cant at that distance, but my calculations were way off (less) than what actually happened - perhaps i had the wrong formula, but regardless, what happened did happen!
So I re-invented the wheel, basically seeing first hand the effects of cant, and the importance of having a level base and level rifle to shoot from. My enquiring mind needed to see this.
Hopefully this will help someone new to the game like myself - and save a wee bit-o-frustration!
Sooo much more to it than pulling the trigger...
Shooting lighter recoiling 223 and 6mmBR to 1000 wasn't that much of an issue - 223 misses were usually wind related, and the 6mmBR, once doped, was actually boring. However, my 308 was an enigma! One shot hit, next 2ft left, next 3ft right, but vertical bang on...WTF I asked myself!
So after some educatin', the one thing i was not using, that most LR shooters did, was an anti cant device/level... read up on it, and it seemed like that was my issue - small cants mean big misses - at least that was a plausible explanation... so i ordered a couple of bubble levels for my rifles - in the meantime, to test my theory of why i am missing, i set out to the 1000yd range. I set a 10" gong on its holder, which was about 10ft up an a-base gravel mountain - super easy to see bullet hits (or misses in my case!) - at the base of the hill, directly below gong 10ft, i placed 7 rocks, all rather large (melon sized or DD), about 8 inches apart, 3 on each side of 'centre' below the gong...
Backed up 1000yds to the bench, shot at the gong - but made sure my vertical crosshairs were lined up with the one rock directly below the gong - shot, missed, doped scope, shot 3, 3 hits, nice little group on the metal plate! Yuppie!
So then i canted my rifle to line the vertical crosshair to the outside rock, port side, crosshairs on gong - fired a shot, YOWSA! shot hit 2 gong widths right, or almost 2 ft right from gong! shot again, same thing! Canted rifle same amount to starboard, fired, and hit about the same distance to the other side of the gong! Hardcore proof right there that canting will add up to a miss!
I couldn't believe the difference that made - i am guessing i moved/canted my rifle chamber about 1/8" inch each time when experimenting with above shots - or - am 'guessing' 5 degrees. It was certainly less than recoil would have moved the rifle. I tried to calculate the amount of horizontal travel of the bullet with cant at that distance, but my calculations were way off (less) than what actually happened - perhaps i had the wrong formula, but regardless, what happened did happen!
So I re-invented the wheel, basically seeing first hand the effects of cant, and the importance of having a level base and level rifle to shoot from. My enquiring mind needed to see this.
Hopefully this will help someone new to the game like myself - and save a wee bit-o-frustration!
Sooo much more to it than pulling the trigger...
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