- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Precision long range shooting is a very expensive enterprise in terms of both money and time. Generally speaking, the scopes, mounts, barrels, actions, and ammunition that work well at long-intermediate range begin to to show inadequacies as the range lengthens beyond 1000 yards. When you shoot at extremely long range and require a cartridge to be able to inflict a terminal blow to man or beast, and damage vehicles or machinery at extended ranges, it introduces additional costs. Over and above the cost of the rifle and it's ammunition, now we see a need for weather stations and BORES type software, which further increases the cost. If you are a military sniper, the cost doesn't matter as it is borne by the taxpayer, and you use what you are issued so you have no input to your weapon system, but when you have to field the stuff yourself, the cost sure adds up. Many sport shooters prefer to shoot in a number of different venues, and working folks as a rule don't have $50K to layout on a single firearm and the peripheral materials needed to work in that genre. Consider that the only way one can get good at long range shooting is to do it a lot. If we are generous and allow for ten bucks a shot, for match grade .50s or .408s that makes firing the 300-500 rounds a week needed to get good, very intimidating for many people, and some weeks are going to be of no value due to poor weather where you cannot see beyond a few hundred yards.
This begs the question, is your interest practical or theoretical? If theoretical, that is fine, get a good ballistics program and begin crunching the numbers. You could get a "Shooter Ready" program and learn some of the basic problem solving formulas associated with long range precision shooting.
If however, your interest is of a practical nature, get an appropriate target rifle built, and find out just what exactly is required in order to make a cold bore first round hit on a target at a long unknown range. Your ammo will have to be not only uniform but concentric as well. This is easier to arrange in a small cartridge than in a large. Keep in mind that general marksmanship for most people declines as the power of the cartridge increases. Your scope will have to be correctable to the range at which you intend to shoot, and believe me, not all are. You will have to learn how to work out mirage and wind problems. The Corealis Effect is only an inch at 1000 yards when firing north or south, so considering the group size of a typical system at 2000 yards, and the amount of correction associated with a single click adjustment of your scope, it can be ignored. But spin drift occurs regardless of your direction of fire, and the importance of this phenomenon must be determined by the the individual shooter with respect to his own equipment, but anticipate 1 foot at 1000 yards and perhaps 3-5 feet at 1500. You should find that over time your record book is of equal value to the expensive software.
. That's hilarious!!!
