Long kill shots??

nmurph

Senior Member
...I've since practiced both uphill and downhill shots...trust me the drop is different.

The drop is what it would be if you are both on level ground. The difference in elevation up or down makes no difference. If the deer is up a hill 200yds as the bullet flies, but only 175 if you walked to a point directly underneath the deer, your holdover should be for the 175yd distance.
 
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killerv

Senior Member
I'm lucky enough to be able to practice up to 350 yards, 400 if I backed the bench up. I have a buddy who is a "close enough" guy...likes to check his guns at 50 off the side mirror of the truck. His 'dead on" at 50 was 6 inches high and 3in left when we shot it off the bench at 100. He missed, and hopefully missed cleanly, a 130class on my property, we check his gun from the bench after that. He knows the difference now and honestly I don't want "close enough" guns on my property maiming our deer.

Let a buddy and my son shoot at 300 with a 18in 223 the other day, had them aiming 5in high...all of our bullets fell withing about a 4in group at the bottom of the target...about a 8 to 9in drop total. Its definitely a confidence builder when you are able to do it.
 

dwhee87

GON Political Forum Scientific Studies Poster
Right at 300 yds for me. 7mm Mag. Zeroed at 200. I've not practiced beyond that, and that's the longest shot on the property, so haven't had the need. I keep a small index card with ballistic info (drop at x yds) in my day pack. The 300 yds was with a rest. Don't think I'd take that free-hand. It was DRT.
 

RipperIII

Senior Member
The drop is what it would be if you are both on level ground. The difference in elevation up or down makes no difference. If the deer is up a hill 200yds as the bullet flies, but only 175 if you walked to a point directly underneath the deer, your holdover should be for the 175yd distance.
Run that by me again, without too much technical detail,...I think that you just confirmed what I was saying, I may have misused the term "drop", but the effective point of impact at distance is different given changes in elevation
 

GeorgiaGlockMan

Senior Member
I don't compensate much (at all); it is 250 yds or closer for me on a WT.

Have shot hogs out to 350 with a .308 AR and just held the cross hairs on his back's mohawk .

You are a better marksman than me.

I get buck fever regularly on really long shots I am not sure about...
 
Gravity affects a bullet uniformly throughout its flight which will make drop a constant. Point of impact changes based on the difference in elevation between where the bullet was fired and where it impacts.

Also as people have touched on, wind can be a factor depending on bullet velocity at that distance. Calling the wind is something that is hard to do even with practice. A kestrel is nice but wont help you call it 800 meters out. If your bullet is still super sonic at that point then it will be less effected by the wind. So a 300WM at 900 meters yours still comfortably above trans sonic but a .308 generally is trans sonic about 800 so you really have to pay more attention to the wind there. All in all practice and accurate data is key just like several others have said.
 
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Deernut3

Senior Member
I have my trajectories out to 500 yards laminated and taped on the inside of my scope cap on my 300 WSM. My .308 is limited to 300 yards and I memorized it years ago.
 

Deernut3

Senior Member
Also as people have touched on, wind can be a factor depending on bullet velocity at that distance. Calling the wind is something that is hard to do even with practice. A kestrel is nice but wont help you call it 800 meters out. If your bullet is still super sonic at that point then it will be less effected by the wind. So a 300WM at 900 meters yours still comfortably above trans sonic but a .308 generally is trans sonic about 800 so you really have to pay more attention to the wind there. All in all practice and accurate data is key just like several others have said.

Winchester used to have a really cool ballistics program that I played with before going out west two years ago. I think a 20 mph wind had more drift than drop at 3 or 400 yards and thats about an average wind where we were hunting.
 
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