Proper Long Range Set Up?

[Zeke-BE]

I went out this morning to stretch the legs on my new load data for the 300 win mag. Now I used the shooter app and plugged it in and knowingly that everything will not come up exactly perfect. (shooting at a plate someone else put up on the mountain side and left it) Shot at 750 yards and after the 4 shot only a 1/2 MOA off I hit it. Then went out to 1031 yards and after the second shot adjusted it 1/2 MOA again and smack!!! Went out to 1400 yards ran out of turret elevation (i need to pick up a 20 Moa rail). Now all this was just for fun, but now i am going to get serious about it. What are your recommendation to start a long range (tracking) and verifying your drop procedures. I have an idea but want to here it from the guys who done it themselves. I did it with my .270 but got lucky that my print off happen to be dead nuts that I didn't need to make adjustments. Side note I do have a 12" plate with stand and a 18"x24" plate on a stand.

[lancetkenyon]

True your velocity in Shooter and retry.

I keep trueing my data to refine my loads a couple times. After that, it has always been dead nuts.

Then I just change conditions, and have always been spot on during a hunt. The more you use it, the more comfortable you will get with it. I then go on www.jbmballistics.com and plug in the info to print a cheat sheet to tape on my scope. JBM and Shooter are never exact, so I tweak JBM inputs to match Shooter and print up the drop chart.

[Zeke-BE]

True your velocity in Shooter and retry.

I keep trueing my data to refine my loads a couple times. After that, it has always been dead nuts.

Then I just change conditions, and have always been spot on during a hunt. The more you use it, the more comfortable you will get with it. I then go on www.jbmballistics.com and plug in the info to print a cheat sheet to tape on my scope. JBM and Shooter are never exact, so I tweak JBM inputs to match Shooter and print up the drop chart.

 

Now when shooter app talks about scope height what exactly is it looking for. Right now I have the leopold but im getting a 20 moa rail. I put 1" in the app. Because both locations at 750 yards and 1031 yards were 1/2 MOA over.

[sherman]

I am not an expert but I believe scope height us Center of bore to center of scope

[Zeke-BE]

Well Lance I went on that sight to check it out. Both site and app was wrong with MOA.. I thought maybe my velocity is off. But I doubled check elevation where i was shooting and I was off 500 feet. Shoot that far a half MOA was either a hit or miss. I ran it through both the app and the website jbm and it corrected itself to be 1/2 MOA. WOW. Lesson learn 500 ft off of elevation you will miss the target

[lancetkenyon]

Sight height is center of objective lens from center of bore. I highly doubt you are 1" sight height. More like 1.7" to 2" if you are using a Picatinny rail and rings with a scope that has a t0mm objective.

 

As for elevation, that is not always the end all for pressure. 500' elevation change will easily make 1/2 MOA difference. But weather conditions will change altitude station pressure as much as 1/2 MOA as well. Low or high pressure weather systems moving through can do that.

[Tac]

I have used a few different apps and they all require exact inputs to work correctly. I was able to purchase the g7 rangerfinder and it is spot on.

point and adjust scope pull trigger.

[STOMP442]

Scope height is a big one lots of people miss. To determine scope height measure the scope bell diameter and divide that number by 2. Then measure the diameter of the barrel directly in front of the scope bell and divide that number by 2. You then measure the gap between the bottom of your scope bell and the top of the barrel and add all those measurements together to get your scope height. Like lance says it will more than likely be between 1.7 - 2".

 

Personally, I don't use a phone or tablet when out hunting so I will use the app while at the range to give me a good estimation of what I need to dial for any given range and then fine tune from there. Generally the apps will put me within half a minute or a couple clicks at any given range but I keep a log of the temp and weather conditions and the actual MOA I have to dial for my particular rifle to hit center target. I then make a chart and tape it to my stock so that I have actual shot data to reference. Then I go out and practice at various locations and weather conditions and shoot at different angles to determine what my rifle is actually doing. I am sure I do things the hard way but the best app in the world is no substitute for practice.

[Kingzero]

Here is the "help" page for shooter if you haven't seen it....

 

http://www.shooterapp.net/manual.php

 

The others have covered scope height so that should get you squared away.

 

Shooter has a "velocity calibration" feature that makes it easy. Build your profle and input a velocity from a chronograph or close guess. Pick a couple distances to shoot (I start with 300, 500 & 700). Get your solutions from Shooter and shoot what it tells you. Make the elevation corrections to hit point of aim and write your corrections down. After you have your corrections, go to the velocity calibrator and input your data. It will show your "corrected velocity" and give you the option to use the correction.

 

When you put in your elevation corrections, use total MOA. If it tells you 8.5 minutes @ 500 but you corrected to 8.75 to hit point of aim, put 8.75 in the calibrator.