Long Range Precision Shooting Tips and Methods

 

Just about every survivalist has at least a handgun and a long range firearm, usually a rifle.

But besides plunking cans 25 feet away, do you know how to use that long range firearm.

Here are some tips from our finest that you must consider and incorporate into your practice regimen, even if you only plan on using long range shooting for food.

I don’t care if you have more money than sense and spent all your preparedness money on an $8000 suppressed Surgeon rifle chambered in .338 Lapua, topped with a Knightforce scope, if you don’t have the knowledge and skill to employ it, you have a heavy telescope at best.

Don’t get me wrong, equipment choice and quality are VERY important but skills are equally important. You have to be able to shoot tight groups consistently. There are a lot of factors involved it hitting a 10” target at 1000 meters, which seems to be everyone’s dream. Let me explain:

• A Minute of Angle is a measurement of about 1/60th of a degree. At 100m it is 1 inch, at 200 it’s 2 inches, 1000m it’s 10 inches and so on. That means if you remove all human factors and environmental factors from shooting a gun that can shoot all it’s shots within an inch (a 1 MOA gun), the best it could do at 1000m is a 10 inch group. If you don’t do your part, the most accurate gun in the world cannot compensate for you. If the target is a 10 inch vital area and you are shooting at 1000 meters with a 1 MOA capable gun, you have no room for shooter error. A gun capable of 1/4 MOA will cost you SUBSTANTIALLY more than 1 MOA gun.

• Environmental factors play a HUGE role in what the bullet does once it leaves the barrel. Winds blow lightweight bullets around like feathers. Temperature affects the trajectory of the bullet, the temperature of the barrel, the ammo and, your performance. Some argue that high humidity effects how “thick” the air is and changes the trajectory. Elevation and barometric pressure also play a significant role in external ballistics.

• Shooter skill is just as important. If you can’t shoot a 1 inch group at 100 yards with the most accurate rifle in the world, how do you expect it to hit a 10 inch vital area at 1000 meters? Shoot 10K rounds of 22LR if you must to perfect your fundamentals.

• Optics matter. If your scope has poor quality glass you won’t be able to see your target clearly at distance. The scope must have high quality mechanisms that move the reticle around within the scope.

They must be reliable and repeatable. If you add 25 clicks of elevation and then return to zero, it should return to zero every time and should not track diagonally. Ideally, your scope should have a modern reticle that allows for range estimation with markings to “hold” for different distances or wind. This negates the need to turn knobs and wear out the innards of the scope, and makes adjusting for targets at varying distances and winds extremely fast. Additionally, the scope should have a parallax adjustment if it has adjustable magnification. I could write an entire article just on scopes, first focal plane, fixed power, second focal plane, variable power, lighted and unlighted reticles, mildot and tactical milling reticles…..it can get overwhelming.

The mildot reticle allows for range estimation, holds for windage and elevation, though not as accurate as other milling reticles

Tremor 2 reticle. Allows you to calculate range based on the size of the target, rapidly hold for bullet drop and windage. No need for getting “lost” turning the elevation knob

Horus H59, also allows for rapid, accurate holds to compensate for wind and bullet drop as well as accurate range estimation

• Range estimation is paramount to shooting at virtually any distance. Contrary to what a lot of people think, bullets don’t exit the barrel and go like a laser beam straight to the target. Gravity immediately affects them as soon as they exit. As a matter of fact, if two projectiles, one fired from a gun, the other dropped at the exact same time, both will hit the ground the exact same time if the run is fired dead level. To compensate for gravity, we aim higher, that means the bullet goes up to it’s “max ordinance” then comes back down to meet the point of aim. The scope is zeroed for a specific distance.

This actually corresponds with another point along the flight path. For example, the Army zeros the M4 at 25 meters which results in a 300m zero. This allows you to use ranges with much shorter distances to zero for longer distance. Range estimation becomes very important because, if you don’t know the range to the target, you can’t compensate for the bullet’s trajectory. For example, if you have a 600m zero on a 308 rifle, depending on bullet type and environmental factors, it could drop 250 inches at 1000m.

Imagine the drop with a 100m zero! Again, regardless of how expensive and tacticool your rifle is, if you do not understand this you will miss a 10” steel plate at 1000 yards, not to mention a 19.5” x 39” torso taget. You MUST know the distance to compensate for gravity…unless you are shooting a laser beam.

Obviously, these are just the basics in learning how to shoot long-range.

You can always take a class at a local gun range or learn by trial and error, but remember that the only way you ever get good at shooting is to practice.

To see some other critical considerations, please visit Cagmain.

 


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