Ballistics charts

[Mthomas90]

How far are you from Garden City?
A little over four hours, I'm in Emporia.

[yobuck]

A little over four hours, I'm in Emporia.

Well im in Emporium which sounds pretty close to where you are.
Actually im about 18 miles from there. Anyway i have a couple of friends
who are crazy about long range hunting who live in Garden City. I was supposed
to hunt with them this year during the second week which as you know was last week.
I was convinced that a round trip of about 3000 miles alone this time of year to that part of the country
wasent a good idea. Especially for an 80 year old.
If your interested, i can hook you up with them so you can get information on how they go about it.
They have the right equiptment for sure. You will ultimatly come to realize the things that bother you now
like your chart for example arent really all that important. You can drive yourself nuts if you allow it.
The most important piece of equiptment any hunter but especially a long rang hunter can have are very good binoculars.
For us that means very large tripod mounted binoculars. It also means having a buddy watching as you shoot and informing
you where your shot went and what you need do should any correction be needed. Animals dont always show signs of being hit,
even when hit solidly with good cartridges. Again the spotter can see that thru the binoculars. You can guess the distance and be
on target with very few shots if you have a good spotter using good binoculars. As i said these guys have the equiptment and they
can tell you how you can get it also.

[6mmBR_Shooter]

The long range shooters I know use the calculated data to get them on target at the given range, and then make adjustments to their scopes as required to get it as perfect as possible. This info gets recorded into their data books as actual data and that is what is used for shooting from then on.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the repeatability and accuracy of the adjustments to your scope. The SWFA scopes are generally pretty decent, but I have seen them off more than you may think in an elevation test.

For long range shooting, take some 1 MOA grid paper and tape four of them together vertically to make one long ribbon. Hang it with a plumb bob to verify level-ness at 100 yards, and then shoot a 3-shot group near the bottom of the target. Come up 10MOA and shoot another 3-shot group. Come up another 10 and do the same (20MOA total over zero), and then a final 10 for a total of 30MOA above your zero. Measure from your zero to the center of your 10MOA up group. Measure from your zero to the center of the 20MOA group, and then the 30MOA group. Based on your given scope adjustments you will be able to calculate the real amount your scope adjusts per given click. You will likely find that a 1/4 MOA adjustment isn't exactly 1/4MOA when measured on paper.

Mine adjusts .27" per "1/4MOA" click, so I take that into consideration when trying to come up to longer ranges. Just a thought you may have overlooked. Cheaper scopes are generally less repeatable and are further away than a true 1/4MOA of 1/10MIL.

[yobuck]

The long range shooters I know use the calculated data to get them on target at the given range, and then make adjustments to their scopes as required to get it as perfect as possible. This info gets recorded into their data books as actual data and that is what is used for shooting from then on.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the repeatability and accuracy of the adjustments to your scope. The SWFA scopes are generally pretty decent, but I have seen them off more than you may think in an elevation test.

For long range shooting, take some 1 MOA grid paper and tape four of them together vertically to make one long ribbon. Hang it with a plumb bob to verify level-ness at 100 yards, and then shoot a 3-shot group near the bottom of the target. Come up 10MOA and shoot another 3-shot group. Come up another 10 and do the same (20MOA total over zero), and then a final 10 for a total of 30MOA above your zero. Measure from your zero to the center of your 10MOA up group. Measure from your zero to the center of the 20MOA group, and then the 30MOA group. Based on your given scope adjustments you will be able to calculate the real amount your scope adjusts per given click. You will likely find that a 1/4 MOA adjustment isn't exactly 1/4MOA when measured on paper.

Mine adjusts .27" per "1/4MOA" click, so I take that into consideration when trying to come up to longer ranges. Just a thought you may have overlooked. Cheaper scopes are generally less repeatable and are further away than a true 1/4MOA of 1/10MIL.

Actually, calculated data by way of some source such as JB or Shooter, or a host of others is used as a (starting) point.
Then the numbers are or should be confirmed by actual shooting at the various distances. The corrected data is used from that point.
As for a particular scope tracking exactly as it should, who cares? As long as you know how many clicks of the dial it takes
to get to a certain distance with (that) scope, nothing else matters. Shooting is the only way to confirm anything.
Repeat performance is another matter, and should be dealt with by obtaining a different scope.

[6mmBR_Shooter]

Yobuck, your first three sentences are what I was trying to say. Maybe it didn't come out right.

If his calculator says it takes 20MOA to get to whatever range he wants to shoot at given correct temp/humidity/elevation/etc, but when he adjusts the 80 clicks (for 1/4MOA) for that range he is still off 1MOA the scope is the likely culprit. The way I read his issue is that the calculator states a certain amount of MOA for a come-up. When he dials that in, it is off by 1MOA. That tells me that ignoring shooter error the scope may not adjust properly as per its markings. A small amount of error in the micrometer inside the scope is magnified with every click.

In other words, the calculator tells him come up XX clicks to get to where he should theoretically be. He still needs X more clicks to adjust to actual point of impact. No calculator is perfect but being 1MOA off at 600 yards either the info into the calculator is off or the scope is. Or a combination of both.

[JackinSD]

Yobuck, your first three sentences are what I was trying to say. Maybe it didn't come out right.

If his calculator says it takes 20MOA to get to whatever range he wants to shoot at given correct temp/humidity/elevation/etc, but when he adjusts the 80 clicks (for 1/4MOA) for that range he is still off 1MOA the scope is the likely culprit. The way I read his issue is that the calculator states a certain amount of MOA for a come-up. When he dials that in, it is off by 1MOA. That tells me that ignoring shooter error the scope may not adjust properly as per its markings. A small amount of error in the micrometer inside the scope is magnified with every click.

In other words, the calculator tells him come up XX clicks to get to where he should theoretically be. He still needs X more clicks to adjust to actual point of impact. No calculator is perfect but being 1MOA off at 600 yards either the info into the calculator is off or the scope is. Or a combination of both.

I agree 100% with you the first time and the second time.