long range shooting 5

Competing in the Extreme Tough Man Division of the Mammoth Sniper Challenge is a test of both shooter and gear. This 3-day event held each January requires competitors to carry all their gear 25+ miles between stages and campsites, camp out, and engage precision rifle targets out to 800+ yards. Many of the lessons learned are applicable to hunting and backcountry scenarios. Here are a few of those I discovered over the years.

The Marines are adopting the Mk 13 Mod 7, a semi-custom bolt-action rifle chambered for .300 Winchester Magnum with an effective range of 1,500 yards.

For a 4000 yard shot, my round had a maximum ordinate, or apex, of around 185 yards (555 feet). When I first fired off a round, my bullet would deal with 1/2 value wind from 2 o’clock. The bullet continued its climb until reaching a height of 185 yards above my position. At this point, the bullet peaked above the canyon walls, where it was exposed to a blast of full value

The SX1-MTR is a multi-caliber capable rifle. It features a modular receiver that can be configured with several sizes of magazine wells and barrels. Ritter and Stark currently offer barrels chambered in .308 Winchester, 300 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum.

Learn how to mount a scope. If your equipment fails you on the shot of a lifetime, don’t let it be the fault of an over-glorified Walmart greeter.

Precision Rifle Shooting (PRS) has been gaining a lot of ground in recent and with that an increasing interest in precision rifle competitions.  I started shooting precision rifle competitions about 12 years ago and back then, the competitive landscape was different. There weren’t as many matches around as I was getting into it and there certainly weren’t any standardized rules about what was and wasn’t allowed. 

The 6.5 Creedmor isn’t a new round, it was introduced in 2008 by Hornady. But this will be remembered as the year it began its dominance in the market place. In reference to .308, I think the words of Winston Churchill say it best. “This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.”

Since its introduction in 2007, Hornady has continued to hit the sweet spot among long-range shooters with the 6.5 Creedmoor. A modification of the .30 TC and ultimately an offspring of the .308 Win., the 6.5 Creedmoor is effective because it capably seats bullets with high sectional density and ballistic coefficients, which are remarkably adept at producing flat trajectories and handling the wind. The 6.5 is also popular among competition shooters because it successfully houses these long, sleek bullets in a case that still fits in standard AR-10-style magazines and short-action bolt guns. As a result, the cartridge has been popular in competition and among game hunters.

At this year’s SHOT Show, “Sniper Jesus” told me the new NightForce ATACR 7-35X was the best deal going in optics. I have anxiously been wanting to put this to the test. I begged, borrowed, cajoled, harassed, and arguably stalked NightForce for a review sample. Arguably stalked is a loose interpretation or so my lawyer tells me.
Earlier this week a box arrived from Orofino. And you know what? It was absolutely worth the wait.