True to my normal form I cant do what I am told and take it really easy after my recent surgery. These deer have been coming down into my neighbors a few property’s away. Grazing in the sun at about 5 pm yesterday I got the rifle and walked a fair way towards the deer there was still 425 yrds to the deer but I was done and my heart was thumping like crazy. So it was a pretty easy shot no wind and I thought I would shit it in. Bloody missed didnt I. I was using some factory Hornady Precision Hunter 178 grn in the 308. When I got home I ran the numbers through JBM and I would have been a way low.
My normal dope for 300 yrds is 3 MOA and 500yrds 8 moa. I knew that the factory would be slower than what I was used to but my memory told me these were going pretty fast. I had set the drop at 4 moa. When I got home and ran the numbers on the box of ammo 2600 fps was the MV but that would have been for a 24 inch barrel and mine was 28 so a bit of a gain there. Anyway JBM spat out numbers like
300yrds 4.6
350 6.1
400 7.7
500 11.3
That put me at 3 moa off at close to 400 12 inches a miss.
You have to know the dope of the cartridge you are shooting.
So Today the same deer turned up again and despite protests from the wife I set out again the deer was a bit further away this time and I tried to take my time not to wear me out and bring on some heavy duty pain. Just as I was at the spot I shot from the day before and a point from which the further travel is uphill and another fence crossing another deer popped into the scenery. So I quietly took up my previous position on top of a dam back to sit and watch and relax. What transpired was in the next few minutes another 3 appeared it was obvious that there were two mums (cows?) and there calves. The calves were a decent size and I think able to feed on their own.
This was the cause of feeling guilty I hope the little bloke can fend for himself
The deer were now only 235yrds away I tried to work out who was with who and I am sure just back still in the trees there would have been a couple of spikas and a Stag.
There was a pause and maths and graphs were running through my head what would be the extreme spread if miss calculations were done. She was moving around a bit giving me quite few different options of angles to choose from. The day was again a no wind of any strength to be worried about. I didnt take any notes on the 200 yrds and 250 before I left home or even have a zero set at 100 so it was all flying blind in some ways.
A decision had to be made so I went with the 3 Moa thinking that any error is not going to put me in a bad place. I waited for the deer to turn about 45 degrees to me which gave a big windage tolerance not needed but it gave a good deal of Vertical options if my calcs were out. I pulled the trigger and the impact was just in front of the shoulder at the top of the shoulder height. She ran around a bit but quickly fell and passed away. I hate it when they run straight into the bush the are nearly impossible to find and retrieve.
So it was a quite walk back to the house, put things away and went for a drive in the tractor a few doors down the road to pick up.
The gun is an old Remington 700 with some updates added along the way a new 28 inch barrel a trigger and lumly trigger Gard the new barrel a 28 inch Bartlien 10 twist and a few mods of my own to refine it.
And since im semi retired I can rock up almost any time just to help you and your neighbour out. Unlike some young blokes who spend all their time in front of a screen in the CBD and have young families to take care of. Some dont even own a 30-06.
i’ll get onto that