Long Range Shooting

4

4runnerman

New member
First off I am no Pro. I shoot out to 1200 yards in Matches. Yesterday and other days at work during lunch and mainly during deer season the topic of Hunting and general shooting comes up. The place I work at about 80% of employes hunt. It seems most there never can understand the joy and skill or fun in long range shooting ( at targets ). I have come across this thought from more people then I would think. Anything from-Waste of time to why to Boring.
I try to explain that it is fun to just see how good you can be and how far you can push it. Then I get the--What are you trying to do-Be a Sniper. I hunted for 30 plus years and just in the last 6 years stopped. I felt the thrill of the hunt,the early mornings waiting for the Buck of a lifetime, the solitude and peace of the woods and the great feeling of just the nature thing.

My question is- Why is it so hard for so many people to understand how much fun it is and the skill that goes with it. They say-- All you do is put your rifle in a rest and pull the trigger-What skill is that. I offer to take them out to try and I get the Boring story. Now I don't care one way or the other,but the thought puzzels me.
 
I enjoy hunting for the reasons you posted above, but the ldr is getting to me. Now I do not own a caliber for that (and still dont know which to go with) but I shoot my rem 22-250 that I reload for and also my ar. Last week I played at 500 yards and it was fun and very challenging and that's what I like, I even tried my pistol at 100 meters on my 10 inch plate free hand and that was fun too.
 
The disappointing attitude of your co-workers isn't confined to rifles.
When last at the range, another fellow asked why I was practicing at 25 and 50 yards with my pistol, when everyone knows pistol shooting is only good for 7 yards or less.
Oh well. :o
Just ignore them and carry on.
 
Its just not some folks cup of tea so they aren't going to spend too much time thinking about it. I look at auto racing in general as people driving around in circles, but I know people who actually race would argue to the death with me that it is so much more than that.

Just enjoy what you do and if they can't appreciate the skill so be it.
 
long range shooting

yeah 4runnerman I hear ya 1200 yrds I wish my max is about 600 yrds because I cant afford a scope that will allow me to see that far I am a disabled vet in a wheelchair and that just don't fit in my budget, an my range is at my house which I could go out to 1000 yrds, I shoot an ar .223 an a 6x284 which I dearly luv an I load my own ammo, and like you nascar is boring lol so target shooting is fun to me because I make it interesting like targets that blow up lol I guess folks don't understand what it takes to make a 1200 or a 600 yard shot with 15 mph cross wind an a 12 mph down wind at the target oh well we do
so good shooting
 
Pistol, rifle, shotgun, slingshot, whatever.

1. They haven't tried it, so they form an opinion based on ignorance.
2. They have tried it, didn't like it so of course it's not worth doing.
3. They have tried it, sucked at it, so it's a stupid thing to do.

If you identify a #1---invite them out to do a little shootin'. You might
discover a convert. CAREFUL---they may get good and whup you. I've
had it happen to me!

#2 and #3? Just smile like you know something good that they never will,
and move on.:)
 
Dang, hard to believe there's shooters out there like that. My favorite part of Marine Corps rifle qual is the 500 yd line. I shot 9 out of 10 for 49/50 points at that yd line with a loop sling and I was pretty dang proud of myself. I always max out the range I have available to me for target shooting. When it comes to hunting I usually never have a clear shot past 150 yards anyway and that's about as far as I feel I can without a doubt make a clean kill.
 
long range shooting

well billm that all most happened to me lol,a frend of mine liked shooting with me so I took turns shooting my ar, he went an bought a savage bolt action bdl that's what he likes.223,whoa right out the box @ 100 yrds it shot almost a one minute gun !!!!! I couldn't belive that right out the box !! so I told him we will work on the ammo an get it to shoo that, an I did,i added length to it an shot,got better, after three times the rnd was touching the lands an grooves, fired three rnds,whoa all three were touching,shot a .75 group @ 100 yrds., can you believe this a factor rifle shooting like this,these companies are producing better an better rifles,you just have to play with the ammo to see what it likes an stick with it, my buddy says im sure glad you decided you play with the ammo an got my gun shooting like this I never knew about doing that now he wants me to order powder bullets an primers to load his own stuff under my supervision , lol lol makes me feel good,
by the way that day he did out shoot me 3 or 4 times with that factory rifle , well made my friend happy
happy shooting BOOOOOOOOOM
 
captneil19 said:
...It seems most there never can understand the joy and skill or fun in long range shooting ( at targets ). I have come across this thought from more people then I would think. Anything from-Waste of time to why to Boring...
Click to expand...
One person's "boring" is exciting for someone else. Some people collect stamps, and other people race cars.

I very much admire folks with the technical acumen to shoot long range rifle. I know that I don't have the patience for it.

But I know that to be competitive in the world of long range rifle one needs skill, knowledge and understanding; and one should be congratulated for those qualities.
 
I'm blessed to have a couple of very good friends who make a lot of money and have some good equipment. With their help and instruction (and their guns), I've managed a 10" group at 1280yds with a .338LM. This is after a few years of building up a skillset and having enough trigger time to actually be able to make the gun do what I want. Granted, a lot of hitting that steel was the $10k rig I was shooting, but just like any activity that requires every bit of your concentration, some people are just naturally better at it than others. It's taken a lot of trigger time for me... and a lot of their expensive handloads. I do pay for beer though.

Frank sums it up very good I think.

In the end, it's a hobby... and it's going to appeal to people who are major geeks to begin with and probably have another geeky hobby or two. Even guys who aren't necessarily "gun people" can appreciate and be attracted to the blend of science and art that is required to get out to 1000yds and beyond. The fact that it usually takes quite a bit of money and time also makes it fairly elite, which is something geeks usually like too.
 
As others have said... it's just not some people's cup of tea. I really enjoy shooting long range. It's my favorite shooting sport... so much so that I began to focus almost entirely on long range a couple of years ago and almost never shot my pistols. I am LEO, so I used to take pride in posting good qualification scores when I qualify. We also would do some combat type shooting and play around on dueling trees. Well, I kinda let that go for a while and my qualification score slipped some. Now I'm back to being more well rounded, but I digress.

There's one other guy I work with that shoots long range with me. No one else could care about it. It's too boring for them. I taught my son (who is now in the USMC)... he was bored at first, then enjoyed it, now he teeters between the two. At any rate, it's nothing like blasting rounds away, doing failure to stop drills, engaging multiple targets, shooting while moving, etc. that you get to do with a pistol or carbine rifle. The other stuff is exciting to many people, but most people don't get excited about making the right wind call and correctly estimating an unknown distance (without a LRF) to make a first round hit on a 800 yard target. The math, understanding, patiently waiting for the wind to pick back up to (or come down to) the speed you made your adjustment for, slow, steady trigger squeeze... those things aren't for everyone. I would agree with SamNavy that it would appeal to people who have a little bit of "geek" in them.
 
Hey now--Im not a geek:D. I started with a 45 ACP years ago. Shot that till it just got boring to shoot. Started shooting 300 yards,kept making target smaller and smaller,Then jumped to 600 yards. Now I go out to 1200 yards in Matches.
There is just something about hitting your target from that range that is exciting and Blood pumping to me. The cost is not really all that bad. My main rifle is a off the shelf Savage 6MMBR with a new barrel and my 308 is a stock Savage FVSS. The 308 I only use out to 1000 yards. She kinda peters out around there.
 
In my discussions with people about long range target shooting (even hunters and other "gun guys") I have discovered something that seems to tie everyone together that says "it is boring," or "what's the point?"

What I am about to say may seem judgmental or stereotypical, but please, I mean no disrespect when I say this. It is just anecdotal things I have observed among people who say these things.

The people who enjoy long range shooting are internally driven to succeed. They always want to see if they can do better, even if for nothing more than personal satisfaction. They are the "Type-A go-getters" that will most likely succeed at anything they choose to apply their efforts to.

Those that claim it to be boring, seem to be more laid back and not internally driven. The kind of folks who punch the clock to make a paycheck and head home as soon as they can. They are driven by things like money, recognition, or just not failing, not doing something for the sake of doing it themselves.

The only other thing I have heard from some people who claim it to be boring, are those that do not understand how difficult it is, and these are the potential converts. They just have no clue how far a bullet drops at 1000 yards, or how much wind plays with a bullet. Once they understand it better, they may be open to at least trying it.
 
Jay24bal said:
In my discussions with people about long range target shooting (even hunters and other "gun guys") I have discovered something that seems to tie everyone together that says "it is boring," or "what's the point?"

What I am about to say may seem judgmental or stereotypical, but please, I mean no disrespect when I say this. It is just anecdotal things I have observed among people who say these things.

The people who enjoy long range shooting are internally driven to succeed. They always want to see if they can do better, even if for nothing more than personal satisfaction. They are the "Type-A go-getters" that will most likely succeed at anything they choose to apply their efforts to.

Those that claim it to be boring, seem to be more laid back and not internally driven. The kind of folks who punch the clock to make a paycheck and head home as soon as they can. They are driven by things like money, recognition, or just not failing, not doing something for the sake of doing it themselves.

The only other thing I have heard from some people who claim it to be boring, are those that do not understand how difficult it is, and these are the potential converts. They just have no clue how far a bullet drops at 1000 yards, or how much wind plays with a bullet. Once they understand it better, they may be open to at least trying it.
Click to expand...

Even with the disclaimer in the beginning, that may tic some people....LoL
 
I went shooting today, got up at 3am to take care of the dogs and stuff, then headed out by 4:30. Arrived in the desert at 5:15 it was nice. A friend was already there shooting at 1k yards. I set up at 100 to check my scope, put a few rounds in and then put it at 600 yards. I'm very happy with my new load for my 22-250, before we started to have some wind I was having a 80% hit on my 10 inch plate , I was happy. Then the wind picked up and I was all over the place so I stopped shooting my bolt action rifle. But then I took out my ar and load some 62 gr bullet, and could hit the target maybe 40% of the time, not bad (at least for me..LOL)
Then 4 young guts showed up in a pick up truck (3 Chinese guys and 1 Chinese girl) so we talked to them to make sure everyone is shooting from the same line and that its safe for everyone, no problems good kids. They were shooting a bit of everything, revolver, semi, some semi rifle that I dont know what it was an ar and they had other stuff in the pickup bed. After a while I was tchit chat with my friend and we look at the kids, and the had a barrett set up ! We went to check it out and sure enough it was the 50 cal. My friend asked them if they shoot it, they said yeah, yesterday at 200 yards... the didnt know how to adjust the scope on it. Then they asked us if we wanted to shoot it, we couldn't refused it would have been inpolite..:-)
My friend still had his target at 1k yards, from where the kids were it was approx 1200 yards. We both shoot it and teying to adjust the scope at the same time. We didnt hit our target but were so close. We both shot 5 rds, they had plenty more but we didnt eant to abuse.
First time shooting that 50, well even if I had the money I would never buy one, I eat so much dust after each round it was crazy. Also the mono pod and the bipod that comes with it are a joke, definitely not stable (at least in the desert rocks/dirt) but it was fun.
 
Yeah, shooting other peoples' guns you don't have to clean afterwards is always enjoyable.
Doubly so, if it's their ammo, too.
 
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