The Gun Digest Book of Long-Range Shooting

The Gun Digest® Book of

LONG-RANGE

SHOOTING

L.P. Brezny

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©2007 L. P. Brezny

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NOTE: The reloading data cited in this book is presented for informational purposes only. The author and Krause Publications specifically disavow any responsibility for the actual use of such data and recommend that the reader consult reloading tables published by reputable loading component manufacturers.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2006935752

ISBN-13: 978-0-89689-471-6

ISBN-10: 0-89689-471-1

eISBN: 978-1-44022-428-7

Designed by Paul Birling

Edited by Derrek Sigler

Printed in United States of America

To

My wife Colleen

It takes special understanding to live life around a gun writer and outdoorsman.

Ross Metzger

My friend and teacher in a complicated subjects dealing with ballistics. He never failed to be there for help and assistance over these many years.

Jim Korzenowski

1943-2005

RIP

When I was about to give up the search for better ideas in ballistics my good friend pushed me on. Thanks, Jimmy.

The shooting sports industry

Without their continued support over these many years, little would have been gained by this writer.

My readers

The most important folks out there in the world of shooting. Without you, there would be no industry – or anything to write about!

The Gun Digest® Book of

LONG-RANGE SHOOTING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Special Offers

Chapter 1: An Overview of Long Range Shooting

Chapter 2: Getting Started

Chapter 3: Selecting a Long-Range Cartridge

Chapter 4: Barrels, Triggers and Other Stuff

Chapter 5: Applied Physics and the Rule of 400

Chapter 6: Light Rifles and Cartridges

Chapter 7: A Rest is Best: Cross-Wind Shooting

Chapter 8: Ranging for Accuracy

Chapter 9: Big Rifles and Long Shots

Chapter 10: Practice Makes Perfect

Chapter 11: Basic Ballistics for Long-Range Shooters

Chapter 12: Handloads

Chapter 13: Where to Shoot Long-Range

Chapter 14: Bullet Performance:

The Business End of Long-Range Shooting

Chapter 15: Exotic Long-Range Shooting Systems

Chapter 16: Conclusion

Appendix I: Maintaining for Accuracy

Appendix II: Resources for the Long-Range Shooter

Chapter 1

An Overview of

Long-Range Shooting

It was 1964 when the box arrived from the NRA DCM program. That was a program that allowed members of the NRA to buy up military surplus rifles for as little as a 10-dollar bill. My brand new, soaked-in-grease Springfield that had been manufactured in the Remington Arms plant in 1944 had arrived. The rifle was the Springfield 30-06/03 series two-groover. That meant it had been manufactured using a less costly and time-consuming two-groove rifling system that had been found to produce good accuracy, at least in terms of hunting the enemy during WWII. These Springfield’s had been turned into effective sniper rifles for the task of reaching long-range pill box targets in the island wars of the Pacific, or taking on a German bell tower artillery spotter in a small French town on the other side of the world.

Stripping the military stock, turning back the bolt handle, and removing the iron sights was a start toward this rifle’s life as a reworked centerfire long-range rifle. With the help of the Herter’s company, a stock blank with enough wood to allow me to carve a wide, beaver-tail forend was purchased out of the original Waseka, Minnesota store’s budget box. A pound of fiberglass bedding compound, sling studs, and a recoil pad finished off the deal.

Author and buddy glassing across a Minnesota swamp in the Spring of 1972 for crow targets. The rifle is an author-rebuilt military 30-06 Springfield. These were very common conversions after the war among hunters and shooters in general.

Author hunting northern California with a pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 in 30-06 Springfield. Photo taken in May of 1965.

Without really knowing it at the time, that heavyweight 30-06 shooter was my gateway introduction to the art of long-range shooting. After a month’s work at the basement workbench, I had the makings of a first-class heavy target rifle.

With an old steel-tube Weaver 10X fixed-power mounted with Weaver bases and rings, and a set of 30-06 dies for my Lyman turret press, I was moving toward the completion of my first long-range rifle. Add some Sierra 150-grain bullets that preceded the current MatchKings, military surplus 4350 powder at 61 grains in GI cases, and I was off to learn the fine art of sending bullets toward long-range crows, woodchucks, badgers and other critters in the random varmint department. My handloads produced a bullet drop at 300 yards of -6.8 inches, allowing me to keep hair on target well out to 350 yards when fox or other, larger critters were in the crosshairs. Even shots to 400 yards were quite often possible, because of the quality Sierra boattail bullets and a good weight balance between the 30-caliber rifle and its matched Springfield barrel. This home-built rifle held accuracy to minute of angle (MOA) at 100 yards. While this was not up to today’s standards regarding group size, it was a pretty good shooting stick for a budget-minded young guy who liked to hunt, but was still trying to get through the University of Minnesota, pay the bills, and start a teaching career down the line.

Today you will find that most modern rifles shoot to 250 yards or more with positive accuracy. That means the rifle will hold its bullet groups to at least one inch at 100 yards (MOA). Even the common deer rifle that is sold in the $300 price range today will hold groups to the above-indicated range with ease. Better barrel steel, laser-guided cutting methods, and modern milling processes can turn out accurately milled actions well beyond anything known even as late as 10 years ago. The average rifle trigger today compared to the reworked trigger assemblies used when I started in the business are a far cry from those early two-stage, slack-filled firing pin let-off systems. Nothing about the modern centerfire rifle, be it a standard deer rifle or a long-range varmint/target rig, is even close to those rifles we started with way back in the 1950s and ‘60s. With the advanced design and manufacturing methods associated with modern rifles, one thing stands out very clear: for the most part, the shooter who wants to get into long-range rifles will not have to invest his life savings.

Specialized Rifles for Long-Range Work

Rifles for long-range shooting are different from those used by the walking varmint hunter, deer hunters covering rough mountain country, or stump-sitting Midwestern woodland whitetail shooters. The long-range rifle is generally a bit heavier than its pencil-pipe (thin barreled) cousin, mounts a stock that won’t warp or twist with humidity or rough field use, carries a well designed and tuned trigger, and retains a bedding system for the action that makes use of milled aircraft aluminum or glass. The barrels of these rifles are twist-tuned, meaning the rate of rifling twist down the barrel every inch is matched to specific weight bullets, and the actions are tuned to some degree to hold the cartridge case in alignment with the rifle’s chamber. These are key points in gaining good accuracy from a rifle, and today even an over-the-counter rifle in the factory box can produce some outstanding accuracy not found in those early years of long-range rifle production.

Today’s out-of-the-box rifle will outshoot any of the custom rifles of yesteryear.

Author shooting coyotes with the new Remington Light Varmint (LV) in 223 Remington. Even this short-pipe, light rifle is quite capable of taking prairie dogs to over 500 yards with dead air and a good ranging system.

As an example of just what even a very standard out-of-the-box rifle can do when applied to even a lightweight cartridge, a hunt that made use of the newer 223 Remington LV comes to mind. This rifle, described by Remington as a Light Varmint (LV) rifle mounts a fluted stainless steel barrel, short stroke 700 pillar bedded action, a synthetic scaled-down varmint stock and is drilled for mounting a scope (no iron sight capability).

Hunting Colorado well west of Denver and the front range of the Rockies, I was paired up with a group of scope manufacturers and bullet makers while sitting hip deep in prairie dogs, or as I call them, grass rat targets. Using a heavy bench rest that was portable and a fully adjustable forend rest with sand bags, I set the light rifle up for shots across a wide valley. Rick Payne, a Pentax optics sales supervisor, was acting as my spotter and ranging systems helper. Rick was well versed in the business of taking long-range pokes at grass rats, and as such came back quickly with an exact range of 587 yards to my first target.

What I’m not about to tell you is that with the range recorded I simply adjusted my sights and plunked off the fur ball on the far ridge. No, this was an exercise in artillery school shooting, and as I shot several rounds Rick spotted my impact points and returned information as to my required sight adjustments as I walked in the bullets to the unsuspecting critter.

With the third round downrange – a Hornady V-Max 55-grain pill – the prairie dog rolled off the mound with a small cloud of dust following the bullet impact. I had adjusted my Pentax target scope to the second mildot, and pushed about a dog’s body away to the right of the animal. There was a slight cross wind of about five to seven miles per hour, and coupled with the high elevation and warm air, I knew that my little 223 Remington 55-grain load had more going for it up there than what would normally have been the case back at sea level. With the first kill and a confirmation by Rick, I simply moved to the right and promptly dusted off two back-to-back rats. These were not artillery school tries, but one-shot dead-on kills. In effect, the little lightweight, lower-tech walking rifle was taking on work designed for much heavier gun systems with much bigger cartridges. For the most part, the 223 Remington is designed for work to about 300 yards. However, in the hands of a shooter who knows the cartridge, or by way of a good second man spotter, this little varmint/military round can be pushed a whole lot in terms of extended range applications on small targets.

Specialized rifles paired with cartridges for long-range shooting are available as both standard over-the-counter, factory-built guns or as customized offerings. Today you have a buyer’s market out there if you want to get into a specialized long-range shooting rig. First of all in the factory-built department, Remington is just about king of the hill when it comes to factory-packaged long-range critter control rigs. In my case I shoot a pair of Model 700 Varmint Synthetic (VS) varmint rifles. The first is in 22-250 Remington, and the second is a 243 Winchester in the very same configuration. These rifles are exact copies with the exception of caliber to the current military M-24 sniper rifle. They use HS Precision varmint/target stocks that retain aluminum pillar bedding, have medium weight varmint barrels, and good, crisp, gunsmith-tuned 2-3/4 lb triggers. Both rifles retain Redfield bases and rings and mount Weaver and Simmons 4X16, and 4.5 X-14 tubes, with sniper mildot elevation and windage correction indicators. Accuracy with both rifles is sub-MOA at 100 yards, with good handloads punching one rough hole in the paper.

Rick Payne of Pentax Optics gets behind a Browning A-Bolt medium weight varmint rifle and Pentax varmint scope in 243 WSSM. Rick is shooting 600 yard dogs, and note the spotter directly behind him calling the shots against a far hillside.

Hunting partner Nick Sisley shooting the Ruger MK II heavy target rifle in the new .204 Ruger cartridge. This rifle in a factory-built offering is a deadly long-range delivery system.

Remington offers the Model 700 Sendero in the heavy 300 Winchester Magnum cartridge, which of late has become very popular with our military snipers doing long-range work in Afghanistan and Iraq. This rifle is also offered in 7mm Remington Magnum and 7mm Remington Ultra Magnum. Move off that mark a bit and the Remington Model 700 VSF (Varmint Synthetic Fluted) can be obtained in the 7.62 NATO (308 Winchester) cartridge. The rule here is: Want more range? More powder and more bullet weight, please.

Yet another offering are the Ruger MK II long-range target rifles. Here Ruger provides some well-made rifles that retain all the elements of a good long-range shooter, but at a price that is a real value for the dollar. Built with a very nice two-stage trigger that has a crisp let-off, this rifle also has a barrel that is stainless steel, hammer forged, and target crowned. Add the laminated wood stock to the game plan and you have an accurate shooting platform for sending long-range pills across fields of prairie dogs or incoming coyotes.

I entered the long-range club via the Varmint Hunter Association years ago by way of a Ruger MK II chambered in 25-06 Remington. Shooting a handloaded 87-grain Speer TNT, I dusted off a grass rat at 527 yards with the first shot downrange. Be advised the 25-06 Remington is a real favorite of mine, and there will be more coming on that hot long-range cartridge a bit later on. From the 22-250 Remington, the 220 Swift, the 25-06 Remington, through the 308 Winchester, this rifle can cover all the bases with the exception of the ultra long-range powerhouse offerings. However, if you want a solid 600-yard shooter or more, Ruger can get it done at an affordable price.

Another excellent rifle on my list, but by no means the last, is the Savage Arms Model 12 Varmint. Here again value for the dollar is right up front. Savage has designed accurate rifles that won’ t kill the budget. These rifles use the AccuTrigger, which can be adjusted from 1-1/2 lbs. to 3 lbs. in complete safety. The system uses a double release shoe that is failsafe in terms of an unintentional discharge.

Savage Model 12s in the 112 series will chamber the heavy long-range cartridges such as 25-06 Remington and 300 Winchester Magnum. Move to still other hard-hitting rounds and the Savage Model 12FVSS long-range’ rifle will chamber everything from 223 Remington in the medium-range category through the range-stretching 300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM), with a pile of big heavy distance cartridges in between. Savage is known to build some of the most accurate and modestly priced rifles on the market today. I have suggested these rifles to many beginning varmint/long-range shooters with some very pleased shooters coming to the forefront.

Author shooting a Browning A-Bolt in 243 WSSM. The rifle and cartridge are both state of the art.

Author at the bench rest with his Remington Varmint rifle (VS) chambered in 22-250 Remington. This rifle is a closer match to the military M-24 sniper rifle in current use today.

While I could go on with brand names of affordable out-of-the-box rifles, the fact is that today it is a buyer’s market out there and the competition for your business in the big rifle department seems to have no upper limit.

In the cartridge department, be advised that not all bullets or fuel cells are created equal. In fact, some cartridges are best left at the dealer’s shelf, while others are great producers of solid down-range performance. Assuming you have acquired a rifle designed for long-range shooting, the next step is selecting a cartridge for that new shooting stick. Here there are some rules that need to be addressed. First off, looking at a list of possible cartridges like those listed in this sample reference listing, you will find massive differences in each. This includes recoil levels, price per round, basic working range applications, and, as is pointed out here, even specific rifle types.

Author’s military/police Tikki/Beretta T-3 sniper rifle. This rifle, in 223 Remington or 308 Winchester, is a tack-driver and deadly long-range shooting system. It can be obtained from Beretta right out of the box.

Author with a rock chuck taken with his Remington VS in 22-250 Remington. Note the ranging card attached to the forend. These help a great deal when correcting holdover at long-ranges.

Author’s coyote hunting partner Larry Symes, who is approaching a long-range killed coyote. Larry is shooting a custom. 22-250 Remington in a hand-built rifle based on a Remington Model 700 action.

You’re not likely to find factory rifles chambered in some of the listed exotics. Buying a 6mm x 284 over the counter, or the 7.82 Warbird unless it is a Lazzeroni custom, is doubtful. That is, unless you want to get into some additional custom built higher-end rifles, which will be covered here as well as a bit later on.

Rule number one is more power and powder are required for long-range shooting. That means the big cartridges – such as the 300 Winchester Magnum, or the 6mm x 284 that is of late so popular among long-range shooters – will push more bullet further with less drop at ultra long-range distances. Take the 300 Winchester Magnum, for example. This 338 Winchester-based cartridge uses a 30-caliber bullet and is without question the most popular super long-range 30 of all time. Army snipers like it, as do law enforcement units that are required to punch out tough targets. For the long-range sport shooter, the 300 Winchester Magnum is again king because it can send heavy very low drag (VLD) bullets to 1000 yards against warm targets, and still hit the vitals of what is being shot at.

Basic Suggested Cartridge Listing

.22-caliber cartridge

.22-250 Remington

.220 Swift

.223 WSSM

.22-06 (Wildcat)

6mm cartridge

.243 Winchester

6mm Rem

6mm x 284 (wildcat)

.243 WSSM

.25-caliber cartridge

.25-06

.25 WSSM

.25-284 (wildcat)

.257 Weatherby

.30-caliber cartridge

.30-06 Springfield

.308 Winchester (7.62 NATO)

.300 Winchester Magnum

.300 Weatherby

7.82mm (.308) Warbird by Lazzeroni

Rule number two, however, is don’t overdo your ability or recoil stress tolerance level. Shoot too much rifle cartridge and you won’t shoot well at all. The 300 Winchester Magnum, for example, may cause a sensitive shooter to develop a flinch quickly. Also of interest here is that big high-power long-range rifle shooting almost always requires a spotter at the shooter’s side. Recoil levels are so high that the target becomes a blurred-out image upon cartridge ignition. That is, unless the target is so far away that the rifle and paired scope have time to settle down prior to the bullet’s impact. Believe me, that won’t happen very often, if ever.

What you need to do is select a maximum range distance that works best in terms of a cartridge choice and generated recoil levels, then go to work learning everything you can in terms of performance about that given cartridge. As long as I have been shooting long-range targets, I’ve tended to like cartridges like the 243 Winchester, 243 WSSM (Winchester Super Short Magnum), the never-to-be-discarded 25-06 Remington, the best of the wildcats to go commercial, and the workhorse 308 Winchester. Learn any of these cartridges well and you will do some serious damage to some very long-range targets. They will send bullets to long ranges and do so without the massive recoil that can cause fatigue. On the high-recoil and -energy end of things I do shoot the 7mm Remington Magnum in a Ruger Number One, or a 50 BMG upon occasion, but with far less frequency than other rifle/cartridge choices, the reason being obvious.

This is a full-custom, heavy varmint long-range rifle chambered in 6mm x 284 (wildcat). The rifle incorporates a Nesika Bay Precision action, a custom fluted barrel, and a Jewell trigger. With a Pentax varmint glass sight, this is a long-range shooter to be sure.

The final rule is stay within your means. That is, by moving to some exotic caliber in a full custom rifle, you’re going to have to pay a good deal more per round sent downrange in every case. The big loads cost big bucks to keep a rifle in the game. You can shoot a whole lot more 243 WSSM rounds, or even 22-250 Remington, than you can 6mm x 284 or even a 300 Winchester Magnum for a given amount of money. If you want range and speed without much if any recoil, move to the new 223 WSSM, and you’re in the 4000 foot-per-second club and shooting low-recoiling 55-grain pills to boot. I shoot this cartridge as a long-range round and it is not only effective, but I can see my hits as close as 300 yards downrange due to the lack of extreme recoil.

Barnes VLC varmint bullets. these pills are designed for long range by reducing drag against the bullet, and they expand quickly on warm targets. Selecting a bullet with care can make or break an accurate shooting long-range rifle.

You don’t need to overkill regarding rifle caliber. This coyote killed by the author was taken at 300 yards by way of a Winchester Coyote heavy rifle chambered in 223 Remington.

Handloads Are Required

Except for shooting a factory 223 Remington, for which you can find ammo almost anyplace nowadays, most long-range cartridges are going to require you to handload if for no other reason than to be able to shoot more for less money. When you begin handloading, you plummet into an endless learning curve, or so it at least seems that way. Building your own loads will produce an understanding of basic ballistics as in bullet drop, velocity loss at different ranges, and what powders will produce the best loads in your individual rifle. Handloaders always have an edge in the field. I see this all the time while on commercial hunts or with friends, tromping across the prairie dog towns of western South Dakota.

While the new factory load offerings are indeed a far cry from what was available in my early days of rifle shooting, you can always tinker with a handload and pull a few hundredths of an inch off that group size, or save some hard earned money when shooting even with the factory loads. Just by having the spent brass to work with, you’re saving, and you can surely shoot for half or one-third the price of using factory-rolled ammo when it comes to the bigger, more expensive cartridges.

Author’s Viper 50 Caliber BMG. Moving too fast into this kind of artillery can cause a shooter to develop a flinch. Work up to heavy rifles slowly.

Author’s 7mm Remington Magnum at 50X glass. This is an ultra long-range rifle set up for dog shooting to 1000 yards if required.

The author prepares to send a 50 cal. bullet downrange.

When I buy a new rifle, I run a series of handloads through it after some break-in time. What I’m searching for is that special sweet spot in terms of powder charge, bullet weight, design, and in some cases even primer brand. When that hot accurate load is located, my new rifle will shave off one-quarter of an inch or more from its standard group size based on break-in rounds downrange. Remember, you can cut groups down to under one-half inch MOA at 100 yards by handloading. If your rifle sends a bullet to exactly one-half inch at 100 yards, that same group will be 1-1/2 at 300 yards, 2 inches at 400 yards and 2-1/2 at 500 yards. That’s a miss on a fat prairie dog downrange even when not factoring in wind, temperature, altitude and about a dozen other elements that can make you miss the shot. The tighter the 100-yard-zero group, the better it will be way out at 500 or more yards.

The key here is not to go wild, but to settle on a few good tested and researched loads. With a press, scale, powder measure, and a set of dies, you’re in business for the cost of only a few boxes of higher end ammo. (Load tables appear in Chapter 2.) I shop around for used dies that are in good shape, and at gun shows I often find rifle presses at bargain prices. How long will all that loading equipment last? My Redding powder measure has been kicking out powder charges for better than 47 years to date, and my RCBS C frame is not far behind.

From the days of the buffalo rifles in 45-70 Winchester (our first long-range tools) to the heyday of the 30-06 Springfield, one thing is for sure; rifle cartridges do fall by the side of the trail in favor of newer and better products. The case here can be made for the new WSSMs in 22, 6mm, and 25 calibers. Here we have very short, fat cases that hold massive amounts of powder and burn it all very efficiently. The velocities are high, actions lightweight and short, with accuracy outstanding in a well-seasoned bore that is taken care of. Add the new Winchester WSM series wide-bodied short cartridges in 270 WSM and 300 WSM, and with just this one ammunition manufacturer you can see some major changes developing well beyond the modern long-range rifle itself. Today the newer cartridges tend to burn powder more efficiently, reduce recoil levels even in lightweight rifles, and have been developing a good track record among big game and varmint hunters in the field.

Handloads can make the difference in a great long-range shooter or an average job. More shooting for less money is the rule and those loads can be very dependable.

From the 223 Remington to 25-06 Remington, the handload can stretch range – and a dollar as well.

Author handloads the 25-06 Rem. This is a go-to cartridge in western South Dakota. Handloading can make it a light-shooting dog gun, or a heavyweight mule deer killer as well.

A 218 Bee (right) and 50 BMG. The cartridge rules the long-range game.

Bullet designs are always being researched and improved upon. Loading the new WSSM in mass bullet types and charges for several major magazine articles in 2005, I found that VL (Low Drag), and VLD bullets did improve group size, and downrange drop figures. When VL-classified bullets are designed, they are manufactured to make maximum use of boattail bases, long smooth nose cones, and a good ballistic coefficient (BC).

BC is the factored number assigned to a bullet that will determine how efficient it will be as it runs downrange. The higher the BC, the better that bullet will perform downrange. There are problems with this system however in that at very low velocity that BC calculation dies a quick death. Also as the same bullet is fired in different rifles and cartridges at varied velocities that BC number will change. Add high altitude as in mountain hunting and again the BC numbers all roll out differently. The best way to determine a bullet’s performance profile in real time, of course, is to shoot it.

The long-range varmint and game rifles are indeed changing due for the most part to the cartridges being designed for them. With the new short cartridges, short actions are coming to the forefront every year making for a shorter and consequently less flexible action. With out a doubt less flexing action rails means better accuracy when it comes to bedded action systems in long-range rifle stocks.

Research Your Long-Range Rifle with Care

Let’s call him Bill, because he would not want