Truing muzzle velocity

[LoneWolf]

I breezed through most of these posts and the one thing I never saw mentioned was truing your scope height. I've found this to be a large factor in getting correct drops as well. I had a lot of these same issues when I was truing data within the "Shooter App". I've since switched to BallisticARC in conjunction with the WeatherFlow Meter and it's been treating me very well!

[eddiesindian]

This is the kind of stuff that'll drive you crazy. I've had to tweak my bc,s a bit more so for G7 and longer pills. Oddly enuff, I cked my speeds using a buddies magneto as well. I'm off by maybe 1 moa out to distance. I haven't started my diagnostics yet because I've simple adjusted for the errors and am good with that for now because I'm shooting set distance s from 200 out to 1300yds.
1st process I do when I start my mad scientist diagnosis is double cking my speeds with different chronographs. I know for a fact that were not the only ones who play around with the bullets bc...drag....speeds....and given drops at given distances to make it match up with our actual drops.

[yobuck]

This is the kind of stuff that'll drive you crazy. I've had to tweak my bc,s a bit more so for G7 and longer pills. Oddly enuff, I cked my speeds using a buddies magneto as well. I'm off by maybe 1 moa out to distance. I haven't started my diagnostics yet because I've simple adjusted for the errors and am good with that for now because I'm shooting set distance s from 200 out to 1300yds.
1st process I do when I start my mad scientist diagnosis is double cking my speeds with different chronographs. I know for a fact that were not the only ones who play around with the bullets bc...drag....speeds....and given drops at given distances to make it match up with our actual drops.

Well again, all this is very important for those reading it who happen to be competitive shooters where first round hits are imperative.
Otherwise (I personaly) don't feel its worth losing much sleep over because of the many things involved which you cant control.
All these type discussions of coarse involve shooting, and most if not all discussions involve some type of a range, or a place chosen by the shooter where they can shoot with no obstructions to shoot thru or otherwise hamper the shot.
But go someplace where you can stand under a large tree like say an oak tree, and look up, and envision another tree over there and there and everywhere because the whole area is woods, with many various size branches overlapping each other.
Now look at your shooting data and determine where your bullet will be as for height above ground when it gets out to say 700 or more yards.
Even a slight touch by one of those countless branches will send your bullet off coarse, and it could very well cause it to go no further.
There is no way to compensate for that other than to get another round in the air asap.
Now admittedly not everyone reading this shoots in that type environment, but many of us do while hunting long range.
Another example would be the various types of terrain, as for flat as opposed to hilly or mountainous.
Picture a dart board hanging on a wall, and then picture it laying on a table or in any other position and then determine which position you would rather shoot at it. The game would become a totally different game depending on the position or angle of the board.
Now add some branches in front of the board and the game changes yet again.
So again, depending on where an individual does his shooting, or hunting, will likely have a strong influence on his (opinion) as to order of importance of various equiptment and shooting techniques.

I lived in PA for the first 64 years of my life, and at age 12 was taken to the N C region of that state by my father to hunt deer.
After about 5 years we relocated to a different area, about 50 crow fly miles to the N W, which is where Im still involved in a camp and hunt today.
With gods help, this fall coming will mark 70 years since that first trip.
A lot has happened during that period regarding shooting, but has it really?
We hunted exclusively the way many others did back then, and some still do, by organized deer drives on those steep side hills.
My chosen gun then since I'm a lefty, was a then new model 141 Rem in 35 rem. A very popular choice then, along with the even more popular 94 Winchester 30/30, and the 99 Savage, mostly in 300 Sav. Scopes of any type would be rarely seen on guns, and wise comments were often made towards those who used them.
PA by the way ranked in the top 3 as for hunters, along with Michigan and Texas.
In the fall of 1955, I was driving a new 55 chevy with the loudest pipes I could get. lol.
We were in my car, with a couple other cars making up our group. It was mid afternoon, and we didn't have enough day lite for another drive, so we were headed back to camp.
Talk about a poor way to utilize man hours, that method of hunting has to be the worst for that.
Anyway we were headed down a dirt mountain road known as Montours run rd, which is right at the northern Clinton co, and S E Cameron co line, when we had to stop because there were a few cars and a group of guys blocking up the road.
There was a guy sitting on the road shooting at a side hill across the valley.
We got out and joined in with the others standing around watching.
There were always guys patrolling that road and glassing across the valley, and this guy was one of them.
There was considerable brass laying on the road from his shooting, and after a few more shots he stopped shooting and started picking up his brass.
There were 2 other guys standing there who were also regulars along that stretch of road, and when the shooting stopped, one of them asked if he were finished, and if he would mind if he shot.
He then went to his car and removed the seat section of the rear seat and placed it on the road.
He got out his gun which was a model 70 Win 270 with a Unertle target scope on it.
The same type I was using then for shooting indoors with a Winchester model 52 22 rifle.
The buck was laying down and had never gotten up during the first guys shooting session.
I'm sure at this point that the second shooter was evaluating what he saw and it could have helped him. But in any event, on his 3rd shot the deer was dead, and as I recall he hit it also
on his 2nd shot.
There was no rangefinder in play, and the only ones available then were the large military ones.
I don't recall any discussion over how many clicks he added either, but that's not to say he didn't.
But he surely he did something right that the first guy didn't.
I was blown away by that shot, I think it was the single most important event in my years of hunting. Without my fully realizing it then, it affected my attitude toward the way I hunted, and even toward those I hunted with.
He had to know what the distance was at least reasonably close.
I did ask him how far it was and he immediately responded 700 yds.
In the late 60s, a few of us in the group decided to devote all of our time toward glassing sidehills and shooting across those valleys.
I soon obtained a Barr&Stroud military rangefinder, and one of the first things I did with it was to check the yardage of that shot still etched in my mind.
I found that the guy who's name was Ray Diamond from Pittsburg, was right on with his answer to my question years earlier. So he had to have had ranged it before that day.

Fifty years later at age 70, I killed my first and only PA black bear from a lookout we made on the hill right above that spot on the road.
The bear was running up the steep hill across the valley, and I was following him in the 3.5x 10 Leupold with a custom multi dot reticle programed for the 162 gr hornady load in my 7x300 Weatherby.
The scope had no target knobs at all, but since, ive had an elevation only knob installed.
My son was watching him also thru a set of tripod mounted 12x60 German WW2 binnocs, while holding our range information for that spot in his hand.
The bear finally stopped about 3/4 the way up the hill and I asked, how far?
His answer was he isn't real close to any of our ranged spots, but id say he's about 700.
I said well I'm gonna hold my 700 dot on top of his shoulders, and with that I sent it over there.
He went down instantly, But as bears do, he got up again and tried to go.
He went just a short distance uphill, before making an abrupt change in a direction across the hill.
I said to my son he's hurt bad to have done that, but then I missed him very close on the second shot.
But a third shot about as fast as I could chamber another round dumped him for good.
The dead bear was laying within 100 yds from where that deer was when I witnessed my first long range shot 50 years earlier.
That's long range hunting, at least where I do my long range hunting, and no it dosent always end happily, at least for most of us.
You might have lots of time to evaluate all the conditions before a shot, and you might not have time for any of that.
Reality is your probably better off if your just pretty good at doing both, and learn to hit the curve balls, because for sure there coming.

By the way, when we first saw that bear, he was coming out of thick laurel and within 100' of us sitting on that lookout.
My son had heard him coming by the noisy leaves on the ground, but we were fully expecting it to be a deer.
But he either saw or winded us, and was gone in an instant back into the laurel and down the hill.
Fortunatly, I found him going up the hill across the valley with my large glasses, sorta like finding a fly on a big pile of straw.
And yes luck plays a big role, as it often does.

But based upon what you've just read, what would you think to be the most important thing or item of equiptment a long range hunter, again (hunter), could have?
Besides luck, and a gun of coarse, but could even that answer be debatable?
Now for sure somebody will be thinking yeah but you gotta have a good chart. lol