Does anyone have a good ballistics chart? I was talking to my hunting partner in Montana and he was saying shots can be up to 400 yards. He sent me some pictures of two elk taken at 350+ yards. I checked Remingtons website as I'll be using their express 180 grain core-lokts in my 30-06. My rifles sighted in at 100 yards, dead accurate, problem is Remingtons ballistic calculator only gives up to 300 yards. My scope has the ballistic plex, but I don't know how much I should trust it. Hopefully I won't be faced with such a long shot, but I want to be ready to compensate for the long shot if I have to take it. Any tips on taking long shots would be appreciated also. This will hopefully be my first successful hunt (excluding my exotic hunt) and naturally I'm a bit nervous and very much excited. Thanks for the input.

Sevens

Sevens:
Well, here I go, where angels fear to tread.

Do not place blind trust in ballistic tables or scope reticles! Long range shooting skills are acquired only through long range shooting, preferably on paper targets.

First of all, it takes only .008" sighting error to equal 1 moa impact error; that is, a sight picture error of only .008" will cause you to miss your point of aim by 4" at 400 yards.

Remington gives the following trajectory for their 180 gr. coreloks:

100 yds = +2.4"
150 yds = +2.1"
200 yds. = 0
250 yds. = -4.3"
300 yds. = -11.0"
400 yds, = -33.8"

You will note there is a 22.8" drop from 300-400 yards. How do you plan to estimate the range to your target in the field? A 100 yard or more range estimation error is quite easy to make depending on terrain. Objects viewed over a valley appear closer; over a slight rise (hill) appear closer.

The only way to be sure your ballistic plex scope is accurately reflecting the trajectory of the ammunition you are using is to test it on the range prior to taking it to the field.

IMHO it is far better to pass a shot when not absolutely sure that one can place it solidly in the kill zone than to try a long shot and wind up with a crippled animal. JMHO

Best of luck on your upcoming hunt.

Regards,
hm

I do agree that practice at long range is required, ballistic calculators are a good tool to aid in developing your long range shooting skills. I also believe that a set of Laser range finders is required because at longer ranges there is a large difference in bullet drop with just a 50yd range difference. Here is a good on-line Ballistic Calculator to help in developing your long range shooting skills:
http://www.biggameinfo.com/BalCalc.aspx

You can go to Federal Ammunitions website and download their balistic table. I think they call it their "2005 Interactive Catalog" or something like that.

It is quite handy for estimating bullet drow and drift.