How many of you adjust your scope when making shots say 400 yds
or do you just know the trajectory of your rifle and aim high?

Depends on the rifle and load. I have a 300 RUM that is sighted in for 350. I can "aim and shoot to 400. I'll hit the kill zone. However, I'm going to be sending 5 scopes to Leupold's custom shop to have the target turrets installed so I can "dial in." After using a friend's rifle a few times and seeing the results, it was a real pleasure turning a few clicks and having the bullet hit where I aimed even out to 550 (on paper).

As Doc said it depends on your rifle, load, etc.

I hunt over fields and cut lanes (in Canada and SE, US) where shots can be fairly long range. A couple of years ago, started looking into options for long range hunting. I wanted to make it as simple as possible. What I ended up doing was purchasing a good range finder and a Swarovski 4-16, 50mm TDS.

I use the range finder to mark distances starting at 400 yards, in 100 yd increments, out to 600 yards. My 30-378 handloads are sighted in 3" high at 100 yds (never more than 4" high at 200 yds) I am 6" low at 400 yds so I use the main reticle out to 400 yds then the second bar 400+ out to 500, and so on...

This system works very well...but to shoot longe range... is dependent on your set-up ie rifle, load, and doing as much shooting at long range as possible. I am lucky we have a range near where I live that is set-up out to 600 yds and on my friends farm we can shoot out to 1000yds. The TDS and a range finder works well for me...I use a turret set-up Leupold on my F-class 308win..but that system is not what I want for hunting...using a system like the TDS is better in my opinon..

Jarrod:

That's a really good question! (However I do question why a guy from the state that invented the term " Kentucky windage" has to ask!) (Yeah, Yeah! I know you said elevation!)

I enjoy reading the comments of Westerners about shots at 400 yards and one poster saying he zeroed in at 350 yards!. My only long range shooting here in NY (back in the days when dinosaurs walked the earth) was at woodchucks, "chucks". I used a Win. Mod. 70 in 220 Swift. This was in 1948 or so at the beginning and reloading was not as commonplace as today. I used factory loads, a 48 gr. bullet that moved out at 4140 fps. (Yeah, that number is correct. The reason I remember it is because years later when the 22-250 Lovell stopped being a wildcat, it was hailed as the saviour of barrels ( for dropping the MV by about 500 fps or so) That's a fact. I replaced my 220 Swift barrel twice in 7 years) I always sighted in for 250 yards - and routinely tried shots at 400 and even 500 yards. Of course, as you suggest, I raised the muzzle! {In my time, shots at chucks were always for the head as a matter of sportsmanship and because no one of us teenagers wanted to gut shoot a chuck. My father, when I was about 13 made me dig out a chuck in the hole - a job that took me about 2 hours - because I fired at the chuck's body with a 22 at about 75 yards. My father had seen me make the shot. The chuck was dead when I got to him. My father made me think about how that animal had suffered with my 22 in him. We had a "Hunter's prayer" when I was young; " Lord, Let me shoot clean and kill clean. If I can't kill clean, let me miss clean". Oh, well, what am I doing telling a Kentuckian about shooting!

My longest shot on a game animal was a bit over 325yds & about as far as I want to shoot on big game. Learn your rifles trajectory & the size of the game you are hunting & hold over.

quote:

Originally posted by fredj338:
My longest shot on a game animal was a bit over 325yds & about as far as I want to shoot on big game. Learn your rifles trajectory & the size of the game you are hunting & hold over.

Yeah that's what I've usually always done. I was just wondering how many actually adjusted the scope.

My zero on my 6x284 is 400 yards. It is for long range rock chucks though so I found that to be a good starting point.

If you are using a duplex-type reticle, check the manufacturer's data on what the distance is between the thick sections of the vertical crosshair. On my Leupold 3X9, I use the beginning of the thick section below the crosshair as an aiming point for long range. If you know what the distance is at 100 yds, you can figure it out at long range to compute holdover, and you can work out the distances at various magnifications too, but that's too much mental magic for me. For example, if it is 4" from the crosshair intersection to the beginning of the thick part at 100 yds, then it would be 16" at 400 yds, and using the lower aiming point would raise point of impact 16" at 400. You have to know your load's trajectory, and I have mine written inside the ammo box to refresh my memory each time I load the rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by fredj338:
My longest shot on a game animal was a bit over 325yds & about as far as I want to shoot on big game. Learn your rifles trajectory & the size of the game you are hunting & hold over.

The only shot I've taken on game past 200yds was at a very stupid buck that walked right up to the 400yd target stand on a friend's farm.

If I'd been carrying a 30-06 that day I woulda just "glassed him". the fact that I was carrying a 25-06 made it impossible for me to resist.... the 100gr partition went about 2"low of where it was intended to.... at that point I confirmed that the bullet drop compensator cam in the scope I was using was less than perfect
Inpoint of fact it was the proper cam for 75gr varmint bullets loaded 300-400fps faster

the scope was an older Bushnell Banner 3-9x40mm with the double crosswire "range finder"
and the BDC elevation turret.

I still have that scope.... and it's still on the same rifle, but the rifle has been rebarreled to 30-06 and the BDC cam changed.

When chuck shooting with the 25-06 I had never actually used the BDC before, and frankly I haven't used it since except to verify that the
BDC cam actually worked with my favorite handload from that rifle.

Yeah, I got him. He never moved, though he "froze" at the shot and I almost shot him again...

On my 223 I simply hold over because it doesn't matter so much if I miss, heck, I've gotten a chuck with the spray of fragments and gravel from a close in miss that went low.
and in general I'd rather miss low when chuck shooting because if I miss low I see the bullet impact and I know where it went and thus how to correct.... when you have a miss high you have no clue...

AllanD

Depends on what I'm shooting. Varmints I like to click in elevation. If I'm shooting my .300 at an elk, I know my drop at 400 is 8", and I can hold over that amount pretty accurate. In either scenerio, I use my laser rangefinder.

Yummy.

Jon A what scope is that. It looks very similar to my IOR's.

It is an IOR. 4-14 Tactical.

Jarrod:

My only experience in making hunting shots at such ranges as you mention was with a Win.Mod.70 in 220 Swift as a teenager shooting at chucks. I was zeroed in at 200 yards and often took shots at 400 yards (and even farther). I simply used educated guesses (always assuming no wind) and held some inches over the chuck's head. I really am quite positive today (and I'm 75) that it was purely "by guess and by God" aiming. (BTW, since you are from Kentucky, why do they call it "Kentucky windage" and not also "Kentucky elevation"? )