Originally posted by Ghubert:
Anders you lucky stiff! That sounds like proper hunting big fella.
You'll find the climbing easier than the rest of us too I should expect.
From our hunting together I can assure that your shooting is more than up to scratch, you just need to build some confidence at range.
Antelope Sniper's suggestion is so good I wish I had found this thread earlier. Set up a 8" circular target 200 yards and ghost a 2-3" ring in the middle so that you can see it close up but not from the firing point. Practice shooting off your jacket rolled up on a bag, not with a bipod for reasons I will go into later.
I say 2-3" because i think you'll be ok with a 1 1/2 minutes of an angle for those beasties to 400 yards.
Don't let the barrel get too hot and mislead you, do it like you were hunting so fire one or maximum two shots at a time, let the barrel cool completely, wander about, etc.
Once you are happy that you can more often as not keep your shots in 2-3" at 200 yards move to 300.
The wind will have much more of an effect at this range and so in my view one perfects trigger control, sight picture and breathing at 100-200 yards, adds wind reading at 300-400 and beyond there it's mostly wind reading no matter how good your technique.
You need an idea of your bullet drop and windage whatever load you're using, I know Ger was using the factory 180gr TBBC, were you using the same or can you load up your own?
Practice off the jacket because that it almost invariably how you will be shooting and bear in mind you could be shooting up or down hill, tricky with a bipod in that sort of terrain.
Here's some information on shooting up and down hill, if you don't have anywhere to practice this, it could catch you out as no matter whether you are shooting up or down the bullet will still strike high due less time for gravity to act on it and make it fall.
http://www.firearmssite.com/shoot_uphill.htmhttp://www.millettsights.com/d...phillAndDownhill.pdfI would recommend a 165 grain Speer BTSP or Nosler Ballistic tip as you're not worried about meat damage and those are pretty much the slipperiest decent hunting bullets out there. IME the Speer is more frangible than the BT, strangely enough.
I would say keep your scope, it's bloody good and from what I hear there usually isn't enough time to dial in on these sort of things.
You have two options as I see it, zero for point blank range and hold over at long distances or zero at longer range and hold under for shorter distances.
Some guys say it's easier to hold 8 inches low at 100 yards than 18 inches high at 300, I don't know as I've always zeroed for PBR and held over. My longest shot so far was at a 400 yard black wildebeest, the load was an unaerodynamic lump of a 180 grain hornady interlock at a measly 2550 from my 06. The drop was about 24" inches from my particular zero and with a little knowledge of the beast in question I knew that meant hold just above his back, it light just peeking through as my crosswire is about 3/4" thick at 100 yards and therefore about 3" at 400 yards. Got him right in the ticker, I'm pleased to say.
The bottom line is that whatever equipment and load you have now you can make it work, it's a matter of familiarity and confidence mate.
Get to know how far the distance between the thick and thin bit's of your crosshairs are, shoot the load you are going to be hunting with at the distances you think you'll be hunting at in all conditions if possible and you'll know the limits of your equipment.
Besides, getting 50 yards closer won't be a problem for a stalker of your caliber buddy.
