So, the other day this topic came up at work and I was trying to explain the concept of ranging your shot when shooting up or down extreme angles. It turned into quite the debate and no one wanted to believe me initially. It took lots of diagrams and such but I think everyone is starting to understand.

Basically, lets say you are shooting a shot on level ground at 600 yards and get all dialed in. Then you are shooting up a hill at a 31 degree angle and range your target at 700 yards, you will still dial in for the 600 yard shot because your bullet drop is relative to the horizontal distance traveled because gravity pulls to the center of the earth, not the ground.

I got as detailed as to show how to calculate the adjusted range using the angle cosin and such. Here is the diagram drawn in the kitchen on our white board.

Ayep. Good for you educating the masses. I have a fellow at work that wants me to take him long range shooting, but I can't make him understand how tedious I will make it for him.

Also, in your example, you still have to fine tune for windage, which can have a vertical factor.

Yeah, and technically you have to calculate the velocity changes from shooting up against gravity or down with it as that changes things to. But yeah, you know where I'm coming from.

You ever gonna come shoot the Tuesday night 600 yard matches? I went last week but was too sick to shoot so just layed on the bench behind my rifle watching scores for fun. I am going back tomorrow night to shoot it.

Its a pretty informal comp compared to PR, you keep your own score and don't even have to be part of the comp if you just want to shoot. Because it doesn't involve EBR's it is also not a vicitim of all the excessive safety.

Oh, and you missed it at PR on Saturday... Doug is offering another class on May 2nd in Madras for the weekend shooting steel at 700-1200 yards.

I'd like to make it out tomorrow, but I won't be able to. Maybe next week?

What's the round count like for the match? What time do they start shooting the 300 sighter shots? You sure non-club members can shoot?

They meet at the 300 yard line at 5:30 to start the match. Many of the shooters are shooting at the 300 yard line prior to that to warm up and such.

Once everyone is there they split into two even groups, one group shoots first while the other scores targets, then they switch.

You get 2 warm up shots then 20 score shots so 22 rounds total. After each shot the target is pulled down and when it comes back up it will have a marker showing your last shot and the score for that shot. It is up to you to keep track of your own score as it is really more of a friendly comp and most the guys are shooting it for fun/practice. No trophies or anything like that.

What I was told is that it is $30 for the year to shoot it, no per match fees, and because it is considered a competition it is open to non members. I will verify that tomorrow. Basically because they have to close 3 ranges to use the 600 yard range since it shoots over them they have to justify to the club shutting them down by calling it a weekly competition and charging a small fee.

Doug's shoot in Madras also sounds like fun. I really need to bed my .338 and finish load development on it.

I've got a spot up here in SW WA where we can work from 0-250 and 750~1300 yards. I haven't shot it yet since > 1K with the 308 gets a little sketchy.

Where did you find that Varget?

www.thirdgenerationshootingsupply.com

Total for the 8lb jug to my door was $163 so not too bad. Not great but not bad.

Natchez had 1 pounders in stock the other day but only 7 of them. It keeps popping up more and more. A few people on the hide have reported finding it locally here and there also.

I"ll have to check when I get home, but I think I have enough powder to load up all the bullets I have. Or nearly enough. That's going to have to do for now. I've got .338 and BMG components to stockpile now too.