Long Range Shooting for Beginners Part 1

By: Dwayne Surgill

There are plenty of articles on this topic… plenty of good articles.  I am going to do my best to share my thoughts on long range shooting for beginners in a different way, to the best of my ability.  There are so many thoughts, so many items that are on the market for the shooter, so many choices and opinions… let’s break it down and take it in stages from general interest all the way to fully committed, extended long range.

    The term, “long range”, is very subjective.  In terms I believe most avid and professional long range shooters would agree with, long range can be broken down into two categories:  Long Range – which would usually be target engagements from somewhere around 500 to 1300 yards; and Extreme Long Range – which would usually be targets from 1300 yards to 1700 yards and in some cases out to two miles or more.  We will deal with those two categories of long range in a little while.

    First, let’s start with the shooter who is just entering the game of long range shooting.  Long range for that individual will most likely be ranges from around 300 yards to 600 yards.  Again, this is subjective but that gives us a very reasonable starting point.  Many who begin to take an interest in extending their range are shooters and/or hunters who are enjoying shooting their rifles at less than 300 yards but they get good at those yardages.  Those individuals likely have a good gun which they can use to consistently engage targets out to 300.  There are many good articles on caliber choice for long range shooting but, honestly, caliber choice is not very relevant in my opinion.  

There are many tales of excellent marksmen successfully engaging targets at 1000 yards or more with a muzzleloader in the Civil War and similar ranges with early smokeless powder cartridges.  Bottom line is, those guys knew their weapon and they knew it well.  That is really the key.  Any of the modern rounds will get the job done.  Some may have their advantages but I will leave that up to you to decide and will not deal with that here.  I am assuming you have a good cartridge you have gotten very used to and you have been successfully engaging targets out to 300 yards with it.  If that caliber can hold a one inch five shot group at 100 yards, it will do the job at longer ranges.

I find that the scope is the first thing that is determined to be insufficient when one’s desire to stretch out their rifle’s capability begins to grow.  Drop becomes an issue and the standard aim point in the center of the reticle must now be held over the desired target to account for bullet drop and allow for successful impact on target.  “Kentucky windage”, as that is most affectionately referred to, is not ideal for consistent accuracy at ranges past 300 yards.  Bullet drop becomes too great for the shooter to consistently be able to guess holdover for.

The first choice for the shooter in that scenario is a scope with a ballistic drop compensating reticle.  Ballistic drop reticles offer not only the traditional crosshair when viewed but they also include additional horizontal lines below the “zero” line of the reticle.  Holdover for those reticles will vary based on caliber and bullet speed but I have personally found them to be fairly useful and consistent out to 500 yards on “minute of angle” size targets.  Lots of good articles already around on what “minute of angle” is if you are not familiar.  A simple online search will yield countless well written articles on the matter.  Simply put, one minute of angle, or MOA, is 5 inches at 500 yards.  A ballistic drop reticle that one practices with on the range can allow the shooter to get on or very near MOA size targets out to 500 yards.  I have taken several deer at and around 500 yards with a ballistic drop reticle on my rifle.  

Scopes with ballistic drop reticles are still fairly affordable and will typically be found as the next expense level up when comparing scopes to the typical reticle versions.  Personally, I feel they are a little more suited to 400 yards or less but the shooter who practices on the range out to 500 can most certainly learn that weapon/scope combo and do well with it.  This is useful not only to the target shooter but also to the hunter.  I found myself wanting something a little better after learning my rife and ballistic drop reticle well enough to consistently take big game animals such as whitetail deer out to 500 but it ended when I tried to groundhog hunt with it.  A slight miscalculation on the 10 inch vitals of a deer will still result in a deadly hit.  A slight miscalculation with the drop reticle on a less than 5 inch groundhog size target is an outright miss.  The same can be said for the target shooter.  If you really want to be able to dial in exactly for a range, then the drop reticle will not fit the bill.  It is ballpark but not precise.  

The next scope that becomes necessary is a scope that has an adjustable turret made for dialing in for exact holdover.  Those scopes have a turret, either exposed or sometimes with a removable cap, which is turned to the desired MOA or MIL (many good articles out there on the difference between MOA and MIL) and the zero line of the scope reticle remains at zero for the new yardage calculation.  Data for these range adjustments on the scope is referred to as DOPE, or Data On Previous Engagements.  The shooter, through in-field practice and experience, learns what adjustment to make on their scope for exact ranges.  Example:  My 300 Win Mag requires 11.25 minutes of adjustment to be centered on a 600 yard target.  That means I know my rifle drops an estimated 66 inches at 600 yards.  One MOA at 600 yards is 6 inches so I need 11 MOA to adjust for 66 inches at 600 yards.  I test that at the range and find that I needed the extra .25 to be exact.  11.25 MOA at 600 yards is approximately 68 inches.  

Being able to determine exact number for adjustment on your scope for various ranges allows the shooter to be very, very precise.  That level of precision is absolutely required to consistently engage very small targets at 500 plus yards.  Guessing at holdover is not enough because bullet drop gets worse as the range extends due to the bullet slowing down.  A target difference of only 25 yards at 500 or more yards can mean the shooter must compensate for another several inches of drop.  If you’re shooting at a little groundhog at 535 yards, the holdover for 500 yards is not going to do it.  The scope must be able to be dialed in to the number on the scope that the shooter has previously determined to be exact for that very range, 535 in this example.  

When I first started trying to shoot groundhogs at 400 plus yards, I found out very quickly that I needed to have a very precise number for my DOPE to actually be able to hit that 3-5 inch target without wasting a bunch of rounds… and believe me, I did waste a whole bunch of rounds guessing.  I then decided to upgrade to a scope with a turret, learn my DOPE during practice at the range on steel targets, and I wrote my DOPE down so I could remember it.  I found myself quickly being much more pleased with my groundhog hunting trips.  

These scopes are more costly than ballistic drop compensating scopes in most cases but they are a must if you decide that you absolutely know you are going to shoot a lot out to 500 yards at small targets.  I have gone through a variety of scope manufacturers over the years and I encourage you to buy the best you can afford.  There is a difference in quality and it usually equates out to the turrets ability to consistently dial into an exact holdover and return to zero without moving zero.  You obviously don’t want the scope to not “track” correctly or perhaps even quite working altogether after you have adjusted it up and down several times.  Again, don’t go cheap.  I am not going to throw too many price values out in this article but I will say that $600 seems to be about the least expensive you can find a decent, dependable adjustable turret scope for.  

So now you have your gun and your adjustable turret scope.  You have learned your DOPE and are starting to be consistent in your ability to dial in for those 400-600 yard shots.  Trigger seems to be the next thing that the shooter determines to be a factor worthy of considering.  I won’t say you can’t engage targets at those ranges with a 5lb-8lb trigger but it sure does increase the likelihood that the shooter will pull the shot.  At those ranges on such small targets, even the smallest “pull” from the shooter will result in many inches of move from the desired target.  A right handed shooter will pull right of their target because they are literally pulling their gun toward the right as they engage that heavy trigger.  A left handed shooter will pull to the left.  It is hard to argue that a lighter trigger will easily allow the shooter to avoid pulling because less effort is required to set off the firing pin.  Less pulling effort results in a decreased pull on the gun in the direction the shooter is engaging the trigger.  

Many hunters like a trigger in the 2-3lb range.  I like all my target and hunting rifles to have 1lb triggers.  1lb triggers allow the shooter to focus on the target while putting very little attention on the actual pulling of the trigger.  The reticle settles in place, breathing is controlled, finger is placed on the trigger, slow and slight effort begins to settle back on the trigger from the finger and the trigger engages easily with very little effort required.  I’ve seen it on my rifles and I’ve seen it with others who decided to upgrade their trigger.  Just that simple change significantly decreases slight misses at extended range.  Sticking with the groundhog example… pulling off an additional 3 inches on a groundhog because of a heavy trigger can be a miss.  You’ve got your scope dialed in with the right DOPE, why worry about fighting a heavy trigger pull?

Having a rangefinder that will consistently give you the range of the target you wish to engage is the next necessity.  Rangefinders have come a very long way since I first purchased one many years ago.  My first rangefinder was $300 and it had trouble ranging a deer size target past 300 yards.  As the years have gone by and advancements have been made, I have been fortunate enough to own and try out many different makes and models or rangefinder.  I will break slightly from my statement that I would not discuss the extended ranges yet because it is necessary when considering rangefinders.  Ask yourself, what range are you satisfied with?  If you know that 800 yards is your absolute max range desired, you need a rangefinder that advertises to be capable of ranging at 1000 or more!

The problem with marketing rangefinders is that they usually advertise the max range for the farthest possible capability of the rangefinder.  Well “duh” you might say.  But they are not ranging a groundhog at that farthest advertised range.  They are ranging a huge building or some other very large reflective target.  If you are shooting at buildings you should stop reading this right here!  To determine what rangefinder will consistently pick up that small target you are going to be engaging, it is necessary to take the advertised yardage and shave a few hundred yards off.  Example:  my first decent rangefinder was advertised as being able to range out to 1200 yards.  It could do that on a big barn and some very large tree trunks.  It would pick up a cow at 1000 and deer size game at about 800 yards.  I could range bare ground out to about 600-700 yards.  So, for my intended use on small targets, that “1200 yard” rangefinder was only good out to 600-700 yards.  My current rangefinder is advertised as the “4000” model and it is capable of ranging a barn or large object out to 2000 yards, cows and deer out to around 1500, and the bare ground easily out to 1300 or so.  That fits my need just fine.