I have three small food plots on my hunting lease. One of them offers shots of no more than 100 yards or so. But the far end of another one is 150 yards from the stand, and the wood line at the back of the longest one is 176 yards from the stand. That's a real long shot (for me anyway).

Knowing I would be carrying the .45 Sinful Renegade for several hunts over these plots, I decided to build my confidence by knowing what the trajectory of my load is out of my rifle.

I took seven shots from the bench, starting at 25 yards and moving the target back 25 yards for each shot. So I had one shot each at 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 and 175 yards. The target is below.

The load was 85 grains of GOEX FFFg under a 200 grain .40 Hornady XTP in a Harvester H4540B sabot. Point of aim for all shots was the one-inch dot.



Most likely any shot I take will be no more than 125 yards. But it's awfully nice to know that given the right circumstances (a broadside unmoving deer) I can connect on a 150 shot by aiming just above the centerline of the chest, or a 175 yard shot by aiming at the very top of the body.