Originally Posted by
Breechplug
Spaniel what ML did you use for that 338yd shot? that's one heck of a shot! I got my ACCURA down to 2"groups at 200 and that's a Poke! Im a great shot and was taught to shoot inbetween heartbeats but even with my shooting skills I seem to limit myself to 200yd ranges with a ML, I know I can shoot further and hit where Im aiming, but what Ft Lbs do you get at those ranges, Im more worried about enough energy than range I guess.
(BP)
A thumbhole Omega that I've done some accurizing work on. 100 yd groups are well under an inch. I posted a 500 yd group shot with this rifle back in June or July, but this was with the 325gr FTX as the 200SW is just too light to shoot that far.
The energy is pretty low past 300 yds. I worry a lot more about bullet performance than energy numbers, if the bullet expands I'm not worried. Arrows kill deer fine with tiny energy numbers. However, when the 325gr FTX came out and offered me the ability to duplicate the relatively "flat" trajectory but with better energy and wind drift I jumped on it.
I had shot several deer at increasingly far ranges with the same bullet to evaluate how performance was doing as I pushed it further...I didn't go from say 150 yds to 338. That was the third deer I'd shot at 300+. I lucked out and had this deer in position with a dead calm wind which is the biggest variable.
I'm not recommending people go out and try to duplicate this, there are a lot of specific skills involved in shooting that far and one must be honest with themselves as to their capabilities.
I'm building a .45 right now, but it will be smokeless and push the 200SW to 2700-2900 fps or shoot a .45ca/ 275gr Parker Extreme to 2500-2600 fps (sabotless).