Howler

AND if the bullet being fired has no degree of incline when it leaves the barrel.

I only worry about three rifles for longer range shots. AND to ME, long range is from about 300 to 450 yards, because I can't think of more than a few times that I have ever fired at something beyond 450 yards, and that would have involved prairie dogs, which you get mulitple trys at. Big game isn't a long range hunt, for me. Coyotes are also almost always with-in the 300 yard mark with an occasional longer shot, and prairie dogs will get shot at at longer distance from time to time.

Pawildman

Yep.....If you don't have access to a chronograph to check your fps, charts out of books are just about worthless. They're only a guide at best anyhow. Any responsible hunter/shooter will check their POI at known ranges with a specific gun/load combo.

cherokee_outfitters

LoL good post Stubble,

No doubt many have no clue about what the rifle's trajectory is actually doing. I hate to see the lack of knowledge people have going into the field using data from a book instead of practical knowledge from range time. I know exactly where my bullets are going to fall given reason but that can change with altitude or elements in a heart beat. I test up to 600yds but that's at 7500ft, now change that to 13000ft and make the same heart shot may not work out as well. It will hit a few inches higher depending on the set up.

Just wanted to point out. At no time during a bullets flight does it ever rise above the line bore. Gravity makes that so.

Uncle Mike

What Pawildman said!

jeepkid

Very true...I'm slowly getting it worked out pretty good...my biggest problem is the wind[:@]

RugerMike

I test loads to the .(piont)of grain of powderin trajetory and accuracy. And yes some powders are more subject to changes with temperaturechanges of extreme measures. As stated below shoot shoot and shoot again. It simply amazes me the people that will shoot one or two shotgun slugs or sabots at the 25 or 50 yard range and say their gun is dead on! The only dead on they have is
DEAD WRONG[:@][][&o]

Mojotex

I zero my No.1 hunting rifle , a Styer pro Hunter in 308 Win. 1" high at 100 yards. I shoot at 50-150-200-250-300, aimed dead on so that I get a good idea of the arc. I have never had a shot here in the south with this rifle farther than about 225, so managing arc has not been a problem. Heck, I'd bet 75% of my shots here have been well under 100 yards.

I have hunted in Eastern Montana where it is wide open ... I used a Rem. 700 in 300 Win. Mag. set dead on at 200 and checked in 50 yard increments from 50 to 500 yards. Because I so seldom shoot out to 300-400-500 yards, I took the step to record the "arc". I laminated the "cheat sheet" and have attached it to my rifle's stock.

bronko22000

There is a lot more to bullet trajectory than the effect of gravity as most long range shooters will attest. Temp, humidity, elevation etc.
But it is also true that groups of different chambering have very similar trajectories. That is why the bullet drop compensators work so well when used properly. I bought my first Burris scope with the Ballistic Plex a few years ago, mounted it on my 270, followed the instructions for sighting it in. I did a bit of tweaking with it out to 300 yds and tested it out to 500 yds. As stated in the charts, there was some minor plus or minus variation with the various reticles but it worked nicely. The practice with this scope/rifle gave me the confidence I needed to cleanly take an antelope and 4x5 mulie both at longer than I normally would have attempted.

spaniel

I know it at home elevation (500ft) and also have a chart for my typical elk country (7000ft). I've shot at multiple ranges to about 860yds to verify, I don't ever plan on shooting an animal that far with that gun as my rangefinder is maxed out so I figure that's good.

Drop is easy. Wind is what separates the wannabe's from the real shooters.

Rammer

I'm always playing around shooting at various targets out a long ways. When I get a load developed for my rifles I set my range up and we start out by shooting 20 ounce pop bottles at 300 yards and move on up to 1 gallon jugs at 500+ yards.