By Dave

March 20, 2014

I was inspired by an article written by Major(Ret.) John Plaster that was posted on the Hornady website. John was shooting long range with a Savage BA110, Millet LR scope, and Hornady 250 grain, 338 Lapua Mag ammunition. This is the same combination of equipment that I use.

According to the article John was shooting well at 1,400 yards and I had never ventured past 1,000. To extend my distance I scheduled a private session in Nevada at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. So on March 8th I spent the morning confirming my ballistic tables prepared using the ballistic calculator on the Hornady web site. It was dead on at the tested distances (100, 400, 600, 800 yards).

I was happy that the Hornady ammo and the Savage BAA 110 were holding 1/2 MOA (I know that this is better than the average BAA 110 and I got lucky when I bought it). The instructor and I changed locations to a spot just off Snipers Point. From there he suggested that I shoot at the black silhouette located ONE MILE out. At that distance the bullet would drop about 115 ft. The instructor spotted and the first shot went over the right shoulder. The second shot hit roughly center of mass. YEA - check another item off my bucket list.

P.S. I tried shooting a target at 2,600 yards where the bullet drops about 435 feet. I shot all around it, but never hit it. My understanding is that the bullet is subsonic at that distance and probably unstable.... Hmmm, maybe I do need to get that 50 caliber.