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Buffalobob · 03-25-2007, 19:02

Well, I have delivered my son back to school in the frozen wastelands of Potsdam NY and am in the Econolodge in Watertown. In the morning I will drop back down I-81 to Harrisburg and then to DC

I will try to put the responses to some of the comments in three separate posts because it will get long and convoluted with a considerable number of pictures.

When you grow weary of shooting deer at 50-100 yards with a rifle or even with a bow you may turn to a different style of hunting. The style I will deal with is setting up and shooting animals at ranges of 800 to 1500 yards. This requires that you find a proper place where you can find animals at that range and a proper gun that will make a first round cold bore lethal hit. Such a gun is very similar to a bench rest gun as one person has commented. Nine times out of ten such a rifle will be built by a smith with 1K benchrest experience. Some smiths specialize in long range hunting rifles and built a lot of them and use the same techniques as a benchrest smith. The kill zone on a pronghorn antelope is about 12-15 inches vertically. The ability to hit that area under field conditions at ranges of about 1000 yards requires rangefinders, wind meters, drop charts etc. Mostly though it requires a finely crafted rifle and ammo capable of shooting benchrest quality groups. As we shall see shortly, skill on the trigger is not nearly as critical as one might first believe. A properly constructed gun and ammo and proper data on the scope are the main factors. You can pretty much have a dead possum pull the trigger if the gun is set up correctly. If the gun is not constructed properly and the data is not correctly obtained and the ammo is badly made then there will be much grief.

As far as the weight of a gun goes I will only say that as an old infantry platoon leader I try not to whine and complain too much about essential weight. I have plenty of other weight hanging around over my belt that I can lose. A typical long range rifle will weigh in the 12-16 pound range and some will go over 20 pounds

03-25-2007, 19:02	#10
Buffalobob Quiet Professional Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Potomac River Posts: 925	Well, I have delivered my son back to school in the frozen wastelands of Potsdam NY and am in the Econolodge in Watertown. In the morning I will drop back down I-81 to Harrisburg and then to DC I will try to put the responses to some of the comments in three separate posts because it will get long and convoluted with a considerable number of pictures. When you grow weary of shooting deer at 50-100 yards with a rifle or even with a bow you may turn to a different style of hunting. The style I will deal with is setting up and shooting animals at ranges of 800 to 1500 yards. This requires that you find a proper place where you can find animals at that range and a proper gun that will make a first round cold bore lethal hit. Such a gun is very similar to a bench rest gun as one person has commented. Nine times out of ten such a rifle will be built by a smith with 1K benchrest experience. Some smiths specialize in long range hunting rifles and built a lot of them and use the same techniques as a benchrest smith. The kill zone on a pronghorn antelope is about 12-15 inches vertically. The ability to hit that area under field conditions at ranges of about 1000 yards requires rangefinders, wind meters, drop charts etc. Mostly though it requires a finely crafted rifle and ammo capable of shooting benchrest quality groups. As we shall see shortly, skill on the trigger is not nearly as critical as one might first believe. A properly constructed gun and ammo and proper data on the scope are the main factors. You can pretty much have a dead possum pull the trigger if the gun is set up correctly. If the gun is not constructed properly and the data is not correctly obtained and the ammo is badly made then there will be much grief. As far as the weight of a gun goes I will only say that as an old infantry platoon leader I try not to whine and complain too much about essential weight. I have plenty of other weight hanging around over my belt that I can lose. A typical long range rifle will weigh in the 12-16 pound range and some will go over 20 pounds
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