how far will a bullet drop?

4

4x6

Guest
this is for all you bullet "experts" lets see if you can guess how long of a shot i took on a cow last saturday, first off i shoot a 30-06 with a hornady 165 grain bullet i'm 1 inch high at 25 yards i put the crosshairs at the top of her back and i hit her just at the bottom of her belly with about 1 inch before it went right under her hit her on the 2nd shot at ??? yards can you take a guess at about how far she was out there? this is not a bashing post just wanted to see how many people can guess just a fun little game!
 
NO the correct answer is not to far! if i dont fell comfortable with the shot i wont take it! and dont tell me that nobody here has not taken that long of a shot in there life either! i have taken longer shots than this before and the animal ended up just like this cow did handing in the garage and going in the freezer! i can rember my dad taking a shot that was well over 1000 yards at a deer and hitting the damn thing! the bullet never went all the way thriugh the deer we have the bullet hanging on the horns to this day to prove it!
 
let's seeeeeeee
clicka clicka clicka
ga-jee ga-jee ga-jee
clicka clicka clicka
ga-jeeeee ga-jeeeee ca-ching!
.....665 yards.
?
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-03 AT 08:12AM (MST)[p]Well you are the closest and by the way again it only took 2 shots as the first shot went to low and she started walking away not running the second shot was a walking shot and still hit her. big cow about 500 pounds!
 
If your 1 inch high at 25 yards, you are probably dead on at about 400 yards. So, I would say you shot about 525 yards.

Rut
 
RuttCrazed I think you would have to pretty close on the distance, I think since the first was that low he was shooting about 570 -580
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-03 AT 10:17AM (MST)[p]Waaaaay to far to be shooting at something with a 25 yard sight in.... about 575..
Ivan
 
Well that may be to far for you but, that is ok not saying anything bad at all but if you fell good with youre shooting skills to shoot that far i say go for it! and from past experience and having my dad and other people hunt with me we have found that if you are always shooting at long distances then it would be better to site it in further but not all my shots are that far, therefore i have found that keeping it at 1 inch high at 25 yards is pretty good. longer shots you just have to elevate more depending on how far you are shooting and what type of grain of bullet you are using. we estimated the cow to be somewere in the range of 400-450 yards but we could be wrong without a range finder it is kinda hard to get an exact yardeges but the way i look at it is she did not go far and was not lost or left wounded for the cats and coyotes to get she is hanging in my garage and going to tast mighty GOOD!!
 
I'm not flaming your shot on the elk, I didn't say it was too far to be shooting at an elk... I said it was too far to be shooting at something with a 25 yard sight in. There are WAY to many factors to take into account to be confidant that your 1" high at a 25 is good enough for 400+ yard shots...

I have shot plenty of animals at long ranges and shoot quite often. But I will tell you that sighting in at 25 yards and hoping its good for 500 yards is a pure shot in the dark. Its like testing Ford pickup at 40 miles per hour and hoping that it will handel the same at 120 MPH (would it hold up, hehehe)... Not likely that it will.

For example a gun that is bore sighted and shot at 25 yards and then tweaked to be dead on then shot at 100 yards will be far from being good for windage, usually elevation is not that close either. It could easily be off as much as 4". With that being said you could potentialy be off 4" right off wih the assumption that you are good at 25 yards. I would say that if you are only going to shoot a 100 yards then you would be good to sight in at 25 but if you are planing on streching the barrle then you should be at least shighting at 100 and 200 wouldn't be to much to ask just to see what the bullets are doing.

You should at least check it at longer ranges to make sure your sight in is good enough... You could be off as much as foot at those longe ranges with out having to take into account for wind drift, field shooting etc.

What I'm saying is that a small change at close range will result in magnifing it at long range.

Lets assume that the elk chest is 30" at 1" high at 25 you are 30" low at 550 yards. Assuming that you are getting 2800fps from the muzzle and some other assumptions... Now lets just say you can shoot MOA that would put you about 5.5 inches off plus or minus at so the elk could have possibly been as close as 525 and as far as 575... Assuming that you are as good of a shot as you say.

With the assumption that your bullets are traveling at 2800fps you should be about dead on at 400 yards and about 7" low at 450??? So you either are under guessing the range or your sight in at 25 yards is about 6MOA... 6" at a hundred, but would be about an inch and a half at 25...

Lets just say you're shooting a quarter inch group at 25 yards... You could easily be shooting 1" at a hundred or more.... Now lets assume you are shooting a half inch group at 25 that would put you at 2 inches at 100 and at 400 off the bench with a vise... 8" Now if your're shooting a half in group at 100 that would put you in the 2" range at 400... What would you rather have???

Congrats on the shot and the elk...

Ivan
 
If you felt comfortable with the shot then WHY WAS THE FIRST SHOT way low?? You said you wouldn't take the shot if you weren't sure. You weren't sure were you? Lucky second shot. No congrats deserved you nimrod!
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-03 AT 01:17PM (MST)[p]and by the way i tried to get as close to them as i could but unfornatulaly 1 of the cows picked me out trying to sneak around, they have damn good eyes and 1 hell of a sniffer! and i have never claimed to be the best shot in the world but i am not the worst either! and i was comfortable with shooting that long of a shot does that mean you never miss? if you say that i call bullshit on that one cause there is not 1 person here or anywhere that can say they have hit every animal on the 1st shot...... and grandpanasty you oviouslly need to put youre glass on and fully read the post this was not nothing personal or anything to piss and moan about youre the nimrod! now go relax cause there are some people who can shot around here and if it aint at the 25 yards that you like then to hell with you! just joking around so dont get youre panties in a wad!!!!!!
 
4x6
There have been many instances where I've had to let animals go because I thought they were out of range of my comfort zone, thats sounds like maybe something you should have done. Yes, I have missed shots but not because the distance was to far, many times there are other factors. We all miss sometimes, your story made it sound like you took a pot shot. Glad you got your elk though, it'll give you a lot of good eating. OK I need to go. I mean I really need to go, the Metamucil is kicking in.
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-03 AT 01:57PM (MST)[p]well you better not miss the pot!!! all i was teying to do was see how many people could guess how far she was by the bullet droping that far! as with me i to have let animals go cause they were to far and i knew that i could not get close to them but look at it this way i have never nor do i ever intend to leave a animal wounded. and like i said it was not out of my comfort zone taking that shot. so i fiqured between 400-450 yards was were she was at. far yes but not untouchable. now that the metamucil is out of youre system have youre self a good holiday and new years to. Larry aka.4x6!!!!!!!!!!! oh ya thanks for the compliment about the nimrod. look it up and tell everybody what it means.....
 
4X6,
Sounds to me like you got lucky by hitting that elk. Re-read the post by myself and Bambistew, if you are 1" high at 25 yards you should be dead on at about 400 yards. You hit over 2 feet lower than where you aimed on the first shot! If you are going to be shooting long ranges either get a rangefinder or learn how to judge distance. You say you estimate the range was about 400 yards, but every calculation shows it was over 500 yards! You may have got your elk, but the shot was both lucky and unethical.

Rut
 
well i admit i am off on judging distances. but was the shot to far for you? unethical i dont think so this aint my first time hunting nore shooting so you dont have any right to say that i am an unethical hunter. not everybody can be as perfect as you though right? you never miss, you can judge distances right tp the last inch, you never do anything wrong,you never,never,never, never, do do you? so relax and for hell sakes chill out!!! no punt intended!! and you to have a good holiday season...................
 
4X6,
I don't care how long you have been hunting, when your range estimation is off by 100 yards and you figure I'll just put it on her back and lob one over there, it is unethical! I'm not perfect, but if I am going to try a shot over 500 yards I would want a rangefinder and a basic understanding of a balistics chart. I stand by original statement - you got lucky!

Rut
 
referring to an earlier post, I think if you are shooting a .25 or .5" group at 25 yards you should sell your rifle and take up something else. You should be putting all of your shots thru the same hole once it is dialed in. That's how I do it, and I know that my rifle, shooting .5" high at 25 yards with 150 gr. bullets is dead on at 360 yards. of course, i test it at 350-360yards on a deer-heart sized pumpkin and smack it every time... i routinely have to shoot between 300-500 yards here in MT. but I know my shooting ability and rifle are both up to it. Beyond that (up to max. 600 yards) I need to have NO wind, rain or blowing snow, a dead rest with a flat, comfortable spot to lay and a wallhanger-type broadside standing still critter with enough time on my hands to seriously consider the distance and point of aim. otherwise i can't ethically take that shot and the deal is off. I think the first shot, being so low, was definitely a misjudged distance, but it was compensated for on the second shot, something i think everybody here has had to do. an elk offers a pretty big target (from neck to middle-ribs) and i don't think that a shot up to 500 yards with the right conditions and rifle is unreasonable.

there is a program on the Remington website called Remington "Shoot" (free download)...it's fun to play with and see what's going to happen in different conditions. i wouldn't consider it even close to being fool-proof, but it's a good starting point for anybody shooting Remington shells. i don't know how Hornady or any other bullets perform, so my opinion here may be mute.moot. whatever.

just my .02.

...and i shot my elk this year at about 60 yards, standing broadside, but i had to shoot thru 2 little trees to get him. does anybody know how to consider the "tree" factor when sighting in? hahahaha
 
4X6

THAT'S TOO FAR TO DRAG A COW,NOW A BUCK OR BULL,THATS A DIFFERENT STORY!!!

ONE OF THESE DAY'S YOUR GONNA TAKE A SHOT LIKE THIS AND THE ANIMAL IS GONNA LIMP OFF,DIE AND ROTT!!!

GLAD TO HEAR YOU RECOVERED THE ANIMAL!!!

IF YOUR INTO THIS LONG RANGE COW KILLIN,GET YOURSELF A 300 ULTRA MAG,LEUPOLD SCOPE WITH YARDAGE DOTS AND A GOOD RANGEFINDER,TAKE A HOLE LOT OF GUESS WORK AND CHANCES OUT OF YOUR HUNTING TACTICS!!!

BUT DON'T BUY ONE AND THEN START TRYING 1300 YARD SHOTS,EVERY GUN PETERS OUT EVENTUALLY!!!

REMEMBER,THERE COMES A TIME EVEN IF YOU CAN HIT HIM,YOU CAN'T 'KILL' HIM!!!

OR,THINK BEFORE YOU SHOOT!!!

THE ONLY bobcat THINKING:A .50 CALIBER HEAT SEEKING, SCOPE WITH BUILT IN RANGEFINDER WOULDN'T BE BAD!!!
 
Since you haven't shot your rifle at longer ranges there is no reliable way to tell how far that cow was because you can't be sure what your rifle is actually sighted in for. A 25 yard target is good for finding paper at 100 yards. Nothing more.
 
I didn't see anywhere that says 4X6 sighted in at 25 yards, it just says he's hitting 1" high at 25 yards. I know that when I sight in at 100 yards, I set it 1.5" high which is dead on at about 200 yard for my rifle and about 8" low at 300 yards. If he's sighted in at say 2" high at 100 yards that should put him dead on at about 200 yards. The drop out to 300 yards is anywhere from 7-8" and at 400 yards it at about 24". Based on his description of the bullet drop, that shot was probably anywhere from 450 to 500 yards. Without a rangefinder and exact known trajectory of your rifle, that's way to far for a shot. It looks like you were within 50 yards or so on your estimation, so you probably didn't know the trajectory of the rifle very well. If you go to Federals website, they have a ballistics table you can download, I think is has the trajectory all the way out to 500 yards.
 
like many hunters has said before i would rather be lucky than good anytime! from what i have read and learned the bullet i shot and the way it is sited in the bullet would drop about 6 inches at 400 yards so i guessed her about 400 -450 yards. the only thing was i only had to drag her about 150 yards to my truck but she was out in the open so i had to back track that far to find some cover to make the stalk without being seen. i thought i could get closer than what i did but them animals caught me! and the spot they were from where i seen them there was no way i could have hit her. there was to many factors in the spot where they were, therfore i thought i would try and get closer but that is hunting not everything goes the way you try and make it happpen. ya i dont shot my gun everyday every month but i dont think i am that bad of a shot! nor am i unethical she is still hanging and that is what counts...........
 
Well, just a quick note. There is a great Java ballistics program at http://www.norma.cc/htm_files/javapagee.htm where you can plug in your bullet weight, velocity, etc and find the exact bullet path. What I find a little disturbing is that you are sighting in 1" high at 25 yards. If that is true, at 100 yards you will be 8" high, and at 200 yards you will be 12" high. That is a little much for my tastes. Maybe you were just guessing? Anyway, I actually had the same experience you mentioned with a cow elk earlier this year. I grossly underestimated the distance of the elk and shot under her belly the first time with my 300 WSM. I was holding right on her vitals. I held a little higher the next time, and the bullet did it's job. I found out that the shot I thought was about 250 was actually closer to 400, and it was a very steep uphill shot as well. Congratulations on some tasty table fare at any rate.
 
dryflyelk, i dont know where you got that information from about the bullet being 8inches high at 100yards and 8inches highat 200 yards but i'm not shooting an elephant rifle just a remington 30-06 with hornady 165 grain shells at 100 yards i should be about 1-2 inches high. but i am going to find my graph that shows the bullet rising and dropping at different yards, but anyway the cow is down did not go more than 30 feet from where i shot her and she ought to tast pretty yummy!!!!! and like you some times EVERYBODY miss judges yards but what the hell aint NOBODY perfect!!! i am one of those people also but if you get another shot most times you can correct the mistake from the first shot and connect like we both did this year! HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-03-03 AT 12:07PM (MST)[p]4X6,
You should quit while you are behind! Dryflyelk is exactly right about your gun being 7 inches high at 100 yards and 12 inches high at 200 yards. The fact that you don't know this proves my point even more about the fact that you got lucky when you hit that elk. Maybe you should go find that graph that shows your bullet being 1 inch high at 25 yards and only 2 inches high at 100 yards. What are you shooting a laser? When the bullet leaves your gun it makes a parabolic (look it up) arch on its path to the target, pick up a physics book. Do us all a favor and either shoot your gun more than the one time each night before the opener to make sure it is on, or take a look at a balistics graph!

Rut
 
please explain to me how it will be doing you a favor to shot more than the night before to make sure that my gun is on? do you hunt with me? NO thank god! you know this started out just guess how many yards she was out there and just like EVERY post out there there is some ass who has to turn it into a pissing contest because someone shot an animal more than 20 yards away. oh my god someone shot more than 100 yards, oh my god this and oh my god that why dont you just realise that most of the animals are shot on long distance shots...and that not everybody looses animals i have never lost a animal and this is not the first time i have hunted nor is it the first time i have taken a long shot so i think i kight JUST MIGHT know what the hell i'm doing. ever wonder why people leave this site or dont post a hole lot here? mabye it has something to do with the fact that some people just cant let it be! TAKE A HINT!
 
4x6, I'm not here to argue I would just like to make a suggestion that I think will help you when sighting in your rifle..Sight your .06 in at 2" to 3" high at 100 yards preferably 3" at 100....Even with an .06 you will take allot of the guess work out of shooting 400 yards...Remember, ALWAYS hold on meat...a.k.a. "shoulder". Congrats on your elk....
 
thanks for the advice at least there are a few people around here that dont like to ##### and moan about everything i plan on taking it out agoin and checking it it took kinda hard fall out elk hunting this year so just want to make sure again before i put it away, and yes i did check it before deer hunting and it was still on but better check again just to be sure. i prefer to sjot right behind the shoulder so i dont loose alot of meat but my dad has always been a neck shooter but i dont fell comfortable shooting them in the neck that far yet. have shot some in the neck at close range before 100 yards or closer but not often do i take that chance. you have a good holiday season and may all be well..........
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-03-03 AT 02:41PM (MST)[p]4X6,
I was suggesting that by practicing more you would put all hunters in a better light, rather than that of guys who just shoot until they hit the animal no matter how far away it is (maybe not how you hunt, but definately how it sounds). I would again make the suggestion that you find a balistics program, run the numbers and figure out the flight path of your bullet (you don't have a clue right now) and if possible get a rangefinder. Remington's RemShoot program is a really good balistics program and is easy to use.

Rut
 

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