Long Range Rifle/Scope/PRS question(s)

Signed up for July 20th as well. So did my nephew Sam. I am looking forward to shooting with him. Right now we are planning on both of us shooting the Seekins.
I hope you all have a great time

How’s the gun shooting now? Any reloads worked up yet?
 
Downloaded Strelok Pro on my phone. For a tech challenged never paid for something on my phone kind of fellow it wasn't too bad. :D

Playing around with it a little. :)
 
Right hand twist?

Strelok Pro questions.

Start distance, end distance, step distance?

Under Zero offset (I chose MRAD here) ........Vertical up, vertical down?
 
1:8” right hand

No vertical offset - vert off is for the instance where you create two or more cartridges for a given rifle and don’t rezero between changes, for example two bullets, loads, or conditions (suppressed vs. not). So if I used the offset for suppressed vs. not, with my can on, my 100yrd data would say .2U .5L instead of 0U 0L/R.

Start, step, and end are controls for the table output - pretty self explanatory, start is the start of the table, end is the end, and step is the interval for the outputs between. So start 100, end 1000, step 50 would give you data output in the table for 100, 150, 200, 250..., 900, 950, 1000.
 
My table didn’t work for about a year, the app would just crash when I tried to use it. So I had to think a bit about those inputs. Definitely not something I use very often.
 
i pretty much only use tables. shooter though, not strelok. it lets me email the table to myself, and then i import it into excel, format it as desired and print and laminate it. voila

also, when running from the app itself, i don't want to change the inputs when dealing with multiple target distances, so just calc the table based on current DA, then scroll up and down to the distances
 
^this. I use the table function to make a couple range cards to print (varying DA), then the rest of my life is “target list.” Technically a table, but a different function than the “table” feature of StrelokPro.
 
“Shooter” was the bomb before ABMobile and StrelokPro. I had the JBM spreadsheet on a Palm Pilot for a couple of years before Shooter was a thing too. Before that, we had to live on generic data tables and DOPE alone, like cavemen...

I haven’t let myself convert entirely over to the Kestrel for my ballistic calculator, really only because I want to force myself to pick up my phone and write down stage notes after every stage. So I finish a stage, make my rifle safe, pick up my phone, type in my stage notes, verify/modify my wrist coach info, then move onto spotting for the other guys, or moving my gear to the next stage.

I’ll typically have time to have my Kestrel out to check the wind sporadically while other guys are shooting, and will often recheck my solutions then, just because it’s in my hand and quick, but if I don’t have time, I don’t have time, and have already verified/modified the data with my phone app.
 
Tried to download Applied Ballistics phone app and screwed the pooch. I had trouble with it and I think I got an add on for it and not the main app, haven't heard from Applied Ballistics yet. *Sigh*

So which Kestrel is the best value? Or should I just save up and get the best one? Or do I need one?
 
Get the Sportsman or the Elite if you want to do your ballistics on the unit. Elite if you want to store multiple rifle profiles in the same unit. You can buy the Sportsman first and upgrade later with a simple software download.

Shoot me a PM, I have a discount code you can use to save a little. They don’t do sales or discounts in many circles.
 
Turns out there is a gun club just outside Rockford Al., and they have a 1K range. It's about a 50 minute drive for me. Even better yet, one of the nurse managers at work shoots there, and has shot a 6MM Creedmoor in PRS for a couple of years. If it isn't raining Sunday the game plan is to get together and go shoot. Either way, I have an open invitation, he says he shoots every weekend.

I have known him for a couple of years and never knew. Never talked guns, only shop.
 
Which brings up another question, are there any scopes being discussed that do not have enough elevation on the reticle to hold for 1200 yards?

Get yourself real familiar with MOA. I got myself into a situation where I had 655 yard shot at a really nice buck. Figured the scope dope to be 55 clicks. Zeroed at 100 yds. My Nikon Monarch didn't have enough adjustment to get me the 55 clicks. There's an outfit out there someplace that sells rings that are set at an angle of elevation to give you several MOA's more than the standard "level" rings. I had to re-zero at 100 by clicking down 22 clicks, the scope is calibrated at 1/4 inch per click. Now I will have enough adjustment to reach out to 800 or more with no difficulty. Its a .270 by the way and I regularly hit 6" steel discs at 650yds with the new setup. I'm not passing up a shot on a trophy like that again.
 
Get yourself real familiar with MOA. I got myself into a situation where I had 655 yard shot at a really nice buck. Figured the scope dope to be 55 clicks. Zeroed at 100 yds. My Nikon Monarch didn't have enough adjustment to get me the 55 clicks. There's an outfit out there someplace that sells rings that are set at an angle of elevation to give you several MOA's more than the standard "level" rings. I had to re-zero at 100 by clicking down 22 clicks, the scope is calibrated at 1/4 inch per click. Now I will have enough adjustment to reach out to 800 or more with no difficulty. Its a .270 by the way and I regularly hit 6" steel discs at 650yds with the new setup. I'm not passing up a shot on a trophy like that again.
Now this is very interesting to me. In competition I'm constantly running the rear sight up and down. In high power competition I have a cheater card with elevations for each position at 200, 300 and 600 yards on sunny and cloudy days.
However for hunting I use a scope. The one scope I have that I'll use out to 600 yards has gradations where I hold over - I'm too scared to touch the dials for fear I'd mis-count or that the scope would not track perfectly without a windage adjustment to go with an elevation change.

What I do is find zero at 100-600 yards in 100 yard increments and match it up to the scale in my scope. The last time I did this prior to a November Elk hunt it took me all summer LOL!
 
Get yourself real familiar with MOA.

Really, really, really don’t do MOA for Precision Rifle Competition.

The info on angled bases and adjustable rings (Burris Signature Zee and XTR Zee) is out there, and as common as table salt in competition circles. Most of the rifles used in PR competition have integral 20 or 30 MOA rails, and Walkalong’s Seekins came with a 20moa from factory. Nobody is counting clicks at these matches, we’re reading dials. Zero the turret, dial up the correction for the desired range. Ding!

The base offset and the sizes of groups we shoot at home are the only things we measure in MOA. Everything else is in milliradians. I’d be interested to hear ANYONE at the Finale this year used a MOA based optic. Talking MOA is kind of like visiting Mexico and only KINDA speaking Spanish. They KINDA speak enough English and you’d KINDA speak enough Spanish to communicate - kinda... Time and quality is lost in translation.
 
Really, really, really don’t do MOA for Precision Rifle Competition.

My gun smith, who’s primarily customer base are PRS competitors, told me the same thing when I was trying to decide between MIL and MOA on the first gun he built for me.

He said that during a PRS match people are using MILs, and as a result, talking in MILs. If you had an MOA scope the info from fellow competitors would require you to do a lot conversions during a match.

On the other hand, F Class is all MOA and I have the opposite problem when shooting my MIL scope
 
Technically, at PRS matches, we shouldn’t care which system - we’re not supposed to be sharing data. Reality is a different thing than the rulebook, and most club/regional series matches are supposed to be considered training grounds for the big two day events, so sharing is much more common and expected. At least AFTER the shooter runs - not necessarily calling corrections during his stage.

But yes, we do speak in Mils, and when we have a shooter with a MOA scope, it really helps to have someone fluently bilingual in the squad if they want any aide, otherwise you’re on the clock doing a lot of “ok, so the spotter called a correction of X, and divided by about 3.6 is....?”
 
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It went around pretty heavy last year on FB that folks should not be sharing gear or wind calls - MD’s got all fired up that shooter’s were calling foul (by the book), even at one day events. A few top shooters could request to squad together, then have folks in other squads be at a significant disadvantage when 5 pairs of eyes could be pulling wind calls around the field and collaborating. Equally, in a “use what you carry” world, I think some squads were planning their gear so each guy was only carrying one or two things, but the whole squad would have a huge set of options to choose from. Great for new guys, yes, but all of the above can tip the scales for a single top shooter going against a whole squad - carrying a whole caravan of your own gear vs. 20% of the weight, and only seeing a small fraction of the wind calls... Sure, there was some whining, a lot really, on both sides...

Newbies (myself included) are a different story. I try to keep my barometer fair, especially in the one day matches. Even if I’m RO’ing on a stage, if I know a guy is a new shooter, and he walks up to a rooftop without a pump pillow, I’ll ask - do you have all of your gear? Do you want a rear pillow? Or if a new shooter is sending rounds off the same edge, I’ll ask on the 2nd shot - did you see those? And if they say no, I’d give a correction, even on the clock. Nobody has fun if they come out and blank a bunch of stages - especially if they’re making a 3/4moa hole in the dirt just off of the edge of the plate.
 
There was a lot of teaching/coaching at Benchrest matches, even during registered matches, folks always willing to help. If new shooters do not have fun, and sucking at something is not fun, they don't come back.
 
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