DOD - I'm finding that my idea of what truely long range is has changed over the years. At one time 100yards was out there a long ways. Then I came out west and saw the Silhouette ranges and the 200 meter chickens seemed to be out there and I remember very well the first time I actually saw a 223 hit and knock over a Javilina Silhouette target at 300 meters, I was sooooo amazed I almost fell down. Then I read the Carlos Hathcock book and got to wondering about long range work. This lead to Prairie Dogs in northern Arizona, which lead to Prairie Dog matches. With a caliber restriction to 22 or 6mm, man those 200, 300 and 400 (Not to mention those 230, 350 and 400+ meter dogs) meter dogs were a long ways out there in those days. This lead to shooting 200, 300, 389 and 500 meter balloons, a match very similar to that done at the Varmint Hunters Gamberee. The balloon match is open to any caliber but I still like watchin' the big boys sweat by whackin' em' with my 223AI.
The other day we had a 1,000 yard shooter show up with his 300 ultra mag. 1,000 yard rig, a beautiful thing I might add. He thought that he'd show us a thing or two about what long range was all about. Oooops big mistake, on a windy day Ol' Ed Brooks (a 6mm wildcat on a pre-64 Winchester action Ed's the man to beat in this game), Andy Wiliams (old 22-250, rem40x) and I (223AI, 700 rem) left 3,2 and 1 balloons respectively (thats out of 40, 4.5" balloons with a large percentage past 300 meters). The new shooter left almost all the balloons untouched. He left with a different impression and I hope he will be back to play again.
Man that sounded like bragging, it wasn't meant to, what I was trying to illustrate was that long range changes with life experience. I know that for lots of folks my little 500 meter (550yards) range is nothin', I'm eying that 1,000 yard range though, I wonder how that 223AI will handle that ..................... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
