Deermanagement
Well-Known Member
With the UK being in the doldrums I thought it would be good to just check long range zero on the 6.5 yesterday, so made it to my usual zeroing land with maybe 45 mins of light left. Was going to shoot off the bonnet and into a bank some 250 yds distance but the field was covered in sheep so had to relocate to another position which meant a bit of a walk, sand bags in a rucksack, rifle, a large piece of cardboard and a couple of pieces of batten for target support. Got to where I was heading and manahed to reposition a fallen hawthorn into a reasonable bench rest. So off to put the target up........ forgot the marker in the van and too little time to return before the light faded too much, so I resorted to using some sheep droppings to mark 2 aiming points, one for my usual 130g accubond and the other for a yew tree 102.4g bullet.
A trek across one field and another through a field of turnips, I placed the target infront of a natural backstop at 310 yds. After the walk back and getting comfortable, with virtually no wind, I chambered an accubond and dialled up for 300yds. The temporary bench felt good an the shot felt good. Next I chambered a yew tree bullet and dialled back down 3 clicks as I knew these went 1" higher than the accubonds at 100 yds, so I knew it would not be far away and I could give the impact point some thought later on. This shot also felt good so I packed up and went to collect the target.
On getting there I thought perfect, the accubond had struck 15mm to the right of the first piece of shite and the second had struck directly 50mm above the second piece of shite
I'm lucky enough to have in my possession 2 ridiculously accurate rifles, both Sako 85's, in 6.5 Cr and .270. I do not shoot them on paper very much at all so hopefully they will last me a lifetime with the moderate loads I put through them. Just looked at the data for the yew tree and my 300 yd marker on the Swaro BT for the accubonds, meant that I was in fact 1.7 clicks higher than what I should have set, which equates to 48mm at 310 yds. The super X bullet struck 50mm high, so job done. Two loads zero checked spot on with 2 bullets
A good rest and no wind, poor deer do not stand a chance, but I guess there is one thing today's stalkers still need to do, and that is put the bullet, the right type of bullet in the right place under all circumstances. Thermals mean that even the most useless stalker will get opportunities, whilst quad sticks even give those who cannot shoot straight a chance, but conditions are seldom perfect in the field so I suppose there is still some skill involved
Anyway, first time I've engaged sheep shite at any range, let alone long distance
A trek across one field and another through a field of turnips, I placed the target infront of a natural backstop at 310 yds. After the walk back and getting comfortable, with virtually no wind, I chambered an accubond and dialled up for 300yds. The temporary bench felt good an the shot felt good. Next I chambered a yew tree bullet and dialled back down 3 clicks as I knew these went 1" higher than the accubonds at 100 yds, so I knew it would not be far away and I could give the impact point some thought later on. This shot also felt good so I packed up and went to collect the target.
On getting there I thought perfect, the accubond had struck 15mm to the right of the first piece of shite and the second had struck directly 50mm above the second piece of shite
I'm lucky enough to have in my possession 2 ridiculously accurate rifles, both Sako 85's, in 6.5 Cr and .270. I do not shoot them on paper very much at all so hopefully they will last me a lifetime with the moderate loads I put through them. Just looked at the data for the yew tree and my 300 yd marker on the Swaro BT for the accubonds, meant that I was in fact 1.7 clicks higher than what I should have set, which equates to 48mm at 310 yds. The super X bullet struck 50mm high, so job done. Two loads zero checked spot on with 2 bullets
A good rest and no wind, poor deer do not stand a chance, but I guess there is one thing today's stalkers still need to do, and that is put the bullet, the right type of bullet in the right place under all circumstances. Thermals mean that even the most useless stalker will get opportunities, whilst quad sticks even give those who cannot shoot straight a chance, but conditions are seldom perfect in the field so I suppose there is still some skill involved
Anyway, first time I've engaged sheep shite at any range, let alone long distance
Too soon?
Or is “that’s all a greedmore manbun is good for shooting poo” more to your liking 
