range of rifles

[mickjgardner]

has anyone actually worked out the maximum dangerous range of full bore rifles(well and rimfires) i know if fired from the shoulder standing at the average target species it is probably going to hit the ground after several hundred yards but if fired at the critical angle it would be thousands of yards.just out of interest really as i never fire without a safe backstop anyway

 

[finnbear270]

Somewheres in the region of 5000 metres seems to be the accepted idea.

 

[finnbear270]

Just measured the range template on a local m.o.d. range using an O.S. map, it comprises a linear length after the stop butts of one statute mile, bearing in mind this is meant to allow for shooters remaining inside the 70mil rule when in the aim, anything over & above that on discharge could result in some very nasty results in the next village!

 

[caorach]

There is a rather funny section in a book by Col. Lord Cottesloe (spelling might be a bit out) I think the book was called something like The Englishman and his Rifle or similar.

Anyhow, I think his father was involved in the development of the Lee Enfield 303 and he decided to determine the maximum range of the rifle. Being rather well off and, from what I can gather, a little eccentric he did this by standing all his staff at regular intervals alongside a Scottish loch on a calm morning and shooting up the loch. The staff were instructed to watch out for the bullet falling into the loch! I can't remember what the range was found to be but I don't think the information could be that reliable if you consider that these poor folk were standing by a loch at dawn in flat calm with the midges eating them. I would imagine they came to some arrangement among themselves that at the first shot someone standing at a likely range indicated that they had seen the bullet splash into the loch and then they all went home.

He also carried out similar experiments relating to firing directly up into the air from a boat in the middle of a loch. I think he wanted to see how long it was before the bullet fell back to earth and he documented that his boatman insisted on sitting with a book on his head lest the bullet should land on him.

 

[User00004]

The L96 .308 was the old Sniper Rifle, it was fitted with a PM 2 scope, not the double turn turret one, that restricted the shooter (Sniper) to 1200m for accurate shooting. Depending on what your popping out the end and the scope fitted, so long as the software is available, I'm sure accurate shooting could be done out to 3000m plus. The new sniper rifle, the Lapua .338 sniper rifle now fitted with a PM2 5-25x56 can be used accuratley (With the right person pulling the trigger) out past 2000m. That's using his tables chart, not some all singing all dancing software.

 

[finnbear270]

.22 Long Rifle rimfire, boxes used to be marked......."Dangerous up to one mile" sometime I seem to remember.

 

[Brithunter]

Finnbear,

On a box of Blazer 22 long Rifle it says Range 1.5 Miles- 2.5 Kilometers.

To answer your question really one needs to know a raft of information like temp, wind speed and direction, MV, altitude, BC of bullet and angle of departure. With all that it's possible to work it out. No I cannot work it out as I cannot remember how too . However I recall Whelan writing that the 30-08 M2 cartridge had a maximum effective range of 5700 yards which caused problems with a lot of ranges. They later returns to the 150 grain bullet as the recoil of the heavier bullet proved a problem in markmanship training.

In development the .303 ammo penetrated a 1" thick deal board at 2400 yards.

 

[Muir]

I'm curious as to what makes one curious about such a thing.~Muir