Jawbone and I were out yesterday shooting at ranges of 715 and 925 yards. We were elevated above the targets 75 feet. We had a full size IPSC silhouette at 715 and a 12" diameter plate at 925. Rifles were an AR shooting SMK 77's, and a bolt gun in .260 shooting 123g SMKs. The wind was almost dead calm when we got there, and Jawbone shot a 6 round group of about 6" at 715. He hogged the rifle until the wind came up and then let me have a crack at it. Once the wind came up, we were holding anywhere from 4" to 24" of wind. We also saw some big variations in elevation, like a foot or more. We eventually figured it must have been a combination of some updraft from the wind blowing up our hill in our faces, and thermals popping off. You could hold the same elevation for three consecutive shots spread out over a couple of minutes and get variations of 12" to 18". I'd never experienced it before, and it was quite an eye opener.

Hits on the silhouette were stupidly easy even with the scope dialed back to 6X. Once we got the wind figured, we hit as fast as you could pull the trigger.

The target at 925 proved to be harder than we thought. The wind was strong and shifty by the time we got around to it. We had flags on the 715 target and at the shooting position. One shot would show wind left to right and the bullet would move as predicted. The next shot would show the same wind, but the bullet would move the other way. It was pretty crazy, but we had fun trying to connect. Through pure luck, we did get a hit and knocked the target down, so that was the end of that.

The shooting position


Jawbone banging away


The targets


Zoomed in view of the targets. You can just make out my Toyota Tundra where Jawbone is setting steel


Jawbone's group at 715