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This past Saturday was the last day of rifle season here in Pa,so I headed to the mountains Friday with my 1960 336 SC 32 spl. That I bought this past summer.
Got into my spot at about 6am.started snowing heavy about 8am.
I was soaking wet by noon,headed back down the mountain to change and headed back up, was back in my spot by 1:30
at 2pm. I look to my right and there stands a nice size doe in a small clearing in the woods but she was far out there,pulled out my range finder and it said 131 yards.
Soooooo I'm thinking....how much will my bullet drop at a 131 yards with a 32 spl.so I'm thinking if I aim right at the top of her back even if the bullet drop is 6 inches I'll be right in the ball park for a good hit,now mind you..... all this "thinking" I'm doing is within a 5 second time span.
I am in no way a bullet drop ballistics expert
I hunt on my cousins land and this past summer he had it logged out and in the past years I always sighted my gun in at 50 yards because it was fairly thick woods and to get a shot over 75 yards would have been about it.
I hadn't been there since last year and I had no idea that the woods where going to have such opens spots in them where you can see over 100 yards now.
So I line up the cross hairs right across her back and pull the trigger,CRACK! she goes down like a ton of bricks fell on her,I'm like holy $#!*
I sooooo under estimated the capabilities my old 336 32 spl. the bullet hit her right in the spine,you can see in the picture where it hit,the spot on her shoulder is a drag mark not a bullet hole.
What has me a little puzzled is....I had my gun sighted to shoot dead center at 50 yards and the bullet hit her right where I was aiming at 131 yards
I was shooting plan old Remington 170 grs.
APPARENTLY THEY ARE "THE DEADLIEST MUSHROOM IN THE WOODS"
Scope: Leupold straight 4 power.
The bullet did go through.
Even though I also normally hunt in short-range jungles, I always use a 100yd zero.
With a zero of 3" high @ 100yds, a .32Spec has a PBR of 210yds.
FYI, a "Point Blank Range" (PBR) is a distance that, if a shot is taken at a target anywhere between the muzzle and the PBR, the boolit will deviate no more then plus/minus 4" from the line-of-sight - allowing a direct center hold for anything within the PBR to achieve a good hit.
Pete, that table is for MPBR and mine is set at a 130 yard zero. He said it hit at POA.
If I set the app for 3" high at 100, with the Rem CoreLokt 170 factory data, it's up 1.76" @50 and down 1.90" @200 and 10.16" @255.
As an aside, the website Chuck used disappeared in March. It was a good site and I used to use it. I bought the ballistics app for my phone last year and love it. Online, I like http://www.jbmballistics.com/ballistics ... tors.shtml
Lee Shooter program comes out just under 5" low at 130 with a 50 yard zero. But, it doesn't ever take in account factors such as type of rest, etc., which have an effect on just how the rifle acts during the shot... it can vary a lot. From a bench it's probably pretty close, but in the field, where one usually is shooting off-hand or off a "soft" rest, that can vary the POI with the same POA by quite a bit.
Griff,
SASS/CMSA #93
NRA Patron
GUSA #93
There is a fine line between hobby & obsession! AND... I'm over it!!
No I ain't ready, but let's do it anyway!
Griff, This is why we need to go shoot our guns at all distances. These calculators are all estimates. Mine shows, with a 50 yard zero, down 1.89" @ 130.
Now I instantly regret selling my .32 --- that sounds like a bit of a thumper --- (curiously, around here, pre 64 .32 specials are easier to find than 30-30's though in the Winchesters, never saw a MArlin version
For many years I sighted 3" high at 100. Because of peep sights that meant groups that were all between poa and 3" above not counting obvious flier. Usually meant a 3 shot group of about 2-2 1/2" inches with the high ones at around 3". With a peep I was never comfortable with using the group center as my POI. I think that is why I tended to shoot high in my early days.
I rarely dropped the hammer past 150 yards on big game, 175 the longest with scoped 444 and a moose, but would shoot wolves and coyotes at longer, 275 longest with a scoped 243 BLR (dandy coyote rifle that one but not so fond of it for deer). Under those circumstances it was never the gun or cartridges fault if I missed from 243 to 444. I can honestly say I never made blood without making meat.
Today I sight in so I'm on at 75 or 100 paces and limit shots to sighted range. For my skills that is POA=POI. It is fun to sight on a tin can and drill it dead center. My 22s are 50 paces and pellet guns 25 paces if they got any steam. The only thing I know about sniping comes from the real ones on here. I would brag about hitting half a sheet of plywood at 500 yards!!!!
You came very close to making a common error that could have cost you a deer.. Lucky indeed that you didn't over-shoot, judging from all the mental calculations you were making..
Bottom line is: shoot, and shoot as much as you can, at all probable distances.. Once your actual Zero is established, you should be able to aim at a particular spot on a deer-size target, and hit within a couple inches of your POA, within reasonable range.. and 130 yards hardly qualifies as "way out there..."
Zeroed @ 50 yds., your bullet is still climbing, relative to line of sight, and has begun to drop a bit by your 130 yd shot, striking Very close to your POA..
Forget about all the mental gymnastics, when it's time to actually pull the trigger.. I watched way too many decent shooters go thru the same mind-game when I was guiding hunters here in Wyoming.. It is a peculiar manifestation of Buck Fever, and it isn't pretty to watch.. The self-recriminations that so often follow missed shots would be funny, if they didn't have such serious implications..
Don't spend so much time learning the specifics of ballistics tables.. Learn instead to hunt within your own mental and physical limitations, and build confidence in yourself and your equipment.. Time and experience will be your best teachers.. Invest wisely.!
Regards
Buck
Life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens, and the unforeseeable, that which your life becomes...
[quote="Buck Elliott"]130 yards hardly qualifies as "way out there..."
Buck,thanks for your info! I will keep it all in mind.
I can see why you would think 130 yards isn't "way out there" you being in Wyoming,"way out there" for you guys is probably more like 900 yards.... but here in the Pennsylvania Mountains in the thick woods 130 yards is... "Way out there"
Tycer wrote:
This is why we need to go shoot our guns at all distances. These calculators are all estimates.
Exactly !
Nath wrote:
One of my shortcomings was zeroing to high and then shooting over the top of stuff
'S funny - I find that (for me), when I shoot very fast at game that's breaking away, I tend to shoot too high, regardless of a "perfect" zero.
It's most likely that, in my haste, I disregard the finer front sight bead, and mistake the thicker sight base/ramp for the bead - Ergo, I have one "close encounters" rifle that I deliberately zero a bit low to compensate for my idiosyncracy.
Good discussion...Buck's advice is dead on...I switched many years ago from a front bead type front sight to a post (see attached photo of Skinner Sights front sight)... :)
Rossi_RG_Front.jpg
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