All Things Guns & Ammo

[tifosi77]

When we bought our first house it was in a neighborhood a few blocks away from Fort MacArthur, which is an exceedingly small US Army installation (that is actually used by the USAF today) adjacent to the port of Los Angeles. Every year in February on the anniversary of the 'battle of Los Angeles' (a true event that inspired the finale of the movie 1941!) they have a public celebration on base, period dress and music galore, good times. They also recreate the incident, which includes air raid klaxons, spotlights searching the sky, and simulated anti-aircraft fire.

We did not know any of this was a thing when we moved into the house a week prior. I thought it was f**king Red Dawn.

[mac5155]

Speaking of that I took my 11 y/o nephew to the range to shoot his new 6.5 Creedmoor today. And a guy there had a Barrett 50 cal. He offered to let my nephew shoot it and he was afraid. I told him he may not ever get the opportunity to do that again.

[Shyster]

Woof. What does a single round of .50 cost these days? Gotta be $5 or more, I'm thinking.

[mac5155]

This guy said $6.

He shot it at least 10 times while I was there.

He obviously had some major money. His arsenal at the range was easily $15k or more and he was not being shy with the ammo

[MR25]

Washington County Machine Guns has an Armalite 50 cal that my buddy shot while we were there. I think it was $10 to shoot.

[mac5155]

My brother in law was with us too, and he's ex military (2x Afghanistan).. The kid was telling him about tracers and stuff. I know it took my BIL all he had to not tell him to F off lol. I commented on how the percussion alone from that was insane and he was like "try driving a damn humvee while an M2 going off over your shoulder

[tifosi77]

Most exotic thing I've ever shot was a DE .44. Pretty tame, but this was like 1989 or something, so it was still kinda unique. And it was Altoona, so it was the gun equivalent of seeing a Ferrari at the Loan Valley Mall.

At the time when I shot an AK I thought it was something, then i realized how filthy the earth is with the things.

[mac5155]

Those of you with kids, how have you introduced them to firearms and teaching them to shoot? And at what age?

(I know most of the regulars in here are kidless but figured I'll get a better response here than the parenting thread )

[dodint]

I learned before kindergarten. With a BB gun, then pellet later, and .22 around 8 years old.

Kind of like alcohol, if it is normalized early it takes the mystique out and they respect them as tools and not toys.

[mac5155]

My boy just turned 3 and I was debating on getting him a Red Ryder or something of the like for Christmas. Then I thought maybe it's too soon. Those things just throw a BB really fast I feel like.

[dodint]

Yeah, I mean, supervise him.

It wasn't until I was 10 or so before I had it on my own.

[dodint]

If I fire a shot with a horizontal distance of 40 yards and it's down a slope that drops 12 yards over that distance, what's the actual distance between me and the target? How do I calculate that? Seems like it should be easy but I'm not seeing it.

[MR25]

A² + B² = C²

Solve for C

Your A is your horizontal distance (40). B is the vertical drop (12). Square both and add, you get 1744.

Square root of 1744 is 41.76 feet.

[dodint]

That makes perfect sense, I wasn't picturing it as a triangle. Thanks.

So, assuming you meant yards the actual distance was 41.7 yards. Or a difference of 1.7 yards or about 5 feet.

Which explains how I missed that second doe I was shooting at. I never even thought to account for the downhill slope and despite having an absolutely perfect sight picture the shot went over her back. The first one that I shot was hit high but I didn't know that until after the fact.

[dodint]

Actually, it doesn't really explain it. I'm conflating two different problems. It's not like I took the shot knowing it was 40 yards when it was actually closer to 42. But the slope did throw me off and that's something I'll consider in the future.

[MR25]

Yes I meant yards. Used the wrong unit, but the number is correct.

[mac5155]

How long of a shot we talking here?

[dodint]

For real?

[mac5155]

I'm just curious, because it would seem you are trying to compensate for a drop that either isn't there, or you don't need to compensate for right? Or were your distances not hypotheticals

[dodint]

I'm trying to understand how my shots were high on those two deer. I caught the first one above the shoulder and below the spine and she dropped in place. I missed the second deer.
While shooting I thought they were about 100 yards away. They were actually exactly 40 yards away. They were 12 yards down a slope.
I did not compensate for distance because I thought they were near my 100yd zero.
I did not compensate for the slope because it never crossed my mind; I think there was an error here.
Both deer were broadside and I had perfect site pictures to their vital organs so I was incredibly surprised to have missed the second deer completely (and to have hit the first deer high).

I haven't had time to do it yet but I want to answer two questions:
Given my 100yd zero and the 7mm Rem Mag 150gr round where was the round relative to my line of sight at 40 yards?
Given the 12yd drop over 40yd what was the true distance to the target when accounting for slope? This number would be less than 40.

Knowing those two pieces of information will answer my question, I just haven't actually calculated either one out yet. I'm not going back in the woods for a few days so I'm not in a huge hurry, nor am I asking for anyone to do it.

MR25s help with the PT was a slightly different query and I was just curious about that, the 1.7yd difference isn't really important beyond idle curiosity.

It's possible the rifle just isn't sighted in any more. I didn't sight it in this year. It's been sitting in my safe the whole time so I'd be surprised if it got knocked out of alignment, but who knows. Might've happened when I cleaned it or in transport.

As an aside, it's almost hilarious how hard I prepped and hunted last year and didn't even see a deer. Then this year I'm out of the woods at 9am with almost no prep.

[MR25]

The actual slope distance would still be over the 40 horizontal, because that's the actual distance traveled. In golf terms, the number I gave you is the actual yardage (so just under 42) but you'd need to only hit a 40 yard shot to travel that distance. Like when you're at the top of a hill hitting into a 150 yard Par 3 but you're really only hitting a 130 yard shot, due to the drop.

[dodint]

Yeah, makes complete sense. The issue you helped me with just answered the practical question of how far away they really were. I'm pretty annoyed that I thought 40 yards was 100 yards in the woods. I mentioned to someone earlier today that I thought all the yardage stuff I've been doing for golf would help, but it didn't help at all. One of the biggest things I've learned this year about hunting is to take some yardages from my position while scouting.
I took GPS coordinates (with my GPS Garmin watch) of my shooting position and the kill spot and plugged them into Google Earth and now I can see everything in 3D with imagery layered over it which is helpful, something I should have done BEFORE going in the woods with a rifle.

[mac5155]

Okay makes more sense to me now. I still wouldn't think there's THAT much of a difference in 40 to 100 yards. But I guess it's possible.

Sounds like a good excuse to buy a rangefinder, BTW

[dodint]

Yeah. In this specific case, I was sitting between two old logging roads that are about 150 yards apart. I really should've known the distance to those, at a minimum.
It's only my second year of hunting and I'm still learning. Just glad I didn't miss both deer.

[tifosi77]

A bullet is still rising above the bore axis at 50 yds, so on a 100 yd zero you'd have to hold low. Point of aim isn't point of impact.

I think. I don't know, I'm just here for the punch and pie.