Flat Trajectory?

[Guy Miner]

How important is a "flat shooting rifle" to your hunting success?

 

[Guest]

I like flat shooting, Guy. I work all of my rifles on the "maximum point blank range" principle, and flat shooters greatly extend the range at which I do not have to think as hard in that moment of truth. Now, to be sure, I own some rainbow trajectory stuff like my 30-30WCF, and mid-rangers (30-06, 8x57) but I like the flat ones the best - like my 270Wby and 300Wby. Anything that gives a >300yd PBRmax is flat, in my book.

 

[FOTIS]

Easy I came up with this formula in my teens.

For 90% of my hunting presuming a capable bullet up to task
a .350 BC bullet at 2700 fps

for the rest a .400 or more BC bullet at 3000 fps.

I need nothing more.

 

[SJB358]

Easy I came up with this formula in my teens.

For 90% of my hunting presuming a capable bullet up to task
a .350 BC bullet at 2700 fps

for the rest a .400 or more BC bullet at 3000 fps.

I need nothing more.

That is about my criteria as well.. They all fall like rocks past 400 yards anyhow... After that it is just clicks or lines to get the elevation correct.

 

[alaska100]

I had always used a 30-06 and 375 or 45/70 and had no problem. I also usually dont shoot further than 300 yards, so again the 06 and 375 worked for me. However I have been using a 257 WBY , 264 Win and 340 WBY and like them as well. I have always done exactly what dubyam does and used "the maximum point blank range" principle with my rifles.

 

[DrMike]

When I'm carrying any of my Model 94s (.356 or .375), I know there will be more of a pumpkin ball trajectory than a flat trajectory. The same is true should I ever carry the old Ross .303 afield. It means that I must hunt rather than shoot. However, when I'm carrying most of my bolt guns, I want to know the trajectory to at least 450 yards. Truthfully, in the field I doubt that I'd take a shot beyond that, opting to get closer.

 

[jmad_81]

Well I used to think it was really important, until I watched my 270 WSM shoot a 140 Horn. SP @ 2900 take a doe @ 400ish yards right through the heart and both shoulders and exit. Now I just think it is nice to have :lol:

I use the Max point blank range for most of my rifles as well. My .243 gets a +/- 2" window for yotes. My 270 WSM, 280 AI both get a +/- 2.5" and gets them to about 300 yards. This allows me to hold to the top of the back out to 450 on a deer. Any farther with either of these two rifles and I have to really think about taking the shot, and conditions have to be perfect. My 338 WM has a B&C retical so it has a 200 yrd zero. Its not the flattest thing out there, but sure seems to work. The 375R gets a +/- 3" max point blank, again getting me out to about 300 yards. I figure 3" on a elk is about a quarter of the vital zone so that works for me. My STW is dialed to zero @ 300 yards. It is flat enough out to there that if I have to shoot under 300 yards it is not a big deal, and past that I have the TMR all worked out, and am working on my dials.

The more I play with the fast guns and the slow guns the more I realize it is more about knowing your equipment than how fast it goes. I was a bit heart broke when I found out that my 338 WM was not pushing the 225 TSX @ 2900, but was bearly going 2800. Nothing ever out ran them at that 2800 though :wink:

 

[Guest]

Dr. Mike, you make a pertinent point. I don't shoot past 450-500yds in hunting situations, and even then not very often. That's as far as I can practice at the range, so that's as far as I'll shoot (under ideal conditions). What I've found is that with my flat shooters like the 270Wby, I know I'm on out to about 320yds, and at 350yds I hold half way from my normal point of aim and the top of his back. At 400 I know POI is about 12" below POA, so I hold at the top of his back. Beyond that I have to use either air holdover (which I don't like) or crank the turret. I know I'm about 4MOA at 450, and 5MOA at 500. Because of my self imposed limits, I won't take shots at moving game at those distances, so I always have time to stop, range, dial, and shoot. Or at least that's the theory. I've not shot game at 450-500yds since instituting this method, but I know when I simulate it with targets, that's how it works - stop, range, dial, shoot, hit. What I practice is what will happen in the field.

I like simplicity, and this method gives me that. A range card taped to the stock with flat finish clear tape makes for easy memory (and works so much better on synthetic stocks...wood and tape are not so good together). I know the 270Wby off the top of my head, as it's my "go to" rifle, but for the other stuff in my safe, I know my PBRmax and for some I know where I can hold top of back. I look at the range card for anything else.

 

[jmad_81]

It just so happens to work out that the fat part of the duplex on my 270 WSM and 280 AI gives me a 400 yards aiming point. So that makes the 400 yard stuff pretty easy.

 

[Songdog]

I'll take all I can get... before I start givin' too much back... if that makes any sense.

 

[JD338]

I do not get many long range opportunities so I do not need a real flat shooting rifle.
A .4 to .5 BC bullet is all I need to get me where I want to be.

JD338

 

[Guy Miner]

Ahhhhh.... I'm thinking your .280 AI and .338 Mega Masher both qualify as pretty doggone flat shooting to me! :grin:

 

[CatskillCrawler]

Not much at all.

I will qualify my sentiment by saying that 90% of the animals I shoot at are under 75 yds away. As far as the remaining 10%, in 32 years of hunting, I can count the number of game taken over 200 yds on one hand. I have never shot at an animal that was over 250 yds away.

I just don't run into those opportunities where I hunt.

 

[Elkman]

I hunt big mtn country (like Guy, Scotty) and many others here, but sometimes am challenged because of terrain to get in close. In the last three years, the majority of my elk have been killed at, between 300 and 428 yards. The closest shot ever was 17 yards and I have several under 100 yards. I would have to get my log book out to really determine an overall average. Some of those are guesses however because many were pre GPS and rangefinder. I believe its mostly because of the terrain I hunt. I am either standing on top of them or across the canyon. Many here have seen the pics from our trip this last fall. If they are not on your side of the drainage they are 400 yards away. I hunted that country for many years. So the favorites of my dad and I were the 300 B, the 300 Win Mag, and now my 7mm STW. Both of mine now wear 3.5 X10 Leupold BDC scopes and are sighted in for zero at 300 yards.

PS I have "never shot over an elk"

 

[buckfever]

I use to think I needed something that shot flat until I got a 6mm br a 105 Berger going around 2850 and learned I can make hits out to 1100 yards :shock: with some crankin on the nobs. But I'm going to have something built that's a lot flatter 8)

 

[big rifle man]

All my deer hunting has been in the Northeast where a 75 yard shot is usually max. My 7-08 fills the bill perfectly with a 100 yard sight in. My 338RUM is sighted in for a dead on 200Yard shot. It shoots flat enough so three hundred yards is a 6 inch drop. I know where the rifle shoots at 400 but I limit myself to the 300 yard distance although my last Elk (this past October) was taken at 326 yards and was the same holdover as 300. The variables (and as scotty said a lot of bullet drop) can make hitting game a sometimes proposition or better yet a long tracking job over terrain you don't want to think about going through.

 

[alaska100]

I hunt big mtn country (like Guy, Scotty) and many others here, but sometimes am challenged because of terrain to get in close. In the last three years, the majority of my elk have been killed at, between 300 and 428 yards. The closest shot ever was 17 yards and I have several under 100 yards. I would have to get my log book out to really determine an overall average. Some of those are guesses however because many were pre GPS and rangefinder. I believe its mostly because of the terrain I hunt. I am either standing on top of them or across the canyon. Many here have seen the pics from our trip this last fall. If they are not on your side of the drainage they are 400 yards away. I hunted that country for many years. So the favorites of my dad and I were the 300 B, the 300 Win Mag, and now my 7mm STW. Both of mine now wear 3.5 X10 Leupold BDC scopes and are sighted in for zero at 300 yards.

PS I have "never shot over an elk"

This is the same situation we are in. In the mountains or tundra, caribou, sheep goat, wolf you want something like a 257 or 270 WBY as you can not always , get close. On the other hand there are places here that a 45/70 is the flattest shooting gun you will need, as 50 yards will be a long shot.

 

[35 Whelen]

Well there was a time I wanted a magnum gun to get a flater tradectory but that urge has left me as the years have gone by. I finally decided with the 300 Mag that it was so long and so heavy that for us it was just easier to get 50 yds closer and just use the old 06 with a good bullet, out to 300yds, and have never looked back. If I was doing alot of stuff over 400yds [and I am not] then a magnum caliber makes alot of sense . But some folks make a huge issue out of a magnum shooting an inch and a half flatter at 300 yds and that is great if thats what turns you on, but for me the extra two pounds of gun; is NOT worth the trade off to get around a 6/7% increase in velocity. Poor trade off unless you have to have it . And we dont, so its a non issue with us. A 270 Win shoots flat enough to handle any situation we ever get into .

 

[brianwyo]

Most of my hunting is done with a flat shooting rifle. When I miss an animal I usually shoot over there backs. MPBR messed with my head. I sight in 2 inches high @ 100 yds. It seems to keep my shots lower. Longer shots have time for the range finder. I have used a range finder before the shot only twice in 10 years. After the shot I always range them and they are always closer than I thought! Brian

 

[Coyote Hunter]

My first two centerfire rifles were a 7mm RM I purchased for elk hunting and the .44 Mag carbine Dad gave me a few years later. One shot fairly “flat” the other had a rainbow trajectory and sights that were hard to use. Both got used, however.

These days I have a bunch of rifles, most with Burris Fullfield II scopes with Ballistic Plex reticles. The Burris scopes make it possible for me to shoot to 600 yards with any bolt rifle so equipped, from my .257 Roberts to my .338 WM.

A few weeks ago I was at the NRA Whittington Center tipping over th 600-meter rams with one of my .308’s. Before we left I was trying for the 100-meter chickens with my Kimber .45. Had to bury the target behind the barrel to get the proper elevation and don’t know if I ever hit a chicken or not. But I came damn close.


The wind is my nemesis, not the trajectory.