Trophy Grade Nosler 180 grain 300 WSM

CoryDavern

Beginner
Sep 20, 2016
2
0
I am shooting a Winchester Model 70 300 WSM rifle. I just purchased Trophy Grade Nosler 180 Grain 300 WSM. At the range, once I zeroed in at 100 yds. I went out to 200 yds. I was expecting a 3-3.5 inch drop at 200 yds, but the drop was actually 6.5 inches at 200 yds. Is this normal for the ballistics to be off by 3+ inches at 200 yds? Can it be a result of the rifle I am using?

Wind was 5-10 mph from behind and about 10 degrees left to right. Would this be enough to cause a drop of almost 2x the ballistic chart at 200 yds. Given the drop at 200 yds, what could I expect the drop to be at 300 yds?

Thanks for any insight you might be able to share.
 
CoryDavern":1hrovfg7 said:
I am shooting a Winchester Model 70 300 WSM rifle. I just purchased Trophy Grade Nosler 180 Grain 300 WSM. At the range, once I zeroed in at 100 yds. I went out to 200 yds. I was expecting a 3-3.5 inch drop at 200 yds, but the drop was actually 6.5 inches at 200 yds. Is this normal for the ballistics to be off by 3+ inches at 200 yds? Can it be a result of the rifle I am using?

Wind was 5-10 mph from behind and about 10 degrees left to right. Would this be enough to cause a drop of almost 2x the ballistic chart at 200 yds. Given the drop at 200 yds, what could I expect the drop to be at 300 yds?

Thanks for any insight you might be able to share.


There are a lot of things that go into the info as to where your bullet will hit.
#1) What elevation above sea level are you shooting?
#2) Is it factory rounds you're using?
#3) How much humidity was there?
#4) Is your barrel free floating?
On and on and on....
Now, factory velocities very rarely meet what the manufacturer lists. Some can come close, but usually not meet or exceed their published data. They're usually off by 100-200 fps.
Also, the elevation at which you're shooting does effect bullet drop more than you would think. If you're closer to sea level, you're going to experience more bullet drop. The higher from sea level, you'll experience less bullet drop.
I hope this all helps out.

HawkeyeSATX a.k.a. Bryce
 
CoryDavern":3azrh6jz said:
I am shooting a Winchester Model 70 300 WSM rifle. I just purchased Trophy Grade Nosler 180 Grain 300 WSM. At the range, once I zeroed in at 100 yds. I went out to 200 yds. I was expecting a 3-3.5 inch drop at 200 yds, but the drop was actually 6.5 inches at 200 yds. Is this normal for the ballistics to be off by 3+ inches at 200 yds? Can it be a result of the rifle I am using?

Wind was 5-10 mph from behind and about 10 degrees left to right. Would this be enough to cause a drop of almost 2x the ballistic chart at 200 yds. Given the drop at 200 yds, what could I expect the drop to be at 300 yds?

Thanks for any insight you might be able to share.


There are a lot of things that go into the info as to where your bullet will hit.
#1) What elevation above sea level are you shooting?
#2) Is it factory rounds you're using?
#3) How much humidity was there?
#4) Is your barrel free floating?
On and on and on....
Now, factory velocities very rarely meet what the manufacturer lists. Some can come close, but usually not meet or exceed their published data. They're usually off by 100-200 fps.
Also, the elevation at which you're shooting does effect bullet drop more than you would think. If you're closer to sea level, you're going to experience more bullet drop. The higher from sea level, you'll experience less bullet drop.
I hope this all helps out.

HawkeyeSATX a.k.a. Bryce
 
CoryDavern":22j253eo said:
I am shooting a Winchester Model 70 300 WSM rifle. I just purchased Trophy Grade Nosler 180 Grain 300 WSM. At the range, once I zeroed in at 100 yds. I went out to 200 yds. I was expecting a 3-3.5 inch drop at 200 yds, but the drop was actually 6.5 inches at 200 yds. Is this normal for the ballistics to be off by 3+ inches at 200 yds? Can it be a result of the rifle I am using?

Wind was 5-10 mph from behind and about 10 degrees left to right. Would this be enough to cause a drop of almost 2x the ballistic chart at 200 yds. Given the drop at 200 yds, what could I expect the drop to be at 300 yds?

Thanks for any insight you might be able to share.

It's nothing more than proof that you need to sight in rifles at longer ranges, and can't depend on a 100 yard sight-in for anything other than getting on paper. I've seen this many times, and when you now zero at 200 try shooting at 100 yards just for fun. I would suspect it will print exactly where you'd expect, 1 1/2 - 2 in high.

Once you zero at 200 you can now verify at 300 and it will likely be exactly where you predict.

As you now see, the magazines that tell you to sight in 2 inches high at 100 and then go hunting are not exactly correct.
 
Dr. Vette":17aqrvks said:
CoryDavern":17aqrvks said:
I am shooting a Winchester Model 70 300 WSM rifle. I just purchased Trophy Grade Nosler 180 Grain 300 WSM. At the range, once I zeroed in at 100 yds. I went out to 200 yds. I was expecting a 3-3.5 inch drop at 200 yds, but the drop was actually 6.5 inches at 200 yds. Is this normal for the ballistics to be off by 3+ inches at 200 yds? Can it be a result of the rifle I am using?

Wind was 5-10 mph from behind and about 10 degrees left to right. Would this be enough to cause a drop of almost 2x the ballistic chart at 200 yds. Given the drop at 200 yds, what could I expect the drop to be at 300 yds?

Thanks for any insight you might be able to share.

It's nothing more than proof that you need to sight in rifles at longer ranges, and can't depend on a 100 yard sight-in for anything other than getting on paper. I've seen this many times, and when you now zero at 200 try shooting at 100 yards just for fun. I would suspect it will print exactly where you'd expect, 1 1/2 - 2 in high.

Once you zero at 200 you can now verify at 300 and it will likely be exactly where you predict.

As you now see, the magazines that tell you to sight in 2 inches high at 100 and then go hunting are not exactly correct.

I whole heartedly agree with DrVette.
Don't sight in dead on at 100 yds, and expect to only be so many inches low at 200 yds.

HawkeyeSATX a.k.a. Bryce
 
Thank you. I live in Colorado and am shooting roughly at 6700 feet of elevation. Where I hunt, I will be between 8500 and 10500 feet of elevation. Low humidity, probably 30%. One thing I didn't account for is the height at which my scope is mounted which could account for about 2.5" of the additional drop. I am using the Trophy Grade Nosler factory loads.

My range finder has the ARC technology which is based on a zero at 100 yds. Given the below and other things I have read about zeroing in at 200 yds...I am likely better off to zero in at 200 yds to be more accurate out to 300 yds; while still being confident in shots between 100-200 yds.

Thanks for the insight.
 
There's an old trick, and sometimes it works fairly well.
If you sight in at 25yds, the zero equals 100yds.
Now, if you sight in at 50yds, then zero should be 200yds.
But don't just go by that, go and actually shoot at 200 yds to see where you're hitting.
There are also some decent, and free, phone apps that help with ballistics, e.g. muzzle velocity, and bullet type, elevation, and bullet drop.
Not saying you have to get them, but they can help.

HawkeyeSATX a.k.a. Bryce
 
CoryDavern":pz1dbkzp said:
One thing I didn't account for is the height at which my scope is mounted which could account for about 2.5" of the additional drop. I am using the Trophy Grade Nosler factory loads.
I am a firm believer that the accuracy of the measurement of the height of the scope off the bore makes only a minimal difference in drop, even at long range.

Just now, to reply to this, I checked my 270 Win specs at 1000 yards with the scope either 1.5 or 1.75 inches from bore using the ballistic calculator at handloads.com (its easy to use, that's why). The drop difference with these compared to line of sight? 1 inch at the 1000 yard mark. The vast majority of scopes will fall into this range unless you're using the old see-through mounts. Make it 2 inches above the bore, so a half inch difference in mounts? The drop is 2 inches different, perceived, at 1000 yards. (231.75 vs 233.75 inches)

If your rifle is good enough to notice this 2 inches, then you can get anal about the height measurement. :mrgreen:
 
Back
Top