Resources for learning concepts of ultra long range shooting?

[TehLlama]

If we're talking extreme ranges, and first round hits, the verbose and mathematically intensive stuff is the ONLY viable answer. Litz's Applied Ballistics is really good, really any of the above mentioned training is still going to be cheaper for reaching that ultimate goal than sending lots of rounds downrange and trying to figure it out.

Building out towards that range is a big part of it too - I remember working out towards 550yd incrementally really helping, I copied exactly as much as I could with my medium range precision carbine stuff, but I have at least a limited appreciation of the scope of stuff I don't know and some idea of how much I don't know I don't know moving out past 1km. To be honest, consistent hits at 600-700yd is probably all I'd be good for with sane equipment in 95% of weather conditions, but that's not actually that trivial, especially if there's some UKD as part of it.

[Failure2Stop]

Thanks for replies and yes I'll be working my way out, I'm a sub Moa shooter with my beet up old .22 out to 60ish yards (limit of my front yard) and plan to start large caliber at 100-300 then 300-500 once I got that down in a year or two work my way out to 700 ect.

I'm not going into this with the mentality "I got a 3800- rifle I'm a sniper now" can't stand that crud, I get those goobers in my classes some times, .... think money buys skills...

I have a coworker that can miss a barn with a 2k Dan Wesson, but with his sigma he stacks the rounds.... For the life of us we still cant figure out wtf is going on with that...

300-500 is pretty much ""mid-range". The same skills that stack rounds at 100 will get hits at 500.
Out to 700 (600 to 800, depending on caliber and barrel length), the most important things are fundamentals, knowing your drops, knowing wind, and having your gear squared away.
800 is where things get wonky, usually due to the trans-sonic change-over, which really is only affected by the BC of the bullet, and twist rate of the barrel.

ETA:
This comes from a guy that is in the "practical application" side of the discussion, not F-Class or Benchrest.
Those are a whole other animal with regard to their precision requirements to be anywhere near competitive.

[HD1911]

OP,

any updates yet?

[rcoodyar15]

OP,

any updates yet?

Long Range hunting forum is a good source. Those guys are doing some pretty incredible shooting over 1000 yrds.

That g7 range finder is pretty incredible too. Does all your ballistic calculations for you. even the wind correction. now you need to calculate the wind speed but it will give you the correction in 5 mph increments.

after you get everything else dialed in the wind is the great equalizer.

[rcoodyar15]

I had never heard of TiborasaurusRex before this thread. I looked at a few of his videos on his channel. My opinion: he seems like a nice guy but is WAY too verbose and long winded to be of any use, especially for a beginner. 60+ parts of his Sniper101 series each at a half hour or more a piece, no thanks.

Instead check out 8541 Tactical / Mail Call Mondays by John McQuay aka LoneWolfUSMC. He has a blog and a Youtube channel under 8541Tactical. Great advice for all level of shooters.

If you want to pay for some good materials check out Bryan Litz's Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting. He has other books and resources on his website as well.

The Snipershide Day One Training DVD is pretty good also for dealing with shooting fundamentals. I've not had a chance to check out their online training feature.

Really reading books and watching videos aren't going to make you a good long range shooter. Practice will. It is really a simple process.

In most descriptions I would say out to 600 yrds is mid range 1000 yrds is long range and over 1000 is ultra long

here is what it takes

A gun accurate enough to know when you are doing it right in a caliber that will get the job done. I would look for a 1/2 MOA rifle

custom handloaded ammo that will do justice to the accurate rifle.

a ballistic program based on your bullets ballistic coefficient and velocity that takes in temp., humidity, altitude

from there it is just practice. be consistent with everything. from your handloads to the way you hold the rifle and squeeze the trigger.

once you get the rifle and ammo dialed in then you can spend the rest of your life figuring out the wind.

[T2C]

Buy yourself a good .22LR in the same configuration as your center fire long range rifle and practice, practice, practice. Shoot the rimfire out to 300 yards to learn how to compensate for wind, bullet drop, etc. and you will see a difference in your performance when you transition to your centerfire rifle.

[trinydex]

What are some good books or materials for me to learn all I can, due to work I get limited range time with rifles get plenty of hand gun time tho...

I hve always wanted to master the first round hits at extreme ranges, yes I know this will be a very long quest.

Is the Tibasurus Rex sniper 101 on you tube as good and accurate as it seems?

tiberasaurs rex videos that discuss physics are very well done. i'm surprised he went through all the effort to make all the little animations of barrel whip and prism shapes and ray traces.

[trinydex]

300-500 is pretty much ""mid-range". The same skills that stack rounds at 100 will get hits at 500.
Out to 700 (600 to 800, depending on caliber and barrel length), the most important things are fundamentals, knowing your drops, knowing wind, and having your gear squared away.
800 is where things get wonky, usually due to the trans-sonic change-over, which really is only affected by the BC of the bullet, and twist rate of the barrel.

ETA:
This comes from a guy that is in the "practical application" side of the discussion, not F-Class or Benchrest.
Those are a whole other animal with regard to their precision requirements to be anywhere near competitive.

when you talk about knowing drops, is this usually accomplished with a good ballistic calculator that is trued to the gun being used at the moment?

[C-grunt]

when you talk about knowing drops, is this usually accomplished with a good ballistic calculator that is trued to the gun being used at the moment?

That works well. If you were in battle actually knowing your dope at range would be very beneficial. But just hitting steel at range, the time it takes to input all the data into the calculator doesnt really matter.

OP. As great as all the videos and literature are, there is no better training tool than shooting the gun. Read up on your fundamentals and go shoot enough to get them solid. I dont get to shoot long range any where near as much as Id like to. However I have the fundamentals down pretty solid. Those fundamentals are what you really need out to around 700 to 800 yards. After than then the more advanced stuff really starts to come into play.

This is of course basing the shooting off of steel silhouettes or other similarly sized targets at range. If you are trying to shoot the smallest group possible at 500+ yards then the advanced stuff needs to be mastered as well.

[Hootiewho]

If you are interested in ultra or extreme long range shooting, the best advice I could give would be contact Cory at Gunsite. He is their ELR guru. A week or two with him would really put you way ahead of anything online.

The issue is $. The price of admission of shooting out to ~ 1400 yards vs 2000+ is staggering. When I say that I am talking about having an expectation of 1st or 2nd round hits. Anyone with a decent scope and fundamentals can walk shots on target.
IMHO you will learn the most and become a better shooter by buying a decent 308 and a solid performing scope, go read all of Litz's books, watch all the snipershide videos, as well as any others by Todd Hodnett and Rifles Only. Go start shooting any PRS type matches or F Class type matches near you. No video or book will replace experience.

I would even go a step more and add that a man who can shoot a bolt gun well will not necessarily run a semiauto well, but a man who can run a gas gun well will almost always rock out on a bolt gun. There is no cheating when shooting a gun like an LMT MWS. If you stick with it, running an MWS w/18" SS barrels or one of the more precision based SR25's will no doubt make you a better shooter because you cannot cheat the fundamentals on the platform. I mention the MWS because you can later pick up a 6.5 cal barrel and go even further in distance. I feel that shooting an ELR magnum is more like shooting a gasgun vs how guys barely touch a light recoiling S/A 6mm. So if ELR is your end goal, the gas gun IMO helps to build up the solid recoil management and follow through skills compared to a S/A bolt gun that you will need when you move up to a heavy magnum like the 338 LM.

Just my 2 cents.