Thread: Perfect practice makes perfect shots

Been doing a lot of reloading lately and with each batch I go down to the range and confirm zero with a bit of long range steel out to 400m and set up balloons at different ranges and elevations.
The day of the hunt one last target session with balloons set up at lots of 3 at 100m,150m,175,200m,230m and 260m range and angle of 15 degrees to 35 degrees down hill as this hunt was going to be in fairly open countryside and hunting from above.

To the hunt, 10 deer 3 of which were spikers were spotted and watched them for 35 minutes feeding and identified the stags for the fridge, one of which had a broken velvet.
Ranged the deer 218m, -26 degree down hill, already had temp, pressure and attitude in my ballistic app and now had to dail up 21.75 MOA or 54" of drop and 6 MOA for wind to take the shot. With the rifle well rested on the rock outcrop looking down I chambered a 208gr A-max @ 1032fps and settled the reticule on the ear and fired. The first stag dropped the others jumped to attention and started to walk up the hill towards me. Now the second stag was at 207m I dailed back to 20 MOA and called out to them the stag stopped and looking right at me I hit him between the eyes.
Now for the hard job dealing with the meat.

I would not use this projectile on a body shot and would use the Lehigh 194gr ME instead or go supersonic with the 125gr BT.

Subsonic hunting is great fun but only if you do the ground work of good reloading, lots of practice at intended ranges and not just shooting on the flat ground but up and down hill as most of the animals I shoot are above or below me.

The bullet drop at angle as a example, a big difference in a solid hit or a miss or a wounded animal. On the app I normally use 1m increments for the best accuracy.




Tasty meat ageing and a big thanks to the 300 blackouts subsonics accuracy.

Thats a massive amount of drop!

Great shooting.

Jeezuz as criagc said thats a loooooot of drop but as you said practice good on ya well done

Impressive results for a subsonic round, bit of nice meat for the BBQ.

Impressive results Tikka as always.

Question tho why use the amax over the lehigh? Purely for the wind advantage?

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Impressive results Tikka as always.

Question tho why use the amax over the lehigh? Purely for the wind advantage?

The Amax has the most consistent accuracy at range 1/4 MOA and way cheaper than the Lehighs. Will only use the Lehighs bush stalking and longer range body shots where I don't feel comfortable doing a head shot e.g too far, wind, unstable shooting position etc.

That's quite an impressive shot with a Blackout!

What is your C.O.A.L? (I have a Sako Vixen at hand...)

Bloody impressive given the drop over a metre at that range, metres, inches, moa, bit of a buffet of units but you cant argue with the results: as the titles says perfec!

Originally Posted by Norway

That's quite an impressive shot with a Blackout!

What is your C.O.A.L? (I have a Sako Vixen at hand...)

208gr Amax 2.265

2.265" = 57.5 mm which is inside the max 58.5mm magazine in the Sako Vixen.

Uplifting to read about your 1/4 MOA, most short gas guns are in 2 moa region it seems.

Originally Posted by Norway

2.265" = 57.5 mm which is inside the max 58.5mm magazine in the Sako Vixen.

Uplifting to read about your 1/4 MOA, most short gas guns are in 2 moa region it seems.

It was a bolt action 223 rebarreled with a 12" Hardy ultra match 1:7 in a 300 blackout. I had it made for culling goats and pigs on my way to deer areas, and didn't want a rattle gun but would of been handy at times.
I've spent a lot of trigger time on it firing 2400 rounds getting it right, 600-700 of which on animals and 68 deer. I don't use the 270 hunting or the 22 on possums and rabbits anymore just the 300 blackout. It's the best best rifle I've had, it would be better if it was on a Sako action easier top loading after the mags run out.

My best stag from last years roar.