7mm AM at .77 miles

[Ridge Runner]

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well, yesterday was the last day of early doe season, which runs concurrently with bear season. The group I bear hunt with always have a deer hunt togather during mzzldr season on the farm which the owner gives us right of passage to the mountain for bear hunting.
we treed a bear early and let a youngster take his first bear, and was done, bear was on the truck and all the dogs back in by 3:00.
The farmer has saw my rifle in action as has most of the guys in the crew, so when deer started coming out, the farmer says get your gun and shoot one.
well the deer feed in a small field which is beyond the capabilities of my rangefinder except just the edge closest to me, it was ranged at 1218 yards. being on the property alot I knew it was about 160 yards from one side of the hill to the other. this field joins a 40 acre field that runs on the other side of the ridge and all you can see of it is the fence line.
I asked the farmer if I could shoot at one of the deer below his 40 acre field, he said sure.
so there I was, had a deer somewhere around 1350-1375 yards, permission to shoot, and a crowd gathered round, the pressure was on.

I told the farmer, that I would make my best calculations, then would try a spotter shot or two, to verify that my adjustments were correct before attempting the shot on a deer.
50 yards parralel to the left of the deer was a small patch of snow, I held on it as it appeared about the same size as a deer shoulder.
I dialed in 24 MOA of up, gave it 1.75 moa left wind and held on the patch of snow, hit was just low and right, took total elevation up to 25.5 MOA, gave it 2 more clicks left wind and shot again, the accubond plowed through the snow patch and I got up told the farmer I was ready to try the shot.
I got back on the rifle, put the reticle on the deers shoulder, and messaged the trigger on the 7mm Allen. 1.6 seconds later I watched the accubond impact the doe, not a good hit, farther back then I like them, she jumped, took 2 steps and layed down.
I think I will recover the accubond during the skinning job later today, and am curious as to how it expanded with an impact velocity of about 1575 fps.
well, the farmer said if he hadn't have saw it with his own eyes he would never have believed it to be possible, and told me I was welcome to deer hunt anytime I wanted to.
So I'm at an interesting place to be in my hunting carreer, I've maxed out my equipment, so if my quest is to continue, I need a new load, a new rangfinder and some wide open spaces.
so thats my story guys, a whitetail doe at 1350 yards.
Guess I gotta find some of those 200 gr wildcats!

RR
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[petey]

Congrats RR!

You need to try out some of those 180gr Bergers. They'll have a much better BC than the Accubonds. I gained 11 ft of drop switching from Seirra's to Bergers at 1000 yards. That's if your barrel has a fast enough twist for them?

We have a place where we can shoot deer well beyond a mile, in fact 11-1,200 yards is probably going to be the average shot. You're more than welcome to come on up next season. Course I don't know how well it'll work with a South Paw shootin' he he

Our license is around $100 for non-residents and that'll get ya a buck tag, 2 turkey (fall/spring) and small game. (includes groundhogs in the summertime, which is how we fine tune our loads and drop charts.) Doe tags are by draw and you have to put in for those late summer/early fall.

Quite an accomplishment! Congrats man.

[Ridge Runner]

thanks for the invite petey, we'll see how things go the coming year.
my rifle has a 9 twist and it shoots the 200 gr wildcats really well, but richard sold his business so don't know about the availability of them in the future, never really thought about the bergers but I'll look into it, I always said I would shoot the accubonds till I exceeded 1K so I'll check out those 180's.
RR

[bigbrother]

those Bergers will work! The bc on the 180 7mm is close to .7 so they should be super flat out of your gun. Probably more visual impact at that range than my 6.5 140g too! We would love to have you up if for nothing more than to burn up some powder!

[petey]

Those 180 Bergers will shoot good out of a 9 twist. That's what mine is and they've proven to be very accurate and hold out a lot better.

If I can recall the BC is somewhere around .698 or better depending on velocity. Ol_sparks .338 Tommy had 186 clicks at 1550 yards with those 250 gr Match Kings. I was around 150 clicks with the 180 gr Bergers! (you guys and your darn MOA ) He needs to switch to those 300 grain MK which are over .7 BC

Anyhow, I'm sure you'll be pleased with them, but you'll find you may need to seat them out a little farther than the Accubounds.