So, you put a telescope on top of it and try to compensate for the arc of the bullet. That’s fun for a while, but then you reach the actual limit of the guns range and have to get a bigger gun and a better telescope. Suddenly, things like the breeze, mirage effect, and whether the target is uphill or down begin to affect the results. At that point, you start figuring out how much wind (even light wind) affects the travel of the bullet and begin keeping careful records.

You go online to find out more and learn that temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure affect bullet travel and begin to take that into account. You download or buy ballistic calculator software that can perform some of the dizzying math which needs to be done to adjust for these factors. You become passionate about accurate calculation of ballistic coefficient.

At some point along this continuum, you realize that the ammunition made my most manufacturers differs too greatly from round to round to be reliable, so you invest in reloading equipment, calipers, extremely accurate scales and more in an effort to produce ammunition that shoots exactly the same way twice, thrice and ten times in a row.

Ultimately, you’re attempting to apply scientific repeatability to an endeavor which relies on human sensory input (or a small weather station) to determine nearly all of the factors, none of which are necessarily constant from shot to shot. (or from muzzle to target, for that matter) This is to say nothing of the skill of the shooter, which has to improve alongside the equipment which can get the bullet to a target farther and farther away and where being half a millimeter off in aim will cause a miss at 400 meters, provided all your estimates about wind direction and speed were right in the first place.

In reviewing all this, it doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. But, like the sound of a golf ball draining into the hole after travelling 20 feet on the green, there are few sounds that warm a long-range shooters heart more than the muted CLANK of a round hitting a steel target that’s a long way off…

Dirk Koenig
Minneapolis, MN

I’ve been working desperately to catch up with all my commitments, including catching up with email, since coming back from my recent trip to Portland. Here however is a short bit of commentary on this thread that you started.

Cheers,
Russell Whitaker, who signs with his own name.

I’m mainly interested in an AR-50 because it represents the limits of that particular technology, and I’d be interested in flooring it with practical examples representing the limits of any technology. In my back yard, there’s only my wife’s goldfish pond and rose bushes. Come on over for a visit anytime.

i must admitt being less concerned with those people that were going to go out and blast bambi, than those who have no interest in hunting, but seem drawn to fire arms that have no practicle use in a civilian world.

perhaps this is why, when living out in the country, i think nothing of hearing a 30-06 or 30-30 off in the distance, but everyone(including myself) jump at the sound of a gun going off in the mall parking lot.

there is a place for everything.
be careful with that AR-50, i’d hate to have to read about it on someone elses site.

Of course, this is obvious, but for a person who grew up in the suburbs where firearms aren’t often encountered, the reactionary media’s ‘guns==deaths by firearm’ equation becomes more and more believable. It is more believable in inner cities where many guns are purchased simply to shoot- at/protect-yourself-from other people. It is this use of guns which politicians and worrisome-types jump to prohibit. Not being hunters themselves, they have little regard for the people who ’shoot Bambi’ as a hobby and willingly allow the hunters/enthusiasts to fall as casualties of the proposed laws.

I think the best argument against gun control is simply that we should preserve our freedom of choice at all costs; even if this means that some people will choose violence. Unfortunately our media overwhelms us with instances of people choosing violence when the vast majority choose otherwise. Things will look much better when taking away rights is not looked at as a valid approach to solving a problem (now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go have a cigarette :).