Shooting at 200 yds ????

[older than dirt]

Shooting my 1873 TD at 100 yds, as long as I do my part, I can put them in a 6" dia. bull all day long. Now I want the challenge of 200 yds. At 200 I can hit a 20lb MT propane cly, but my POA has to be 24"-30" above it. I'm using a Vernier tang sight. My question is, so I don`t have to waste a lot of ammo, how much would I have to raise the sight to get a ball park POA on a target? Then I could fine tune it in. By the way I`m shooting Rem 405g jacketed bullets in front of 34g of RL 7. Please don`t suggest shooting lead bullets, as I have shot them already. All different wts. & dia. & this rifle will not group lead bullets. Thanks in advance-------OTD

[Dick Hosmer]

With a group as large as 6", this may not be easy, but TRY to find out how far one (or more) graduation(s) moves point of impact at 100 yds. When you know this - you know that it will move POI at LEAST twice as far at 200yds. I'd suggest mounting a proper bull at 200yds, with an inverted one taped to the bottom of it, firing a couple of shots, and measuring - not guessing - how low you hit. Then, using your 100yd info, make what would seem to be an appropriate correction. That should put you on paper, and ready for fine tuning, though I don't suspect you will be happy with the results. A rifle that does 6" at 100yds. is not likely to do much better than 15"-18" at 200 - it's not exactly linear. I'll refrain from the lead discussion, respecting that you know your rifle FAR better than I do. - but that doesn't mean I agree with you. NO offense intended!

[older than dirt]

With a group as large as 6", this may not be easy, but TRY to find out how far one (or more) graduation(s) moves point of impact at 100 yds. When you know this - you know that it will move POI at LEAST twice as far at 200yds. I'd suggest mounting a proper bull at 200yds, with an inverted one taped to the bottom of it, firing a couple of shots, and measuring - not guessing - how low you hit. Then, using your 100yd info, make what would seem to be an appropriate correction. That should put you on paper, and ready for fine tuning, though I don't suspect you will be happy with the results. A rifle that does 6" at 100yds. is not likely to do much better than 15"-18" at 200 - it's not exactly linear. I'll refrain from the lead discussion, respecting that you know your rifle FAR better than I do. - but that doesn't mean I agree with you. NO offense intended!

Dick, thanks for the info. I didn`t say I was shooting 6" groups at 100 yds. I said a 6" bull at 100 yds. If I put this rifle in a bench rest & fired off 10 or 15 rounds, it would make one ragged hole. As it is I shoot at a bench resting on my ELBOWS & can put 10 out of 10 in that 6" bull.

[Dick Hosmer]

Clearly I misunderstood the situation, and the rifle's capabilities. Which leaves us with a big unknown. You probably don't have the drop data for your load, but you might be able to find dope on one that is close? Failing that, I don't see much else but trial and error. Can you set targets at both ranges simultaneously (can't imagine why not)? For the old punkin-roller to be on at 200 you will need to be pretty high at 100. Work your way up to the top of the 100yd paper, then try a shot at 200yds. Hopefully you'll be on its' paper - do try hanging something down below if you can. I just don't see how else to do it - you will have to burn a few rounds, I'm afraid. With a flat-shooting round, the 2X movement on the sight would mean something - with the rainbow curve, not so much.

[Tom Trevor]

Since you have a vernier tang sight with vernier scale use the following to get very close. 1-200 yards 10 points, 2-300 21.7 points , 3-400 34.4 points, 4-500 48 points. When you are ready for 500- 1000 setting let me know and I will post them.