Looking for a new .50

[rattus58]

Hi 300...

Well 10-12 inches lower isn't any handicap if you know it. Point blank range represents an imaginary tube from your muzzle to a point downrange that represents the low point of the trajectory as dictated by the potential size of an animals KILL ZONE. For practical purposes, this represents a side shot on a deer where the circle of what represents the vitals is determined. For the most part, many use 8" for deer, some may then even subtract their group size from this and use THAT figure for point blank range.

In the case of an 8" kill zone, the point blank range for a bullet will be that point where the bullet travels up no more than 4", and falls no further than 4" below line of sight to the target. This means you can aim at an animals center point of the kill zone, and KNOW (theoretically) that your bullet will always fall somewhere within the kill zone within that point blank range distance...

However, knowing that your bullet falls 12" lower than your buddies doesn't mean anything, as long as it does it consistently. You can learn to shoot that distance.

Now... shooting open sights at 200 yards is not recommended by anyone I know on game. That being said... you don't HAVE to hold over on anything if you don't want to. You CAN sight your gun in for dead on at 200 yards and just have to know how much to HOLD UNDER at closer ranges. I do have friends who hunt this way... and yes... its weird... but far more accurate than holding over.

As a THEORETICAL ILLUSTRATION FOR YOU... using 1200 fps as velocity, you can adequately mangage your shots to 200 yards easily by sighting in at 175 yards. Once you have done that then this is theoretically what your trajectory would be with a typical heavy conical.

25 yards = 4.55" high
50 yards = 8.34" high
75 yards = 10.44" high
100 yards = 10.74" high
125 yards = 9.16" high
150 yards = 5.61" high
175 yards = 0.00" high
200 yards = -7.70" low

What this means, is that you can "learn" to aim low for the first 150 yards knowing that you will be in the KILL ZONE. Theoretically, you could hold just above the bottom of the deers chest by a few inches and always be in the kill zone out to 150 yards. Dead on an just under the top of the back for 150 and 200 should pose little difficulty if you can see the animal at that range clearly enough for an ETHICAL shot.

Here you never cover the animal, always have a good view of the vitals of the animal and can be confident in your shot. This, like anything else, requires that you spend time on the range with this set up, but like anything, practice makes perfect, and if hold over isn't your forte (and I applaud you for that), hold under works just as well... its just not what we've been taught, so its different, but any good shooter does this naturally when shooting for burgers.

When you know your gun is sighted in 3" high at 100, where do you aim when you want to hit the bullseye at 100 yards? Point taken... That's not a Point blank range necessarily, but it keeps your shots IN THE KILL ZONE VERTICALLY and it works with practice gettin over our biases.

Aloha... Tom