Long Range Shooting Training by Bret Mercer

Bret Mercer attended a 4-day, INTENSIVE, long-range rifle training course taught by Accuracy 1st, www.accuracy1st.com, at the Austin Gun Club (AGC), www.austingunclub.com.

The AGC is located between Bertram and Lampasas, northwest of Austin.
Day 1:  classroom all day.Day 2:  classroom in the morning, rifle range in the afternoon.Day 3:  classroom in the morning, rifle range in the afternoon.Day 4:  classroom in the morning, rifle range in the afternoon.
The course was taught by a retired Army instructor sniper who is now a civilian consultant for small arms development in the Army when he is not teaching the course.  He has decades of experience, including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addditon to a capable high power rifle and a high power telescope mounted on the rifle, the other keys to successfully hitting targets at long range are a laser rangefinder and a hand-held electronic ballistic computer.  We used the Kestrel which is manufactured by Applied Ballistics.  After measuring the muzzle velocity of the bullet, the Kestrel was programmed, including both the muzzle velocity of the bullet and the ballistic coefficient of the bullet.

Range and wind have to be figured before adjusting the scope.  Though I had heard of corriolis and its effect on the flight of the bullet beyond 1000 meters, I had never heard of aerodynmic jump or of spin drift.  All three of those effects are accounted for by the Kestrel.

The first and the longest range target that I engaged was at 1070 meters = 1170 yards = 2/3 statute mile.  What a thrill it was to have been able to hit the target!

The two types of targets which are arrayed on the range are steel LaRue knock down pops back up targetsteel and Accuracy 1st combination rectangle and circle target which wiggles visibly when hit
Feedback from the target is vital at long range!