Let me start off by saying that I am no ballistics expert. In fact, I don't even reload (yet).
Several years ago, I took a doe at a considerable distance, shooting a 150 gr .30-06 (Winchester supreme, powerpoint plus). My friend was in the tripod with me, and we both marveled at the shot placement/distance when we saw the doe collapse, and after walking over to get it. For the past couple years, we have debated how far the shot was (he swore it was 400+ yds, while I thought it was more like 350yds). The terrain was not conducive to pacing it off, and we were separated by a pond. Anyway, I was down there this past weekend, and this time had a range finder. The verdict was 386 yds.
Now I got to thinking: From all the ballistic charts you see, they say that a 150gr .30-06 will drop roughly 24" at that range. My rifle is sighted in 1" high at 100yds. When I shot the doe, I placed the crosshairs just below her spine (about 5" high), and the shot hit directly behind the shoulder. By my calculations, this means that the bullet dropped about 6".
My question is, how can this be? If you go by the ballistic charts, I would have had to aim almost 2' high in order to hit her behind the shoulder. I realize I am over-simplifying this, as there are variations due to thermal conditions, elevation, etc. But certainly they could not account for such a large discrepancy.
Can anybody help make sense of this?
Several years ago, I took a doe at a considerable distance, shooting a 150 gr .30-06 (Winchester supreme, powerpoint plus). My friend was in the tripod with me, and we both marveled at the shot placement/distance when we saw the doe collapse, and after walking over to get it. For the past couple years, we have debated how far the shot was (he swore it was 400+ yds, while I thought it was more like 350yds). The terrain was not conducive to pacing it off, and we were separated by a pond. Anyway, I was down there this past weekend, and this time had a range finder. The verdict was 386 yds.
Now I got to thinking: From all the ballistic charts you see, they say that a 150gr .30-06 will drop roughly 24" at that range. My rifle is sighted in 1" high at 100yds. When I shot the doe, I placed the crosshairs just below her spine (about 5" high), and the shot hit directly behind the shoulder. By my calculations, this means that the bullet dropped about 6".
My question is, how can this be? If you go by the ballistic charts, I would have had to aim almost 2' high in order to hit her behind the shoulder. I realize I am over-simplifying this, as there are variations due to thermal conditions, elevation, etc. But certainly they could not account for such a large discrepancy.
Can anybody help make sense of this?