August 4th 2023In the Shooters’ Forum there was a discussion about a shooting range that was under threat of closure because rifle overshoots were hitting farm buildings over two miles away from the firing line. One reader questioned this, asking: “How is that possible? Were these guys aiming for the stars?” You may be surprised. It doesn’t require much of an up-angle to send a bullet miles down-range. It’s important for hunters and target shooters to always align their barrels at a safe angle. Shooters may be unaware of how a slight tilt (above horizontal) of the barrel can change a bullet’s path. Ten Degrees? Twenty Degrees? The answer is actually much less. For a typical hunting bullet, five to seven degree of up-angle is enough to create a trajectory which will see your bullet impacting 3000 yards away — that’s about 1.7 miles!Five degrees aren’t very much. Take a look at the diagram. The angle displayed for the uptilted rifle (above horizontal) is 5.07 degrees. JBM Ballistics was used to calculate 5.07? As the angle that would result in a 3000-yard hit with a 185gr.30-caliber launching at 2850 fps, we calculated 5.07? This would be a moderate book load for a.300 Win mag deer rifle. Here’s how we calculated the angle value. The drop at 3000 yds. is 304.1 MOA, assuming a zero of 100 yards. This was calculated with a G7 BC and the JBM Ballistics Program. Each degree of angle is 60 MOA. Thus, 304.1 MOA equals 5.068 degrees. This means that your 185gr (2850 fps) bullet will impact 3000 yards away if you tilt your muzzle slightly more than five degrees.The principle remains the same, even if the bullet travels slower or you shoot a bullet that has a lower BC. Let’s say that you have a 168gr HPBT MatchKing fired at 2750 fps from a Winchester.308 at a velocity of 2750 fps. This is a typical tactical loading. The total drop at 100 yards is 440.1 MOA or 7.335°. This is a greater up-tilt, but it’s still not much when you consider the way a rifle could be handled in a negligent discharge. Think about a hunter preparing for a prone shot. He could easily trigger the trigger with an up-angle muzzle of 10 degrees or higher. Even when shooting at a bench, it is possible to discharge a rifle before it is leveled. This could send the shot thousands of yards away. Nobody wants to shoot holes in their neighbor’s home or worse, cause injury. Let’s return to our original example, a bullet weighing 185gr with a muzzle velocity of 2850 fps. According to JBM this projectile will still travel 687 fps with 193.7 ft/lbs retained energy at 3000 yards. This is more than enough energy for a deadly projectile.Similar posts:Tags: Barrel tilt, Gun Safety, Long Range Impacts, Negligent discharge
A Practical Guide to Air Rifles and Subjects
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