Magnified 8X view looking down-range at bison (American buffalo) target. Could You Hit a Bison Steel at 2240 Yards (1.2 miles) with Iron Sights…? Ernie Jimenez, a few years ago, did exactly that at the North Springs Shooting Range, located in Price, Utah (5,627′ elevation), despite it seeming impossible. Jimenez, using a milsurp Swiss K31 chambered in 7.5×55 Swiss, hit four targets at a distance of 2240 yards. The target was a bison-shaped steel three-foot-high target. Jimenez purchased the rifle many years ago for only $99.00. He had plenty of misses (and Ernie managed to hit his camera’s plate). This video will start at the halfway point, when the shooter begins to make hits:
The entire process was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube. The Long-Range Shooters of Utah claim that this is an official Guinness World Record. We can’t confirm this, but it is still an impressive feat. Jimenez was forced to compensate for the huge amount of bullets that fell. The long-range military sight on his K31 helped, but he had to aim over the pink bison. Watch the video at 14 minutes to see how far the target is. A camera at the firing range zooms back until the bison becomes a tiny dot. The target is barely visible in the photo below, even at 8X magnification. Here is the “naked-eye”, unmagnified view of the firing line. Can you see the pink buffalo?
Bullet Dropped over 400 Feet Along its Trajectory
We used a 7.5x55mm Swiss bullet load from Hodgdon Reloading Center to roughly gauge the drop. A 168gr Sierra HPBT with a maximum “book” loading of H4350 has a muzzle speed of 2524 FPS. According to JBM Ballistics this bullet will drop more than 400 feet in its flight. This is a lot of hold-over. JBM calculates the drop from 100 yards to 2250 is a staggering 210.9 MOA – that’s 414.15 feet or 4969.9 inch! In the first segment of the video, Ernie Jimenez discusses his hand-loads as well as his K31 rifle. Here’s an example of a straight-pull K31 (Karabiner Model 1921). Image courtesy AIM Surplus.
