I was shooting late this afternoon and into the evening and I'd love to tell you it was a lovely blue day, sunny and warm...But that would be a lie. It was cold and overcast, grey and border-line miserable. I had to go though, as the feral's were starting to get out of control and needed controlling; Or so the farmer had texted me.
I worked at my day job today so did a flying trip to the farm afterwards running home, changing from a suit and tie into more appropriate gear and grabbing my kit which is always ready to go. By 1630 I was at the farm hiking hurriedly into position, my favourite snipers hide, before the animals started moving about.
I got my gear arranged, took some environmental readings, ranged a few spots with my laser range finder and created some data which is what I would use to adjust elevation when I was shooting...I was ready. I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And...Where the fuck is all these feral kangaroos I was thinking to myself; This farmer is cooked!
But I waited.
And waited.
And waited
Fucking fuckety fuckeroony fuckdiggety! What a waste of time. Damned farmer.
I was losing light and decided to pack it up and break out the spotlight which would mean I'd be fairly limited to about 150m shooting but just then something caught my eye...A kangaroo crossing the fence line and bounding up the hill ahead of me at about 300m. Of course, I wasn't set for the shot, and would not take a shot at that range on a bounding kangaroo anyway, so dropped back to a prone position and waited.
Just so you know, a kangaroo head is about a third to a half the size of a human male's head, so pretty small; I am obligated to take head shots on kangaroos when culling, hence me not taking a shot when one is on the jump. So I waited, but the bugger moved further up the hill, away from me.
It ended up stopping at 600m, about two thirds up the hill opposite me. A long shot on a target that small and in failing light...Hmm...Fuck it, I'm taking it.
On a human chest I'd make that shot first time every time but this small target, with the bullet flight time of a fraction under a second, any small movement by the kangaroo would end in a miss, or worse, a wounding. I checked my data and got down behind the glass. (Scope)
Below is the data.
The wind was from 5 o-clock (149°) at 7mph. This clock face is off my ballistic calculator. With me at 6 o-clock aiming at the target at 12 o-clock.
Once set I measured the slope angle which was -12° and threw that into the equation.
You can see that data below, including the temperature at 13°C and a Density Altitude of 100m. This is a calculation of temperature, humidity and altitude combined into the one figure. It means I am shooting in atmospheric conditions equivalent to 100m above sea level. This is important to know because as we all know air gets thinner as altitude increases which means the projectile flies more easily through it...This is all factored into the end field firing solution (FFS).
From here the calculation is made and I refer to the chart of field firing solutions below. I ranged the target at 590 metres and so I simply worked off 600m as that would be close enough.
The below charts shows, from left to right:
Distance in metres, bullet speed in feet per second, energy imparted at the target in ft-lbf (foot-pound), time of flight in seconds, elevation adjustment and windage adjustment in MRAD.
My shot at 600m is as follows:
You can see the SKMR3 reticle I use in my scope below with the field firing solutions upon it. This comes from my ballistics calculator, StrelokPro. This doesn't have much practical use for me in a shot like this but I think it's cool so added it.
Because I dialled the elevation I could aim at dead centre, but because I held for the wind, 0.6MRAD right, I had to shift my point of aim to the right by 0.6MRAD on the reticle. See the left plane of the cross hairs? The first large hash-mark is 0.5 and the next very small one is 0.6. That's where I was aiming on the target. (Shifting the scope right means the 7mph wind can exert its force and blow the bullet back onto the target.)
All of that took me about 12-15 seconds.
I checked my scope level to make sure my rifle was level, started my breathing process and applied pressure to the trigger whilst feeling the wind on my face, making sure it didn't die off or increase as I would need to adjust again...
...A little more pressure...
...The familiar sound and sharp pressure on my shoulder let me know the bullet was on its way and I kept my eyes open and looked through the scope at the target.
Target dispatched.
I stayed for another 30 minutes and grabbed a couple more but at closer range, only a couple hundred metres. It was a successful night.
As I packed up I sent a quick text to the farmer telling him the tally for the night as he is only allowed to take a certain amount per year as per his culling tags issued by the government.
On the drive home I passed a few big buggers on the side of the road, fortunately I didn't hit any as they mess a car up pretty badly...Maybe I'll see them through the glass sometime.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
