MPBR
MAXIMUM POINT BLANK RANGE
Eliminating the clutter of today’s complicated shooting and finding a place for simplicity.
A
By Kevin Madison, WHJ Shooting Editor
S I HAVE GOTTEN MORE and more into ‘precision rifle’
competitions over the last few years, my under-
standing of ballistics and the capabilities of my rifles
has grown immensely. I’m sure my grandfather, who
I grew up hunting deer with, would roll over in his
grave if I told him that I would feel very confident today on a 600
yard shot on a deer.
Back when I started hunting with him I carried an old Rem-
ington 721 .30-06 with a 3X9 scope with a duplex reticle. It served
me well at the time. If a buck was at close range, I held right on
the deer. If the deer was some ways out, I held on the top of its’
back. And if it was really far out, the thinking was that you gave
it some daylight. We always seemed to put meat in the freezer
each fall with that method but it wasn’t always with the first shot.
Needless to say, laser rangefinders, ballistic calculators, high bal-
listic co-efficient bullets, and reliable scope turrets have opened
the doors wide open to shooting greater distances with bullseye
accuracy.
Now I range the target, check my data, dial my turret, and hold
dead center. My first shot cold bore hit probability is through the
roof compared to those early years of hunting. While that tech-
nology is readily available, and used more and more by today’s
hunters, we shouldn’t discount the fact there’s still a place for
simplicity when it comes to big game hunting today. And one
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