Mastering the Art of Long-Range Shooting

238 Pages·2013·55.4 MB·English

by  Wayne van Zwoll

MASTERING THE ART OF
LONG-RANGE SHOOTING
WAYNE VAN ZWOLL
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Introduction: Close No More
PART 1: Beyond Arm’s Reach
Chapter One — A Feathered Shaft
Chapter Two — Spark, Smoke, and a Speeding Ball
Chapter Three — No More Ramrods!
Chapter Four — Pioneering the Long Poke
PART 2: Rifles, Optics, and Ammunition
Chapter Five — Barrels and Rifling
Chapter Six — Actions and Triggers
Chapter Seven — Stocks Don’t Grow on Trees
Chapter Eight — Optics with Reach
Chapter Nine — Loads for the Long Poke
Chapter Ten — Trajectory
PART 3: Long Reach Applied
Chapter Eleven — Mastering the Wind
Chapter Twelve — Marksmanship
Chapter Thirteen — Slings and Zeros
Chapter Fourteen — Back to School
Chapter Fifteen — Marksmen Most Feared
Chapter Sixteen — Big Game at Distance
Chapter Seventeen — An Ethical Limit
Recommended Reading
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Other Books by Wayne van Zwoll
Copyright
INTRODUCTION
CLOSE NO MORE
Beginning with the Norman invasion, in 1066, the bow and arrow shouldered its way
into the culture of the British Isles. With it, kings defended the realm and extended its
boundaries, routed much larger forces and, by threat of the “grey goose wing” alone,
kept aggressors at bay. Royal edicts required able men to become proficient with the
longbow. Edward IV ordered “Every Englishman or Irishman dwelling in England” to
have his own bow “of his own height, made of yew, wych or hazel, ash, auburn, or any
other reasonable timber.” Fines were levied on citizens who failed to hone their skills
regularly — and at distance!
The bow didn’t replace the spear, the pike, or the sword, it made them less relevant.
An army that became bled out by arrows before it came within pike’s reach was
unlikely to prevail. In 1542, an English Act dictated that no man of 24 years of age or
more might shoot any mark at “less than 11 score distance”—that’s more than 200
meters, a long shot for many rifles!
The lethality of arrows lay partly in their great numbers, partly in their mesmerizing
arc. Loosed to fall accurately on a line of troops at a given distance, they skewered
soldiers en masse. Their descent put them into unarmored shoulders and down onto the
heads, backs, and rumps of cavalry horses. The steel bodkin, driven by a 100-pound
bow, could penetrate mail and light plate. The longbow was truly a long-range weapon.
The first firearms couldn’t match the bow for reliability or reach and, so, were slow
to supplant it. But five centuries after the English had loosed a half-million shafts at
Crecy, a young man working in his father’s forge, in upper New York State, fashioned a
rifle. Eliphalet Remington’s muzzleloader had no unique features, but it was well built
and accurate. On it, Remington founded a dynasty.
During the rifle’s early growth, other American inventors (and their counterparts in
Europe) developed stronger mechanisms of better steel. Sharps and Browning came up
with falling-block actions that, with Remington’s Rolling Block, replaced the famed
Hawken on the Great Plains and triumphed in shooting matches to 1,000 yards. The
advent of smokeless powder, and then jacketed bullets, flattened trajectories.
Refinement of optical sights further extended reach. Hunters and soldiers who make
“the long shot” these days are hardly limited to 200 meters. Some hits have been
verified beyond 2,000.
As this is written, the current distance record for a shot made against an enemy
soldier is held by an unknown Australian sniper, of the Delta Company, 2nd Commando
Regiment. He made the killing hit, in 2012, during Operation Slipper, in Afghanistan. A
GPS unit measured the range at 2,815 meters, or 3,079 yards. The shooter is unknown,
because two fellow snipers fired at the Taliban commander simultaneously. One bullet
struck.
Having fired at targets a lasered mile away — a mere 1,760 yards off — I am awed
by this shot. It is, of course, exceedingly difficult to land a bullet in a target, one
perhaps 18 inches wide, at even a mile. You can barely afford a minute-of-angle error;
make that half a minute at 3,000 yards. No matter how sleek or fast your bullet, its
parabolic arc at such range is so steep, you must know the range precisely. Know, too,
that that bullet will likely meet multiple air currents en route. The gentlest breeze,
unnoticed or poorly judged, can move the missile many inches, even feet, off course.
This book won’t ensure you’ll hit more often far away. But the rifles, ammunition,
and techniques described here can help you do just that. Better hardware matters less
than better marksmanship, so you’ll not buy your way to proficiency at distance. It’s the
shooting that may get you there. Long shooting at steel plates in practice, and at paper
in competition, is great fun. It gets you in touch with your bullet’s arc and confirms
what you might already know about drop and drift. It tests your shooting positions and
trigger control. Shooting at distance is valuable, because it makes short shots easier, too.
As regards hunting, a close shot trumps a long one; your odds of missing and
crippling increase with yardage. In my view, stalking closer not only adds excitement to
the hunt and makes its conclusion more memorable, it is an imperative for any
sportsman. When someone boasts of making a long shot on game, this consolation
comes to mind: “Don’t be embarrassed. You’ll get closer next time.” Indeed, the long
poke is often evidence you didn’t have the initiative or the skills to narrow the gap. Yes,
you might also have run short of time or faced terrain that made an approach truly
impossible. But, in my view, long shooting at game is properly a last resort and, likely
as not, one to be declined. Until I’m 90-percent sure of a killing hit with the first bullet,
there’s no shot.
Except in war, shots so far as to be uncertain are best kept to targets that don’t bleed.
—Wayne van Zwoll

PART 1:
BEYOND ARM’S REACH