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How to make a 1000 yard shot
On the bucket lists of many shooters is the 1000 yard shot with a bolt action rifle. Learning how to make a 1000 yard shot is not rocket science. Ringing the steel and the seconds that pass between the shot, impact, and the confirmation of the steel ringing at distance offer a reward unlike any other shooting experience.
Every shooter wants to learn how to make a 1000 yard shot, but a lack of appropriate ranges, proper equipment setup and training stops most from participating. The industry does little to help with this matter. Yes, the industry sells many great rifles, optics, ammo, and gear. The problem is that very few manufacturers, if any, create a cohesive system that is effective in short order without trial and error on the part of the shooter.
As an effective long-range shooter, you need a rifle system that is more than a sum of multiple manufactures individual’s efforts. You will need to create your own effective system. You will also need to know the fundamental skills to make the shot.
We are going to go examine the five critical long range system requirements. These are rifle, ammo, optic, rifle support(s) and fundamental shooting technique. Yes, you are a critical part of the system, the most important part. Picking a repeatable out-to-1000-yard shooting system requires you to take as many variables as possible out of the equation. The lower the variables, the higher the hit ratio.
Bolt Action Rifle
When new shooters want to learn how to make a 1000 yard shot, they tend to focus most of their attention on this single component in the system and understandably so. Shops and manufacturers will push nearly any rifle as a long-range rig. Shooters are inundated with information from manufacturers of claims of sub ¾” or ½”. There is much more to picking a rifle than its MOA “guarantee”.
Information on the rifle choice must be evaluated to make a consistent and repeatable choice for your long-range rifle. Things to carefully evaluate are caliber, barrel profile, twist rate, trigger, and chassis or stock.
Caliber: The current go to for out to 1000-yard calibers are the 6.5 Creedmoor, 6 Creedmoor and .308. There are three main reasons for these choices. High quality match ammo is available at a reasonable price from multiple manufacturers. All three are low recoiling rounds and you want to get a lot of repetitions in without fatigue. All three will hit reliably at 1000 yards without the cost and recoil created by using a magnum cartridge.
- 6mm Creedmoor. If you want a flatter shooting cartridge with low recoil, choose the 6mm Creedmoor but you will pay a penalty of barrel life. You also will not learn as much about wind and range estimation. specifically, if your range is limited to 600 yards. It’s nearly impossible to miss practical targets at these ranges, if you have a basic understanding of scope adjustment and shooting fundamentals.
6mm cartridges are a little harder to spot impacts on steel at a distance. Match ammo and reloading components are usually available online, and available in most high-end gun stores but not always. If your goal is easy hits out to 1000 the 6 Creedmoor is a top choice.
- .308 Winchester. If you want a cartridge that has been proven accurate but requires more range and wind estimation, it is not a bad skill to have in my opinion. There are some more advantages to the .308 such as its one of the easiest cartridges to reload and to find off-the-shelf match ammo for.
With today’s ballistic coefficient bullets the .308 can blur the line between the 6.5 Creedmoor advantage. Barrel length also plays a part in this blurring, we will talk more about that later. Barrel life is the best out of the three, I have personally shot .308 rifles with over 20K rounds and they still were half MOA rifles.
The US Marine Corps M40 series is a great example of this feat. Most current modern sniper weapons kits still include a .308 Win conversion kit in their 3-barrel systems.
- 6.5 Creedmoor is the current easy choice, this cartridge is here to stay. The ballistic advantage takes some of the wind and range call calculations easier because It’s flat enough shooting to cover many range estimation errors.
The near ubiquitous use makes finding ammo and reloading components easy under normal market conditions. Barrel life is good, we have seen 3000 rounds while remaining well under sub-MOA.
Velocity is key for the 6.5 Creedmoor to maintain its advantages over the .308 Win. As the throat in front of the chamber erodes the velocity will suffer, this can be adjusted by reloading to a higher velocity or changing barrels out.
Barrel
When picking a precision rifle there are four critical features to consider. One is barrel profile, proper twist rate for your choice of cartridge bullet weight, barrel weight and barrel length.
Barrel Profile
Most rifle MOA guarantees are a three or five round match ammo guarantee. While this is great it does not show what happens after the barrel heats up.
In our opinion any precision rifle barrel profile needs to be able to handle a minimum of 10 round strings of fire before major heat builds up and makes the barrel too flexible and starts throwing shots from the point of aim. This will happen with any rifle barrel that heats up too much.
The barrel should be able to hold 1.25 MOA or less over ten rounds which equates to a 12.5” target at 1000 yards. We combat this effect by using heavy barrels that can soak up the heat into the surrounding material and keep the barrel stiff as it heats up.
Our suggestion is to stay with a medium Palma or heavier. A simple way to evaluate a rifle is to measure the barrel at the muzzle. You are looking for a barrel that is at least .8” at the muzzle.
Some exceptions are quality hammer forged barrels from high end European rifle manufacturers. Hammer forged barrels can take more heat due to the concentric quality of the hammer forged steel removing inconsistent carbon pockets from the barrel. .7” would be the minimum muzzle diameter for a hammer forged barrel. We are assuming the barrel is tapered to this number for stiffness.
Twist Rate
Twist rate is critical for match shooting. Match ammo uses longer and heavier bullets to increase ballistic coefficient (BC). Longer and heavier bullets need stabilization with faster twist rates compared to hunting bullets.
For 6 Creedmoor we are looking for a twist rate of 1/8 for up to 110gr bullet. Shooting the heavier than 110 grain bullets will require you to have a twist rate of 1/7.5.
For the 6.5 Creedmoor you will want a 1/8 twist rate. This will stabilize the current 147 grain bullets on the market. If you are going to something heavier a tighter twist rate will be needed but most likely will not be able to be found on a factory rifle.
The .308 Winchester should be a 1/10 twist to stabilize the heavy 175 to 185 grain bullets that blur the line between the .308 and the 6.5 Creedmoor and stay supersonic to 1000 yards. The good news is many manufacturers are using 1/10 twist barrels. Make sure you have a 1-10 twist rate if you choose the .308. It will also work with many bullets down to 150 grains as well.
Barrel Weight
Barrel weight plays a critical role in recoil mitigation. We suggest that the minimum barrel weight for any match gun be 5 pounds or more. As caliber bullet weight increases so does felt recoil.
We suggest scaling the barrel weight be a minimum of 5 pounds for the 6 Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor and the .308 Winchester. The complete rifle system weight with optics and accessories should be 14-18 pounds which will mitigate felt recoil, rifle movement off target and shooters fatigue.
Barrel Length
Let’s face it barrel length equals velocity. Velocity is what propels the bullet to the target before gravity pulls it to the ground. When the .260/6.5 calibers came on to the scene most match shooters ran 28” barrels with lighter ~130 bullets to flatten out the ballistic arc and wind drift with velocity’s around 2800fps.
The faster any caliber goes the “flatter” it will shoot. With that in mind we want the bullet to travel at least the stated ammo box speed to be at least as effective as that velocity states it to be.
You will also need to find out what test barrel length the ammo was tested with. Most competent ammo manufactures will have this available on the box or on the website. Any velocity increase from a longer barrel is icing on the cake. The .308 Winchester with a 175-grain bullet from a longer barrel at ~2750 will be very effective at 1000 yards, even at low sea levels.
A 26” or 28” barrel will usually do the trick. Many shooters are cutting their 6.5 barrels down to 18-22 inches which affects the velocity. Some will compensate for this by loading hotter rounds to keep the velocity up but if you don’t reload it’s not suggested for a 1000-yard rifle. Short rifles have their purpose but to have high hit ratios at 1000 yards. It’s not suggested to go under 26”. The only exception to this rule is that if you live above 4000 elevation and shoot there the air is thinner and the bullet fly’s farther. You can probably get away with a 24” barrel.
We suggest you stay with a minimum of 26” barrels on 6 Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Winchester calibers to gain the most out of velocity. The .308 Win rifle will be harder to find in the 26” because of the industry trend to make it “handy” but they are available from several manufacturers.
Learning how to make a 1000 yard shot takes time. Not everyone will learn how to make a 1000 yard shot overnight. Check out Par2 to of our series Ringing Steel at 1,000 yards to help you learn how to make a 1000 yard shot quicker than you friends.
Ringing Steel at 1,000 yards – Part 2 – Bolt Action Rifle Chassis and Trigger
