How To Shoot Long-Range Consistently: SCOPES and DOPES

The capabilities of rifles, even factory rifles, have come a long way in the past 5-10 years. The one thing that doesn’t change is the shooter’s ability. I always like to say that you can have a 1-minute (1 MOA) gun, but if you are a 3 MOA shooter, you’ll never be able to get the full capabilities out of your rifle. In this article, I will talk about some of the keys to being a consistent, on-demand, long-range shooter.

Consistency does start with the rifle, but it does not end there. You can have great form but if your rifle isn’t set up properly, it will make it harder than it needs to be to be consistent. The consistency I speak of has multiple layers. When I think of consistency, I think of repeatable performance on demand. It amazes me that people will still take a small, .5-inch, 3-shot group and say that they have a .5-inch gun “if I do my part”. The problem with this type of standard is that it isn’t repeatable.

The same ammo, gun, and shooter will shoot 10 groups ranging from 1.5 inches to that magical .5-inch group and discount the 9 groups that were not small. They often say, “That was a flyer”, when a bullet deviates from the .5-inch group. So, repeatability is key. You also must shoot a group size that is statistically significant. While that round count is higher than most people want to shoot, it gives you the best look at what you and your weapon system are capable of. 10 shot groups are a good middle ground between the 3 shot groups and the 30-plus shot groups.

I am not saying you must lay down and shoot 10 shots in a row with your pencil-barreled hunting rifle. In that situation, I would shoot three or four 3-shot groups, giving your rifle time to cool in between those groups. Shoot those groups at the same target and same point of aim. This will give you two things. First, it will give you a good representation of you and your system's capabilities. Second, it will give you a good representation of what your rifle’s zero is. One of the keys to long-range shooting is having good data to draw from. For modern ballistic calculators, a good starting zero can help to provide accurate data for your longer shots.

Zero and Velocity Data

Along with the good zero, it will help, but not be 100% necessary, to have reliable velocity data. This does not come from shooting three shots over some time of a chronograph. If you get the data for your 9-12 shot zero group I described above, you will have a good representation of your ammo’s capabilities. If you do not have access to something that will give you velocity data, you can true your down range results to get that information. That takes a little bit of knowledge of your ballistic solver, so actual velocity readings are usually easier.

Now that I have established my criteria for “consistency”, I will talk about one of the key things that will help you as the shooter perform on demand more consistently.

One of the biggest things for consistent shooting is a properly installed and set up scope.

You first must start off with a rifle that is set up properly. Do not count on things being set up properly when you get your rifle from a box store or even a custom shop. They often set the rifle up to a general generic standard because they often do not have you there. I have also seen rifles with scopes mounted from box stores that offer scope mounting that mount the scopes horribly wrong.

Scope Set Up

The proper set up will be one where your length of pull and eye relief are tailored to you. This is often done wrong, in my opinion, because people are still shooting rifles wrong. I still see people at the range, and on shows, shooting rifles bladed off to the side. I'll cover this more later with body position behind the rifle (natural point of aim), but if your scope is set up improperly, it will be hard to get a proper position behind the rifle. Scopes are often mounted too far forward on the action which causes people to blade your body to see through the scope. Properly mounting the scope both in forwards and backwards direction and height above the bore is crucial.

The height of the scope over the bore is about the shooter's comfort behind the rifle and does not have a bearing on accuracy as I have heard some people say. All the good ballistic apps have an input for your height over bore, which is easy to measure. For instance, I am currently reviewing a new rifle stock on the market that has an “unusually” high comb (cheek area of the stock). With my normal stock and scope setup, I am usually using rings that put the center of my optic around 1.8 inches above the bore. I could not use my current ring setup for this new stock because of the high, negative comb. I needed to buy new rings that put the center of my optic 2.25 inches above the bore. While it does not sound like a lot going from 1.8 to 2.25 inches, that is the difference between medium rings and extra high rings in some cases.

Even with that added height, I still could not get comfortable behind the rifle because of my shooting style and how little face pressure I have on the gun. For me, I have found that little face pressure on the stock gives me more consistency, with less vertical stinging of shots. This will come down to the individual shooter.

While I have offered up this to some shooters, who have seen an improvement in consistency, I also have friends that are very consistent with more face pressure than I personally like.

Plumb

For long-range shooting, a bubble level for plumb reference is a must. For shots under 400 yards, the plumbness of your reticle to the world does not have a drastic of an affect on your point of impact versus your point of aim. But we are talking about long-range shooting so the bubble is a must. It is not as important that the scope is level to the action as it is that the scope, specifically the reticle, is plumb with the world.

There are a few ways you can check this but the easiest way I have found to do this, and cheapest, is to use a plumb bob. This does not have to be fancy and often I just use a darker length of 550 cord and hang something heavy from it. This will pull the cordage tight and plumb (with gravity). You can eyeball the reticle with the back of your action for it to be centered on the action, or close enough. The key is, once you get your scope properly torqued down, you then plumb your reticle with the plumb bob in some type of a vise or tightened bipod. Once your reticle is running true with the plumb bob, install and tighten your bubble level to where the bubble level reads level as your reticle is still plumb with the plumb bob.

Once this is set, you can go to the range and shoot a tall target test. I will attach a link to instructions on this from Bryan Litz from Applied Ballistics. This test will tell you if your bubble level is off and if your scope is tracking true. If your bubble is off, or you don’t use one at all, you will have left and right misses because of reticle cant along with some vertical misses.

Once you have your scope set up properly, you will be ahead of the curve for most shooters and well on your way to being a more consistent. https://appliedballisticsllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Tall-Target.pdf</p

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