by Mark Bunch,
President Royal Gorge Gun Club/Chairman Fremont County NRA
Long Distance Rifle Shooting basics
Once upon a time in the not too distant past, if you were a long-distance shooter, you likely had the skill set, knowledge and experience to shoot at and hit your 1 M.O.A. target out to1,000 yards or so. As most of you reading this already know, a 1 M.O.A. target subtends 1.047 inches at 100 yards or commonly rounded down to 1 inch at a hundred yards, or roughly 10 inches at 1,000 yards which used to be considered the long-distance threshold for long distance rifle shooting.
The definition of long-distance shooting used to be out to 1,000 yards or so because the equipment of yesteryear was good and reliably accurate to around that distance. These days, many cartridges are able to shoot way beyond that 1,000 yard threshold providing you, as the shooter operating the rifle, know what you are doing for your 60%, the rifle and equipment making up the other 40% of the equation. As a recap for Sentinel readers, shooting from 600 to 1,000 yards these days is simply considered medium distance rifle shooting. Long distance rifle shooting begins at the 1,000 yard line and extends to 1,400 yards. This also happens to correlate with where most long-distance rifles/calibers start to pitch and yaw as they run out of steam and pass through the trans-sonic window. Newer long-distance calibers in the 6.5 mm class, such as the 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Remington, join the tried and true 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum are all capable of shooting supersonic to 1,400 or so yards. Once your projectile slows down and goes transonic, that destabilizes your rifle projectile and causes it to pitch and yaw. The nose and base of your bullet begin slowing down at different increments due to the increased friction and or drag being applied by the wind and the increased drag coefficient.
Can you hit something beyond your cartridges transonic threshold, of course you can it just gets a lot harder to do so. I encourage Sentinel readers to think about throwing a football. When the football is thrown with a good tight spiral it is amazing how far and straight it can fly. Get it to wobbling with a poor release or tipped ball and it looks and flies like a wounded duck.

Extreme Long Distance Shooting
North of 1,400 yards we enter the realm of Extreme Long Distance Shooting and Extreme Distance shooting ranges are from 1,400 to 2,400 yards. At the RGGC we have facilities to shoot to approximately 2,100 yards off of our cool new Elevated Platform designed and built by Senior Life Member and long-time friend of mine Vic Webster. We recently held a King of 1 mile match and 1 mile NRA Extreme Distance Rifle Certification where we had 31 shooters who signed up to certify at 1,769 yards. Fourteen of those shooters were able to certify at the 1-mile threshold including all of my instructors, John Pruden shooting .300 PRC, Luke Urso shooting 6.5 PRC, and Dane Silvia also shooting 6.5 PRC. Sam and I completed our 1-mile missions in .300 PRC, 6.5 PRC and also in 6.5 Creedmoor. Our new HD 60 Representative, Mr. Ron Hanks also got NRA 1-Mile Certified with his .300 PRC Ruger Precision Rifle. Only two shooters were able to also certify at that distance at night, my lead firearms instructor Sam Tittes and myself, both of us shooting 6.5 PRC rifles. The video of my hitting the 1-mile target at night can be viewed on my gun club website, www.royalgorgegunclub.org

Calibers good for these extreme distances are .338 Lapua Magnum, which has probably been the go to extreme distance round for the last 15 years or so, and one of the longest shots on record of hitting a terrorist scumbag at approximately 2,700 yards ! One shot, one dead. Simple and easy to remember, LOL.
Another new extreme long-distance caliber which is pretty exciting is the new .300 PRC round. I picked up a couple of new rifles in this caliber, a Ruger Precision Rifle and a Christensen Arms BA Tactical and with the new A-Tip 250 grain Hornady bullets this caliber is Supersonic out to 2,500 yards with a 26” barrel. This new bullet is transonic stable for another 545 yards or so, making this new caliber a true 3,000 yard gun.
The little brother to the new .300 PRC is also from Hornady, the 6.5 PRC, supersonic to right around a mile in this elevation, it offers shooters a great caliber to not only shoot extreme distances with, it also is a terrific long distance hunting round good to over 900 yards on large game animals if you are capable of doing your part.
Uber or Super Extreme Distance Shooting
This type of rifle shooting begins at 2,400 yards and runs to 4,000 yards. There are not very many rifles or shooters who are capable of hitting a target at these super extreme distances. However, if you are one of those brave souls with understanding management and deep pockets, your calibers to consider are… .300 PRC, .338 Lapua, .50 BMG, .416 Barrett, .375 CheyTac and .408 Cheytac.
100-year old Workhorse
.50 BMG has been around for a hundred years because it is an incredible cartridge. Supersonic range hovers around 2,000 to 2,400 yards depending on your choice of weapon barrel twist, length of barrel, ballistic coefficient of your chosen round and the type of ogive you are using in your loaded ammunition. The downsides of this cartridge is the huge expense required to get into .50 BMG distance shooting and you aren’t going to be transporting these rifles very far on your own I can assure you. One of the big upsides to this cartridge, is that the Hornady AMAX 750 grain projectile is for the most part, transonic stable allowing you to connect to Extreme Distance DOD guidelines of being capable of 50% accuracy or better to 2,800 yards.
I have an Armalight AR50 that I shoot, and it is absolutely ferocious. After about 10 rounds or so, I am done for the day due to the recoil and associated blast off of the muzzle break. Owning a .50 BMG is an awesome conversation piece but it is going to be difficult to find a place in which to shoot something this powerful. Most gun ranges will not allow you to shoot this caliber on their range as I believe that we are one of the few ranges that currently allow this.
Marine Legend and one of the most prolific snipers in modern history, Carlos Hathcock used a MA-Deuce 50 BMG and a fixed 10 power Unertle external spring reset scope to smoke a VC off of his bike at 2,500 yards!! While I have never read what ammunition Carlos used for this, I suspect it was simply GI Ball, maybe 660 grains which would make this probably the most difficult shot in all the history of sniping. Other snipers have used the .50 BMG rifle and cartridge to devastating effect, and currently the longest kill shot on record was made by a Canadian Sniper shooting a McMillan Tac 50 to kill a Taliban Jihadi at a record 3,540 meters, or approximately 4,000 yards !
Even though his cartridge had been subsonic for almost 1,000 yards, the 750 grain Hornady Amax projectile still had sufficient retained energy and weight to kill that poor little misunderstood terrorist, lol.
Ultimate Super Extreme Distance Cartridges

.416 Barrett
The .416 Barrett was designed by Chris and Ronnie Barrett in opposition to brain dead California Gun Legislation which outlawed .50 BMG firearms and ammo for all of us dirty civilians and it is a good choice as long as you choose a different rifle than a Barrett. No offense, but when you spend this kind of money you want the absolute best accuracy possible in whatever caliber choice you have decided to make, and there are quite a few better options out there than a Barrett rifle. The .416 is a good caliber, and sadly the accompanying Barrett rifle is only okay. They do make a spectacular bullet, the 452 Grain MTAC with a G1 of .830 and a G7 of .420 if you are going to choose this caliber this is probably the projectile to shoot out of it with. Typical muzzle velocity is about 3005 fps out of a 32-inch tube. Super-sonic range in this altitude is only about 2,650 yards, but the excellent solid projectile is transonic stable to the 2-mile mark, or 3,520 yards!
.408 CheyTac
Developed by the genius ballisticians at CheyTac USA the .408 CheyTac was originally chambered in said company’s model 200 Intervention precision sniper rifle series and the sticker shock to obtain one of these models was frightful to say the least, way
past $10K.
It was of course spectacular in its downrange ability if you could afford the price of admission and also got lucky. I say that, because quality control and company shenanigans earned them atrocious reviews and scores of murderous clientele absolutely spitting nails at being screwed over by the original company management. CheyTac USA does make a great bullet, in the 419 grain balanced flight projectile at 2,850 fps with a G1 of .949. Supersonic in this altitude to around 2,700 yards and also up to smacking things
out to 2 miles.
In fact, in 2018 a man named Bill Poor from Texas, used one to hit a target at 5,280 yards which is just over 3 miles which is simply amazing. His rifle weighed in at an ugly 43 lbs.
Elvis is in the building with the .375 CheyTac
The .375 CheyTac is basically the .408 case necked down to .375 caliber resulting in the absolute best super extreme distance cartridge on planet earth if you want it to be a truly man portable weapon system. The parent company, CheyTac USA also offered/offers this caliber in their model 200 and 300 intervention. Great guns if you get lucky, and money pits if you have my kind of luck, which is why I didn’t buy one.

Many will claim that the best bullet ever for this caliber was the 375 grain Lost River Ballistics monolithic solid but they disappeared off the market some years ago, so I recommend the 353 grain Lehigh Defense laser turned copper solid, or the 401 grain flight stabilized projectiles but they are very long if you go that route which could be an issue. CheyTac USA’s patented loading is a 350 grain copper solid which is also very good. Supersonic to around 2,900 to 3,000 yards is simply amazing and once you shoot one you will be just fine giving up your lunch money… For the rest of your natural life I might add. LOL
Super extreme distance shooting has many more variables to contend with than medium, long distance or extreme distance rifle shooting has to contend with, such as TOF, or time of flight, spin drift depending on your rifling twist and direction, and range estimation error window or REEW.
Shooting super extreme distances means extended time of flight for your projectile to your target of anywhere between 1.5 to 8.5 seconds depending on your range out. .375 CheyTac beats everything else you can think of or you can buy in this category hands down and it isn’t even close. Once your flight time gets north of 1.5 seconds to your target a lot of really unusual things can happen. Your target can lie down, or decide to take a step or two for no good reason whatsoever, making your perfectly aimed shot completely miss so the faster your projectile can get there the better you will like it ! At 2,000 yards time of flight for .375 CheyTac shooting the 353 grain Lehigh Defense bullet at 3,000 fps muzzle velocity covers this insane distance like a laser beam is a mere 2.96 seconds!
Shooting one of my .308 match rifles with the absolute best powder, cases, primers and projectiles money can buy will get my 175 grain sierra BTHP match bullets to about 1,200 yards in 2.97 seconds for you trusty slide rule calculators out there in Redneckville. That is just insane when you stop to think about it. My .308 will get to 1,200 yards in the same time my .375 CheyTac will make it to 2,000 yards!
Other 2,000 yard times for precision rifle cartridges are 3.6 seconds for .50 BMG shooting 750 grain AMAX bullets, 3.4 seconds for .338 Lapua Magnum shooting 270 grain Lost River Ballistics, and 3.5 seconds for .408 CheyTac shooting 452 grain MTAC bullets, and 3.7 seconds for .416 Barrett shooting 419 grain copper solids. From that comparison everyone should be able to see why I say that .375 CheyTac is simply the best there has ever been.
Spin Drift
Moving on to spin drift we find that spin drift is a deflection generated by the gyroscopic motion of the bullet. The direction of the deflection is always toward the direction of the spin, and the amount of deflection is dependent on bullet length, flight time and, not surprisingly, spin rate. Its effect is noticeable, and must be taken into account, starting around 500yds. To make Sentinel readers an example, for a 175gr SMK bullet, fired at 2700fps from a .308, with a barrel twist rate of 1:12”, the amount of spin drift would be about 1½ inches at 500 yards and about 9 inches at 1,000 yards. But why does the bullet’s spin generate a deflection in the trajectory you might be asking yourself?
When a bullet exits the barrel, the bullet wobbles initially because of gyroscopic precession. When the wobbling is spun out, and the bullet is dynamically stabilized, the bullet’s longitudinal axis no longer points in the direction it’s traveling, but instead has a yaw angle, called yaw of repose (or equilibrium yaw), toward the direction of the spin. The bullet is actually skidding along its trajectory arc, with the center of gravity following the trajectory and the tip pointed to the right (for righteous spin bullets) and slightly upward. The incoming air pushing on the left side of the bullet causes it to drift. One of the biggest contributors to your spin drift deflection error is your bullet’s time of flight to target.
REEW
Simply put, when you are shooting at these kinds of distances, the slightest error in distance calculation or error in laser ranged data can make you completely miss your target and you might only get one shot depending on the circumstances you are contending with. The greater the Range Estimation Error Window of your cartridge can make all the difference in a successful shot and a complete miss. The two best cartridges for REEW are .338 Lapua Magnum and the .375 CheyTac. As an example in this altitude, shooting at a range of 1 mile, or 1,760 yards, the REEW for .338 Lapua Magnum is 74 yards, which means you will still be able to hit your target if your range estimation is in error by up to 74 yards. .50 BMG has an REEW at the one mile mark of only 66 yards while .375 CheyTac extends the REEW at the one mile mark to a whopping 98 yards! The REEW for .308 Winchester is a mere 14 inches, lol!
No Jacket Required
Shooting these types of weapons at insane distances requires you to use monolithic, solid copper turned projectiles and you will have to twist them fast to get them there which means that using jacketed projectiles simply doesn’t work very well, so trust me on this, don’t do it. My Cadex Shadow 40 has a 1 in 10 twist but if I was planning on shooting 401 grain projectiles, I would go with 1 in 7 instead.
I need a M.O.A
Shooting to 2 miles with the .375 CheyTac is going to require about 175 minutes of angle to get you there so you will need to choose one of the newer 34 or 35mm scopes with lots and lots of elevation on the erector.
I chose a new Leupold Mark 5HD in 7-35x56mm which has 120 MOA on the dial, and an additional 60 MOA in my reticle for a whopping 180 MOA allegedly good to close to 4,000 yards. I have not shot my Cadex Shadow .375 CheyTac at that distance yet, but I can head shoot our 2/3rds size silhouette targets consistently in the head at 1 mile, as in 80% in the head at a range of 1,769 yards.
How far is that again?

2.272 miles is how far 4,000 yards is, and in a car traveling 60 mph, it will take you approximately 2 minutes and 11 seconds to get there, which would be about 2 minutes and 2 seconds longer than it takes the .375 CheyTac to get there, LOL! Shooting at these distances is going to require a very expensive laser rangefinder but they are cheaper than they were 10 years ago if that makes you feel any better, lol. The best bang for your buck is the new Leica 3500.com which will run you around $1,100.
Anyone wishing to really flirt with living in your doghouse with your dog for the rest of your life, feel free to contact me if you are looking for one of the new Cadex Defense super extreme distance rifles, since John and I are Cadex Gold Dealers and I will gladly help you save some money on your purchases so you can outfit your new digs in style!
The author, Mark Bunch owns and operates his own class 3 weapons dealerships, NRA Certified Firearms Training Center, and 1 mile plus gun range with his business partner and gun club VP John Hudson. Mark and John with their Lead Firearms Instructor Sam Tittes and their Tactical Firearms Instructor John Pruden offer many different shooting classes from concealed carry all the way to extreme distance rifle shooting classes.