By Joe Kurtenbach, American Rifleman
Breathe in. Breath out. Squeeze, squeeze, squee—bang! I rode the recoil back onto the target just in time to catch the contrail from my bullet making a steep right curve toward it and then vanishing, leaving only a gray splatter on the red steel gong. The target was hidden halfway up the face of the opposing hill, across a ravine and 10 to 15 degrees below my position. After what seemed like minutes, the distinct “thud” sound reached my ears, confirming what I had already witnessed: a first-round hit at 800 yds.
I considered that no small achievement for a 16″-barreled piston-driven semi-automatic rifle—even if it was chambered in 7.62×51 mm NATO/.308 Win. Just days earlier it would have seemed a daunting task, but now it was the expected result of sound marksmanship fundamentals, the use of a range card trued out to 500 yds. and a correct wind call—all the product of skills, tools and techniques developed and improved during the precision shooting course I was attending at FTW Ranch in the Hill Country of Texas. The lessons learned from the hundreds of rounds fired in the previous days seemed to coalesce and transform that seemingly tiny red plate—actually 12″ in diameter but not visible without the use of optics—from an impossible target to a challenging but attainable objective. “Good shot,” called my spotter, also one of the instructors at FTW and a former Navy SEAL. “Now go for the smaller one.”
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By Joe Kurtenbach, American Rifleman
Breathe in. Breath out. Squeeze, squeeze, squee—bang! I rode the recoil back onto the target just in time to catch the contrail from my bullet making a steep right curve toward it and then vanishing, leaving only a gray splatter on the red steel gong. The target was hidden halfway up the face of the opposing hill, across a ravine and 10 to 15 degrees below my position. After what seemed like minutes, the distinct “thud” sound reached my ears, confirming what I had already witnessed: a first-round hit at 800 yds.
I considered that no small achievement for a 16″-barreled piston-driven semi-automatic rifle—even if it was chambered in 7.62×51 mm NATO/.308 Win. Just days earlier it would have seemed a daunting task, but now it was the expected result of sound marksmanship fundamentals, the use of a range card trued out to 500 yds. and a correct wind call—all the product of skills, tools and techniques developed and improved during the precision shooting course I was attending at FTW Ranch in the Hill Country of Texas. The lessons learned from the hundreds of rounds fired in the previous days seemed to coalesce and transform that seemingly tiny red plate—actually 12″ in diameter but not visible without the use of optics—from an impossible target to a challenging but attainable objective. “Good shot,” called my spotter, also one of the instructors at FTW and a former Navy SEAL. “Now go for the smaller one.”
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