Not unusual. It's not as though the bullets drop to the ground at 300 meters, having reached their maximum range, they can travel quite a distance beyond that. What you are referring to is the "maximum effective range" usually modified by "in the hands of troops" and effective range is a different thing than the maximum distance that the bullet will travel.Keith wrote:A few weeks back my son and I went shooting with 2 of my buddies on his 600 acre deer lease. After a day of hog hunting (shot nothing :-( ) we decided to spend the day shooting.
My friend had a scuba tank and a reg sized propane tank from a portable grill that we decided to stick out in the field and shoot at. We ranged the tanks at 465 yards. At first we used a Savage Arms 110 BA and were drilling the tanks. It's what happened next that shocked me.
I pulled out my Century Arms Sportier 39 AK with milled receiver and a Bushnell TRS25 red dot. What the heck let's try it. All I've ever read was how AKs are max 250/300 meter weapons. So I started shooting as my son watched the spotting scope.
On the 5 th shot I heard it as the bullet hit the propane tank DING! I was laughing my butt off. This can't be done it's an inaccurate AK lol. I gave the rifle to my son and explained were to put the dot. On his 3 Rd shot DING! Once he new were to put the dot he hit it continuesly. There is no magnification on the AK.
Moral of this story believe very little what u read and even less what you hear. Do your own testing. We also had an AR out there with a Acog 4x32 in .556. We all had the same success with this rifle. Smith & Wesson MP. On a closing note myself and my son are not x military or police snipers. Were just two guys who have shot since we were both 8 years old. Thanks grandpa/dad. My son is 14.
Take Care! Thanks for letting me share my story.
Included in the many factors that determine effective range is: the marksmanship capability of the AVERAGE shooter, which includes the ability to dope the shot fall and get on target; and the bullet's retained ballistic capability, IOW could it actually hurt something or is it just loafing along looking for something to stop it.
That you are above average marksmen, indicated by the fact that you were able to consistently hit a long range target using "Kentucky windage", is not in question, far from it, but think what might have happened to those tanks if you had been using something that retained a lot of energy at that range, such as a .30-06, .308, or a .338 Lapua, much less a .50.
It's fun to shoot long range, especially when you are scoring hits, and moreso when you are using something not designed to be used at those ranges.