Okay, not auto-related, but...
A few weeks ago, I was invited by a great client of ours to shoot a sniper rifle at a target one thousand yards away. Some quick cipherin' on the trusty abacus told me that that is over half a mile, about .57 mile, in fact. Naturally, I jumped at the chance!
When I got to the range, I was amazed at how small a 19" wide torso target looks at that distance. Hard to fathom being able to hit it at all, let alone "kill" it!
What I failed to consider was the incredible knowledge these guys have, and the quality of their equipment. At that distance, the bullet drops almost three feet below its one-hundred yard zero. The great thing about that is that it can be factored into the sighting, since it is, relatively speaking, a constant. What is not a constant is the wind. The man helping me showed me how to "see" the wind, and told me how much to compensate for it.
After some coaching, I settled in behind the rifle, and sent a round downrange. The projectile hit a bit to the left of the target's right shoulder, so we cranked in a little more right windage, and subsequent rounds "killed" the poor "victim". I'd love to take credit for being a great marksman, but as I said before, the credit goes to the knowledge of the man helping me and to the quality of the equipment. Nonetheless, a great experience!
Thanks to DOC Auto's great clients for adding so many amazing experiences to my otherwise drab existence! I was happy to be able to thank the gentlemen at the range in a tangible way by giving them tickets to the NASCAR Cup race in Richmond last Saturday night.
Dave
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