New ELR World Record with Factory Savage

[-HIC-]

He has an interesting shooting style, particularly with the trigger finger. I guess it works!

I was actually kind of surprised this was a record setting distance. Seeing the ranges that some of the people on this board can get out to, I would have guessed a record would have been in the 2600 yard range.

[TX03RUBI]

How has the format been standardized? And why do you think it will continue to be broken? And what’s magic about the 2,500-2,600 range?

Genuinely curious. I know nothing about long range shooting. This all seems very fascinating to me. Would love to get into it but don’t have the coin or time to start right now with little kids running around.

That “record” is routinely broken in the ELR world. The only difference is they’re not doing it at an “official” attempt. Don’t get me wrong 2100 yds is good shooting. It’s just not “holy ****” good shooting.

[MagicBlade]

Congrats! I love my 308 bull barrel!

[GoneSouth]

Congrats! I love my 308 bull barrel!

*** does that have to do with this thread

[Stick1]

How has the format been standardized? And why do you think it will continue to be broken? And what’s magic about the 2,500-2,600 range?

Genuinely curious. I know nothing about long range shooting. This all seems very fascinating to me. Would love to get into it but don’t have the coin or time to start right now with little kids running around.

Basically there were no "rules" outlining what would be considered an official world record until last year. You were seeing claims of records at 4k + yds being thrown around, but no real continuity or consistency in how guys were accomplishing it. I mean, is it really a record if you took 30 shots to hit it?

Some of the ELR community worked together to establish some guidelines and a framework that would help standardize the qualifications of an official record. A standard target size of 36"x36" was adopted. A rule to prove it could be done intentionally and repeatably was instituted - which is going 3 for 3 on a cold bore attempt. The rules also limit the number of attempts in a 24 hour period. There are also some other "witness" requirements thrown in there as well.

The new rules do a pretty good job of proving actual skill and minimizing "lucky" shots, and keeping folks from just shooting until they make a hit. Since we are still in the beginning phase of the new requirements, the distances just haven't gotten that extreme yet(I think it started at like 1,200 yds). That's why we are seeing records fall rather quickly at the moment. The only reason they aren't falling even faster, is that about the only way to break one and get credit is to do it at an actual event, which there just aren't many of.

We see folks going 3 for 3 on targets farther than the current record on a fairly regular basis at matches. But it doesn't meet the requirements because we have shot other targets prior to that. That's why I say there is probably somebody out there "unofficially" breaking that record almost every weekend.

I believe it will stall at 25-2,600 yards because that is about 100 yds further than the point where consistency starts deteriorating rather quickly with most set-ups. It's still plenty doable, but you're hitting a threshold where ballistic performance is dwindling fast and reading conditions went from real hard to extremely difficult and sometimes even impossible. If you think about the path of the bullet, some of your flight time is up in air currents you can't see or read mirage in. It's literally anybodies guess what is taking place 100 ft above the target, and you don't have the luxury of sending a "feeler" shot downrange to gauge conditions. I'd expect when it pushes past those ranges - and it will - it will be done in very stable conditions and most likely in one of the Western states above 5,000 ft.

[Stick1]

To kind of expand on the 2,500 yd thing, I'll use last weekends ELRSO match as an example. We shoot the same size target, and its 3 shots per as well. The unlimited class was blessed with REALLY challenging conditions on Sunday. 103 degrees and all the mirage that comes with it, plus some really gusty winds. Not optimal conditions to say the least.

Round 1 went to 2,008 yds I believe.We had a forty something percent hit ratio to 2K in those conditions. Some of those targets were cleaned. Had it been decent conditions, I have no doubt that ratio would have went above 60% and been maintained easily for another 200 yds. That is a very typical result that we have seen many times.

Round 2 started at 2,270 yds and went to 2,714 yds. The overall hit rate in that round dropped to just 6%! I think there was only one impact on the 2,270 yd target across the entire field. Again, bad conditions were cutting about 200 yds off what we normally see as effective and consistent ranges under normal conditions. But even under ideal conditions, things start getting REAL at about 2,400 yds............and we see it pretty much across the board with everything above the .338's.

We do get hits regularly well past that range, but not with the consistency required to set a record. That's why I think we'll see a significant stall around the 2,500 yd mark. There are some advancements being made on the equipment side that I have no doubts will push the limits further than where we are today.