There are many misconceptions about bullet trajectory.
A bullet is not an airplane wing and it has no lift. In fact, if you dropped a bullet from your fingers the instant a rifle bullet left the barrel, positioned perfectly parallel to the ground, both would hit the ground at the same instant -— one at your feet, the other some 2,000 feet from the muzzle. Gravity is a constant.
The reason bullets appear to rise is caused by the sighting in process. Imagine a dotted line exiting your scope and traveling to the bullseye at 100 yards. The muzzle of your gun is about 1.5 inches below the center of the scope. When the scope is adjusted for 100 yards, the barrel is pointing upward so that the bullet’s path, traveling in a straight line, will cross the dotted line of your sight at 100 yards. The bullet actually does travel upward to strike the center of the target, but only because the barrel is pointed that direction.
The bullet, crossing the line of sight at 100 yards, is now traveling above that dotted line of sight as it flies. Gravity is pulling at it though and it begins to drop, crossing the dotted line again at about 150 yards. It continues to drop below your line of sight throughout the rest of its flight. Since the bullet is below your line of sight now (read your center crosshair), you must hold high to hit your target. The further away your quarry, the higher you have to hold, as relentless gravity continues to pull the bullet down ever further.
Since almost all popular hunting rifles have bullet velocities between 2,800 and 3,100 feet per second, spitzer bullets of similar ballistic coefficients have almost identical trajectories. Sight in a .243 with a 100 grain bullet, a .257 Roberts with a 100 or 120 grain bullet, a .270 with a 130 grain bullet, a 30-06 with a 165 grain bullet, 7mm Short Mag with a 150 grain, all at 200 yards, and every one of them will be within a couple inches of one another at 300, 400 and 500 yards. Many other calibers confirm to the same trajectory pattern.
Knowing this, some smart fellow realized that one scope could actually be used for many different calibers by averaging their bullet drops and placing a crosshair for the different yardages out to 500 yards. So they did. Genius!
This fall I purchased such a scope, loaded up some 165 grain bullets at 2,800 feet per second and zeroed in my 06’. Once sighted at 100 yards, I shot at 300 and 400 yards and had no trouble, off a good rest, of hitting well inside an eight-inch circle at both distances with the appropriate crosshair.
Marvelous!
However, I used a lead sled my last trip to the range, just before I went out west this year. As I shot, I noticed how violently the recoiling rifle slammed against that unmoving steel butt stop. Sure enough, my scope lost zero, broken. The recoil was just too much against that steel.
It wasn’t long until I heard other stories of not only scope problems, but stocks splitting or breaking while using lead sleds. I guess your shoulder soaking up some of that recoil is a good thing.
At the last minute, I replaced my ballistic scope with my single crosshair 2.5 x10 Leopold. Sure enough, I ended up taking a long shot, couldn’t remember the correct holdover at 350 yards and shot over the buck. High altitudes, exertion, excitement and the vastly different terrain are confusing. If I had had my ballistic scope I would have just placed the 350 yard dot on the buck’s chest and dropped him the first shot. Guessing your holdover can be chancy business and I was fortunate the buck gave me a second chance.
This brings up another interesting question: Do you need a magnum caliber with a ballistic compensating scope? Man, that makes you put on the thinking cap, doesn’t it?
With the possible exception of grizzlies, you can kill everything in North America with a 30-06. True, magnums fly flatter, but if your range finder gives you the distance, just use the correct crosshair on your ballistic compensating scope. Why subject yourself to the added recoil and even harder to bear shell prices of magnum ammo.
Standard calibers can also be purchased in a very light rifle. At the range, a 10-pound gun is no problem. On the side of a steep Idaho mountain, tripping through sage and gasping for breath, it is no fun at all. Everyone I showed my seven-pound Weatherby Ultra Light too wanted one after just a single day on the mountain.
Hunting boils down to being able to make the shot when it presents itself. You don’t know what the distance or conditions will be, so your shooting ability is the single most important factor. In my very humble opinion, the ability to precisely place your bullet, not a magnum caliber, is the key to success.
Ballistic scopes, a rangefinder, and a rifle you can shoot very accurately and carry in tough terrain, plus lots of practice at the range, can all help you to do just that.
