Last October I posted about my adventures in hitting a golf ball at 200 meters. I had just started using NSA 12.5 gn slugs as a replacement for H&N Piledrivers in 177 cal. I was really excited at the time but I wanted to see how far I could push things. My new goal became to hit a golf ball at 300 meters. The range I shoot at is set up for silhouette competitions so the lines are set up in meters (200, 300, 385 and 500).
It was a pretty easy jump to go from 200 to 250 meters. I set up a target in between to 200 and 300 by pacing it off to make sure I was an equal distance from both lines so it was probably 250 +/- 2 meters. I was able to get onto a 6 inch round plate in about 5 shots. This is where a ballistics calculator comes in handy. I had the gun zeroed for 200 meters and that pretty much maxed out all of the elevation I had but my reticle is set up for range finding so holdover is not a big deal. This was at the end of the day in late October so I figured I would make hitting a golf ball at 300 meters my goal for 2021.
The spring was not very cooperative around here as the wind always seemed to be up whenever I had free time. Finally at the end of May I caught a break and there was a relatively calm(ish) day with ~ 5mph winds. I figured as long as the wind was somewhat consistent I could at least have a go at 300. I set up 4 targets at 300. A 12x12 square steel plate, a 6 inch round steel plate, a 2 ½ X 5 inch mini torso, and a golf ball.
It took me some time to get things figured out. My scope is 6-24x and at 24x there simply wasn’t enough field of view to provide me with the necessary hold over. I moved the magnification down to 6X and was finally able to have enough FOV. With a 200 meter zero, the calculator said I needed approximately 14 feet of holdover at 300 meters. The wind was mostly a head wind so my holdover that day was approximately 17 ft by my estimation.
After getting the holdover figured out I was able to finally get on the 12x12 plate. After getting many hits on that, I moved on to the six inch round, then the mini torso. All of those went fairly well. I then took a stab at the golf ball. I kept missing by what looked like less than an inch. The splashes were all around it and I was getting very frustrated. After about 30-40 tries I gave up. The wind was simply not cooperating. A 1 MPH crosswind will move the slug 7 inches at 300 meters according to my calculator so any variation in the wind basically means a miss.
I was able to get back to the range just a few days later and armed with good ballistics information I set out a 6 inch round and a golf ball at 300 meters. This time getting on target was a much easier process. It took me about 3-4 shots to get onto the 6 inch plate. The golf ball however was not so cooperative. After about 20-30 shots I finally made contact. The only issue was that I could not say with 100% certainty that I hit the golf ball or I knocked it off the tee with the sand splash. I’m pretty sure I hit it, but I’m the type that has to have definitive evidence or I don’t count it.
I came back one more time on 6/20 and finally I got what I was looking for. I set out a brand new golf ball so that I could clearly see the mark and everything cooperated that day. I had light and consistent winds and scored a very solid hit. The golf ball has a very clear mark on it. It’s actually pretty cool, the mark is cog shaped so you can see how the slug started to petal out.
I took a picture of both the golf ball close up and of the area where the tee was set up. You can see a distinct trail where the golf ball flew off the tee, landed, and then rolled down the berm.
It was a pretty easy jump to go from 200 to 250 meters. I set up a target in between to 200 and 300 by pacing it off to make sure I was an equal distance from both lines so it was probably 250 +/- 2 meters. I was able to get onto a 6 inch round plate in about 5 shots. This is where a ballistics calculator comes in handy. I had the gun zeroed for 200 meters and that pretty much maxed out all of the elevation I had but my reticle is set up for range finding so holdover is not a big deal. This was at the end of the day in late October so I figured I would make hitting a golf ball at 300 meters my goal for 2021.
The spring was not very cooperative around here as the wind always seemed to be up whenever I had free time. Finally at the end of May I caught a break and there was a relatively calm(ish) day with ~ 5mph winds. I figured as long as the wind was somewhat consistent I could at least have a go at 300. I set up 4 targets at 300. A 12x12 square steel plate, a 6 inch round steel plate, a 2 ½ X 5 inch mini torso, and a golf ball.
It took me some time to get things figured out. My scope is 6-24x and at 24x there simply wasn’t enough field of view to provide me with the necessary hold over. I moved the magnification down to 6X and was finally able to have enough FOV. With a 200 meter zero, the calculator said I needed approximately 14 feet of holdover at 300 meters. The wind was mostly a head wind so my holdover that day was approximately 17 ft by my estimation.
After getting the holdover figured out I was able to finally get on the 12x12 plate. After getting many hits on that, I moved on to the six inch round, then the mini torso. All of those went fairly well. I then took a stab at the golf ball. I kept missing by what looked like less than an inch. The splashes were all around it and I was getting very frustrated. After about 30-40 tries I gave up. The wind was simply not cooperating. A 1 MPH crosswind will move the slug 7 inches at 300 meters according to my calculator so any variation in the wind basically means a miss.
I was able to get back to the range just a few days later and armed with good ballistics information I set out a 6 inch round and a golf ball at 300 meters. This time getting on target was a much easier process. It took me about 3-4 shots to get onto the 6 inch plate. The golf ball however was not so cooperative. After about 20-30 shots I finally made contact. The only issue was that I could not say with 100% certainty that I hit the golf ball or I knocked it off the tee with the sand splash. I’m pretty sure I hit it, but I’m the type that has to have definitive evidence or I don’t count it.
I came back one more time on 6/20 and finally I got what I was looking for. I set out a brand new golf ball so that I could clearly see the mark and everything cooperated that day. I had light and consistent winds and scored a very solid hit. The golf ball has a very clear mark on it. It’s actually pretty cool, the mark is cog shaped so you can see how the slug started to petal out.
I took a picture of both the golf ball close up and of the area where the tee was set up. You can see a distinct trail where the golf ball flew off the tee, landed, and then rolled down the berm.
