
Shooting Maximum Point-Blank Range
Learning this method can be advantageous for big game hunters – especially if there is no time to calculate all of the variables needed to adjust the scope
Story and Photos by Jason Brooks
range to figure out the maximum drop of your
rifle and bullet combo and still hit your target.
As I lay prone on the ground, squinting at the target only 100 meters away, the training
instructor began shouting orders. I was a young airman basic in the United States Air Force
and, unlike other branches of the US military, we only got to spend one day at the firing
range. Using an M-16 shooting 5.56 NATO ball ammo, we were told to aim for “center mass.”
The target was a miniature silhouette of a person that resembled the average height and size
of a soldier at 200 meters. The idea was that if you presented a smaller target at 100 meters, it would
replicate the size of the target at the further distance.
This I understood, but I was a bit perplexed at the aiming point. Why center mass and not try to hit
the target where it would kill the enemy? Soon we found out how aiming at center mass would lead to
aiming for “point-blank range.” This means that if you aim for the center of the target and misjudge the
distance, then the ballistics should compensate for any errors made and still hit the target.
Then there is the “Kentucky windage” solution where you sight-in your rifle for 100 or 200 yards and if
the animal is further than that, you raise the sights and hope you hit the target. Judging a 12-inch drop at 400 yards is hard to do, as that drop is at 400 yards, not at the rifle itself. This means you need to pick out a spot that is 12 inches above where you are intending to hit the animal. And if it is 450 yards, it is now 13 or 14 or even more inches, depending on your rifle.