Shooter Hits Bison Target at 2240 Yards with Iron Sights
Could you hit a buffalo at 1.27 miles (2240 yards) … with iron sights? Impossible as that may seem, that’s exactly what Ernie Jimenez did last month at the North Springs Shooting Range in Price, Utah (elevation 5,627′). Shooting a milsurp Swiss K31 rifle chambered for the 7.5×55 Swiss round, Jimenez placed four hits on a three-foot-high, bison-shaped steel target placed a staggering 2240 yards from the firing line. Not bad for a rifle which Jimenez acquired many years ago for just $99.00. Of course he did have plenty of misses along the way (and Ernie even managed to hit the plate shielding his camera).
This video is set to start half-way through, when the shooter starts making hits:
The whole process was recorded on video and posted on YouTube. The Long-Range Shooters of Utah say this is an official Guinness World Record for longest shot with iron sights. We can’t confirm that, but it still is an impressive feat. Jimenez had to compensate for a huge amount of bullet drop. His K31’s long-range military sights helped but he still had to aim well over the pink bison. To see how far that target is, watch the video at 14:30 — a camera at the firing line zooms all the way back until the bison is nothing but a tiny dot. The photo below show the target at 8X magnification, but it’s still barely visible.
Magnified 8X view looking down-range at buffalo target.
Here’s the unmagnified, “naked-eye” view from the firing line. Can you see a pink buffalo?
Bullet Dropped Over 400 Feet along its Trajectory
To roughly gauge the bullet drop, we took a 7.5x55mm Swiss load from the Hodgdon Reloading Center. With max “book” load of H4350, a 168gr Sierra HPBT has a muzzle velocity of 2524 FPS. According to JBM Ballistics, that bullet will drop over 400 feet during its flight. That’s lot of hold-over! Assuming a 100-yard zero, 59° temp, and 5,600′ altitude, JBM calculates that the drop to 2250 yards is a stunning 210.9 MOA — that’s 4969.9 inches, or 414.15 feet!
In the first part of the video, shooter Ernie Jimenez talks about his hand-loads and his K31 rifle. Here is an example of the distinctive straight-pull K31 (Karabiner Model 1931). Image courtesy AIM Surplus.
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Tags: 7.5x55, Bison, Buffalo, Extreme Long Range, K31 Swiss, Military Surplus, Utah
Yes kids, spraying and praying works. Spin the number wheel enough times and eventually your number comes up. Why would this qualify as any kind of “record”? Ever heard of the “The Sandy Hook Tests of 1879?” They also got a few hits on a target a very long distance away.
http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Articles/Cartridge/45-70%20at%20Two%20Miles/45-70%20at%20Two%20Miles.html
“Spray and pray” is inaccurate, and inaccurate for the author of this article to imply; particularly if you watched the video from the beginning, which you overlooked. We rented this range two months in advance, and obviously having no control over the weather. When we began it started raining, and continued until we were forced to stop. That accounted for approximately 25 shots. We then paused untill it stopped, then I threw 25 more. Because the dirt was wet, +80% of all shots fired were undetectable and we were using 7 VERY experienced spotters, from the shooting bench and set up at 1500 yards. In addition we used three live feed cameras set up on/near the target. The impacts into the wet dirt created an impact plume of approximately one-foot neatly impossible to spit from 1.27 miles. Not till we paused a second time, to allow the second storm to pass, did I shoot a 25 shot string with 4 hits. It began raining (Storming) again and we were forced at that time to stop. On a side-note, last thanksgiving I shot this same target under reasonable weather conditions and achieved 7 hits out of 25 shots, same rifle, same setup. By no means, was this a case of spraying and praying.
If he would be shooting a machine gun with full belt of ammo, he could also just pull the trigger and still qualify for the “record” ?
I’m glad we can see world records being broke without having to buy the book. That’s some awesome shooting with iron sights I doubt most people could get one hit without a scope.
Well done Earnest, very impressive. You’ve motivated me to take out my K31. 190 SMKs and IMR 4064? Interesting, I see a lot people using RL-17 or H4350 with their K31s. I’ll give 4064 a try.
Thank you,
Could someone post a link to the “Guinness World Record” for this? From the detailed description above and the info in the video it looks like he got 3 direct hits, and one skip hit, (none of them consecutive), out of 75 shots fired on the day, in the conditions of that day on a “36 inch Buffalo target” at 2240 yards over iron sights from a bench with a weighted rest. Is that the record?
Great shooting – looks like we have some negative nelly’s that don’t want to acknowledge a fellow shooter’s achievements. pay them no heed. well done.
Wow….great shooting! Some hunters here in Canada have trouble hitting a moose at 300yds with a scope!! I love shooting my K11’s (1913 and 1928) at 300 to 1000yds with open sights and consistently score hits 8 out of 10 shots….great fun.