Going The Extra Mile
By Marilyn Stone

The advantages of the .408 CheyTac and Balanced flight technology may be lifesaving on the battlefield, but back here at home, hitting a small steel target at a mile is just good old-fashion fun.

"I wish I’d had a CheyTac .408 when I was in the military,” said ex-Navy SEAL Chris Mewbourne. “If you get your wind call correct and do everything right, you know you’ll hit your target at 2.300 yd and you’ll hit it every time.”

Kinney, director of military and law enforcement sales and head of training for CheyTac, is committed to putting the system in the hands of our soldiers in the “badlands.” Kinney says his 14 years of SEAL experience tell him the .408 CheyTac will save American lives.

Just in case your mile-plus shooting skills are a little rusty, CheyTac offers training.

I had the opportunity to shoot the system in June 2007. What I learned about shooting angles, temperature and judging wind has made me a better hunter. Here’s the “dope” on the system and what you can learn in the training CheyTac offers in mountains of southwestern Idaho.

Dr. John Taylor, a former cancer researcher at University of Michigan, developed the CheyTac .408 cartridge with the assistance of William Wordman. Taylor had been a shooter for years, but after he retired he focused on developing the cartridge that would change the rules of long-range shooting on the battlefield.

The .408 CheyTac beats the M2 and M8 rounds used in the .50 BMG in accuracy and range because Balanced Flight Technology allows the bullet to exit the barrel fully stabilized. No yaw or unstable flight around the vertical axis results in two advantages: more kinetic energy downrange and a stable, predictable bullet flight.

CheyTac tracked bullet flight with the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds’ Doppler radar, near the border of Arizona and California in 2001. Radar rental doesn’t come cheap—$6,000 a day—but the data was impressive. CheyTac found the average ballistic coefficient was .945 at 3,500 yd, or almost two miles.

In the field, this means the round’s greater kinetic energy can penetrate engine blocks and glass at greater distances. According to CheyTac test data, the .408 penetrates 3/8-in. Wear- Alloy 550 armor steel, a type of vehicle armor, at distances of more than 500 yd. Accuracy and penetration at greater distances gives a greater safety margin in the field.

Kinney says he passed up opportunities in his SEAL days because his weapon system wasn’t capable of making the shot. “To take the shot, I’d have had to put myself or the operation in jeopardy. I’d rather sit back 2,000 yd. At that distance, the enemy can spray and pray but that’s about it,” Kinney said.

Left: The stock is fully adjustable for cheek weld and Length of pull~ A pistol grip adds stability for the shooter as well, and with a big bore Like this, a generous recoil pad is a welcome addition.

Connecting at Long range requires a precision barrel, and all those that come on .4O8 CheyTac rifles are produced by Lawton Rifle, Stabilizing the big projectile is key to accuracy, and the rifling’s rate of twist is 1:13.

The bullets, which are manufactured by Jamison International in Sturgis, SD, are produced on a CNC lathe and contain a proprietary cop- per alloy. They weigh 419 grains and stay supersonic out to 2,200 yd — well over a mile. Supersonic speeds also mean less exposure to wind. All CheyTac rifles are bolt action and have Lawton barrels.

Barrel Length is 29 in, and the rifle weighs a stout 21 lb., including the scope. The Model 310 is available as a bolt-action single shot or repeater, with a magazine capacity of five to seven rounds. A Picatinny rail makes mounting of optics fast, and when the company introduces its consumer-grade Safari model in the next few months expect an MSRP somewhere around $5,000. It will either be wearing a carbon-and-Kevlar stock, or a conventional hunting version.

It takes more than great glass for a scope to pass 2,000-yd.-plus muster. CheyTac tested several brands before settling on a Nightforce NXS 5.5—22x56 mm variable.

Long-range shooting demands thin reticles to prevent the crosshair from concealing the target. In addition, not all mounting systems will accommodate enough elevation adjustments for a center-of-mass hold at 2,200 yd. One of this system’s advantages is the capability of holding center of mass at mile-plus distances. The shooter isn’t getting the most out of the system if he or she must hold over the target.

Left: Setting up for shots greater than 1,000 yd. is a little different, even if you’re practiced from the prone position. According to the instructors from CheyTac, digging your toes into the dirt improves your stability when shooting prone.

Beyond the design and technical.phpects, the scope must stand up to the recoil of thousands of rounds and the turrets must always return to exact zero. Kinney says whenever you move to a different target, it’s important to turn the scope settings back to zero to put on new dope. If you don’t, it’s easy to forget the distance of your zero.

So far, Nightforce riflescopes have never failed in more than five years of shooting, according to Kinney. For spotters calling the shots, CheyTac favors Swarovski, however. A Leica Vector IV laser rangefinder measures the range to the target, plus the speed and direction the target is traveling as well.

The technological brain of the system is the Advanced Ballistic Computer (ABC) in a personal digital assistant device (PDA). Its job is to calculate the impact of factors affecting the shot so the shooter can hold center mass.

The angle, air temperature, corrected air pressure, ammunition temperature, powder burn rate, muzzle velocity, barrel twist rate and Coriolis are all factors the ABC plugs into the equation. Shooters don’t have to know the ballistic coefficients; the ABC programming includes the ballistic coefficients of more than 60 rounds, including all current U.S. sniping cartridges from 5.56 mm to .50 calibers based on Doppler radar testing.

As a hunter, I’d never shot much beyond 250 yd, either at the range or in the field, but the trainers and the rifle system overcame my lack of experience in a few shots. I hit a 12-in, square target that I couldn’t even see with my naked eye at more than a mile. The experience gave me insight into why I’ve missed shots on antelope at even my comparably close ranges.

Unstable shooting positions, improper breath control or the slightest aiming mistake is greatly magnified in 2,000-yd. shots. We all shot from prone position, but the trainers instructed us to splay our legs and dig in our toes for enhanced stability.

Extreme distances also mean the Coriolis Effect impacts accuracy. If you’re shooting at a target a mile north or south of your position, the Earth’s rotation will move the target by the time the bullet reaches it. The shooting solution is not as simple as miles per hour—the Earth spins faster at the equator than at the poles. Fortunately for the math phobics among us, the ABC figures the Coriolis Effect into the calculations.

To illustrate the importance of the Coriolis Effect, imagine you’re a marksman in Miami attempting a shot at 1,000 yd. with a .300 Win. Mag. The odds favor a miss even with no wind. In fact, you’ll probably miss a center-of-mass shot as well. The correction for Coriolis is .77 moa or about 7 in. If you’re shooting east to west or west to east, the bullet’s flight is on the same line as the Earth’s rotation so Coriolis doesn’t factor into the calculations.

The Kestrel 4000, a handheld weather station, measures the wind, wind chill, humidity, dew point, air temperature and pressure. Shooters don’t have to turn into data entry clerks, however. All of the information is fed directly into the ABC.

A hefty stock and state-of-the-art recoil pad aren’t the only factors mitigating the rifles stout felt recoil. Teamed with a muzzle brake, the author found recoil manageable.

Left: Once past the radical paint job, one of the rifle’s most striking features is the extreme take on free floating. For obvious reasons, the bipod will see a lot of use.

Temperature of the ammunition is a factor shooters often overlook. When I was shooting in Arco, if the shot was delayed a few minutes the trainers removed the round from the chamber to keep the temperature more consistent to when it was first loaded—a constant for the computer’s computations, instead of becoming yet another variable. As the temperature increases, the powder burns faster resulting in a higher impact on the target and vice versa.

Shooting Illustrated May 2008: The courses offered by CheyTac take place in the mountains of Idaho and allow students to fine tune their long-range shooting skills in a variety of scenarios-~-all under the watchful eye of an experienced instructor.

The bullet’s flight path at Arco’s mountain shooting sites goes across canyons and over ridges where the wind is funneled and compressed at different directions and speeds. It takes finesse—and trigger time—to get the experience to hit the target on the opposite hillside.

If you’ve ever looked out the windows on opposite sides of your house and seen sunshine out one window and rain out the other, you’ve witnessed how weather conditions can change dramatically in distances less than a mile. Computers can calculate the effect of many environmental conditions faster than the blink of an eye, but they can’t predict every shifting wind gust between the shooter and the target. At this point, accuracy must transcend technology to art and the shooter’s experience.

Employing space age, Doppler radar testing, CheyTac’s cartridge was found to keep the bullet supersonic out at 2,200 yd. At more than two miles the projectile’s BC was determined to be .945.

Any clue from the movement of grass, bushes, flags or dust, can give the shooter helpful insight. A shooter can feel a 3 to 5 mph breeze on his face. If tree leaves stay in motion, the wind is 5 to 8 mph and at 8 tol2 mph, dust is kicking up. When large trees sway, the wind has reached at least 15 to 20 mph. Mirage at mid-ranges also provides wind speed clues.

Even Kinney, who has 14 years of elite U.S. military training, admits, “I need to freshen up when I get to Arco if I haven’t had much trigger time in the past month. I have to get back into the mindset of how the winds are different.”

It’s an experience worth the trip if you’re a soldier headed for the Middle East, however. Kinney says Arco Pass resembles the landscape of the mountain and cave country of Afghanistan and the CheyTac range near the town of Arco more accurately mirrors the desert of Iraq.

Shooting at severe angles, either up or down, adds another complication to the shooting solution’s calculations. The bullet will hit high when the shot angle is either up or down unless the shooter figures in a correction. Flash back to high school geometry and measurements of triangles. If you’re shooting from the top of a 100-ft-tall building at a target 25 yd. out from the building, the wind will affect the bullet for the full distance, Gravity will only affect the bullet drop for 25 yd., however, whether the target is higher or lower than the shooter. I now under- stand how the shot angle allowed some antelope to escape rather than ending up as little white packages in my freezer.

Politics and gun bans are rarely far from a gun owner’s mind, especially with the election looming later this year, but so far the .408 hasn’t hit the anti’s radar screen. Your right to own a .408 CheyTac is still protected by the Second Amendment.

CheyTac training will make you a better, more versatile shooter no matter the distances or where you shoot.

Classes cover ballistic theory, proper ~weapon maintenance and a variety of other topics, and shooting takes place each day of the three-day class. Cost is $1,500 and it includes lodging and lunch each day. For class dates, an equipment list and a syllabus, log onto www.CheyTac.com/CIVTrainScH.html.

The town of Arco is 5,330 ft. above sea level and Arco Pass is almost 3,000 ft. higher at approximately 8,000 ft. Expect to be out of breath with little exertion if you’re coming from near sea level. It’s important to stay hydrated when going to higher elevations. That means drinking water before you feel thirsty. By the time you’re thirsty, you’re already getting dehydrated. Bring sunscreen. There is no shade at the shooting sites.

CheyTac, LLC
1-855-243-9822
www.CheyTac.com

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