Introduction to Field Target

16. Ballistics (Really Easy Way)
The above graph from Chairgun shows what is happening to a pellet when shot. Initially,
it is 2.18” below the aiming point if you are shooting at 0 yards (pretty hard to do) – this
is the distance between the center of the scope and the center of the barrel for my gun.
This distance is the dominate effect on ballistics until you get to about 30 yards.
Beyond 30 yards, then dominate effect is drag on the pellet. Also note that variations in
velocity, pellet weight, etc. have very little effect until you get to 30+ yards.
The left scale is in “Hold Over.” The bottom is yards from the muzzle. The three arcs are
the most probable trajectory (the middle line) and the upper and lower limits of the
trajectory assuming worst cases of lowest velocity and heaviest pellet (lower line) or
highest velocity and lightest pellet (upper line).
The two red lines are the optimal zero point for an assumed .25” kill zone (pretty small,
actually). In other words, if you forget all about ballistics, using this information says that
you will be just fine from about 20 to 38 yards. You can stretch this distance a bit by
assuming that the top of the arc is at the top of the (assumed) kill zone and the kill zone is
more likely to be ½” then we could forget ballistics if we are shooting anywhere from
about 13 yards to 40 yards. In actuality, kill zones tend to be bigger at longer distances
so, assuming a 2” kill zone at 55 yards, we can forget ballistics from 13 to 54 yards. We
will hit too high sometimes at 30 yards and too low at 13 or 54 yards. Even so, you can
make a lot of “kills” without knowing much of anything about ballistics. [The distances
and hold-over here depend on your gun, scope, and pellet. Don’t assume that any
gun, scope, and pellet will shoot like this!]
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