So from what I am seeing, the average furtherest shot on "game" would be for most, in the 250yd or less range, with a few reaching out to 300, and a couple out to 400.

I appreciate your input into this post, as mentioned it was not to start any sort of debate only to gather information.

I as a hunter and shooter, put many rounds downrange every year in both target and hunting situations. I hunt feral hogs every chance I get when I am in the country, as more of a control measure than anything else. They are simply out of hand on the properties that I help out on. To us they are vermin and pest, which are in serious need of control. Unfortunately doe to liabilities and such we simply cannot afford to allow folks to come in and hunt them for us. There are a TON of great people out there who would very much appreciate the chance, but there is also a few who are only looking for an easy piece of the pie. For the small working landowners this is simply not an option that they can afford to consider.

I have mentioned that I do indeed shoot at longer ranges than what most here have posted. This is from having field knowledge of the rifles and handguns I use sometimes on a weekly basis. I started loading my own rounds when I was 8 while my pop supervised. He was very strict on every process and was even more strict about the use of them in the field. He believed that for every shot, reguardless of caliber, there had better be meat on the table or there was some missing from my backside.

I have a great deal of respect for game animals, and realize that a lot of you hunt out West for bigger game that I do. I also realize that the hogs I hunt are just as tough, and will seriously put the hurt on you, under the right conditions. Not from a longer shot but from most of the ones I do take. I would say that 90% of the shots taken by me, on hogs over the past 10 years have been under 50 yards. However this was also using handguns, and rifles with the handguns taking about half.

My main reason for adopting the longer range tactic was also to help out with the control of the hogs. They learn very quickly with folks shooting at them just where it is safe for them to come out into the pastures in order to escape safely before we can get into range. They aren't nearly as dumb as some would have others to believe and can see and smell very well. I have been picked out at well over 300yds by them and know full well I had the wind in my face.

As for deer, well I mostly look, and leave them be. I have found much more tasy meat on the hogs than any deer I ever took. Would I shoot 400yds to kill a deer, yes, would it be a rushed shot with no suitable rest, no. The furtherest I have taken a deer was just over 400yds, using handloads and my 25-06. I know this load inside out, and had no doubts that the 115gr Partition, would do it's intended job.

The rifle I am working with now has proved to be for hogs, what the 22 and 6mm hotrods have been to Prairie Dogs and ground hogs. It was built from the ground up with nothing but anchoring big hogs at long range in mind. With this came the added responsibility of being able to shoot the thing well enough to accomplish this goal, when the time was right. Well I received the rifle back in early March, and have worked with it every chance I had, as well as several others at much closer ranges. The end result has been that from my VERY humble beginning of just hitting a 19" plate at 500yds, I am now putting bullets inside 2" at this range and sometimes further. Being that the longer range parctice requires much more concentration to detail, it has also been a revival of many loading techniques I used in the past as well as learning a few new tricks along the way.

My ultimate goal was to re-awaken the desire to shoot, and to also learn something I had always been interested in. Not so much in a hunting fashion but just to learn to hit the plate or target at ranges I could not have imagined in years past. It has also shrunken my groups inside of 500yds to a point I am at the limits of several rifles, and to improve with them would mean sending them out for an overhaul.

I have always considered myself an average shot within my capable ranges. Meaning that I could in just about any situation hit what I was aiming at where I wanted to with which ever rifle I had at the time under the proper conditions. This, as has been mantioned, required a lot of time behind the trigger with them all, and this used to be a habit more than a chore.

Again thanks for all of the comments and shared experiences. I look forward to hopefully sharing a few of mine in the near future, I just didn't want folks to think I am some sort of a trigger happy fool for reaching out and touching something. I have the target time to back up anything I plan on hunting.

For me it depends on how good a rest I have and how damn hard the wind is blowing more than anything. In good shooting conditions, I amd confident at 400 yards, in a gusty wind 300 is for sure plenty. Varmint shooting with someone spotting shots is another story. You can make some long shots when misjudging the wind is a clean miss to be corrected next time as compared to a gut shot on an elk in a foot of snow at 8000 ft.

I consider the range at which I can hit a 4" circle with confidence is my max. That would vary with the ammount of practice I'm getting, wind and the gun. I'm no sniper. I've never made a hunting shot over 400 yrd.s but I'd probably go to 450 or 500 with my 7mm Mag beanfield gun if conditions were perfect. I made a head shot with it at 345 yrds a couple of years ago.

I jsut realized I didn't state the obvious. I've probably never never taken a shoot beyond 40 yrd.s unsupported.

you are steadier at 300yards shooting off your day pack than you do standing up at 100yards.

Another thing you might want to consider in this equation is the type of practice. I have shot a lot of target shooting over the years but for actual improvement in game shooting bullseye style targets are very lacking. A couple of years ago I starting doing most of my practice shooting on cardboard silhouette targets. I had several cut out for coyote, deer, and moose. I would place them at various distances and shoot from field positions. It is much harder to take the shot on a plain silhouette without a nice orange dot or crosshair target to shoot at.

Ever since shooting this style of practice I have noticed a great increase in field accuracy. It is very challenging to shoot a small coyote silhouette at 300+ yards.

I've also noticed that you can do without such high magnification if you are shooting the silhouettes also, I rarely use anything greater than a 3-9 on my rifles. I do have a 4-12 on my 300 win but thats more for counting brow tines than actual use for shooting. The 3-9 on my 22-250 might make it more difficult to shoot tiny bug hole groups at 300 yards but it will riddle the chest of a coyote with bullets easily.

Thebear-78,
Well said.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
300 yards, or maybe just a little bit more, is about as far away as I generally feel comfortable shooting at unwounded big game animals. Here's why:

1. I don't have the confidence to shoot at them from farther away. I just don't have the opportunity to practice much beyond 200 yards.

2. I always zero at 200 yards (except for DG rifles, which I zero at 50 - but we're not talking about DG here, since DG should never be shot at extended ranges). Drop at 400 for a 200 yard zero is around two feet or more for most calibers. That's a lot of drop.

2. Wind drift in a mild breeze, say ten mph, is a foot and a half or so. And wind speed and direction over long range are difficult to gauge. At 400 yards, in a moderate and varying wind, you'll have to hold two feet high and a foot and a half to two and a half feet into the wind - in other words, you'll be aiming pretty far away from your real target.

3. Animals can move, and move fast. And if you're holding high enough and with enough Kentucky windage, you may not be aware that the animal has begun moving even as you are shooting. That is the recipe for a miss or a wounding shot.

4. Follow up shots are difficult and can be impossible.

5. Any intervening twigs or light brush can be difficult to impossible to see clearly at long ranges.

6. Following up an animal can be very problematic, depending on the intervening terrain and how fast and accurately one can get to where the animal was standing when it was shot.

7. In my experience, it is very seldom strictly necessary to shoot at even 300 yards, much less at longer ranges than that. I always prefer to try to get closer, if at all possible. ...

I'm with mrlexma; his points listed above match my reasoning and practice. I zero most of my big game rifles at 200 yards; some are sighted with a 150 yard zero. I also just don't have the opportunity to practice much beyond 200 yards. Plus, I simply don't have as much time as I'd like to get to the range and practice. To me 200 yards is a long shot.

But, most of my hunting has been in the bushveld in South Africa where ranges are usually under 200 yards (at least that's been my experience on three trips). I've done almost no hunting here in the States except for a few hogs here in Texas. (I didn't take up hunting until age 45; I'm now 52.) My longest shot so far on a game animal was about 145 yards on a Kudu.

Well, like the old saying goes, "A man's got to know his limitations..."

-Bob F.

God willing, one of these days I am going to see the grandest old boy Ive ever seen with a rack that would make the most disciplined hunter begin to get that "fever itch". When that happens, I want to be as well prepared as possible. That means in a nutshell, practiced at getting the most sure shot I am physically capable of, and in the field 100 yds closer increases your odds more than 1000 rounds off of the bench.

The real question IMO is not, how far are you able to shoot, but rather how close are you able to get without spooking the critter. THAT is what many people like myself ask themselves when they spot a shootable buck that isnt already close enough for a high confidence shot. In other words, the animal sets the range limit which varies.

I also zero @ 200 yds and rarley have the need to shoot beyond that. But I consider myself capable out to a bit over 300 yds with a good steady rested shot, which isnt always an option. If he is 500 yds off and I cant get closer, I simply look elsewhere or form another plan for getting in closer.

That being said, I think I would rather have a steady rested 250 yd shot than a 175 yd one off hand.

Up until the last four years, I always limit my shots to under 200 yards. Since that time, I join a moose camp and was assigned a stand with opportunities up to 375 yards (ranged). Lucky enough we have a 330 yard range at our club that I have been practicing for the last few years. There must have been over 200-300 rounds from my 300WM and 270Win fired down that range.

There are just too many variables in long shots that I would feel 100% comfortable with. For the last season, I gave up on two opportunities as it was light rain/windy and the moose was walk quartering away from me. It wasn’t a matter of hitting it or not, I just wasn’t 100% sure if I had a clean shot to kill. As it turned out, my buddy shot the same moose an hour later at the other side of the hill.

Although I didn’t shoot any moose for the last season, I was equally happy just going to the camp and seeing my friends. Without saying I got my share of the meat which lasted to this summer. Everyone in our family enjoys the meat.

Well, our moose season starts in just over two weeks. Maybe I will trade with someone for a shorter range stand. I have my Marlin 1895 with a Holosight ready for that.

Danny