While these are not solid rules, in general:

Off hand with a sling 100 yards, 75 yards is preferred

Standing off of sticks 175, 150 yards is preferred

Kneeling or sitting with sticks 200 yards, 250 yards if it is my only choice

Anything over 200 my preference is prone.

I generally do not shoot over 250 yards unless there is just no chance at getting any closer.


I should also say I always use the best available. Meaning If I can go prone at 100 yards, I will.

I also generally do not shoot at running game over 100 yards unless, it has already been hit.

If I feel comfortable and capable of the shot I take it.

I do not count hunting success in yardage of the shot or number of shots taken on any animal, I only worry about two things,

1. Dead meat on the ground.

2. I don't care how long it takes or how far it goes, if it is bleeding, it is hunted until it is dead.

Not trying to come across as arrogant or intelligent, but if I am presented with a shot I am not sure of, I don't take it.

Perhaps you are missing my point.

I practice positions and yardages and shoot at 8 inch target trying to simulate field conditions.

Having a good idea of what your hit rate is at different yardages from differnet postions improves confidence and helps you get ready during that brief 30 second window when everything starts coming together.

Not sure how you made the jump to hunting success being tied to a long shot.

While closer is better I feel good with a sling out to 250-300 yards.In a truck or on the ground I have no problems going farther if doing varmints and such.I hunted on the small lease by my self for 3 days one year.Leading up to the trip I shot what the ranges that I would have to cover,needless all i saw was coyotes ans they are not with us any more.You just need to practice your shots till you can do a good job.The game deserves that.Good Luck

Mike,

Your limits are about identical to mine. I will always go prone if that is an option for anything over 200 yards. If the wind isn't too bad I am fine out to 300-350 yards sitting/sticks, but if the wind is blowing me around I will pass or look for prone.

Lou

At game, varmints, or paper?

I have killed a fair amount of game from 300 to 500 yds. I haven't taken a shot at game beyond that yet but might if conditions were right. I practice alot under hunting conditions. I shoot at varmints and crows almost daily. I also have a range you can shoot beyond 1000yds if you want. So far I guess 1000yds is my limit. I want a rest no matter what the distance, just makes me feel better, and prefer to be laying down for longer ranges.

God Bless, Louis

Under perfect conditions I am more than comfortable off sticks to 400 and prone to 500 or more. Trouble is that I have yet to meet ideal conditions with a critter in the crosshairs.

There are just too many variables for me to define comfort ranges without knowing the conditions. Hell, if it's blowing hard enough and the animal is moving, I might pass on a 125 yard prone shot.

I have taken longer shots that both worked and missed but my honest range that I feel confident that I will get the job done is 150 offhand, 250 sticks, 300 prone. Truthfully, with the exception of an antelope and a couple hogs, I really haven't had to make many 300+ yard shots biggame hunting (I don't count coyotes).

Gentlemen,

I will probably give you all a bit of a laugh with this.

I am terrible at practice. Why? I have no idea. In the field, however, I do very well.

Same was when I shot trap.

I could hardly ever break 25 straight in practice, while in competition I break 100 and 200 straight with monotonous regularity.

Walter likes to tell people that "he stands wrong, he uses the wrong finger, he talks and laughs while shooting, but he breaks the targets! There is something very wrong with him!"

I still enjoy the hunting and stalking aspects of the sport. In almost two decades of traveling to CO and WY to hunt, I have made exactly one shot over 300 yards (we ain't counting Pdogs). And that was a "cause I wanted to, not 'cause I had to" shot.
There are too many other variables to consider besides a line on the ground when you start putting a limit on where you would shoot. I know personally the animal would have to be within arms reach or wounded before I'd start popping at him offhand. And I practice offhand shooting.

Yeah guys absolutely agree...hence the phrase

"While these are not solid rules, in general:"

Of course things like wind etc play a factor...

quote:

If I feel comfortable and capable of the shot I take it.

I do not count hunting success in yardage of the shot or number of shots taken on any animal, I only worry about two things,

1. Dead meat on the ground.

2. I don't care how long it takes or how far it goes, if it is bleeding, it is hunted until it is dead.

Not trying to come across as arrogant or intelligent, but if I am presented with a shot I am not sure of, I don't take it.

Not sure what I said in the statements above that was so difficult to interpret.

The title of the thread is after all:What are your shooting limits...

Here are the ones you listed.

While these are not solid rules, in general:

Off hand with a sling 100 yards, 75 yards is preferred

Standing off of sticks 175, 150 yards is preferred

Kneeling or sitting with sticks 200 yards, 250 yards if it is my only choice

Anything over 200 my preference is prone.

I generally do not shoot over 250 yards unless there is just no chance at getting any closer.


I should also say I always use the best available. Meaning If I can go prone at 100 yards, I will.

I also generally do not shoot at running game over 100 yards unless, it has already been hit.

Mike

How does that differ so radically from this out of my last sentence from my original post:

but if I am presented with a shot I am not sure of, I don't take it.[/quote]

I understood exactly what you were getting at, and nothing I said had anything to do with the distance of a specific shot, whether it is 10 yards ao 600 yards, I know and work with in the limitations of my abilities and those of the firearm I am using at the time.

The difference, is that you broke down what you do or what your limits are into specific points of distance or specific situations.

I merely stated what mine are and what my goals and concerns are when deciding on whether to fire or not.

Nothing complicated about that, nothing to do with short shots, long shots, running game whatever.

My limits are what I feel confident in making work under whatever the conditions are when the shot is offered.

Try not to read too much into my extremely simple minded posts, because they really are simple concepts.

I only go to a range to check the zero on any given rifle I will be using, and, if I put the first shot out of the gun exactly where I want it on the target, I put it right back in the case move on to something else.

That works for me and has done so for 40 years and fairly successfully at that.

I know what my abilities and capabilities are with each of my guns, and because I handload/reload and when I find a load that works for me, I never change or experiment, I stick with what brought me to the dance.

As I said at the beginning of this reponse, I really don't see how a simple couple of statements I made about what MY LIMITS are could be so misunderstood.

It still works out for me, and probably lots of other hunters, they can look at any given shot and they know almost instantly, whether they can make the shot and if they are going to try or if they are going to let it pass.

Am I still wrong in my interpretation of what you are asking?

Mike ---- I shoot many rounds, three days a week if it is not snowing or raining. 90% of this is from 100 yards. I have private benchs of 100 and 200 yards, plus another range out to 400 yards on a row crop farm just down the road. Some six weeks prior to a hunt I will shoot up to the 400 yards and everything between. The longest shot in a long hunting career thus far is 350 yards and I was set up perfect for that or would not have taken it. I have taken several Elk and Deer free hand, but within 100 yards and only when absolutely necessary. I like to keep shots within 300 yards and will try my utmost to do that. I use a three legged shooting stick, but can generaly find a tree or post to rest on. With Deer you can wait for the shot you want, with Elk you may have only a split second to shoot, or wait till next year. Good shooting.

CH,

I never have any trouble interpreting your comments.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

If I feel comfortable and capable of the shot I take it. I do not count hunting success in yardage

The initial question is NOT about "measuring success" in the least. It is however about having objectively quantifiable limits we might impose upon ourselves. In short, it is very easy for a hunter to convince himself he "feels comfortable" with a ridiculously long shot when a 60 inch kudu is in the crosshairs. The kind of limits Mike is talking about represent a good way to save a lost $1000 trophy fee.

JMHO

quote:

The kind of limits Mike is talking about represent a good way to save a lost $1000 trophy fee.[/

And your point is.

Does it or does it not boil down to each individuals own interprentations of their own abilities and the capabilities if their equipment.

On my first elk hunt in Colorado, in 1992, I passed up a shot an a nice bull elk, becuase I was unsure of my ability to make the shot, simply because I had never encountered those type conditions before in my hunting career.

Were I offered that same shot today, I am pretty confident there wouild be a dead elk on the other side of that draw after the shot.

Some folks may be a good enough judge of yardage that they can state that they will take a 100 yard shot offhand, but that is their limit.

Is anyone really going to try and convince me or anyone else that they would turn down the shot because the animal was 130 yards away?

Limits mean different things to different people and as with Ethics, it seems from my experience many of the "Limits" hunters work with in are situational.

In your comment about the Kudu, the situation would be of one staying within their self imposed limits instead of greed taking over and pushing the limit of the envelope, containing their abilities with their equipment, outside of the envelopes limits due to the size of the animals horns.

I don't take long shots if I can get closer, I don't take running shots unless that is my only way of getting a wounded animal down.

I guess I am just to ignorant to understand, but I don't see where quantifying something that is individual to each hunter really does anything.

I don't carry a Range Finder with me, hell I don't even own one, I just don't see where a hunter, any hunter that works within the limits of their abilities and the capabilities of their firearm, is any less of a hunter than someone else, simply because they can not quantify the parameters of their envelope in yards.

Mike,
I won't take a shot unless it feels right, but generally speaking, I'll go with you on your limits since they seem about right for me.
I have killed a baboon at 516 yards and head shot another one at 383 as he was peeking over a bush, but I wouldn't chance those shots, given the same conditions, at a $2,000 Waterbuck.
The longest game animal I ever killed was a Mountain Zebra at 312 yards, but I was shooting from a Koppie with a benchrest like position.

Gee, CH, what did you do to piss these people off?
I'd have to say that the post is all about measuring success. And nothing more. When one says "I won't take an offhand shot beyond XX yards" what is he doing other than stating his expectations of success?
I think it is commendable that the poster has personal limits as you read too many post where some goober mistakes the distance at which he (supposedly) can snipe a deer with how others will perceive the size of his dick.

Did you get your handle from Beeman Airguns??

I don't know that anyone is pissed off, I know I ain't, and if something I said pissed some one/anyone off, that was not my intention.

I guess I just don't see taking something that should be second nature to a hunter, and trying to turn it into something technical or a matter of specific distances.

I made one of my clients on my hunts really mad a few years back, because I made some really uncalled for comments about a question he asked.

I did not mean to piss him off, but he asked another client what his protocol was for instinct shooting, that just struck me wrong.

My idea of instinct shooting is to handle the gun as much as possible and take shots at various targets until you reach the point that when a shooting situation arises, regardless of the animal/trophy fee/range/firearm, you either know that you can make the shot or you know to let it go.

How the hell does a person know they can hit a nail with a hammer every time they try, because they have familiarized themselves with the TOOL, so they forget what they are doing, and just do it.

To me a rifle is simply a tool, nothing more, nothing less.

It is a tool a person uses to complete a task, killing an animal.

I just feel that some folks want to make things more technical than is neccessary, and during my hunting career, whether just hunting on my own with family and friends, as a client in a Big Game camp, as a camp flunky in a Big Game camp, operating my own guide service, I have seen way too many folks that get so involved with certain aspects of the process, that they can show you page after page of groups that you could cover with a gnats ass, yet are some of the most piss poor game shots going.

I have never known anyone that got excited and an elevated heart rate shooting at a piece of paper at a given range, from experience a 5x5 bull elk popping up over a ridge at 75 yards has a whole different effect.

If I pissed anyone off, that was not my intention and I do apologise.

quote:

What are your shooting limits...

Standing to 100 yards.

Front rest to 250 yards.

Front and rear rest to 350 yards.

Depends,on what I am hunting,where I am hunting and what I am shooting.

Perhaps, I mentally prepare for the shot differently than other folks.

As I am making a stalk or when I believe that an animal maybe coming into an area shortly...I start to run through scenarios.

Does the terrain allow for prone if so start to get estimates on objects so I know distances

Does the terrain only allow for a a sitting shot over sticks and if so where is a 250 yard marker so if an animal stops inside of that marker and becomes alert, I have predetermined I will take that shot.

I have been fortunate to have been on a few guided hunts and what I hear guides say most often is that most hunters don't have a good "pre-shot" routine.

Before somebody says all that planning is a waste of time...I live by the adage planning is useful, plans are useless. The act of planning gets one prepared for the alternatives.

No, I used to be a bee keeper.

Well it all depends on what I'm shooting at but for big game, I'll buck the trend and create some controversy.

Standing unsupported - 100 yards
Standing on the sticks- 300 yards
Sitting off the bipod - 400 yards
Prone off the bipod - 500 yards

It seems almost no one uses the sling any more,sticks are ok but the sling is faster with practice.Good Luck

I must say that I don't have any "rules" that I go by. I don't hunt any fancy trophy fee ranch's and don't know anything about trophy fees. I do take a rest any time it is available such as pinch a sapling or lean on a tree but here in southern Missouri the only thing we shoot at long range....say 200 and beond would be coyotes or groundhogs and the rest would be a truck.

I practice off hand 200 yds.often personly i would rather shoot a walking deer at 300 than a standing one at 200 I was lucky i grew up hunting red fox, and jack rabbits running shots were the norm.a good rifle with a solid rest400+ try it out you are better than you think

quote:

Originally posted by plainsman456:
It seems almost no one uses the sling any more,sticks are ok but the sling is faster with practice.Good Luck

Totally agree plainsman. Shooting sitting with a sling I can keep my shots on a pie plate at 500 yards with no problem, at least in wind speeds 5 mph or less.

The problem with sitting w/sling is that when the wind does start blowing, it rocks you pretty good. Here is a link to a story I wrote for Rifle Shooter, that while slower than the sling, allows you to hit a clay bird at 400 yards from the sitting position:

http://www.rifleshootermag.com...st_200809/index.html

quote:

Originally posted by wolfhunter 2:
I practice off hand 200 yds.often personly i would rather shoot a walking deer at 300 than a standing one at 200 I was lucky i grew up hunting red fox, and jack rabbits running shots were the norm.a good rifle with a solid rest400+ try it out you are better than you think

Interesting. Seems to fly in the face of reason, but if it works for you (and I don't doubt you), then what the hell...

I enjoy stalking and always try and get as close as I can. My limits, it’s the cross hairs on the animal, if the wobble is well within my kill zone I shoot with confidence, if it goes out side I don’t. The maximum range that I can hold within the my kill zone varies, a hard stalk, physical exhaustion and excitement reduce it drastically, rested and relaxed with no wind and a stable position allow me to extend it.

I have never tried to define my shooting limits in hard numbers. But now that I think of it, most everything over 300 yards is pretty safe. I have made a couple of 400+ yard shots, but to me it's about the hunting.

I keep it pretty simple, I can either make the shot or I can't. I will use whatever aid is available to make the shot.

I prefer shooting sticks, but will use anything that will help me make the shot. Prone, trees, rocks, pack, sling, etc.

Now with my traditional archery equipment, it's a pretty hard and set @ 25 yards. I think the three deer I killed last fall were 3, 5, and 12 yards respectively. It's all about the hunt.

offhand out to 60-80
sitting out to 250
sitting w/ sticks out to 500
(depending on setup)
any further than that and lots of shorter setups because of conditions; prone

I will try to assume the most stable position I can given my location when I see the target. It may involve using a backpack, a berm, a tree, a sling or any other object that might help me become more stable. If I can stabilize enough to call my shot, then I squeeze the trigger. I don't shoot out beyond about 400 yards.

I guess I am a little different. I never shoot prone. It was never comfortable, never will be. I guess it may be the three abdominal surgeries. Generally, if I can hold on hair, I am good to go. I don't like to "guesstimate" a hold over, but I have. Since I mainly hunt deer, that means 350 yards, or so. I generally try to take either a sitting or kneeling position with a tight sling. If I can get some outside support, so much the better. The longest shot I ever made on a deer was a little over 500 yards and was kneeling and leaning against my truck. I only took it because it was the last day of the season, the deer are pests where I hunt and I needed the freezer meat. I called the shot and the 264Win Mag did it's part.

I've got standard hunting rifles (8-9.5lbs) standard calibres, max 6x scope and very rarely use a bipod but always have a set of shooting sticks.

Literally never take an unsupported shot.
Literally never take a shot at moving deer
Max range has been 300yards and very very few of those have been taken.
It depends on the size of the deer, the muzzleheaviness of the rifle, whether it's got a Jewell trigger, how rare the shot opportunity is and how things are on the day. I now know and recognise the ingredients that go into a miss or worse and 99.9% of the time can pass when I need to.

Standing with sticks 150yds
Sitting/kneeling with sticks 200yards
Prone on pack 250yards
Exceptionaly shots out to 300yards prone.

I very rarely shoot off-hand, so I can't really give a firm response there.

conditions allowing, and with a solid rest, I'd have no qualms with a shot out to 500 if I thought the projectile would do the job.