Is 500 yards a long shot?

[PopNFresh]

at a minimum I hope we can agree don't be this guy

 

[huntnful]

Super easy to make a shitty shot at 500 yards in the field. Yes it’s a long shot.

 

[blacktailcentral]

Super easy to make a shitty shot at 500 yards in the field. Yes it’s a long shot.

Under ideal conditions is the context to the shot

 

[KenLee]

Hey roksliders, apparently there are a few fudds on the forum that think a 500 yard shot is sooo long and unethical for a shot. Parameters for this discussion, low to zero wind, ballistic rangefinder thats been trued out to 1000yards, shooting off a tripod with a bag or bipod prone.

OK Aram

 

[KenLee]

500 is extremely far and unethical unless youre using a 300rum/prc and 220+ grains bullet, at that distance the chances of anyone actually hitting the animal are minimal at best, if not 0. But if you are going to shoot something that far make damn sure youre using a cartridge with enough wallop to do the job.

Bustemup Brandon!

 

[huntnful]

Under ideal conditions is the context to the shot

Yeah, still easy to make a poor shot for sure. People do it all the time.

 

[180ls1]

Absolutely a long shot.

That said, it's possibly an "easier" shot than say a 200 yard shot where the animal is spooked, moving, etc....

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Since I've never taken a 500 yard shot, my answer is yes. These days, 125 is a long shot on my property.

 

[streamerfish]

It's way out of MY range personally. I don't have the equipment nor the skill set to make that shot.

It's clearly is within range for others who do have the skill set, equipment etc. I don't find it to be unethical for people who have the skill set to make the shoot with a high level of consistency.

I am hopeful to learn, get better and extend my personal range over the next couple yrs. But I have alot to learn and alot of practice ahead to get anywhere near 500yd range.

 

[hibernation]

at a minimum I hope we can agree don't be this guy

What on earth would make someone want to post that footage? I'll save everyone the click: they shoot at and miss a spike elk 6 or 7 times from 950 yards, trying to walk it in from what looked like 10' over its back. They go on to hit another one in the spine almost where it meets the pelvis, and celebrate the shot despite it being "a little far back". They kill another spike after what looked like a total rodeo, I'm not watching for more details.

I'm fine with people having different effective ranges, or hunting styles, or whatever. This is some absolute slob BS. Putting it online and trying to monetize it is even worse. These are exactly the type of people that will get things banned, or at the very least, hurt the social and political acceptability of hunting.

 

[PopNFresh]

that description saves a lot of their congratulations and bad narration, it's a total cluster and I'm still not sure if they understand how awful it comes off

 

[hibernation]

Then there are the 1500 of us that THINK we can because it’s a book animal and we have hit steel at a local range a few times at those distances.

I know it's beating a dead horse around here, but I think the whole "sub-MOA rifle if I do my part" myth is responsible for a lot of these guys. They don't want to accept the actual dispersion of their rifle, so they ignore misses and attribute hits to being extra-focused and representative of what they should be able to repeat.

If they hit the steel 1 in 4 shots, that's not a 25% hit rate to them. That's just three shots where you rushed it, and that one hit was the time you really felt good. But that's okay because "I'm not much of a target shooter, but I'm great on animals", or "I don't really practice but I come through on game day".

It's one thing to suck, it's another thing to not know you suck. Half the hunters I know in person absolutely suck at shooting, but have no idea how bad because they barely practice. They mostly suck at hunting too but that's a different conversation.

 

[hibernation]

that description saves a lot of their congratulations and bad narration, it's a total cluster and I'm still not sure if they understand how awful it comes off

If missing an entire animal multiple times isn't someone's "come to Jesus" moment, I don't know what is. Time to step back and reassess your rifle, your ability, maybe your life choices...

 

[207North]

I know it's beating a dead horse around here, but I think the whole "sub-MOA rifle if I do my part" myth is responsible for a lot of these guys. They don't want to accept the actual dispersion of their rifle, so they ignore misses and attribute hits to being extra-focused and representative of what they should be able to repeat.

If they hit the steel 1 in 4 shots, that's not a 25% hit rate to them. That's just three shots where you rushed it, and that one hit was the time you really felt good. But that's okay because "I'm not much of a target shooter, but I'm great on animals", or "I don't really practice but I come through on game day".

It's one thing to suck, it's another thing to not know you suck. Half the hunters I know in person absolutely suck at shooting, but have no idea how bad because they barely practice. They mostly suck at hunting too but that's a different conversation.

Some of these guys shoot a match and play it off as “its just an equipment race game, it doesn’t apply to hunting” then continue to suck. They could look at the mirror and put the effort into sucking less.

 

[hibernation]

look at the mirror and put the effort into sucking less

Stealing this for my new daily self-affirmation

 

[Justin Crossley]

Here is a question for you? Is it ever okay for the animal to win? To beat us, to get away? To be in a spot that we can’t really get to? Or is that unacceptable?

Do you restrict all your hunting to a long bow with wooden arrows and stone tips?

 

[Justin Crossley]

I've seen Cortina's challenge mentioned a couple of times in this thread. I don't understand that one at all. What deer has five inch vitals? Seems like one of the dumbest things on Youtube if you ask me.

To answer the OP's question, yes 500 yards is a long shot. For anyone who thinks it's not, please participate in the cold bore challenge (way better than Cortina's by the way) and post the results.

Another great way to test yourself is to show up at an NRL match and try to shoot targets (that are pretty large) on the clock and set up by someone else. You will be humbled quickly and start to understand your actual limits in the field.

 

[danhuntingmi]

Yes, it's long shot.

For starters, your parameters are actually rare for real world hunting. Prone shots are rare. Being off by a couple miles per hour on your wind call will lead to a wound regardless if the wind amount is small.

Look up Eric Cortina ethical hunting challenge on YouTube. His target is small but his equipment, time, and position allowance is unrealistic yet most who attempt fail to make a ethical shot at all at 500 yards, let alone hit his 1 moa target.

 

[danhuntingmi]

I've seen Cortina's challenge mentioned a couple of times in this thread. I don't understand that one at all. What deer has five inch vitals? Seems like one of the dumbest things on Youtube if you ask me.

If you watch his videos, you'll notice that a strong majority of shooters don't just miss the five inch target but rather the entire vitals or the entire deer. That's despite his rather generous terms for equipment and shooting position.

His conclusion is simply the same as yours. 500 yards is a long shot.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Lying prone in a field with an unlimited PRS rifle and shooting a 5" circle at 500 yards has nothing to do with shooting a deer at 500 yards. It does show that there are a lot of people who will go on YouTube and show that they don't actually know their abilities.