The long shots

[Brad1974]

When I decided to take the long range plunge I put a swfa 3-9 on my 30-06 and worked up a good load. Practiced a lot out to 650 yards or so. Longest kill with that rifle was 525 yards.

Then I started going smaller. Fast twist 25-06, then 25 creedmoor, now mostly 25 and 22 creedmoor. And practice as much as I can with a .223.

Basically the 30-06 was just too difficult to shoot consistently well. Required a lot of focus on recoil management and not flinching in the moment of truth. And, it was hard to shoot more than 20-30 rounds in a practice session without having a bruised shoulder making the whole flinching thing worse. With low recoil and good bullets in smaller cases, I’ve had way way less rodeos that I did with my 30-06. Never did lose an animal but I made some poor shots (even at close ranges) and spent a lot of hours tracking and sweating it.

There’s tons of experience/info on Rokslide about cartridge and bullet choices for longer range. My experience has led me to lower and lower recoil guns and heavier guns which seem to allow for more margin of error in the moment of truth, and a lot more practice and fun at the range.

I get that for sure. I can handle about a dozen shots without even noticing the recoil, but about 20-30 shots in I'm ready to stop as well. It's a fairly light rifle, so that doesn't help. I have considered building a .280 AI that has a little bit longer & heavier barrel than my 30-06, or buying or building a 6.5 PRC. Not sure how much less recoil either of those would be compared to the 06, but I would think they'd be great cartridges for mule deer and pronghorn hunting, which would be the primary purpose. Unfortunately a new rifle is not currently in the budget.

 

[Dioni A]

I can't tease too much, I shot one from 12 yrs to 19 yrs old. With the yardages I still shoot, and a hash-mark scope, it'd still be a decent choice.

I just remember Dioni had a post here or somewhere and mentioned his 30.06 and some peope were commenting "what's a 30.06????" LOL.

(hijack over)

I killed a pile of deer with that gun. Plenty at ranges people would be questioning me too.

For whatever it's worth it seems like many of the places I end up have me either at 400-600 yards or right on top of the deer. I work with whatever the terrain and animal will let me get away with.

My experience has led me to try and capitalize on the first scenario that gives me what I feel is my highest probability of being successful. That is more than just a distance. It's wind, pressure, weather, time of year/how far into season and how much time I have left to hunt.

 

[TNKnoxville]

My 2 mule deer were taken near Craig, CO. Hunted elk there for 5 years so I was ready for longer shots. Ended up shooting mine at 80 and 100 yards!!!! Was shooting my 300 win mag with 210 grain. Knocked both off their feet....lol.