Who here doesn’t shoot beyond 300yrds ?

[wyosam]

I’ve shot a handful of animals beyond that, longest was just shy of 500. I used to have easy access to ranges where I could practice regularly at distance. Now I moved and it’s a long drive to get somewhere to shoot beyond 300. I’ll practice to 600 occasionally to verify dope when I’m in a spot where there’s room, but I’d say I’m 300 and in now. Like to know I can do a little further for follow-up shots etc. I’ve adjusted my rifles accordingly since I don’t need as much velocity for longer range (shorter, less recoil).


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[The Harbor Master]

I'm in the sub-300yd club so far, at least in hunting situations. I dial and practice out to 500ish regularly, 800ish occasionally, but that's on a static range from comfortable positions with no stress. I don't know that I'd shoot at an animal past 300 if in broken terrain, much wind, etc... I bet it would be fine, but I don't know that I have that confidence. The idea of a miss is embarrassing, the idea of a poor shot/unrecovered animal that may or may not die is not acceptable to me (though I understand things happen despite our best efforts). My last 6 kills were at all under 175yds. The longest opportunity I've had is 397yds, and that bull didn't get shot.

 

[Meanderthal]

Most of my life I was a MPBR guy but I started evolving around 2010 when range finders and elevation compensation methods became more ubiquitous. Now I prepare to shoot out to 500 but haven't had to on big game. Longest shot ever was 320 on caribou.

 

[Rich M]

I'm a MPBR kind of guy. Right now my .243 is set 1 inch high at 100, also hits about 1/2 inch high at 200. Makes is about 6 inches low at 250, which is my furthest shot opp on hunting property.

Longest shot x2 was 350 on antelope in WY. Muley in CO was 220. WT a have been out to 250 with 95% being inside 100 yards.

 

[Halligan]

After spending some time here I feel that I must be an old Fudd because I don’t shoot past 300yrds / I don’t Dial my scopes elevation / I use a second focal plane scope and it doesn’t have parallax adjustment.
There must be others like me or am I relic of times past ?
So how many of you guys keep it 300yrds and in .

Part of what you are experiencing, as what others have alluded to, is that rokslide has a big western hunting focus where extended ranges are more commonplace. Especially for those of us east of the Mississippi, unless you’re hunting ag fields, 300+ yds just isn’t a situation that presents itself very often, if at all.

Take me fore example, the majority of my whitetail gun kills have been sub 100 yds in a normal hunting context, hunting the blue ridge. Longest around 175/200. It wasn’t until I started doing crop damage, that shooting 300, 400, even beyond 600 and 700 became a normal situation for me. But again, that’s in an open ag field environment.

All this said, I do think it worth practicing out much further for the sake of skill development. But you’re also not a fudd for either not needing to shoot animals beyond 300 or if you self impose a maximum yardage.

 

[bnewt3]

Never have, but I plan to

 

[grfox92]

I repeatedly see a lot of guys on here saying the same. 300 yards and in, just get closer ect. I thought that way for a while too until I realized if I dont learn to shoot farther and get proficient dialing, I am not going to kill anything very often. The terain in NW Wyoming just doesnt allow it. You could wind up close to an animal, but more often than not, you wont.

Archery elk would obviously be the exception, but we are typically calling bulls into us, not trying to get closer to them.

Hunting migratory mule deer, there is no catching up to them when they are moving, if you cant shoot when you spot that buck, you likely wont see him again.

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[284bloodhound]

Oregon coastal hunter here , last year we were on average of 600yds on our bear, elk and deer . All cold bore first round impacts. Definitely need to do some range practice and have a good set up. Ive seen guys attempt that distance with sub par factory ammo and 4x12 power scopes. Always ends in wasted ammo or an injured animal. Not good.

 

[chancey]

309 was the longest buck I’ve shot. I would feel comfortable to 400 on a buck, maybe a little longer on a bull elk. It really also depends on the situation for me. If I’m prone and have plenty of time vs just got done charging up a hillside and breathing heavily etc.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

No kills past 300. Only one at 300 and another around 220. All the rest inside of 100 yards. Not trying to be that way, that's just how shot opportunities have worked out over the years.

Most of my rifles wear a 3-9 Bushnell Elite 3200 or 4200, no parallax adjustment, and other than sighting in, I've never touched the dails. I've got one I'd actually take hunting that has a 4-16. The only time I've ever touched the zoom in the field was that 300 yard shot (which I did with a 3-9, because that's what was on the gun I had that day).

All that said, I put in time at the range and backwoods field practice - if conditions were right while hunting, I'd probably huck lead out to 500 or so without any qualms. But, in 25 years of hunting in pacific northwest, dozens of big game animals put down, I've just never had a shot opportunity that far out. Critters mostly hang out in the woods and brush, not out in the open, has been my experience, LOL.

 

[Cherokeeguide]

Part of what you are experiencing, as what others have alluded to, is that rokslide has a big western hunting focus where extended ranges are more commonplace.

Shooting at longer ranges "out west" is indeed more commonplace. I don't buy in to the notion that it is necessary. I've hunted "out west" every season since I was an 11 year old kid in 1976 and the longest shot I ever made on a game animal in a sport-hunting situation was a 278 yard poke at a California high desert mule deer, and that was back in 1992.

My dad never shot a deer under 400 yards and had zero problem pulling the trigger on them out to 660. All but one of my uncles tagged their deer with shots over 300. My uncle who didn't used an open-sighted Winchester 94 in .30-30. He hunted the same ground my dad and other uncles did, but he hunted that ground in a completely different way. He called what he did "bird dogging." We'd call it "still hunting." Most of his shots were under 50 yards.

I'm not anti-long range. My dad was going it since 1969 and never wounded an animal or had to shoot one more than once. It's a choice he made to set himself up for a longer shot. Once can make a different choice and still fill tags.

 

[EastHumboldt]

I recently found an old empty Winchester box of 30-06 that I bought when I first started hunting. The price tag was $7.99. So I might be a fudd.

I might take a shot at 400 if everything is perfect, but I’m much more comfy inside of 300. No judgement of those who have put in the work and are confident to 6-700 yards, but I’m not taking a 600 yard shot, and I suspect 90% of hunters should not.

I’ve ONLY hunted the west for close to 40 years..My first buck was about 360 yards. Right through the heart with a 1963 Remington 700 in 30-06 with a Tasco 3-9 on it. It was my second year hunting, 1989 IIRC. I didn’t even know what a range finder was. I didn’t know how far away he was. I paced it off on the way down there. I had no idea that the drop on my bullet was probably 16” at that range, so I held dead center on the chest. I’m pretty sure the only reason I hit him was I was shooting downhill at such a steep angle the horizontal distance was maybe 250? At any rate, there was a certain amount of dumb luck. I did some homework and thinking about it in the off season, and realized it was a very lucky shot. I also did some shooting and realized my gun was good for a six inch circle at 300 yards, and learned how to use a 30-30 reticle to estimate range.

After that I got a lot better at stalking, and realized that stalking is more fun for me than killing. It’s fun even if I don’t connect. (I’ll even stalk deer in the off season!!) My longest shot since that earliest one was a little over 230. Average has been maybe 150. And as I said I’ve never hunted anywhere but the wide open mountain west. I’ve passed on some bucks and I don’t regret it at all.

All that said this site has turned me on to the wisdom of lighter recoil contributing to better accuracy. Work on building field positions and trigger time is essential if you want to shoot well. I shoot hundreds of rounds, year round now instead of a couple boxes before the season, like in the old days.

 

[wyosam]

Shooting at longer ranges "out west" is indeed more commonplace. I don't buy in to the notion that it is necessary. I've hunted "out west" every season since I was an 11 year old kid in 1976 and the longest shot I ever made on a game animal in a sport-hunting situation was a 278 yard poke at a California high desert mule deer, and that was back in 1992.

My dad never shot a deer under 400 yards and had zero problem pulling the trigger on them out to 660. All but one of my uncles tagged their deer with shots over 300. My uncle who didn't used an open-sighted Winchester 94 in .30-30. He hunted the same ground my dad and other uncles did, but he hunted that ground in a completely different way. He called what he did "bird dogging." We'd call it "still hunting." Most of his shots were under 50 yards.

I'm not anti-long range. My dad was going it since 1969 and never wounded an animal or had to shoot one more than once. It's a choice he made to set himself up for a longer shot. Once can make a different choice and still fill tags.

Shooting long can certainly help in some situations, but you can also kill stuff without it.
Years ago in an area I hunted for years, there was this one little open area on a pretty remote hillside where we regularly saw big muleys. There was only a handful of places you could really see that opening from. Hillside it was on was steep, thick, and generally just perfect refuge habitat. We tried dozens of different way to get into those deer over the years with zero success. This was before rangefinders and dialing scopes were really a thing. We always guessed it at 800-1000 range, and a few years ago I did some measuring with onX and that’s pretty accurate. Certainly a shot that could be made by many now. When I had a place to practice regularly at distance i could have probably done it.

I don’t think I could do it though. I’m not against long range hunting, but that was a spot where they always got to win. Where many hours, many miles, many plans, by many people couldn’t put those deer on the ground. Now, get in there and build a good position, catch it when the wind isn’t howling, and it’s all done but the packing.

Doubt that spot reliably holds big deer anymore.


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[Cherokeeguide]

I repeatedly see a lot of guys on here saying the same. 300 yards and in, just get closer ect. I thought that way for a while too until I realized if I dont learn to shoot farther and get proficient dialing, I am not going to kill anything very often. The terain in NW Wyoming just doesnt allow it. You could wind up close to an animal, but more often than not, you wont.

Archery elk would obviously be the exception, but we are typically calling bulls into us, not trying to get closer to them.

Hunting migratory mule deer, there is no catching up to them when they are moving, if you cant shoot when you spot that buck, you likely wont see him again.

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I filled my first seven deer tags here.....



And I did it using this..............

I realized if I dont learn to shoot farther and get proficient dialing, I am not going to kill anything very often. The terain in NW Wyoming just doesnt allow it.

You could also get proficient at understanding how mule deer use their habitat and, more specifically, how the herd you're hunting uses it, but then, you'd know how silly this statement is:

Hunting migratory mule deer, there is no catching up to them when they are moving, if you cant shoot when you spot that buck, you likely wont see him again.

Do you think your mule deer that use the ground in your photo are somehow special compared to the mule deer that use the ground contained in mine?

"There is no catching up to them" when you have no idea how the herd you're hunting uses its range, perhaps.

That's not the case when you know where they came from when you saw them and have some informed opinion over where they're headed.

That's why I could fill another 10 deer tags on the ground you see in my photo with this:


I'm rather obviously NOT convinced that wide open terrain makes long-distance shooting of game an absolute necessity, because it doesn't.

 

[MeatMissile]

I’ve lived “out west” my whole life and get the most satisfaction from getting as close as I can. Last year’s buck was at 18 to 20 yards. My regular hunting rifle was a 700 ADL in 30-06 with a fixed 6x. I then went on an iron sight/single shot rabbit hole and hunted with a Ruger No 1A in 30-06 with a peep sight. Now I’m mostly using a Model 70 in 7x57 with a fixed 6x.

BUT, I’m a meat hunter. I live here and get to watch deer and elk all year. I get to spend over a month looking for a buck. I might feel a lot different if I wasn’t a local. I’m not the guy who waited 20 years to draw a tag and risk saying “no” on the buck of a lifetime because he’s on the wrong side of 400 yards.

 

[brancher147]

I hunt Eastern Mountains and hardwoods. Never shot an animal past 200 yds. Most within 100 and a lot inside 50. I like getting close and hunting thick cover.

 

[MallardSX2]

I never understood the alure of shooting at animals over a few hundred yards. Honestly, I think its the worst thing that has happened to hunting over the last 50 years....

So many wounded animals from people shooting rifles AND BOWS at long distances. Mostly, because "If I don't shoot now, someone else will kill the animal" mentality. Its disgusting.

 

[Boarmaster]

Me. I am an Eastern whitetail hunter. I do an annual five day hunt in Ohio with shots out to 200 max. We hunt a farm these days with straighwalls but back in the day we hunted with shotguns in big timber and shots were 15-40 yards with a 75 yard shot considered a Hail Mary.
My primary hunting ground is Alabama with shots out to a max of 230 and with the vast majority of shots under 150.

I am 63 been hunting big game since age 22 and I can’t recall taking a poke at a game animal further than 300. That was at a hog in Florida. I killed him but probably a lucky shot.

 

[MeatInTheFreezer]

My self imposed max range last year in Colorado was 200 yards - killed a good buck and had shots on many other animals that I did not have a tag for or were not legal. I feel like an assassin at 300 and in with a rifle.

 

[CMP70306]

I never understood the alure of shooting at animals over a few hundred yards. Honestly, I think its the worst thing that has happened to hunting over the last 50 years....

So many wounded animals from people shooting rifles AND BOWS at long distances. Mostly, because "If I don't shoot now, someone else will kill the animal" mentality. Its disgusting.

Easy, the vast majority of people are carrying a rifle that is capable of killing game cleanly out to 500+ yards and have been for decades at this point. The only reason the vast majority consider 300 yards a maximum is because that is right around the range it goes from “point and shoot” to requiring some additional understanding about the rifle’s capabilities to continue to maintain success.

Some people are content to not shoot past 300 yards, that’s fine but I personally would be livid at myself if I spent all the time, money and effort to travel out west and missed out on an opportunity I wanted because I was unprepared and not proficient enough with my rifle to utilize its full capabilities.

Here in PA the vast majority of the deer I kill are 100 and in with the longest being around 220. However our friend who’s property we hunt has a field that is 600 yards long, if a deer steps out into that field during rifle season there is no sneak closer or find it later option. Your choices are make the shot now or watch that deer disappear off the property. It’s not “somebody else will kill my deer”, there’s plenty of deer to go around but I am selective in what deer I shoot and only get so many opportunities in rifle season to take such a deer. Missing one of those opportunities because I didn’t bother to understand what my rifle is capable of just seems like wasted potential.