Are you a Long-Range (shooter) or Closer Range?

[520 Road Sow]

It is all about what the shooter is comfortable doing. Too many practice at 300 and think they can stretch a 1000. Only because their rifle can.

300 is a solid shot, it might come easy to some but most it doesn't.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Practice long - hunt close. The range has targets out to 1,522 yards. I love shooting steel at long distances, but hunting seems to be the opposite, the closer the more exciting.

 

[elkantlers]

I never shoot beyond 350 yards. I like to get as close as I possibly can to what I'm trying to shoot. Plus I love seeing animals up close. I know a lot of hunters prefer shooting 600-900+ yards. Maybe that's what you prefer. Do you prefer short shots or do you covet the long-range sniper approach?

Depends on if the truck is completely stopped.

 

[std7mag]

Like Fullquiver, i shoot a lot year round.
Closest range to me has targets to 430 yards.
My most liked range goes to 1,000 yards. But i find myself shooting 600 yards mostly when there.
My furthest deer shot was 413 yards. I originally spotted at 550. By the time i had closed to that distance they were starting to get skittish.
Conditions were darn near as perfect as i could ask for weather wise.
Had the wind been blowing, i wouldn't have taken the shot.
Furthest coyote has been 375 yards.

 

[GlockZ]

I'm not big at shooting animals long range, 300-350 max for me, but most shots on average for me are 150-200 yards. Don't care for those BDC reticles or any of the others, too much "noise" for me. I also set my rifles for MBPR, and don't use a range finder unless I believe the shot could be longer than 300 yds., for those that shoot at game past 300yds. consistently, that's cool, but not for me.

 

[F250]

I like 'em at 50 yards if possible.

 

[undercover]

I’ve never shot anything, including paper more than 200 yds. And the dozens and dozens of white tails have all been 180 and closer. 7mmRM. This will change. New sportsman club member ship with long ranges. Need to be comfortable and 200-300. Always hunted thick timber and smaller grain fields.

 

[Fullquiver]

I’ve never shot anything, including paper more than 200 yds. And the dozens and dozens of white tails have all been 180 and closer. 7mmRM. This will change. New sportsman club member ship with long ranges. Need to be comfortable and 200-300. Always hunted thick timber and smaller grain fields.

Here in Northern MI I've hunted with more than a few experienced hunters who have never killed a deer over 100 yards. BTW they've killed plenty of deer. Lots of thick timber and swamps here so if this was ones only place he had hunted you wouldn't have to shoot any further if that's what you desired..

 

[undercover]

Here in Northern MI I've hunted with more than a few experienced hunters who have never killed a deer over 100 yards. BTW they've killed plenty of deer. Lots of thick timber and swamps here so if this was ones only place he had hunted you wouldn't have to shoot any further if that's what you desired..

Central Michigan here(Big Rapids)big old growth woods, cedar swamps, and small ag parcels. Wyoming 2021 fingers crossed!!!!!! Thus the 200-300yd practice begins

 

[hank4elk]

Was trained to 500. I zero @ 200. Shoot the 100 & 200. Alot.
Still practice on the 300/400 targets. Occationally check range on a 500 yard gong.
Until moving to NM I never shot a critter father than 230 yards. Cow down on one shot @ 405 yards 5 years ago. Passed on a bull @ 425 2 years ago due to a spooky cow in clan.

 

[noharleyyet]

We’ve a 330 yard range in the vicinity that looks like a long way out but 330 in the West on elk sized game looks like a hundred. 440 on a mule deer is my farthest. 411 on an elk seemed much closer. Uphill, downhill, a lung busting run to ready for the shot. So many variables. Know your distance and point of impact. I use Lupe’s cds and a Sig rangefinder.

 

[mdhunter]

As an east coast guy my shots just tend to be shorter by default. The area is flat, fields are smaller where I live.

I have killed an elk at 350 yds but everything else has been closer. I am always stunned at how far 500yds looks to a person not use to measuring that far.

I can’t practice shooting long range where I live so I just simply don’t do it.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

350 yards is my personal maximum range.
I have 3X9 Leupold scopes on both rifles from the 1990s and sight in for 3 inches high at 100 yards.
That has tested to be -3 inches at 300 yards in both rifles.
I do practice a wide range shooting reactive targets, from off-hand at 30 yards to off a pack at 350 yards.

None of my hunting partners are long range..they sight in their rifles with factory ammo at 100 yards
and then limit their shots to less than 350 yards....and they are very successful.
My oldest hunting partner has shot a North American sheep grand slam and over 20 Dall rams.

In 40+ years of big game hunting, all but one of my shots have been less than 250 yards.
The only "long" shot I have taken was on a bedded down Dall sheep that we watched
for 20 minutes before settling in and squeezing the trigger shooting off a pack, a steep downhill shot..
no range finder back then....maybe 300 horizontal yards?

I've killed five other Dall rams and all were less than 200 yards.
I have taken Dall sheep at 40 yards, Sitka Blacktails at 10 yards, bull moose at 25 yards
all with a rifle. All my caribou have been 200 yards or less, ironically my only big double shovel at 30 yards.
Moose calling commonly brings them in close...

 

[deer_shooter]

I'm comfortable out to 400 but have never shot that far on game. Longest was an antelope at 375 under ideal conditions.

 

[David58]

I have missed at 25 (don't make me tell the story, please). I have shot an elk at 400. I'm a decent shot, not nearly as good as when I was competing (muzzleloaders), but decent.

The 400 yard shot was with a fine rifle/scope combo, 300WM, and I twitched when I should have jerked. Hit her in the hip socket, bullet traveled to the innards, and I had 5 hours of tracking through rhododendron and new fir growth. I learned a major lesson that day - get closer.

Here in NM the country is big, so I zero at 200 and figure with my 30-06 I am MPR at about 270. That's enough for me. I'd much rather be packin' than trackin'.

David
Official old phardte

 

[MarvB]

As someone who mostly bow hunted in my youth (do both now) I had never taken an animal at over 100 yards for decades. That’s probably crept out to the low 300’s with time and rifle. Admire the ability of long range shooting but have always enjoyed the stalking part of the hunt more.

 

[schmalts]

Longest shot on big game for me was 500 yards on a deer. It was a cross canyon shot with zero wind. Most shots on deer in the west for me are 80-275 yards. For fun in the winter I practice on steel in the winter out to 800.

 

[Don Fischer]

I sight in for MPBR at an 8" target and limit my shooting to 300 yds max But then I've only ever needed, wanted to take a 300 yd shot one time. It was 330yds on a deer ranged with a range finder and I only did it to say I did. Pretty bad reason to take that shot. That is pretty much game animals only. I doubt I've ever shot a game aanimal much past 250yds, normally less. sage rats ect, if I can see then I'll probably shoot. Near miss with a v-ax pretty much does in a sage rat! Something that has always bothered me about the long range hunter's is I've heard just a few times, someone missed. I have never heard of one wounding an animal. Something I firmly believe is that the only shot you'll ever have to take will be at about 15yds at an enraged animal, like a grizzly.

 

[Bob-WY]

It's like relative. Being fairly new to western hunting 300 to me is long distance, but the cross hairs are on hair with a 9 inch drop

Past 200 I try to get closer. My longest shot was 250

 

[VikingsGuy]

Grew up shooting deer 50yds out of a stand in MN woods, ground squirrels with 22lr at 100yds and coyotes with old Marlin lever action 30-30 at 175yds in western ND. Just started western big game 3-4 years ago and after a summer of intentional practice initially set 300yd as our max. We have since practiced enough and built comfort out to 425yd (my son took a pronghorn at about 415 last year). We shoot paper out to 1000yd so evelvation is a no brainer. With range finders, dial turrets, BCD reticles, high BC bullets, chronos to confirm velocity, proper bullet construction, etc. 100yds isn't much different than 500yds except for two things - and they are BIG things.

First and foremost is wind. I don't trust the wind and I don't trust my reading of the wind in a wild setting enough to consider more than about 400yds at an animal. And as the wind goes up or becomes more variable, I shorten my max range. There have been days in WY, that unless I was directly downwind I wouldn't have trusted a 200yd shot.

The second is shooting position. We practice our max 1-2 MOA range prone with bipod, kneeling with sticks, kneeling off hand, standing with stick and standing off hand. My accuracy standing offhand is much less than prone, so we set our max range in the field according to how we are going to set up the shot.

Finally, I view the ethics of the shot as a question of humane killing and not so much any sense of "tradition" or "shooting vs hunting". There is no doubt there are guys that can kill an animal at 600yds just as reliably as I can at 400yds. I have no problem that their max is 50% more than mine. But what I HATE are guys that don't do the work practicing in various conditions and don't account for extra room for error in field settings who still insist on taking long pot shots. I know guys that don't shoot all year, and will go out right before the season confirm zero, take a few extra shots at 200yds, are loosely on target in the 2 MOA area and declare themselve ready to take animals at 500yds because they now have a turret that will dial the distance and the box ammo has a BC and velocity printed on it they can plug into an iPhone app for drop. This is unethical in my eyes - these folks are just asking to wound and lose an animal. It can happen to any of us, but these folks are working to make it fairly likely.