How far can you connect?

[David Urasky]

People who know that I shoot competitively at 1000 yards commonly ask me what the longest shot I've taken for an elk. My honest reply is under 100 yards, yes with a rifle. My thought is if I want to shoot long range, I shoot paper. That way if I miss call the wind, no problem. Make a correction and shoot again. On a critter, if I miss call the wind it could be a wounded animal that get's away. Hunting is just that, hunt a way to get close to the animal. Shooting at long range is reserved for paper. I have never lost a big game animal and I want it to stay that way.

If you can make that cold bore shot at 800+ yards every time into a 12" circle, you need to come and shoot at one of my 1k matches. With sighters and knowing your hits on every shot and having 8 wind flags you should be able to hold it inside 8". Our 10 ring is 10.5" at 1000 yards with the X being 5". With all the wind and shot placement information you get, you should be shooting world class scores.

 

[Doc68]

I have never actually killed a deer or a pig at over 180 yards. My typical shot is 75 to 120 yards. I have missed at ranges longer than 180, to be honest, several times. So my question is to my fellow bloggers here is, what is your longest successful shot? What is your shortest miss? What is your longest attempted shot on game? I have missed at 400 yards, I must confess, way more than once. In a sitting position I can hit a grapefruit at 200 yards four times out of five, if I take my time, with my trusty 27 inch custom-barreled .270. I have missed a sitting rabbit at six yards with my .338. Everyone on this site is, if you believe their comments, a superb shot, and that is great. That just does not apply to me, so this post is to confess my limitations honestly. Tell me if I have flunked!

That poor rabbit. It must have **** himself from hearing that 250-325gr projectile whizzing past his ear...

On another note, why were you shooting at a rabbit with a 338. Do you just not like those furry cute bunnies.....


Doc

 

[jmaars]

468 Yds on coyote with 223 as to which I had just missed 1 min. before at 200 yds. Un lucky him i guess. I have missed many. we all do. just keep huntin and shootin.

 

[Greyfox]

Since equipping myself for LR hunting 13 years ago, my longest kill was an antelope at 1188 yards, DRT. Average distance of 54 whitetail, mule deer, and antelope shot over this same period is 460 yards. Closest miss during this period was a 550 yard shot in a whitetail that was incorrectly ranged.

 

[dogz]

The question you have to ask yourself, how far would you bet your rifle on? Meaning a cold bore hit on a 10" plate or you loose your rifle. How far would you make that bet with someone? I would bet many will take a shot on live game much farther than the distance they would bet their rifle on.

Well said Alex, I've long used paper plates as my field ready test. First round hit on demand, and hit the turf and 3 shots on it sub 10 seconds is the 2nd part of the test

 

[Canhunter35]

Shot an elk at 590 this fall, mule deer out to 830yds. I've missed a running coyote at 50feet lol among other misses, but it's the misses not the connections that make me shoot more and push myself

 

[Hugnot]

Upon discussion with trusted advisors, I have revised my self imposed range limits for yotes down to 400 yards from just under horizon limits. I like my Leupold 2nd FP, 4.5-14X50 LRP, TMOA reticle, trust reticles more than elevation dialing, leave it on 14X. I have calibrated that scope with the 6.5, 120 H ELDM bullets at 3100 fps, out to 500 meters and plan to do more shooting up to 1000 yards and include other 130-140 bullets. My longest shot on a deer was just under 390 yards (not with 120 ELDM combo) and conditions were perfect, using bipod and sitting. I have shot various rodents up to just under 1,000 but it took a few bullets to hit them. I have shot several rattle snakes (dangerous game) at about 4 yards - need to hold over them about 1 inch plus and crank scope down to lowest power. Shot silhouette chickens at 1000 but it took at least 2 rounds to connect, using .260, 6.5-06, 7mm-08, & .300 WM, I would not do this on a game animal.

 

[86bowhunter]

First thing first is to be honest with yourself and ask yourself if your gear is capable? By that I mean does your gun have a load that it shoots good. So if you dont know that answer go and test your gear under ideal conditions with a solid rest and see what you get. If you're getting half minute groups off a bench but your groups fall apart when you're prone or sitting then you just need practice to build your technique. Once you know the answer to that question get out there when you can and practice the longer shots. This will build your confidence in your equipment and shooting abilities. Once you build that knowledge on the range just apply it to the field and you'll be fine. If for some strange reason you do all that and still can't make the longer shots (which I find hard to believe with the equipment we have nowadays) you'll just have to face the music and limit yourself to what you know is your max. But you gotta put all the tools in your toolbox first before you can expect to get the job done. So get out there. Good luck and shoot straight.

 

[dogz]

Well said Alex, I've long used paper plates as my field ready test. First round hit on demand, and hit the turf and 3 shots on it sub 10 seconds is the 2nd part of the test

Uno mas thing, this is done off the ground field conditions no bench rest

 

[jshepherd61]

I have never actually killed a deer or a pig at over 180 yards. My typical shot is 75 to 120 yards. I have missed at ranges longer than 180, to be honest, several times. So my question is to my fellow bloggers here is, what is your longest successful shot? What is your shortest miss? What is your longest attempted shot on game? I have missed at 400 yards, I must confess, way more than once. In a sitting position I can hit a grapefruit at 200 yards four times out of five, if I take my time, with my trusty 27 inch custom-barreled .270. I have missed a sitting rabbit at six yards with my .338. Everyone on this site is, if you believe their comments, a superb shot, and that is great. That just does not apply to me, so this post is to confess my limitations honestly. Tell me if I have flunked!

Haven't flunked, just takes practice and patients I shot long range for 20 years in the military and another 15 in law enforcement so that given I still miss but also have taken a few

 

[zb338]

Never shot any big game real far. I wouldn't even try to do shots that might wound an animal.
The farthest shot I ever made on an animal was a ground hog at 600 yds. with a Sako rifle
chambered in .264 Win. Mag.. I won't go into how many I missed on long shots. I scared a
lot of them though.

Zeke

 

[ndking1126]

Some great stories from great marksman. They motivate me to keep learning and practicing. My longest kill is 330 yards on an antelope (I'm the type that will get as close as possible before shooting though) and closest miss was 120 on a whitetail although I have reason to believe my rifle was at least partially to blame. I have a lot of confidence at 600 and was working towards 1k before life got a little crazy.

No, you haven't flunked.. my opinion is the only way to flunk is to knowingly take shots on game you haven't demonstrated that you can reliably hit at the same distance at a shooting range (given same shooting position of course). We all have our limits and we've all missed at least a time or two. Know your limits, keep shots within that range and enjoy!

 

[rickhirsch]

I've been in Idaho for three years now we're I got room to shoot to a mile. usually practice
to 600yds. and hear all the guys a the range talking deer at long distance prone off the bench.
but when it time me shoot I had to shoot at 380yds. no bench .grass was 3 feet high no bipod
no rocks to shoot from I had shooting sticks and no sitting either so when I shot I was little low
I hit him in the brisket so it doesn't matter how good you and gun shoots you have practice
all methods .I watch all these guys shooting prone all the time at steel I'm a old man. i
practice many methods as I can . the tv shows where the hosts are prone at 1000 yds have. cost us
a lot of cripple up badly shot animals. so practice in hunting conditions by the way second
shot was good on that deer , two days before the I shot sitting off sticks and kneeing.

 

[Joefrazell]

My longest shot was a mule deer at 630 yards. My wife just shot a mule deer this year at 926 yards. My limitations are based on the wind and shooting position and time more than anything. Must have a rifle that shoots obviously. Long shots are very rare but they do happen. Most of my animals have been killed between 2-300 yards hands down. A few within 100. I will admit that I practice for those long shots. I will burn 500+ rounds a year with various hunting rifles. I love to shoot and have made it a hobby. Being able to stretch the limits is a benefit from that.