Growing up, I started hunting with my parents when I was able to keep up going to the stand and know what be quiet meant. I shot my first deer at 6 from a box blind at a range of about 60 yds and that seemed a LONG was off. When I hit my teens, I had been shooting several different calibers and knew which ones were better suited for hunting the open pastures, verses the back woods on our place. The pastures could provide shots out to 400yds in several directions, but the rule was it had to be inside the cross fences or let it walk. Well I had to sit a let some nice deer walk due to not shooting past 200 or 250 yds depending on just which pasture or stand I was hunting. After several years of thie I had enough and started to stretch my legs so to speak and practice for longer targets, 300 was then set as my limit.
Several years later, I purchased a 25-06 to replace the .243 I had hunted with most of my life. Not that the 243 was not enough gun, just I wanted something with a little more punch through the wind. I had access to several bigger calibers, but went with the 25 as it was fast and flat. With this rifle I extended my comfort zone out to 400yds and was deadly accurate out to there in just about any conditions I hunted in. I shoot year round with which ever rifle i am most often in the field with. This gives me the practical knowledge of what it does in varied conditions and from varied rest positions.
Most of this regement comes from the fact that if my Pop heqard me shoot or found an empty case, he wanted to see results in one form or fashion. Basically bullets cost money so you had better not just be shooting to be shooting. Target practice was the only exception to not bringing something back to the kitchen.
I have had the great fortune to hunt with my bud Tim for the past years on their place. Ranges there can stretch out as far as you feel like shooting in some areas and in others you are lucky if you can see past 25 - 50yds. We are both somewhat competitive in our shooting skills and our hunting. This makes being out hunting together not only more fun but more of a challenge. Year before last we were having a horrible time with the feral hogs. I started looking into shooting at longer ranges to add something different to our management bag for the hogs. I found this site and was simply amazed at some of the ranges at which things were being hit on a consistant basis.
Being how I am, I had to work with what I had to begin with which was a Sendero in 7 mag. This is a great rifle but just lacked the flash and power of the new Allen Mags. I talked with Kirby for a while before he finially got my first installment on my new rifle. About a year later, my new long range adventure began in earnest. Both Tim and I have raised our standards of shooting to new levels. Not only using the Allen MAgs, and other specialized equipment, but also using our standard factory rifles. When we first set up our first steel plate at 500yds, we thought **** thats a hell of a long ways out there. However now, we can regularily hit it with just about any of our rifles. Our deer hunting which is something we take totally seriously, is still generally less than 200yds on 98% of all we take. However with the knowledge and practice we have gained over the past two years and the info from members who post here, we can if needed hit out to further distances with confidence.
I would like to think we are both dedicated to the game we pursue, and that we will not take chances on a shot, just to try and bag the animal. For deer, I have put 400yds at my max simply due to the variety of things that can happen in the split second from standing perfectly still, to one step while I am squeezing the trigger. So far, this has worked well for me and everything I have hit at over 200yds has dropped on the spot. This is however in perfect conditions, and as they change so does the max range I would take a shot . As for the hogs or coyotes, well if I think I can hit them, now that I have the equipment to do so, anything out to 1000 in the right winds is fair game.
My ganrdson is now taking up most of my time in the wopods. He started out at 50 yds hitting somewhat of what he was aiming at, and now has reached out and run a gong at 200yds. To him this might as well have been a mile long shot, and his practical huting range is still the 50 yd blind and feeder we set up.
In the years I have been following boards like this I have found that this topic will always be as jaded as which pick up is the best on the market.
