long range hunting and shooting.....what the heck does that even mean?

[cjl2010]

 

[Bravo 4]

My first rifle as with of you was a Daisy BB gun. That thing shot to the right right out of the box. After 1000's of tubes of bb's I learned the rifle and how far to the left to hold at different ranges. There wasn't a grasshopper, lizard or sparrow that was safe out to 40 yards. ( at least that's what my memory tells me).

I got the Daisy lever gun when I was 5, then a couple years later the single pump AIR-17 (resembled an AR15/M16). Use to set up the little green Army men around the back yard and "Snipe" them off the porch. Guess some things never change.
Now I sit on my back porch with one of the suppressed 1200 FPS rigs.
Whether or not I still set up little Army men is non of your business!

 

[Rhino Hunter]

WOW! Quite a post from somebody who's been a member for a whole 3 weeks.

A brand new member, who is admittedly a non-long range shooter, giving advice to us all who's he's labeled as old-timer shooters w/ $6,000.00 guns.

Again...WOW!

 

[Deleted member 107796]

I've always seen long range as anything beyond max point blank range for the tool at hand. If you have to make adjustments, whether it be clicks or hold over, that is long range.

To your other point.
Doesn't matter what your hobby is. There will always be those that can drop coin on the best possible equipment and or be able to spend countless hrs practicing perfecting their skills.

Myself, I live on a very tight hobby budget both with time and money. I try to gain as much knowledge from those that can afford the the best equipment and experience. So that I don't make the same mistakes they may have, and when I have saved up some funds I can make an informed purchase.

This is worded perfectly. The only thing I'd add, and IMO, supports your point, is that we seem bombarded by the marketing of gadgets, from fishing to hunting to whatever. I see hunting, in general, diminished by the proliferation of gadgets. I could provide some hard evidence about the misuse of ATVs if anyone doubts my point.

 

[nmbarta]

Most of the advice that new guys get from the guys on here that have 6000 dollar rigs is **** good advice and will save you money in the long run. They've been through it already and have made the costly mistakes that many of us have made. Which is often starting out with sub-par equipment and then having to upgrade all the time, when you'd have been better off to buy the right stuff from the start.

Most new guys ask pretty specific questions about their goals, if those goals involve shooting past 1000, you may as well get your checkbook out, it's not going to be cheap if you want to be successful. This doesn't mean you can't take your grandpa's 30-06 with a 4x weaver, point it at the horizon, and hit a barn at 1000, but that's not what most are trying to achieve.

If you ask questions about long range shooting on a forum dedicated to long range hunting and shooting, your going to get advice about that, not how to hit a beer can at 200 yards with your 22lr.

Some of the members on this site are among the best of the best when it comes to LR shooting and gun smithing, and almost all of them are happy to share their knowledge about this sport. This has saved many of us countless hours and lots of money because they have already spent the time and money to figure out how all of this is done. Then they just give that info away, it's amazing how willing these guys are to give up their secrets. If you don't like the advice, don't take it, and have fun with your pellet gun.

 

[lesvoth]

My Six Thousand Dollar Rig
There was a day when as a poor man, if you wanted a superior performance/racing/breeding horse, you bought a filly of decent lineage. Then you raised her. That's, two to three years. During those years you fed, trained and used her.

Then, if you were lucky/fortunate, you made friends with the owner of a more/most superior stud. You might work for the man, do him legitimate favors, trade something of value with him. If the man was disposed to generosity, he may allow his stud to breed your mare.

One year later - you are "maybe" looking at potential, maybe not. That's probably 3-4 years in now - if you're fortunate.

If you were looking for a breeding stud you could profit from, and your mare had a filly instead - you need to repeat the process - which may take as long as the first.

By the time you - might - have a superior stud others would pay money to breed, you could - if you kept the dream and didn't get discouraged - be looking at 10-12 years before you realized a single dollar.

- You have had to dream the dream, do the research, make good choices, stay the course when it all falls apart, keep your motivation piqued to be able to spot ANYTHING useful to further your goal even in a torrential-rain-on-your-fire storm. Above all, you have to know when you've arrived. You can't do that when you're getting your head stomped by your neighbor's grade gelding while you're trying to get/steal a semen sample from "it" on a moonless night in his barn.

None of us can know the path it took another to get to his destination. Searching - asking - without an opinion is among the clearest ways to get a sniff, though.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Most of the advice that new guys get from the guys on here that have 6000 dollar rigs is **** good advice and will save you money in the long run. They've been through it already and have made the costly mistakes that many of us have made. Which is often starting out with sub-par equipment and then having to upgrade all the time, when you'd have been better off to buy the right stuff from the start.

Most new guys ask pretty specific questions about their goals, if those goals involve shooting past 1000, you may as well get your checkbook out, it's not going to be cheap if you want to be successful. This doesn't mean you can't take your grandpa's 30-06 with a 4x weaver, point it at the horizon, and hit a barn at 1000, but that's not what most are trying to achieve.

If you ask questions about long range shooting on a forum dedicated to long range hunting and shooting, your going to get advice about that, not how to hit a beer can at 200 yards with your 22lr.

Some of the members on this site are among the best of the best when it comes to LR shooting and gun smithing, and almost all of them are happy to share their knowledge about this sport. This has saved many of us countless hours and lots of money because they have already spent the time and money to figure out how all of this is done. Then they just give that info away, it's amazing how willing these guys are to give up their secrets. If you don't like the advice, don't take it, and have fun with your pellet gun.

Now now, let's not diss the 06 too much. A bunch of grandpas and grandmas have done some pretty impressive shooting at 1000 yard matches with M1 Garands.
However, your points are well taken, there exists much better equipment today, all of which will shoot better and not give me any more scars on my thumb. Much of the information I've gleaned from this forum is invaluable as I enter into a new to me shooting sport.
Don

 

[Alibiiv]

So I am new to the long range thing. To me, in a hunting situation 200yds would be about my max. I have a lot to learn. I have been reloading for about 10 years but have spent all my range time at 100yds. For me it is hard to not want to go out and buy the high dollar rig, but I know that my current .243 will work just fine for me for a long time till I learn more. I have found this forum to be very helpful and not near as much b.s. as other forums, which is nice. Now where's my credit card so I can buy that 6.5x284 I was looking at earlier...

I am about to send out my Ruger 77, tang safety to a smith in Montana for a build. I have been reading these postings for many months now and doing a lot of research on calibers. The longest shot that I plan to make in 500 yards on a white tail deer in Maine, either in a long pasture or a power line hunt. I have made a 450 yard kill on a small buck in farm land. If I win the lottery I will be taking this rifle mule deer/antelope hunt our west. There have been a number of opinions about the 77 action and the length of the magazine box being too short. Well this is my donor rifle, I have a safe full of Ruger 77 tang safety rifles and that is what I am going to be using. I am familiar with them, and I like the way they swing and handle for me. I have settled on the .280 Ackley Improved, with a Lilja barrel (haven't decide on 24 or 26 inch length yet), with a Timney trigger and pillar bedding. I already have a Leupold scope for the rifle. I will not have spent the college fund to have a rifle build that will make the kind of shots that I want to make on the game that I intend to hunt. With all that said, I live in Rhode Island so if I were shooting from the middle of the state and made a 1000+ yard shot I would have bullets landing in Connecticut, Massachusetts or the ocean! There is not a range in this state (that I know of) that has a range longer than 300 yards. So I understand what you have written about long range shooting to 200 yards. And before finding and reading this forum, I too thought that "300" yards was "long range shooting". I have found some ranges in Massachusetts and now plan to try the ranges out.