What made you interested in long range shooting?

[popeye]

I love the stories that have been shared! Especially those who have talked about sharing the passion with others, family or friends. Some of my best memories are taking my sons and grandson out, teaching them gun safety and ethical hunting. Soaking up the time spent with those who are important to us and sharing a passion.
The longest kill I've made to date was a coyote at 368 yards and a blue wildebeest at 350 yards. I have spent most of my time reading and learning on this forum, not commenting that much because my distance shooting is a lot shorter than many. I still giggle like a kid when i bang steel out to 600 yards.

 

[Ken61]

My prairie dog shooting habit.

 

[22250imp]

Coyotes taunting me. Several years ago I had a cow die. It was around 800 yrds from my house. Many mornings coyotes would be there eating on her and then when the sun got up a little ways they would go up the hill out of the creek bottom and find a bare patch out of the snow and set there and sun themselves. So I went to reading and and shopping.

 

[sp6x6]

When I was in junior high I got into the local indoor rifle club,small town.Was right across from post office.My buddies and I shot 4 position,this was a good experiance and lots of technique.Later at same club I shot target pistol also 50'. One of my coaches was a gun nut.I got to know him and he invited me to his ranch.Well he was a ol genius eccentric guy.He had a shooting lab,small building with window and set up to run a barreled action and remote trigger for testing.As I got older ,around 20 I had the elk bug by then,was shooting 7RM.I asked his advise on rifle,he offered up I try his,he had EVERY,Weatherby caliber.I ended up going with the 340,I did shoot his 378 too.He had one of the first computers,perf paper type and he set me up with balistic and drops to 1000 and help engrave on my one pcs. base.I had never had any of this type info before.This set me on my path.The fellow later on,also a artist,lost eyesite in his right eye.He picked up his 378 and retaught himself to shoot left handed.I asked why he picked that brute,Now I can shoot anything.He was my main coach/mentor and a very interesting man. I would later stop by and relay some of the elk I had taken,up the chute,across the ridge,down the canyon.

 

[blueprairiedog]

Bow hunting

 

[338 dude]

@338 dude My stepdad had zero LR experience leading up to the hunt, so I advised him to buy a 6.5CM (@ButterBean would be proud) and spent 6 months coaching him to get him ready. Our third day out we spotted a herd of antelope across a valley without any good bucks and the dialog went like this:

Me: You should shoot one of those does.
Stepdad: I don't know how we will get over to them, there's no cover. We might have to make a big circle to get around behind them. Probably be about a mile hike.
Me: Or you could just lay down and shoot one from here…
Stepdad:…Oh, ok!

That doe took a 129SST to the heart from 530yd shortly after that conversation. Lol.

My buddy not only had a zero experience but kind of didn't believe what could be done he used my rifle but upstaged me and shot his antelope at 783 yards once I had everything set up for him. I gifted him a 300 win mag all set up later since he was interested in Long Range shooting now

 

[Win.308Stealth]

Haha, I am pretty sure I ran that exact same 20x SWFA for a while before eventually getting an XTR II. I do miss that rifle though, I sold it a couple years ago but kind of wish I had held onto it. Never saw any others.

Getting weird......my scope after the ss20x was an xtr ii as well. I kept the rifle, dropped it off at GAP couple weeks ago to get it rebarreled to .260. already sports a McMillan A3.

 

[Texis]

A few years ago I sat on a ridge and watched deer at 325 yds. It was a bad feeling knowing if a nice buck joined them, there was NOTHING I could do
Reloaded when I was younger, started down that path again and fell DEEP into the rabbit hole. Hit a hog last year at 860, now 325 seems like a walk a chip shot

 

[Texis]

New rifle and a 1000 rounds later

 

[COBrad]

It started as a little boy shooting sparrows with my BB gun. First memorable shot was a foot or so hold over and a sparrow tumbled down dead. My buddy was amazed and I was fired up! Moving down the road 30 years I had a 7mag that was a half minute rifle. I kept it sighted in 6" high and used it for prairie dogs. Got one at 460 something paces one day and started trying to figure ranges more accurately. Another 10 years down the road I was reading a few bench rest magazines and read about those old military range finders this group of guys were using to kill groundhogs out to 1K yards. I bought one. The next year the first laser rangefinders came on the market and I couldn't give it away. Another 10 years and I was shooting a beautiful Cooper Custom Classic that was a solid half minute rifle and using a pretty darn good Leica rangefinder. My furthest kill with that rifle was a marmot at 749 yards. I tried but just couldn't quite get any longer range marmots with that rifle… so I took a deep breath and sold it to order a custom, tight neck, 14 lb 7 mag throated for the Berger 180 grain HVLD. First time out hunting marmots my goal was to break that 800 yard mark. Shot two at 750, then the next two were a little over 1100 yards. Wow!!!
Next goal was 3/4 mile- 1320 yards. I got a few shots at young of the year marmots at that range before they went down into the rocks. I hustled out to look and found one at 1332 yards from my shooting position. My furthest kill so far is another marmot at 1402 yards with a few near misses at a mile. One elk at 1098, another this year at 1176, a couple prairie dogs at 1131 and 1127. Have a 6.5 PRC barrel ready for one of my long range rifles and going to try another marmot at a mile this year. This has been costly, but well worth every cent and every minute. My next will be a 300 Norma Improved shooting the 245 grain Berger EOL bullets… but that's down the road another year.

 

[brant89]

My buddy not only had a zero experience but kind of didn't believe what could be done he used my rifle but upstaged me and shot his antelope at 783 yards once I had everything set up for him. I gifted him a 300 win mag all set up later since he was interested in Long Range shooting nowView attachment 330607

@338 dude I've been upstaged by everyone I take out to Wyoming. First trip my stepdad killed a doe at 530 and a buck at 568, mine were 220 and 336, second trip my buck was at 200 and my wife shot hers at 368, and this fall I took a buddy out for spot and stalk black bear and he's the one with a fancy new rug!

 

[JAYgs8163]

This, 543 yards.

 

[John Klingenberg]

@338 dude I've been upstaged by everyone I take out to Wyoming. First trip my stepdad killed a doe at 530 and a buck at 568, mine were 220 and 336, second trip my buck was at 200 and my wife shot hers at 368, and this fall I took a buddy out for spot and stalk black bear and he's the one with a fancy new rug!

Ha, ha. I guess you shouldnt invite them next month. By the way...how come you never invite me!?

 

[brcfo_outdoors]

Getting weird......my scope after the ss20x was an xtr ii as well. I kept the rifle, dropped it off at GAP couple weeks ago to get it rebarreled to .260. already sports a McMillan A3.

I suppose this is still on topic to the thread because this gun also fueled my interest in long range shooting and was definitely an experimental piece for me figuring out what I wanted in a rifle. I ran mine with a McMillan A4 back when the FN SPR take off ones were still readily available. Had some bottom metal which took the old style AI mags and had the bolt handle and muzzle threaded. By the end it looks like I had a Steiner P4Xi on there. Definitely a fun gun.