Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 500-600 Yd. hunting rifle

For you sniper purist, 500-600 yds. may not be long range but that is my limit on hunting game. The longest shot to date is 420 yds. I have done this twice once on an antelope and the second a bull elk. I have access to a range that I can shoot out to 600 yds. So I will have the ability to practice shooting to my self-imposed limit.

My question is will the rifles I presently have, do they give me the ability to kill a bull elk out to 600 yds? I hunt with a 270 with a 22” bbl. and a 338 Win Mag with a 22.5” bbl. I have a 7mm SAUM that I was going to keep at that chambering or re-barrel to a 270 wsm but I have that up for sale due to unforeseen bills that have come in. So if the 270 or 338 want get me to 600 yds. to cleanly kill a bull elk. I could take the saum off the selling block but that won’t make the misses happy

They have done so before and can do so again.

Recoil bothers me so I'd sell the 338 and kill the heck out of stuff with the other two. The 7 saum would be fun to mess with and all 3 would get you to 600.

If it's a matter of the cartridge in question, I'd say yes both of those will work... Now how about accuracy? How do said rifles shoot at that range? I've shot critters past 600 yards, but with extremely accurate rifles. One of my long range hammers was a FN PBR XP chambered for 300 WSM and the other a sporter wt. Winchester model 70 classic stainless chambered in 7mm rem mag. Accuracy/skill is key to shooting at that range...

What gun you choose is not that important. A hunting bullet through the lungs,and it's all over. The bigger question is,is your rifle accurate enough to shoot that far,(1moa) or less, and can you shoot it consistently enough to make the first shot hit every time. These are much harder and more important than which caliber is used.

Recoil may not bother the OP. I've shot 40 rounds with my 338 off the bench in one session, along with 50 rounds of 30-06 and 30 rounds of 7mm rem mag that day... If recoil bothers the OP, I'm sure he would not be mentioning his 338. I'm also sure he's not going to sell it because you have a problem with recoil...

At 600+ yards you better be shooting a rifle that is much more capable than that. Consistent sub moa is more like it. You owe that to the critter you are taking. When I say consistent sub moa, I'm talking 10 shot groups as well..... No you are not shooting 10 shots to take the critter, but you better damn well know your rifle and 10 shot groups tell you more about your rifles accuracy and precision and shooter skill than just about anything else. This takes into account you know where your CCB shot is and how that relates to your poi and poa... My CCB shot is always in the cluster when I shoot that 10 shot group as well... If your CCB shot is way off in left field, something is wrong with your rifle and you probably shouldn't be attempting to take game with it...Think about it, that flyer or fu ck up on your part shows up real well on target. That could mean a poor hit on a game animal at 600 yards. You got to be consistent as does your rifle...

500-600 yard "hunting rifles" grow on trees.....

Guys that can shoot a hunting rifle at 500-600 do not.

Fhugk 10 shot groups.... what you gotta know is, can I consistently hit schitt with the first round. Rarely is the rifle/bullet the weak link.

500-600 yard shots on a "range".... are quite different from 500-600 yard shots across a canyon.

Any of the rifles you mentioned would work, as long as time and primers are spent learning it.... though you didn't mention what glass you're running, and glass is the kink far more often than rifle/caliber as range increases.

the 270 would be somewhat marginal IMO out to 600 yards. Roughly speaking, with a 140 grain bullet, you'd be down around 1800 fps, and 1000 ft-lbs at the 600 mark (depending on which bullet you used). That should be enough for decent bullet expansion, I'm just saying your right on the edge.

I'm just happy you're not another "can I use it out to 1000 yards" guy. 5-600 yards should more manageable without insanely expensive optics. But a bedded action, properly torqued action screws and scope mounting, and you can do some experimentation on how consistent your rifle(s) would be.

What optics they are wearing is another topic. My 280 Ack has a 3.5x10 Leupold, and it's probably good to around 600 yards. But that's probably on the low end.

Both are sub-moa proven shooters. The limiting factor is me. Some days I shoot better than others.

My wife's buck at 541.
http://youtu.be/vJDoozwogR4

Sister in laws buck 532 yards .
http://youtu.be/DnyVSCwtqTE

I am running VX 3 and Vari-X III 3.5-10 on both. I am either going VX-6 2-12 X 42 w/CDS OR Zeiss Conquest 3-15x42 w/ RZ800 reticle. Thought I would try hold over reticle and turret system to decide which method I prefer.

Your 7 SAUM is the best out of those three, hands down.

Should I stay 7 SAUM or re-barrel to 270 wsm?

Stay with it, if it shoots well.

.277 bullets VS .284 bullets is a no contest...

I didn't want to say anything, cause it sounded like you were needed to sell it.

I'd sell both the 270 and 338 if I could keep the 7 saum.

I guess 7mm wsm would be the best option if the accuracy is not there with the factory tube and a new barrel is in order

Re barrel to 7saum if need be. 7wsm brass is nowhere to be found. You should get great accuracy with 7saum if barrel needs to be upgraded and brass is available

OR!

Keep your 270, re-barrel it to 280 Ack, and get that new VX6!

Wait a minute. You were just trying to sell a rifle to raise some funds, and we have you buying a new custom barrel and $1,000 scope.

Don't listen to any of us…

This !

140 grain bullet out of a 270 has nice enough BC for over 400... But it's slow out of a 270.

To get good BC out of a 338, OUCH... Kick...

A 280 ack on the other hand 160 grain bullets are near 3k... And have great BC.