Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Is a 300 yard self limit too limiting?

The following is my opinion, and has not been researched.

90 % of all elk harvested each year are shot at 300 yards or less.
70% under 200 yards

Alamosa said;
"The best elk hunting drill I know is - get your rifle off your shoulder and quickly get into position - standing, sitting, kneeling (prone probably won't be an option because there will be too much deadfall and low groundcover)."

Getting ready for my 1st elk Hunt, I came up with a practic drill that I believe helped me.

I set up a target at 50 yards, another at 100, and a
9" steel gong at 200.
Starting with the rifle slung on my shoulder, I got the gun up, chamber a round and put one round in the 50 yard target standing, then drop to kneeling and engage the 100 yard target with 1, and then sitting hit the gong once.
The target shots must be in an 8" circle (or it doesn’t count).
I quickly found out just how fast I could break each shot and consistently meet me accuracy requirements, and how to get in each position fast and efficient.

I always base that on how much sauerkraut and mustard I put on the 'dawg. A good one requires 4 paper plates.

What ranges?
This is what I wrote.

The range you can hit 5 out of 5 shots is your limit. NO MISSES AT ALL!


How many plates?
I would say one plate for every position.
1. Prone, 2. sitting, 3. kneeling and 4. off-hand. So 4 plates.

Shoot at your first range. If you hit it 5 times, back up 50 or 100 years and do it again.
Keep backing up until you miss.

That's you you know what YOUR range is. With your gun from that shooting position.

RH, I'd not accept a personal limit of 300. I'd up my game. I mean why not? But that said in the majority of elk terrain I've ever seen that'd be a perfectly reasonable limit.

Yeah. I get that. But you also said.....



And I asked how you set it up, what ranges and how many shots were the intrepid nimrods allowed before you felt comfortable assigning them their 'special range' that you accommodated by giving them their 'special limit? ?

I come at it a little differently. Shooting prone off a backpack or bipod at the range doesn't mean you can do it at the same distance when you're on a snowy slope with a sharp rock under your crotch and the wind making your eyes water.

So I don't put much stock in "I can hit at 500 yards at the range 5 out of 5."

If you shoot enough, when you get in position and put the crosshairs on the target and assess the wind, light, and everything else, you'll know whether you should pull the trigger. Key words are "shoot enough."

There is no substitute. And no magical yardage.

Except to say that if you can't hit at a particular distance with good conditions at the range, that's obviously outside your envelope.

For me, it has various answers on various days and conditions.

I thnk you simply have to shoot, and know how well you shoot so you can call the shot so to speak.

Some days I"m good to 100 or so... some days 1000...

As to quick shots at fleeting targets, I've let a lot walk.. just because I don't like the odds. But thats just me. I don't have a 200 inch mule deer on the wall because of it... Doesn't bother me at all, I prefer that over wounding.

SO it could literally be passing a 50 yards shot but taking a 600 yard shot

Practive will give you the answer.

Get in some ( meaning quite a bit..) of trigger time if you can out to 500 yards ( if you have a rage that long) You will soon see that elk are a big target, and an easy slam dunk at 300 yards...

500..maybe not..but 300 is a chip shot.

300 yards is a very good limit. Sight your rifle in at 200 yards and you are in good shape to 300 with a standard scope. If you have a tactical scope, then learn the ballistics, apply them and shoot as far as you are comfortable with.

All that being said, a lot depends on terrain, as far as distances. I have killed elk at 35 and at 443 and all distances in between.

I have killed four elk in Wyoming and the closest was 326, due to terrain. There was just no way to get closer in the treeless areas that I hunted. I once took me over three hours to get to 400 yards.

My rifles are dialed in to 550 yards, as that is the length of my range here at the house. I have never wanted to shoot over 300, though, and did it when I really had no other approach.

Note the part about practice... 100 yards is to far for many on deer....

Check out the book 'Elk and Elk Hunting' by Wayne VanZwoll.
You will find the answer to this and to other questions that took many of us years to learn the hard way.

Not necessarily. I just ran the numbers for a 168 grain TSX out of a .308.

With a 200-yard zero it's 9 inches low at 300. Not what I would call in good shape at 300.

With that sight in on a 308 I have no trouble*** ringing the small 300 yard gong doing holdover with a 6x standard duplex Leupold.

*** Given a position allowing for a steady hold. It's the trajectory that isn't the problem.

"I have never wanted to shoot over 300, though, and did it when I really had no other approach."
This should say I never really wanted to shoot over 300, but since I had no other approach, and the day and conditions were good enough, once I settled in and read the conditions, and my stability/ability from that position, I realized the shot was make able that day.

Rather than I couldn't get any closer so I flung one.

I don't doubt it. But holding over on an animal in the field is not a good strategy in my opinion, and just because some can hit steel at the range using holdover doesn't make the blanket statement "sight in at 200 and you're good to go at 300" correct.

and I"ll verify, years of shooting 308 in matches, 168s drop 3moa from 200.... But knowing thats its pretty easy to hold on the spine or hairline and be fine.

I keep reading "terrain" I don't much get how terrain matters. Actual horizontal distance and wind effects would be about all I'd be worried about after I knew that my position that day was solid enough

Lots of good advice thus far. I'd devote equal parts of my practice to hitting stuff quickly inside of 100 yards, getting into position quickly and hitting stuff at 200 yards, hitting stuff near your self-imposed limit, and getting a rangefinder into operation quickly.


Okie John

Jeff, what I meant when I mentioned terrain (would've been better to call it terrain/vegetation) was simply that most places I've hunted elk- several different areas in Oregon and in SW Colorado- there really wasn't much opportunity for shots over 300... especially if you add in "where the elk are".

^^^^^

This makes sense


Trystan