Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Got my first taste of long range hunting today

NMSSHOOTER and I went beanfield hunting today in hopes of trying out his long range rig. It's a 7mag Sendero with a Swaro Z5 5-25x52 with the ballistic turrets. I took my 25-06 that I'm comfortable shooting out to 350-400.

First deer came out about 4:45 at the far end of the field. We hit it with the LRF at 633yds. Luke laid out prone, dialed it in, and let the 150gr NBT fly. I was watching in the binos and the deer hit the ground, but then stood back up wobbling for a few seconds before it collapsed, I thought, into the brush on the side of the field.

Since we had daylight left and wanted to wait a bit before we went after his deer, we kept watching the field. Ten minutes later another doe walked out about 40-50yds down the treeline. I've spent a good deal of time behind his rifle over the last few months so I decided to give it a try. It started at 707yds walking and stopped at 633yds, same as Luke's. I let it fly and she dropped DRT, not even a twitch.

We went to retrieve both deer and found that Luke's deer hadn't collapsed in the brushline, but had stepped down into a ditch and then made it into the woods. We blood trailed it for a while and then jumped it in the woods. It had lost a good deal of blood but we decided to leave and come back in the morning. It's going to be cold tonight, so the meat shouldn't be harmed.

Definitely think I'm going to be spending more time learning to twist turrets!

Well, at least one deer hit well/recovered. Congrats.

Best wishes on finding #2.

Maybe you would be better off spending the time building a brush blind a little bit closer to that end of the field.

cool

Cool, hope yall recover the other nanny.

Not like theres never been a short shot messed up either right... just lost a doe a buddies dad shot, at less than 80 yards.... hit her too high and didnt' kill her but still I didn't like that out come either.

point is you do your best and even the chip shots can bite you at times.

Of course fact of the matter, if you could tally up lost deer from shots at 100 yards and under, and those lost to say over 600, the ones under 100 would be a lot higher in number.

Doesn't mean its right, but it pisses me off when we get the holyier than though attitude right away.

Hope your holidays went well. Nice buck you got there with the MZ I saw the other day too!

Jeff

Jeff, that may be true in total numbers but not even close in percentage of shots attempted. Jeff, you outta go into politics the way you use stats.

Given a choice between a 100-yard shot and a 600-yard shot is a no-brainer. Fact is, a shot that's 2 inches off target at 100 is 12 inches off at 600.

Why thank you but its the truth RE numbers.

And IMHO the longer range shooters and generally much better shooters than the shorter range ones as a whole. YOu generally don't hear about all the success, but for some reason we hear about what happened, I didn't find this or that one....

You make a good point about angular at 600, but if you can't hit a clay target every shot that you choose to take at 600 then you really have no business shooting at 600.

I'll take a 600 anytime I deem it correct to do so, and in that, there won't be a foul up. But I"m picky about my shot choices.

What does amaze me so much is so many bang flops all around and when you go look, almost all of them, IMHO are shooting too high for some reason.

I can also tell you that I"ve never lost a shot beyond 300ish yards. But unfortunately I have a couple there were closer than that, that did result in a loss. One at an amazing close distance. I simply didn't see the thick vine that deflected the bullet to the low leg....

I don't like loss of anykind. But the first friggin thing when someone takes a longer shot and looses, here comes everyone pontificating about should or shouldn't do this or that.

Where again do you draw the line. I think Brent shouldn't hunt with a flinter because what happens when you get the flash in the pan and it goes off a second or so later.... AFTER or AS the deer moves in reaction to that... see what I mean?

The correct comment here, hope the doe is located and not lost, and hope that never happens again but good job on the other one.

Just my take of course, doesn't mean I"m right and you gotta vote for me, though I'd appreciate the vote. Grins.

Yes, of course. Does that somehow justify a 633 yds shot? I don't follow your logic at all.


Which of course is an irrelevant comparison since so many more shots are taken at 100 and in. But you knew that - so why make a fallaciously misleading statement like that?



Me too. But then I didn't start this post with, "I took my 25-06 that I'm comfortable shooting out to 350-400." and then tell everyone how we were all shooting at 633 yds. 400 vs 633 is pretty substantial, no?


They did and thanks. I am comfortable out to 100 yds with that rifle but prefer to be less. The shot was 70 yds. I had chances at 130 but I wouldn't consider that ethical and I would expect to get my ass chewed for taking a shot like that with that flintlock. And therein lies my point.

I don't really see the logic in wanting to kill stuff at longer ranges than necessary, just to see if I can. That seems to be a big motivation on this forum, and for that reason I don't usually come here, but today I did. I don't rag on the dozens of scenarios where someone wants to shoot something at a gazillion yds even though getting closer was easily possible. But when someone says, I'm comfortable to distance X and then goes potshooting, at over 150% of X, I don't care if he is successful or not, it's poor judgement in my opinion and I am willing to say so.

Thanks for the intelligent response. Perhaps the best short response is that all of us should know our abilities and limitations, whatever they may be. Some are capable of 600-yard shots and others shouldn't be shooting much beyond 100.

A week ago, Luke killed another doe at 99yds sitting in the same spot. This particular field is fairly narrow but 1000-1200yds long. Deer come out all along the perimeter. Hunting in ANY given spot may offer a short or extremely long opportunity. Hence the reason for spending the money on the LR rig and hours of practice time in the off season learning to shoot long distance.

I guess I should clarify that the 25-06 was not used yesterday. Both shots were taken with the Sendero. It is the only rifle both of us have practiced enough with at distance to feel comfortable with. If I practice enough with the turrets on the 25-06 during the off season it may get used at that distance next year.

For those interested in number comparisons, that doe was deer number 9 that I have killed in my life. Only one has gone more than 20yds after the shot and that one made it about 100 yds across a field before it collapsed. I've never taken more than one shot per deer. Three of the last four deer I've killed have been at 300+yds.

Very hard to make this post jive with your first post.

Nice shot, congrats on the straps.

He didn't shoot the deer that was unrecovered...

I took my 25-06 because we were set up about 300yds from one end of the field at a point where the field was about 100yds across. If a deer had come out on that end of the field I would have used my rifle. The deer happened to come out at the far end of the field(the opposite end) so we both shot using his LR rig. Where we set up we could cover 75% of the field at 400yds or less but it also offered long range opportunities at the far end. It just happened that the deer decided to come out at that end of the field on that particular day.

Well we didn't find the deer today. There was good blood but I guess we looked to earlier and jumped it. As for some of you perfect hunters that have never lost a deer congratulations. I felt perfectly comfortable taking the shoot as I have practiced many many hours and know my gun. I dialed it in and when I shoot it flipped over. Then got up. Roger took the same shot and his didn't get up. If you feel confident in your gun to 100yrds then shoot a 100 yards. It was a fun experience with the exception of finding my deer, I would have never expected not to find it after watching it flip but things do happen. I kill several deer a year from several different place and recover most all them. I've not lost many over the years but I have lost a few and I think anyone that says they haven't are either lying or have not killed many.

Not if you read 'em both.

[quote=BrentD Does that somehow justify a 633 yds shot? [/quote]

Justify?? Why does he need to justify anything to you?

Good shootin' Tatelaw. I once was taking a ration of sh** from a guy around a campfire for missing a shot at a buck. Then, the oldest and by far most accomplished hunter there spat in the fire and said "if you ain't never missed a shot, you either haven't hunted much or ain't tryin' hard enough."

Now he says



Not if you read 'em both.


Nobody says he does. But he seems determined to do so. That's his choice, his first post doesn't jive with the second and the third is worse.

Now he says

He started with saying his buddy Luke's deer is the one that disappeared and was not recovered. How many stories are there?

But in the end, smoke, is there ANY shot at ANY distance that a 400-yd shooter should pass up? Is it all good with you? How about 1000? How about 2000?

Anyway, at least get the story straight twice in a row. You wouldn't fool a high school truant officer with stories like this.