Good one, Flinch! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Dang, saddlesore, stick your tongue out at someone around here, and you're liable to get a #3 snapped on it.
Personally, 300 yards is my "limit"- simply because that is pretty much "point blank" range for most rifles. And I don't have a rangefinder. Anything beyond 300 yds is mortor country, and one SHOULD have a rangefinder for that, as bullet drop becomes critical , and range "estimation" sucks, no matter how good you are.
Never-the-less, I'm mentally prepared to shoot to 500 - if I can make a reasonable determination of range, the conditions are right, I have an appropriate caliber, and I can't get closer. My preferred range, however, is inside 50 yards. Can't hardly nothing go wrong if the critter is in "from the hip" country, and you actually AIM!
In August, I took a nice bull caribou at about 357 yards (about 300 yards farther than my druthers), paced off, with a 17 inch barrelled .30-06, group centered 3.5 inches high, 1.5 inch groups, 180 grain factory Remington Corelocts.
I estimated the range at 300 yards, with no closer approach possible, held 1/3 forward from the back of his shoulder hump, even with his back line, and darned near missed him because of that last 57 yards (and the velocity loss from the short barrel). I'd planned the bullet to go 6 to 8 inches higher than it did. The bullet shattered his brisket, sliced open one lower chamber of his heart (if it wasn't a richochet piece of bone or bullet) and the jacket lodged in his far knee. I suspect I was luckier than I deserved.
I dislike gadgets, but I might just have to buy me a rangefinder yet if I'm gonna keep shooting open country sheep and caribou at those distances. Especially with "Stub".
Curiously enough, the other planned "long range" shot that I've executed satisfactorily was also made with this same rifle, shortly after I first acquired it about 15 years ago. 330 yards on a nice Dall ram. Plus or minus maybe 5 yds. 4 days later I killed a 42 inch moose at 70 yards. Quickest I have ever had a gun pay for itself ($80 - minus the 5 inches of barrel to get rid of the bulge at the end).
My partner gives me no end of crap about my "long range mortor". He also keeps reminding me of the time I missed 3 out of 4 shots at a wounded moose at 20 feet with my 26" barrelled .338 Mag. (I was trying to head shoot it as it ran in a half circle around me - I had it "trapped" against a lake shore - on the other hand, had he shot it correctly to start with, I wouldn't have had to. Unless you count the one thru the nose- then it's only two out of 4. Things were a little quick and tense there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ). He shoots either a 7mm Mag or a .300 WM with 24 and 26 inch barrels, respectively, , and considers anything over 200 yds to be "long range". My guess is that if he ever has a 300 yard shot to make, he'll shoot over its back, or higher than planned, anyway.
I don't believe I have ever bench shot "Stub" at anything but 100 yards, but when I touched 'er off, I KNEW that caribou was going down . I was almost wrong, but not quite.
It wasn't in the short barrel/bullet drop, but in the range estimation, IMHO, that I almost went wrong.
