I am so tired reading about so called "hunters" who shoot our great big game at 700 yards. If you can't get within 300, you are not a hunter, just a shooter.
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I�ve got a couple problems with that statement. The first is that I�d rather hunt with someone who is capable of hitting consistently at 700 yards than someone who can barely stay on paper at 200. The second is that �getting closer� isn�t always possible � there are too many variables including weather, property boundaries, terrain, time, pressure from other hunters and so on.
My longest shot elk was 350 yards and it is also the one I am most proud of. We spotted the elk in the sage at 11:30 AM on a hill about 600 yards away. At the time none of us were even close to prepared to take a shot at that range, so we waited, hoping they would move off this hill. We waited through sun, rain and sleet, then a couple inches of snow and more sun. At sundown they started moving off the hill and we were able to get within 450 yards. The last 100 yards I covered on my back, pushing myself headfirst with my feet through snow, prickly pear and barrel cactus. At 350 yards I hit a downslope where I would have been fully exposed in the dwindling sunlight. I sat up and took my time, then nailed the largest bodied bull elk I�ve ever taken. A few minutes later marked the end of legal shooting hours.
Last fall my son-in-law took his first elk at 363 yards. We were on the top on one point and the elk were just below the top of the next point over. The time was an hour before sundown. We knew there were elk in the timbered draw between us but we couldn�t see them and didn�t know exactly where they were. (Every now and then we would get a glimpse of one or hear a bull bugling. He had been sitting watching and waiting for several hours with Daughter #2 and I had joined them about 2PM.) Had we tried to get closer on a straight line we would been fully exposed on the open face of our point, in late but bright sunlight. If we tried to circle around through the draw we would have lost sight of the elk we could see, would have still been exposed as we approached the draw, and stood a very good chance of spooking the elk in the draw. Even though the sun was low and directly over the elk, washing out the scope, the 363 yard shot was his best opportunity. I had my son-in-law use the main trunk of a scrub oak tree to shade this scope. He took his time and the elk was on the ground before he recovered from the recoil. This was his only day for elk hunting and the shot came shortly before sundown.
You may not consider such shots just �shooting� because they are over your arbitrary limit of 300 yards. I would disagree. Being able to consistently make a shot at extended ranges isn�t something that just happens � it doesn�t require fancy equipment but it does require a lot of practice. Over the years I�ve turned down every opportunity over 350 yards and many a ranges under your limit of 300 � including some at a few feet to a few yards. My hat is off to anyone that can consistently make shots at 700. And guess what � they still have to find the game first�
