Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What percentage of your shots on game are over 150 yds?

Most off my family's deer are shot between 150 and 200 yards. Rarely over 200. I have only shot maybe 5 over 300 yards.

Last year the deer I shot were:

12 Gauge RIO fragmenting slug 30 yards Mule deer doe

20 Gauge Remington accutip slug 100 yards Mule deer buck

25-45 Sharps 80 Speer hot core 160 yards 2 mulie does

308 Win 165 Sierra BT 140 yards mulie doe

300 Win mag 180 failsafe 300 yards 2 whitetail does

25-06 117 Sierra BT 50 yards whitetail doe.

My daughter got the closest whitetail doe at 8 yards with the same 25-06 load it was a 500 yards stalk, haha.

It depends.
Big difference based on weapon used.
I grew up hunting Indiana and Illinois so only used a bow and a muzzleloader or slugs out of a smooth bore shotgun. Can’t think of a single shot over 100 yards.
Started rifle hunting out in Wyoming and have only had one under 150 yards since.

This is one of those things that hindsight would answer but I didn't have foresight to keep that specific record. And for most of the time I didn't have a LRF.

Having hunted in Deer leases all the time until 2012, the majority of my shots/kills have been past 150 yds.
< closest was 12', easy to remember>

Even at that the majority have been less than 200 yds, quite a few between 200-300 yds, and a FEW @400 yds. (375-402)
after getting a LRF.

REGARDLESS of past distance kills, on any given day I could be in a thicket OR on the edge of an OPEN pasture and range up to 400 yds.
I will not hamstring myself with a SOFTBALL trajectory cartridge.



There is a pond at the edge of cover to the right of this vista. ^^^^^





Jerry

We kill between 350 and 450 WhiteTail here every year, and I would say 99.8% are inside 150 yards. Rio7

I've been hunting wide open country for many years. Most shots are 200-300.

An extremely iffy 1%

80% are over 150yds

Same here.

Probably around 5%.

Thanks guys for your replies.

Appreciate your candor!


Best,


GWB

1 at 214yards In alabama every thing in fla less than 100 98% less than 50 1 at 7ft prob. 160/175 deer

Probably 3-4%. Those were the ones either getting away or couldn't get closer. Longest was 380 yards with a 375H&H.

Over the course of my lifetime and over 200 deer about 3% over 150 yards.

I would guess about 50%.

But I can say that about 90% are under 225 yards in the last 22-24 years of hunting.


I used to shoot long ranges, but I came to my senses I guess and realized that in my entire life I have never had a need to shoot past 500 yards at an un-wounded animal. It's ALWAYS been possible for me to get closer, 100% of the time, on 100% of the game I have hunted in 100% of the states and in 100% of the countries I have hunted in.

I do not condemn those that love to shoot long distances, because I did that myself when I was younger, but I came to understand those deer and antelope are NOT MY ENEMIES. They are blessings, and I should respect them enough to hunt them and not risk wounding one and letting it get away, or even hitting it with a less then perfect hit, and allowing it to suffer longer then necessary.
I was lucky. In all the long shots I ever made I never failed to kill with one shot, and I never had an animal get away or run more then about 30 yards.
I but I do ascribe my success to some element of luck mixed with as a high level of skill. All the skill in the world cannot give you a 100% chance of reading the wind and mirage however. Experienced hunters know that is true even at normal ranges, so as you extend the range the potentials for mistakes grow exponentially. My respect for the game overcame my desire to brag about distance.

I still like shooting at 800 to 1200 yards, but I refuse now to shoot at game over 500 meters. It's just my own personal preference. I am more impressed with hunting skill then I am with shooting skill, and as such I consider my bragging shots to be those I made under 10 yards and a few under 15 feet. I actually feel a bit of embarrassment at those I killed "way out there' when I am forced to admit I made all those shots at ranges that I could have easily gotten closer, and in most cases I could have easily cut the range in half.

My best bragging shots have been made mostly with handguns and a few with rifles. My 2 closest ones were with rifles however, not with handguns.

My closest shot ever was made on an antelope at about 18 inches. At less then 2 feet the muzzle blast blew a lot of hair off that antelope. I shot from laying on my side on the ground. It was so close that aiming was not needed and may have been impossible but I hit it perfectly by thrusting the muzzle of my 9.3X74R. Ruger #1 towards it's chest and pulling the trigger.

My next closest shot was on an elk in Idaho with a 375H&H Mauser at about 6-7 feet. I shot from the hip and hit the elk mid-chest.

Both of those make me feel a LOT better than any shots I ever made at 600-900 yards.

With my bread and butter meat hunts here in Wyoming, I'd say that roughly 75% are over 150 yards. Most other places I hunt, in western Montana and Idaho in particular, about 50% are over 150 yards. When I travel far and wide to hunt random other critters, when I am not really meat hunting, the vast majority are 150 yards or less.

How's that for a simple answer?

geedubya, For the majority of my life I would have said under 200 yards, but with our relocation 20 years ago, most of our shots are at 300 plus. We don’t hunt the timber as much as we once did, so that plays into the equation! Also, it hopes of killing the “big one” before I “check-out”, we’ve passed on the “dink’s” which always seem to be close! memtb

I respond to threads quite often but seldom start threads here. Hopefully this thread will not go off the rails in regards to long vs. short or close vs. far. I was up late at night and just happened to be thinking on the subject of how I hunt vs. how others do things and why always interest me.

Guys, once again thanks for the responses.

Best,

GWB

Enlighten us..... what’s the difference?

I’d say on deer, about 1/2 our shots are under 150 yards.

On elk.... it’s probably more like 85% inside 150 yards..... in fact..... that’s probably more like inside 100 yards.

I can remember 3 deer or elk in 50 years of hunting that were taken at over 400 yards, I would say easily 90% or more were taken at under 150 yards
when I started hunting back in the mid 1960s, every magazine was pushing the 270 win, 7mm rem mag and various 300 mags as almost mandatory
over the decades I've seen a great many of the guys I hunt with transition, to carbines like BLRs in the 30-35-375 caliber cartridges and a few 45 caliber rifles ,
its got nothing to do with the ability to hit targets ,at extended ranges,it simply due to where you tend to see game while hunting