I like to prove I can consistently hit my target at longer ranges than I expect to see when I'm hunting. If I haven't proven I can do it in practice, I don't take the shot on live animals.
"Camping places fix themselves in your mind as if you had spent long periods of your life in them. You will remember a curve of your wagon track in the grass of the plain like the features of a friend." Isak Dinesen
I like to prove I can consistently hit my target at longer ranges than I expect to see when I'm hunting. If I haven't proven I can do it in practice, I don't take the shot on live animals.
That's great advice right there. I won't take a shot either, unless I'm 100% sure. 1 shot 1 kill... I'll give an example. The longest shot on a buck I've taken was 648 yards:
Shooting downhill with angle comp on. Actual straight line yardage to buck was closer to 700. I practice shooting out to 900 yards when I draw this tag, so 650 yards is a chip shot. That's 1 example. The next is during the off season I practice shooting out to 500 yards on private property. 500 is all we can safely get there, but its close to home and convenient. During the fires last summer, I shot in the smoke. Visibility was horrible, but this is how one of my rifles shot that day:
Generally that rifle prints 2.5" 10 shot groups at 500 yards... This at 100:
You can't even see the target in the picture because of the smoke:
I generally practice shooting at the tree I built: A 2" diameter target is even a challenge at 400 yards. If you can hit it 8 out of 10 times, you are doing pretty damn good...
Keep in mind a deers vitals are roughly the size of a paper plate. On a perfect day with very minimal wind, I'd shoot a buck at 900 yards. If I have been practicing at that range.
Originally Posted by raybass
I try to stick with the basics, they do so well. Nothing fancy mind you, just plain jane will get it done with style.
Originally Posted by Pharmseller
You want to see an animal drop right now? Shoot him in the ear hole.
Most of the significant shots have been 650 and in.
Best shot I ever took was i creased a chamois at 5 something across a gully.. and he wasn’t broadside. O
Creased a 10pt whitetail just under 600 when it was blowing 20 knots in November and October I got an antelope at a good poke 5 something and it wasn’t calm
I should start writing this crap down. Shooting a dozen critters a year I can’t keep em straight.
For me it’s not how strong the winds blowing but how sketchy it is to make a the right call. Across ridgetops with 0 visual is difficult. So is up or down dog leg canyon on a fishtailing wind.
Brad says: "Can't fault Rick for his pity letting you back on the fire... but pity it was and remains. Nothing more, nothing less. A sad little man in a sad little dream."
I look at bullet capability first. Shooting long with the likes of the ELDM or TMK in a medium bore, my cutoff is nothing under 1400fps. That’s the capability, the rest is all in equipment and shooter. If my setup allows me to use my range all the way down to 1400fps great but there always seems to be variables to limit that. Either it’s raining or my shooting position isn’t just right and the wind usually changes or picks up at the time of shot. All affect my capability which limits my range.
I consider distance and energy. With my 300 WM, my limit is 600 yards. I have a couple of elk kills out past 5 but haven't needed to go to 6. With my 280 AI , (which is new to me) limit is 500 and my longest so far is 410. Of interest is that the only animals that i have not recovered have all been shots under 300 yards, most shorter.
To do something that you have practiced at a great deal is confidence. To do something that you have not practiced is a hope.
I like to limit my long range stuff to distances that I have practiced and practiced at before the hunt. I believe my equipment is good out to 1200 yards but my ability is much more limited to what I can hit. Lately I've been changing around equipment and reloads and have yet to find my max distance which should come together in late spring, weather allowing. In the past I set a limit for me at 550 yards but believe with my new setup I could possibly stretch that out to 700 yards depending on the setting when hunting.
Wind determines my maximum range quite often, but so does the rest I'm able to set up. Shooting early in the morning, with no discernible wind, and a solid rest where I have multiple contact points supporting the rifle, I'd take a really long shot. And have, several times. Crazy how well that works. I've also missed some gimme shots in a horrible cross-wind trying to thread the needle. I hate wind when hunting open country.