Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Who Is Actually, Regularly, Shooting at Game Over 400 Yards?

Big difference in hunting and shooting. I've head shot doe deer from 5' to 734 yds. I've only shot one buck over 400 yds and honestly it felt kind of cheap.

Growing up in the World of PA deer drives I learned quick that long range shooting skill wasn't going to do much for me but gaining a knack for killing running deer at short to moderate range was essential. So that was the skill I worried about and it has paid off. Probably half the big game I've shot has been running. I don't know what if anything that has to do with a Ferrari in a School zone though...

Yeah, I got pretty good at shooting running game too, when I was in my 20s, due to the local hunting style in one part of eastern Montana. Can still pull it off, too, and have done so fairly often over the years. It's a handy skill.

In my location distance varies so much. It's either close in timber and brush in Idaho or it can be across mountain canyons of clear-cut, burns or in other locations further south steep natural openings. It's quite variable. The worst is the close range junk I'm the north half of Idaho and NW Montana. It's very uncharacteristic for the Intermountain west.

I'm fortunate in that I can practice in those mountain canyons because I've got them literally in my backyard. Most don't have the opportunity to do real world firing in real world conditions and only have a flat range. There's a big difference.

Anyway Mule Deer mentioned that 30-40 Krag hi wall. That thing is a bucket list for me. I'd love to have one of those

Hopeful, most hunters choose not to push their own limits to the equipment's limits. In my view, hunting is more about the experience and respect for the game than it is about technology and pushing one's own limits, using that technology. YMMV.

That's called ethics.

JJHack said that at long range about 100 things can happen. One of them is good.

I might be paraphrasing a bit.

Barsness : "Another comment at this stage of the discussion: I learned decades ago that while an accurate rifle and the skills to use it certainly help in pronghorn hunting, I eventually found more pleasure and satisfaction from pulling off a good stalk than a long shot."



I knew there was a reason I like your writing.

My son and I pulled off an excellent stalk on a big bull caribou a few years back. I had no rest and the crosshairs were all over the place at 162 yards, near dark, with heavy escape cover near by. I passed the shot. I call it the "best shot I never made".

My wife said she had never seen such chit-eating grins as we had when we entered the camper an hour later.

Oh yeah- it was the last day of a 3 day EO closure season.

On a flip side, I once killed a cow caribou (at an undetermined range, pre rangefinder) . The RU77V .25-06 with 120 gr handholds was zeroed 5 1/2 inches high at 100.

The first shot kicked up snow on the hillside under her belly. The second shot, with the cross-hairs just over her ears (standing broadside, head up), centered her shoulder blades. The bullet lodged by it's base in the off-side shoulder blade.

Dunno the range, but I don't do that anymore.

I have only shot a few deer over 400 yards. That said I also shoot from my garage window to 600 yards. I would hate to pass up a once in a lifetime animal because I was unprepared.
Mostly now though I just help my daughter and grandkids get their deer. Edk

My furthest was 465. I dont regulary shoot them at 4 and over, but do regularly practice at 4 and over.

In over 65 years of hunting I can recall only two deer that I’ve shot at over 250 yds. One was a muley that was a hair over 400 (lasered) the other was a whitetail at about 265 yds.(again lasered). Although it was a clean kill, I didn’t feel good about the mule deer. I could have stalked much closer but, for some sell-serving reason, I had to prove something to myself. I had broken my self-imposed 300 yd. maximum and was disappointed with myself.
As antelope tags are hard to come by up here (Alberta), I’ve only been drawn on 7 occasions and tagged out each time. Again, only one was taken at over 250 yds. (about 300). The rest came at well under 250, including a big buck that I had belly crawled along a shallow drainage ditch to within about 30 yards. That was one of the most satisfying animal that I’ve ever taken.

Killing animals is killing animals. Near or far, it doesn't matter. If you felt "disgusted" with yourself, maybe you shouldn't be pulling the trigger.. I hunt to feed my family, not to feel good or bad about shooting said critter. I don't really give a schidt if it's 10 yards or 800. Still same affect...

I shouldn’t have pulled the trigger on that occasion. When one sets a principal for themselves they adhere to it. I didn’t say that I expected other to set my boundaries.

I've gotten old enough that game has to be closer to the truck than I am for me to shoot over 400 yards.

LOL. Having hit the 3/4 century mark, I hear ya.🥴

P/dogs count ?

I've killed a train load of elk but only one over 400. Hunting coues deer is a different story. Hunting and guiding in Mexico, AZ and NM we regularly shoot deer at 6-700 yards. My buddy and i have killed bears out to 1000 yards. Mostly don't need to shoot far but sometimes that's the whole point. Hunting in Alaska I've never shot past 400 yards.

I’ve killed dozens of deer between 500 out to around 975 yards while doing depredation permits for deer. I can think of three that I’ve missed clean between 426 and about 750 yards. All were caused by missing the deer with the laser and therefore misdialing the range. All others were killed very cleanly. Most were shot with a little 105vld 6mm bullet started at 2850fps. That is not hunting but killing. I think the farthest I’ve ever taken a shot at a big game animal while hunting has probably been around 400 yards and it was already wounded by another hunter.

I’ve made some 400+ yard shots on groundhogs back when I was a young man. As for big game, the vast majority of my deer hunting has been in the Ohio woods. The longest shot here has been about 80 yards with a 12 gauge sabot slug. I killed two bucks in Iowa in 2016 and 2019. 111 and 117 yards with a .50 caliber muzzleloader.

Ron

My Furthest deer kill was right at 400 yds.......using a 105 Amax at 2850 in a custom 26" Ruger #1..........6mmBR. Sounds familiar....

it happens for me alot,, in the right situations, prone, fairly light winds, non disturbed animals, lots of coyotes every year at that distance and farther,

lots of gallon milk jugs filled with with water out to 1000 yds are my reactive targets

175 berger out of a 7mm mag a little over 3000 fps and a 140 or 135 berger out of a 6.5 prc around the 3050 fps range,,,,,

I don’t shoot at an unwounded animal past 300yards. Varmints excepted of course. I have been competing in high power for quite a few years, so I have the knowledge and ability to make the hits. I just don’t have the desire to. I’m a hunter. I want closer, then even closer.

Thanks, Tom