Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What Does It Take - to Hunt Medium/Large Game at 600 Yards?

BradFord,

Yep, you never know!

A decade ago, on one of the many pig culls I've been part of in Texas, several of us were hunting the King Ranch. It had been a very wet year, and natural feed was not only abundant, but the grass grew so high it was tough finding pigs unless they were right on the ranch roads.

On the last evening it was my turn to shoot, and I'd brought two rifles, an open-sighted .45-70 lever-action and a scoped bolt-action .257 Roberts. Just at sunset a fairly sizeable boar--somewhat larger than I generally pick for eating--was moseying along the edge of the road around 250 yards away, feeding with his snout just about touching the tall grass along the edge.

Soon he disappeared around a bend, giving me a chance to stalk closer. I would have preferred to use the .45-70, because it would leave a bigger blood trail if the pig got into the grass, but the light was not only growing dim but the boar was pretty much in line with the sunset, so I grabbed the .257 and made the sneak. As I came around the bend in the road, the pig was about 150 yards away, broadside, and instead of getting fancy I aimed at the rear edge of the shoulder, knowing any wobble would still hit something vital.

At the shot he dropped right there, and I thought the 115-grain Partition might have broken the shoulders--but nope, it had only gone through ribs and lungs! It was another one of those lucky instances: Have seen a bunch of other pigs hit in the same place, most with cartridges larger than the .257, and they'd run off 50 yards or more before expiring. One was a 60-pounder that went 60-65 yards after a 250-grain monolithic from a 9.3x62 made a big hole in both lungs!

My old friend Ron Spomer's wife Betsy had basically the same thing happen with the first Cape buffalo she ever shot. The placement was basically the same, just behind the shoulders through the lungs--and the bull dropped right there and never moved! The rifle was a .375 H&H....

Thank you for the outstanding post. I wanted to add one more factor - luck. Every animal is different and reacts differently to being shot.

Last year, I got invited to a game management harvest at a West Texas ranch. Basically, the rancher wanted to reduce the number of does on the property and we got some meat out of the deal. The second day, I got set up in a blind 87 yards from where we put out some feed.

Shortly, after sunup, a nice sized doe came out of the thicket and I placed a 143g ELD-X from my 6.5CM right behind the shoulder. She dropped DRT. Since I didn't have to track her, I decided to stay in the blind while my friend continued his hunt in a different blind about 1/2 mile away.

About 45 minutes later, I was shocked to see another doe wander out and start eating the corn near where the first doe was laying down. I ended up taking the exact same shot with the same equipment. She ran about 30 yards before she passed. When we gutted them out, I swear the entry and exit wounds were within a 1/2 in of each other and no "big" bones were broken.

Why did one doe drop DRT and the other run off bleeding? Luck. On that first shot, the hydrostatic shot from the bullet must have impacted the central nervous system whereas it didn't on the second.

It is hereto an unexplored corner of the hunting envelope for me.

Have gone round-n-round looking at the new "long range" hunting cartridges... but think that a 24"/1:8 twist long-throated .270 Win and 150 gr. ABLR's, at ~ 3,000 fps at the muzzle, should do nicely.

Am already well entrenched in the cartridge.


Will be contacting Pac-Nor, finalizing a stainless R5 Bbl. w/ a Remington H1 light "varmint" contour, spun-on and trued to a M700 action.

The BDL stock is already bedded and padded, so only "free-floating" the new Bbl. should be necessary (unless the recoil lug changes).

And the magazine length will accommodate long-loaded 3.55" COAL cartridges.


So, what else?

TIA.




GR

Energy/Impact Velocity/Bullet Construction/Shot Placement - are the only things a hunter has.

... so your opinion is irrelevant.




GR

FPE is irealavant quote such shows ignorance

This thread has got to have the longest individual posts made by individual members, eva!

If I catch Covid, I’m gonna read this entire thread, knowing by the time I finish it, I will be over Covid.


😂🦫

This thread has got to have the longest individual posts made by individual members, eva!

If I catch Covid, I’m gonna read this entire thread, knowing by the time I finish it, I will be over Covid.


😂🦫

I was just thinking the same thing... Catching up a bit from the weekend.

I’d skip the thread and repaint the boat.

😬😜🦆

I was just thinking the same thing... Catching up a bit from the weekend.

If you don't make it, can I have all your rifles that deliver 2,000 FPE at 600 yards?

With or without a cotton sling?

Wow. I did not expect such feedback on a forum of reasonable people.