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

Most of the deer I have shot were after ranging them with a rangefinder and then shooting prone with a bipod.

Some of them I had to get out the Kestrel and measure the wind.

True if you're talking about offhand shooting skills. If you're using a field rest the ability to hit the target at long ranges makes hitting at short ranges seem easy.

I practice shooting off hand year round because that's how I shoot most of my deer. At the ranges I typically shoot them {rarely more than 80 yards} I have no need for a rest and hitting without one is easy. The one exception to that in many years was a 270 yard shot I took last season. I sat down and rested my rifle alongside a small tree for that one. That was the only deer I've shot that was farther than 100 yards away in many years {new hunting spot with a field} and also the only one that I used a rest for. I hit that deer just exactly where I intended to and that was surely a miracle because I was using a Leopold scope to aim with and everybody knows what a steaming POS they are. LOL
Like any hillbilly worthy of the name I can hold SUB MOA off a rolled up jacket on the hood of a pickup and can do right well from an improvised rest when needed.

Shooting them at 600 yds takes gadgets rests etc.

Finding them afterwards usually takes buddies to help u out.

Amen. I definitely understand what you’re saying. I’m sure we travel similar ground.

Then on the flip side of hunting elk and deer in the west I see the value of the other way of doing it as well.

Being a decent person with a gun and being able to adapt is all part of the game.

This thread just keeps being very entertaining.

I shoot a lot, both at ranges and at varmints--partly because even in "wide open" Montana opportunities on big game can occur at all ranges. Practice a lot from all positions from offhand to prone, using either no rests at all or various kinds. Even long before laser rangefinders, "dialing" scopes, small wind-gauges like the Kestrel, and ballistic programs on smart phones, I was regularly killing big game regularly out to 550 yards due to working out a ranging system with the relatively primitive reticles that existed back then, by comparing the reticle to the size of a big game animal's chest-depth.

This can work VERY well with some measuring of various dead big game animals. I first started using the system a LOT primarily due to guiding hunters for an outfitter in central Montana, and after that used it in various places around the world. In general, it works best out to around 500 yards, depending on the size of the animal--one reason I continue to "back up" the range-finding binoculars I used in more open country anymore with the same basic system and knowledge, just in case the LRF ain't working, for whatever reason.

Tool in the tool-box.

I don’t seek out “long” shots on game. I don’t shy away from them when time, terrain, or the target’s demeanor dictates I shoot rather than move.

Doesn’t really mean a hill of beans to me if someone else is impressed or disgusted.

Even w/ the basic Leupold duplex reticle, ranges and corrections for hunting work pretty well.

For the 2.5-8x36mm which is on the M70, turned all the way down at 100 yds, or all the way up at 300 yds, the thin crosshairs subtend ~ 1", and the opening is ~ 15".

Know the game size, know the drop, call the wind.




GR

Interesting thread & responses. Laser rangefinders & ballistic software/ information along with better rifles & scopes makes longer range shooting a whole different ball game than when I started hunting in the 70’s.

Hunters on the other hand haven’t changed much at all except that TV & streaming shows expose more people to the sport. There are guys who kill game every year & guys who talk about killing game but don’t do it very often.

Shows selling high dollar rifles inject another element so many new guys think 400 yards is routine. I’ve never shot at a deer that far away although pre-rangefinder I thought I had. Once those essential tools came out I understood I was shooting over their backs cross canyon at 250.

Eastern hunters in general consider 200 yards to be extreme range. My grandson now 17 has been practicing out to 600 yards with solid results from field positions for 5 years now. We have a 225 yard range & a 500 yard elk vitals target but most of his practice is still 50 yards with a 22.

I’ve taught a number of young men & women to shoot over the years. One of my least natural marksman killed an elk at 400 yards last year. All it takes is a little instruction, decent equipment & lots of practice.

Spent the morning gathering dope on a new scope rifle combo, i'm golden to 800 Yrds, and i shoot L.R. for the hell of it, but i rarely shot a Deer or other big game over 200 yrds, way to much brush to shot much farther, prone is a no go can't see past the end of your barrel prone, kneeling with sticks or sitting with sticks is the way to go here if you have a shooting lane. Rio7

The OP post asks, "What Does It Take - to Hunt Medium/Large Game at 600 Yards?"

Assuming you have a steady rest, have the wind doped perfectly, a rifle and scope sighted in and capable to accurately deliver a bullet at 600 yards, a 600 yard shot at a target is no big deal.
But shooting at a big game animal at extended range adds another variable- live animals have a tendency to MOVE. Between the time the trigger is tripped and the bullet reaches its target, if a standing deer, or elk, or whatever, takes even a step, the result could be a gut-shot or complete miss, or at least a wounded animal requiring a tracking job to hopefully end the ordeal.
This morning, I went to my local shooting range to confirm the zero of my antelope rifle before season, and set up at the 425 yard range, shooting from the bench, but also from prone with a bipod and sitting with a tripod, for practice in these positions. The length of time it takes for the sound of a hit on steel to reach your ears, once the trigger is pulled, kind of makes you aware of the time lapse from shot to impact, and the potential for a bad shot if an animal moves at all. 600 yards is 1800 feet, and a bullet averaging, say, 2400 fps over that distance, takes approximately .75 seconds from muzzle to target.

Just something to think about.....

I just want to point out that the sound travels a lot slower than the bullet in that scenario, so the sound of the impact isn't a great indicator of bullet flight-time. But I do get your point.

I don't understand the word "Hunt" and "600 yards" in the same sentence. Shooting at 600 yards is shooting. I don't think it has anything to do with hunting.

Define "hunt," and you'll quickly see that distance has nothing to do with it. Of course, there are different ways to hunt and perhaps you only subscribe to a subset of those ways, but that's doesn't mean that everything else is not hunting.

I disagree! When you shoot something that can see you - you are in plain sight of them, and they are not scared. You actually call that hunting?

My point was, the bullet travel time, plus the speed of sound of the impact, simply makes one aware of time lapse. Obviously, the bullet average travel speed is over 2X the speed of sound, but the bullet travel time is the only important factor.

I have mentioned this numerous times over on the Long Range. Hunting Forum……it falls on “deaf ears”! Though most over there consider 600 yards as a close range shot. It also angers some, because speaking of this borders upon speaking of hunter ethics……which is strictly forbidden on the site!

This somewhat coincides with my objection to “head-shooting” game. The center mass (behind the shoulder ) shot is much more forgiving if the animal suddenly moves. The head, can move many inches if something alerts or startles the animal …..quickly changing a sure death shot to a complete Miss or worse yet, an animal that may suffer days before dying! memtb

Once you learn to hunt, there is very little that won't suffice. Too many people have killed animals in their thousands and are not sure whether twist and rifling is the same thing?

It's more practical to discuss methods of cooling beer in a hot camp.

You've never shot anything that was in plain sight of you and not scared?

Yup, I got that. I was clarifying so nobody gets the wrong impression.