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

As far as being in plain sight of them but at such a distance that they were not scared. I have, I was young. But I am ashamed to have done it. It was not hunting by any possible meaning of the word hunting. It was just plain shooting. Shooting and killing doesn't equal hunting, though shooting and killing is a part of hunting. Shooting in plain sight of an animal and they can plainly see you not being scared has absolutely nothing to do with hunting!

This exact scenario (being in plain sight of an animal that can clearly see you, and then killing it) has happened to me many times. At well under 300 yards. Does that mean that shooting animals at 0-300 yards isn't hunting if the animal sees you and isn't afraid? What about tree-stand hunters. Plenty of animals see a guy up in a tree and are not alarmed (BTDT). And how about the difference in animal fear in limited-entry zones versus open units? Does that mean that the shot distance we can classify as "hunting" depends on animal fear and therefore on the type of hunt (LEH versus open)? In one instance, I was hunting BH sheep on a general tag, when they eventually saw me at 600+ yards and became alarmed and ran off. If I had killed one, would it pass your litmus test for "hunting" because the animals were afraid of me once they saw me? The point I'm making is that you can't define hunting based on distance, as there are always exceptions to that definition. To a traditional bow hunter, killing an animal at 250 yards is just "shooting". Defining "hunting" in terms of shot distance is always subjective, so it's impossible for everyone to agree on a threshold distance where we go from "hunting" to "not hunting". This subjectivity is the problem with projecting your definition on everyone else.

Maybe your version of "hunting" has constraints on the distance, but the general definition does not. Merriam-Webster provides a couple of definitions:

"Definition of hunt (Entry 1 of 2)
transitive verb

1a: to pursue for food or in sport

2a: to pursue with intent to capture"


No mention of distance, and for good reason.

I tend to agree. For instance shooting prarie dogs from 600 yards away by the hundreds has nothing to do with hunting. It's just long range target shooting using live targets. I couldn't call it hunting by any stretch. I've posted this here before too. There is a field on the hillside across the valley from my home. I have ranged a large white pine at the woodline along the edge of that field at 880 yards from my front porch. Deer come out to feed in that field frequently, sometimes during deer season. I can go out in my yard in plain sight of those deer, start my car, drive down my driveway, stack wood, run my snow blower, you name it and they pay no attention. I have no doubt I could set up a bench rest in my yard and there are people here who could and would shoot those deer, brag about the shot and call that hunting. It's not to me.

Key words "to me."

The question is, who gets to decide what is and isn't hunting?

I get to decide what is or isn't to me.

No doubt. That's much different than proclaiming "shooting an animal at xxx yards is not hunting."

Skill

Gear

Practice, practice, and more practice

Opportunity

Imo, when I leave the house to pursue wild game With a Bow, Rifle, Shotgun, or muzzleloader, I'm going Hunting. Distance has nothing to do with it. If I take an animal at 20 yds or 300yds. Its hunting to me. If I had the proper equipment, trained with that equipment, and felt confident that I could make an ethical kill shot at 600yds, That would still be hunting in my book. Where I hunt 300 yds would be the extreme max distance for a shot. However, I understand that due to terrain features and hunting pressure, A 600 yard may be necessary to take a trophy animal in some places people hunt. There could be a situation where that's as close as you can get. There are many hunters that have what it takes to make that shot. They have spent lots of time practicing shooting at that distance. and they have the proper equipment to get the job done. I say if you can not close the distance on the animal, and the conditions are right, and the shot presents itself. If your that guy that has trained for this, take your shot. Yes, it's a long range shot. Imo that just makes you a hunter with excellent marksmanship skills.

I’ve had a whitetail buck stare straight at me and not care and went back to fiddling with a doe out in in front of me. I suppose that I wasn’t hunting when I put an arrow through him because he saw me?

That's right. You're supposed to jump up and down to make sure he knows you're a threat.

Damn, I thought it was jump on his back and slice his throat?? I just can't get this hunting schidt straight!!!

Bare hands dude. Using a knife is not really hunting.

If you're shooting something from so far away that it has little or no chance of perceiving a threat, it becomes target shooting at a live target IMO. But that's just me and I'm sure that if at some point in the future weapons that allowed getting to high ground on a clear day, spotting an animal in the next county via satellite imagery and killing it with one of those nifty new lazer rifles, it will still be considered sportsmanlike and ethical to some "hunters". In some places it's still considered unsportsmanlike and/or unethical to jack light, bait or run deer with dogs. I don't see how using modern equipment to effectively kill them from distances where they don't/can't perceive a threat is much different. Where do you draw the line, 600 yards ? 1600 yards ? 10 miles ? Or do you not draw any lines and anything that results in a dead animal is still considered hunting ?

Decoys? Camo? Blinds? Scentlock? Lots of lines could be drawn if we really thought about it. I suppose some would consider my invisibility cloak unfair 🤭

I'd put the line between 100-200 yards. Orders of magnitude more difficult to get within bow range than 200 yards.

Nobody wants to hear that though. Because most people can make a 200 yard shot.

It would be simple to keep the vast majority from taking/making 500+ yard shots by simply eliminating rangefinders from the list of legal shooting/hunting aids.

It'd be just as simple to keep anyone from taking 100 yard shots by banning guns.

Deer can easily bust you from 100 yards away. Not so much from 900 yards away.

OK, you win. 200 yards.

You do know that there are legitimate reasons people hunt that have nothing to do with the thrill of getting in close, right?