Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Long range "hunting". What say you?

The only 2 antis I know went from non hunter to anti in their early 40’s.

Wednesday.

So, the 1000 yard benchrest shooters with the finest rifles in the world using the absolute best components money can buy will hit the 42” square target less than 50% of the time with their very first shot. These are some of the world’s best shooters firing at an exact known distance using a rock solid bench and carefully developed loads for accuracy and very low velocity spread; usually in the single digits.

Yet some neckbeard can ethically kill animals about that far in field conditions with a bipod using ammo they rolled in the basement from a load they threw together using a cold bore sporting rifle. This is likely a moving target and will be visible for a very short amount of time so there’s not time to dig your phone out of your pocket and plug everything into your ballistics app. The range will be an estimate even with a good laser and they almost certainly won’t be shooting flat and in field conditions that are uncontrollable and unaccounted for. The energy of said bullets will only be in the few hundred ft-lb of energy when it reaches it’s intended target so expansion will be nil. YGTBSM if you think that’s ethical. Most of them couldn’t accurately hit something like that if they fired a whole box of shells, let alone one.

Oh the infamous "I got to get my caribou before winter or I'm going to starve" routine. We try to do the winter hunts now days, definitely separates the retards from the tards. Even the winter hunt can be a chit show that's when guys pull out their sleds/snowmobiles they haven't used in 10 yrs, dump some 2 stroke oil and gas in it maybe put a couple of new plugs in the ol gal fire it up and go yep she's good to go. Get up on the steese or taylor get 10-15-20-30-50-100 miles back and ol betty she's backfiring and sputtering and just quits. Hope like hell someone comes by on a good running sled to give you a pull back to the trucks. Back in 2020 we did the fall hunt talk about a chit show lol.. My buddies took off after some caribou, well the guys coming over the other side didn't see them and started slinging lead over my buddies heads. They hit the ground and these caribou start leaving the country and that didn't stop these guy they just kept shooting ph ucking ricochets off the rocks. Then not to long after two caribou pop up down below me they were way out their and these guys just start slinging lead had to be good 900 yds lol. They didn't hit chit.

LR F class X ring is 5 inches so 1/2 moa. The 10 ring is 10 inches so 1 MOA. I will always encourage people to shoot at least one 1000yd match the data one will get form such a match is very valuable. You will see what your rifle will do after 5 shots, 10 shots etc. velocity spread once the barrel gets hot etc.

Haven't read the whole thread but here's my two cents.

Right up front I will concede that if you are not doing anything illegal then how you kill a game animal is none of my business. I know that personally hitting and losing a game animal has always upset me and I hope all hunters feel the same way. Thankfully it has been a very rare occasion for me.

All that said I would personally never attempt these really long shots. If you hit an animal in the vitals from a 1000 or more yards away then that's a really good shot. But it sure as hell isn't a great feat of hunting skill. I'd be just as impressed to see you hit a 10 inch metal gong from the same distance.

The deer I hunt in my neck of the woods are some of the most pressured and hard hunted in the country. Believe me they well know to fear humans. But I can get within 1000 yards of them still riding in a truck. Which begs the question, are these long range hunters taking these super long shots because they have to or just because they want to. Because it seems to me like a lot of this is not necessary and done just to try to impress people on the internet or on TV.

There is also a lot of whitewashing going on. The only long range videos or stories you will see online or on tv are the ones where such shots are successful. Nobody owns up to the times where they blew a deer or antelopes back leg off. But I've seen videos where these guys miss the whole animal by 3 feet with the first shot. If you can miss by much then don't tell me these folks aren't also wounding and losing animals as well.

I can imagine liberals imagining long range shots, "It is basketball from 3 point land"

You've got LR hunters pegged .....

It is the responsiblity of a meat hunter to make as kill as quick and clean as possible.

Practicing long range shooting when hunting is unethical, truth be told we are always practicing when hunting or shooting at targets. Even the best "making a sure shot" can miss, make a mistake, misjudge the wind.

There is no doubt what may be a long shot for some is easier for others. And it takes a lot of practice to be consistent at extended ranges, whatever that may be. Everyone is proud of a one shot kill, especially at distance.

For most hunts it is rare to have only a shot over 300 yards. Conditions come into play and sometimes it is the only shot, everyone has to only answer to themselves if they should take the shot. That applies to animals on the move, low light conditions, thick brush, lots at play.

The equipment we have today has made longer shots reachable by more people, doesn't mean you should take it. We aren't starving and stalking and calling is very satisfying.

Any attempt at regulation would be a disaster, regulation is a result of people not making good decisions on their own.

lol thats funny!

If I see an elk out to 800 yards, if the conditions are right, I take the shot. Dead at 800 yards is just as dead at 100.

For me anything more than 50 yards is long distance shooting because the woods on my property are too thick for any chance of a longer shot.

Those that can, should.... those that can't should shut the fugg up! ha

Those who say they can probably can't.

Nobody HAS to take a shot. That is the shooters call. And what happens next is on them. Good, bad or indifferent.

Can anyone define "Long Range" for me? Can you break it down by weapon? Air Rifle, small game rifle, bow, HP rifle?

IIRC, the NRA breaks down the Ik range into mid range,600 yrds, long range 8,9,1k The reduced course is 200 yrds. That yardage for many people has never been done.

So, what`s "Long Range"?

I remember a saying - don’t brag to me about how far you shot; brag to me about how close you got.

Farthest I have killed something was maybe about 550 yards. Im not sure where the cutoff is, but at some point it becomes sniping, not hunting.

I guess maybe the right philosophy is that I’m going to get as close as I can, but once I am as close I can get, I can make the shot.

People who can't shoot (and many who live somewhere such a shot is not possible - so, in their mind, it's the same everywhere else in the world - dumbfucks) will always say it's unethical/not "actual" hunting/should be illegal or a whole slew of other inane nonsense. They can go pound sand.

If you can hit an 8" circle every time, it's ethical. If it's legal and you harvested a wild game animal, it's hunting.

The ones that really kill me harvest farm animals behind a high fence, claim it's hunting and then decry someone shooting a wild deer at 600 yards.

I digress a bit, but I don’t dial. I shot a mid-size (northern) Buck at about 550. Light was fading and it was pretty much all wheat stubble between he and I - I don’t like to shoot that far, but there wasn’t going to be any sneaking going on. I was using a 7mm Rem Mag with 175 gr partitions, Boone and Crockett Leupold.

He was broadside, and I hit through the meaty part of the shoulders, didn’t hit bone, and it did not exit - stopped under the hide on the opposite shoulder. He ran about 30 yards and dropped dead.

As I said, that bullet didn’t exit - 7mm, 175 gr, starting at about 2950 fps. The bullet has excellent sectional density and is known as a penetrator. The deer was not shocked or obviously hurt on being hit - which is very unusual with a 7mm RM on whitetail. He did die quickly after a short trot, but it did make me wonder about the energy level at that distance, and the use of moderate velocity 6.5mm cartridges with lighter bullets at that distance and farther, and on bigger animals. Which seems to be a craze.

Good point last year I used a 7mm RM, I've used 300 rum's mostly I use 300 wm. This year will be a Ridgeline 300wm with 200gr. Accubonds. I like these types of rounds because you may be taking long shots and in the penetration and power if the shot isn't perfect. And yes I have shot deer with a 220 swift and have seen deer killed with 223's. Accuracy is most important as is you and your cartridge capability.

I jumped on the solid copper bandwagon pretty early on only because you can drive them insanely fast. Hammers are my current favorites in rifle bullets and cutting edge in pistols but I'm always looking for something better. Velocity plays a big role in poking holes in things way off. Precision first of course but when they start out close to or over 4000 fps, it helps a lot.

All of that said - less than 1 percent of the hunters I know are capable of making the shot at ranges past 300 or so. Most of them are also happy with a gun that shoots over 1 moa. I have no use for one that does that. As machining tolerances decrease and manufacturing processes improve, the norm is becoming .5 moa for a decent shooting gun. That's more like it. Incredible times we live in.

I was a 7 rem mag man forever (only because I own one that would should .7 moa with factory crap ammo). Now I'm a 25-06 and 22-250, both ai, man. Spine injuries/degradation have reduced my recoil tolerance to close to nothing so I just have to do the best I can with what I have to work with. 22-250 ai is my deer gun and the quarter bore is my muley/elk/bear gun now.