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

It ain't for me, but I kind of admire the guys who can pull it off, have the skill, knowledge and practice enough to do it consistently. But on the other hand, I shot NRA High Power for 40 yrs and at a mere 600 yds, wind and mirage frequently put crow on the diet of masters and high masters. Now take away wind flags, spying on competitors targets, and free sighter shots...it adds up to adding luck to the factors for success. Since videos of failure don't garner a lot of watchers...we don't usually get to see the failures. I really have contempt for the guys who don't have the skills or practice enough, that think you can build a rifle and buy an optic, have a spotter that is as ignorant as the shooter, and are qualified to snipe at animals. And the bottom line for me is, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

Good point. Something no one has brought up is the TOF to the target in the OP. Just off the top of my head, it took roughly 4+ seconds for the bullet to get to the target. A lot can happen in that amount of time. To me, that type of shot is reckless when we are talking ethics and "humane" 1 shot kills. What the OP posted is considered ELR, not just "long range". I'll shoot 4-700 yards on a big game animal, but practice out to 1,000-1,500 yards and also shoot competitively in long range events. You are right. A lot of the people that don't shoot longrange, don't know enough about it. Yet they try to impose their short range rules on the rest of us.. Like others have said and what I have said a 100 times, you need to know your limits and abilities. Don't overstep those boundaries..

I have yet to meet ANY big game animal I can't get within 300 yards of.

40 years as a bowhunter teaches you how to HUNT.

Shooting STEEL at 1000 yds is fun, wounding animals is not.

Wanna be snipers should join the military where the target can shoot back.

A real hunter can do just fine with this.

There you go^^^^ Dumb fu cks trying to impose their short range rules on the rest of us. ^^^^

I rest my case:

I fall into this category for several reasons. Hasbeen

It was 4ft by 8ft, not 8inches

Anything more than 100 yards I consider shooting, not hunting. Then again sitting over a foodplot and having a 30yard shot really isnt hunting either.

You would not feel that way if you hunted the open country of the West!
Agreed on the food plot thing

This is always a contentious discussion, though a valid one. The conversation is always geared towards long range center fire, but should include archery and ML as well. 100 yard archery kills are not that uncommon anymore. Smokeless ML’s have become single shot rifles and the list goes on.

No one can deny technology has extended the range for all. As Western tags become harder to acquire, hunters are taking advantage of every technology available to be successful. Like it or not, technology is going to be a bigger discussion every year.

It’s all good till they come after your technology.

My rifles were usually zeroed at 300 yds.
264 Win and 7mm STW at 350.
The range card on the stock went out to 500 for each.
If I could not shoot four inch groups at 300 yds, from prone with the rifle, it did not go hunting. And yes, I shot dozens of shots each year between 400 and 800 yds, at rocks and othet targets of opportunity to test and assure capabilities.

So, yes, I was prepared and competent to take game with lethal and humane first shots to 500 yds. I shot many at 400 yds.

Deer and elk are made of meat. I eat meat, as does my wife and kids. There were excess animals on the range which needed thinned. I had tags.I did not take any step beyond that which was legal.

What someone else considers ethical or "fair chase" is of no consequence to me. I need only appease my concsience, and stay within the bounds of the law.

I use past tense, because I have not purchased a big game tag in several years.

....and shooting back makes you more intelligent? 🤪

Geez! Put your hunter orange on a stick and wave it around!
Used to hunt with a guy who would brag, "If a bullet hits near me, whatever I have in my pocket, I'm sending back that direction!"
I don't hunt with that idiot anymore!

Why on earth would you want to make a dangerous situation MORE dangerous? 🤔

P.S. - yeppers, it would piss me off too, but I'm not going to just start slinging lead helter skelter across the landscape!

I feel strongly that more animals are wounded by hunters taking running shots at 40 to 50 yds, than are wounded by shooting at a standing target inside 500 yds.

I believe the orange paint bullseye with the bullet hole in it was 8”, the backer that it was painted on was probably 4’x8’.

With almost any centerfire rifle, the animal can't hear it coming at 50 yards, either. Most of them are faster than the speed of sound, even at that distance.

I've read a lot of accounts of game being killed at 600+ yards, but not a single one of them told how many they wounded before one died.

That's a great choice for someone with a felony record Larry!

I love threads where I get to determine how everyone else pursues game.

Hold on, let me warm up my keyboard.

I believe ethics in the field matters.... but don't believe it should be legislated, it's a personal choice.

As an 'eastern hunter' I have never took a shot much over 200 yards.
I passed on by far the largest antlered whitetail that I've ever seen due to distance.
I guesstimated him at 400 yards out.
Used the rangefinder a couple years later....387
Not proficient here at those ranges.

I never said anything about “shooting back” or shots slinging around helter skelter across the landscape. But read into it what you will…