Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Your Longest Standing Free Hand Shot on Big Game?

Some of us have been in hunting situations where a rest of any kind was not available and a "Free Handed" shot was your only option.

What was your longest "Freehand Shot" on Big Game, with what caliber and how did it turn out for you?

Cheers ~

180 yards on a mule deer facing me straight on. Used a 30-30 and he never took a step.

That's good shooting jmp300wsm! Open sights?

Just so I understand the question, do you mean standing/offhand or using you own body as the support as in kneeling and sitting? Can throw in prone too.

Hi Just a Hunter, I hope you had a fun Christmas.

I was talking about your longest standing "Freehand/Offhand" shot and the weapon, caliber, scope and and outcome? Although it's always fun to hear of other types of hunting situations with difficult shots that you had to take.

My personal longest freehand shot was 525 yards on a big bull moose, I was using my BSA P1917 .30-06 Winchester SuperX in 180 gr. with a Bausch & Lomb Elite 4200 2.5-10x40 mm scope.

Happy New Year with lots of great outdoor adventures ~

Many years ago while hunting with my father he made the longest free hand shot I have ever seen A moose was crossing a seismograftic trail. It was a darn long ways away but it was the only shot we were going to get. 375 H&H bullet hit its neck and dropped right there. Biggest body moose I have ever seen. Rack was only 57 inch but it was really deformed. We killed a 72 inch bull the next year and that rack was 10-15% lighter. I do not know how long the shot was but after gutting the moose I went back to get the spent brass and it was 415 long strides.

My longest shots on big game from the offhand position were all probably under 250 and most of them under 150.

I did shoot a LOT of jack rabbits and rock-chucks at 300 and farther when I was younger, but I missed a lot too and because of that I knew I was not good enough to be sure of a clean kill on big game for shots "way out there" if I could not get to a sitting or prone position. Jack rabbits were my "gauge" as to haw good I was at any given period of my life. I'd go to a sitting or sometimes kneeling position on big game if the shot was over about 150. Resting over my pack was even better. So I can't remember ever even trying to make a kill past 250 from offhand, and I have been killing deer since 1963 Elk since 1967.

When it came to rabbits, ground squirrels and rock-chucks I'd shoot at any of them at any range, and did as well as I possible could from offhand just because of the challenge but I didn't really care if I missed.

Doing a LOT of shooting from offhand also helps you in the better supported positions and I am a believer in firing about 80% of your practice rounds off hand. Then think deeply about every miss.

It's not the hits that teach you to improve, but the misses.

Hi FNWhelen

That is a hellava shot, you must have been proud of the old man!

We were blessed to have beautiful fathers that took us out hunting and fishing and to take their time to teach us about the finer things in life that makes our lives great and to teach us how to feed our families with delicious wild game.

God bless them one and all!



Yep, we sure did hone our skills on them small critters hey szihn?

Personally, I honed my rifle shooting skills with a pellet rifle shooting hundreds of black birds, sure was great practice!

Congratulations on such a long hunting career!

KillerBee;
Good afternoon to you my friend, I hope you're not getting more snow like we happen to be and if you are that you don't need to go anywhere, which I actually do....

Regardless sir, to your question, I don't believe on big game I've shot at anything much beyond about 80yards give or take free hand.

Strangely enough, both the cases that come to mind for me were whitetail bucks which I ended up shooting in the neck because that's what I could see and they both died in their tracks.

The first one was in '92 with an '06 - likely a 180gr Hornady but might have been a 165gr Hornady too. I spooked it in the old growth, called it to a stop and saw a brow tine so thought it was a spike.



The second one was 20 years later and less than a kilometer from the first one. The racks have the same palmation and extra sticker points, which I find interesting. This one was a .308 Norma with a 168gr TSX.



Other than them, I've shot a fair few deer and a bull moose at about that distance more or less. There was a coyote one time that my hunting partner figures was close to 200yds I hit with a .30-30 with a receiver sight, but that was more bad luck for the coyote than luck on my part honestly.

All the best to you all this New Year.

Dwayne

Cool topic. Longest (that I remember) was a running coyote at 300 + - a few. Coyote & dogs headed for big country (no roads no trails) about 4:30 getting dark. Said I'd be home to go to company Christmas dinner with wife. Rifle, 17 wee wee (17 on the 30 m1 case) yes I know it was stupid!!! All told, unluckiest coyote ever, but we caught the dogs & I made it to the party. Happy wife happy life. Yes I'd try it again, it's a frikken coyote, ever come onto a deer that's not dead with its guts & azz hole ate out, hardest deer I ever had to finish. GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Hello there Dwayne, I trust you had an exceptional Christmas with your beautiful family.

What's it going to be like when your daughters bring their boyfriends home and they confess that your daughters can outshoot them and the gals are putting game on the table? Sure hope them boys can at least do the dishes lol.

That is is a humdinger of a buck in the old truck and a beautiful picture of that second one. When I see pictures like that I always wish I had taken more pictures. Sure are nice to look at as we get older, to relive the great experiences God has blessed us with afield.

Neck shots are the best for two reasons, first they drop dead in their tracks as FNWhelen pointed out in his post and secondly there is no meat loss. I know that we are both meat hunters and that is very important to us both.

The picture below is of the moose I killed at 525 yards, one of the few times I took a picture after the hunt. The other is of my BSA P17, which is my favorite hunting rifle of all time.

I wish you and your clan an awesome New Year and look forward to reading your posts and sharing stories in 2023.

All the best from your internet friend from Alberta.

Darren

KillerBee;
Good evening and thanks for the reply.

We had a good Christmas thanks, though for sure a bit of a quieter one than we'd planned since our son in law's family was hoping to come over for Christmas dinner but got sick so that as they say - ended that.

Our eldest has been married to a fine young fellow for 6 years now and no he doesn't hunt but does shoot once in awhile and is also a wonderful cook. His rabbit stew is out of this world.

Our youngest made it back to her home safely on the coast today, so that's both a relief and a bit sad too for me since it'll be months before we see her again.

Finally thanks for another look at that fine stock work on the BSA. I am mostly Teutonic so that's likely at least partially to blame for me liking the Germanic cheek piece and pistol grip lines.

Happy New Year to you all.

Dwayne

Hi FNWhelen

That is a hellava shot, you must have been proud of the old man!

We were blessed to have beautiful fathers that took us out hunting and fishing and to take their time to teach us about the finer things in life that makes our lives great and to teach us how to feed our families with delicious wild game.

God bless them one and all!


Dad said he was shooting for the shoulder area but there was some wind and probably a little wobble to push the bullet off course a little. I was 40 years old before I saw him miss an animal. I got lucky and nailed the deer he missed. After the deer hit the ground I told him I had been waiting 40 years for today. Looking back I am sure it was the proudest moment of my life.

That is an incredible shot on a running coyote GWPGUY, great shooting!

425 measured yards on a spike fork moose.

35 Whelen, 250gn Barnes FXB, 6X Leupold.

Aim point was level with its back, bullet dropped 24", first shot holed the heart , still standing, second shot nipped the inside of the fore leg, moose was dead on feet and then tipped over.

I can normally use my walking staff, or find sonething to rest the rifle on. My longest offhand shot however was 150 paces on a mule deer with a .58 Hakwen rifle .
Cat

My son and I were out in central Nevada, retracing a very remote portion of the Pony Express route, hadn't seen another rig in two or three days, stopped on a two track, got out a beer and cheese and crackers, 20x spotter, Springfield trapdoor, on the hood. There was a chalk or caliche boulder way, way in hell off, before the days of affordable range finders, and we started whanging away at it...with no success. Son says, damn, look, a rig coming. The cowboy stopped and we did all the polite stuff, cracked him a beer. He was just mesmerized by the old trapdoor, asked all about it..so we insisted he take a shot or three. What are you guys shootin' at? Yonder white boulder. Jesus fellas that thing is farther than heaven. But he's game, takes a bead (I got the Buffington set on 700 or so), boom, he lays the rifle on the hood..., little puff of white drifting off, then we hear a 'thwock'. Son and I look at each other in astonishment...cowboy starts laughing, from the look on your faces, I take it there wasn't much chance of hitting that? We explained we were using the hood as a rest...and he donged it offhand. Anyway, after he left we paced it down and up and wandering through the sage clumps and we guessed it at 750 yards. You could say it was luck...but you could also say he hit what he was aiming at.

Two hundred yards, running whitetail, 7 mag, dead.

Hi hanco, I shot a nice whitetail on the full run @ 200 yards as well once, gotta admit I was pretty proud of the shot, just like you were :o)

Happy New Year!

125 yards at a walking whitetail buck. I was turned around and standing on my climbing treestand in the last five minutes of the last day of the season.

75 yards offhand and a little winded after chasing a 6X6 bull up the mountain. He turned to face me and I hit him head on with a 30/06. He ran about 35 yards.