Who will be honest.

[35 Whelen]

Several New Mexico elk hunts ago these fellas walked out on the other side of the head of a canyon I was watching. I lasered them at 610 yds. I have a 600 yd. range at my house for practicing prone slow High Power, I would never dream of shooting at an animal that far away.





While I was trying to decide whether or not to stalk them, they drifted back into the timber. But within a 1/2 hour another bull ambled out a little closer at a lasered 360 yds. I dropped to prone, wound my arm through the sling, pulled it tight, held the crosshairs just below the top of the back as he quartered away, and squeezed.



That is the longest shot on game I recall ever making.

I don't believe most peoples claim for long shots. Just this evening I was doing some shooting on my 200 yd. range and thinking how your average hunter would never believe that it is "only" 200 yds..

35W

 

[silicosys4]

My longest shot i would estimate to be 150 yards on the second deer I ever tagged. My shortest was about 25 yards on a decent buck about 7-8 years ago, both taken with a 30-06

 

[JJFitch]

My buddy was in Colorado last year after pronghorn. He and his guide saw a nice one a couple of hundred yards away that slipped into a little gully. Overcoming the guide’s skepticism, my buddy talked him into stalking it into the gully.
They did, and my friend shot the pronghorn at 35 yards. With a lovingly prepped .300 Mag. He told the guide- “That’s how we do things in Pennsylvania.”

Some 30 years ago in Wyoming my hunting partner attempted a Pronghorn shot that looked to be 300+. He asked me to "glass" for him while he settled in to take the shot across the hood of his truck. As he squeezed off the first shot I didn't see a hit or dust kick up. I encouraged him to take a second shot. About then I could smell the strong odor of ANTIFREEZE! We then realized where the errant shot went. The 300 Win Mag. hit the rib running down the middle of his Chevy's hood.

The antifreeze was spewing out of the top rad hose. The round also ripped through some wiring and out the top of the left fender. Fortunately he was an electrician and had plenty of black tape.

Anybody who has hunted Pronghorn knows they are really curious. That guy came back to within 50 yards after about a half hour. This time he went done with out the drama. We were about 3 miles from the paved road. When we got to the pavement I got out to unlock the hubs and sure enough the tailgate had flopped open and NO antelope! We had to drive back about half way to find him in one of the ditches we had to cross on the way out.

Yeah we were knuckleheads!

Smiles,

 

[curtste]

I ranged my one and only elk at 230 yards. Shot him with a 150 grain Partition in a .270. He didn't even flinch. The second shot, he started to walk with a hitch. The third shot he fell over. What a tough animal. He had three holes in and two holes out right where I was aiming, but I had a solid rest, and plenty of time to get settled in for the shot(s).

Deer, never further than 150 so far.

 

[taliv]

Does it count if a bird is sitting on the target stand and spalling kills it? Lol

 

[LoonWulf]

Does it count if a bird is sitting on the target stand and spalling kills it? Lol

as assisted suicide maybe.....


Ive made some longish shots but most of my shots are 50-150yds. If im lucky they don't know im there, otherwise they are usually booking it.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

My farthest shot on a game animal was also my biggest buck ever.
It was between 225 and 250 yards and was walking briskly. I shot a little far back but thankfully the '06 anchored him anyway and I was able to find him within 20 yards and put a finishing shot on him.

The majority of my deer have been 100 or less.

 

[cfullgraf]

About 4 years ago near Fort Pierre, SD, I shot this prairie dog at about 500 yards. At then end of the day, we actually went out to find it and ranged back to the pickup truck. Rifle was a 26" barrel, 204 Ruger AR-15. I used the 40 grain Hornady bullets.

I'd love to say I hit it on the first shot but it actually took several. As long as you did not splash the prairie dog with dirt, they tended to stay put and allow for a second or third shot before going to ground. The AR-15 was great for quick follow up shots, although it tended to promote wasteful shooting if not careful. I usually only put 4 or 5 rounds in a 10 round magazine. A definite limit so that I'd ration my shooting a bit.

This trip, I actually ran low on 204 Ruger. Fortunately, a sporting goods store in Pierre had a bunch of 204 Ruger ammunition on hand that got me through the rest of the hunt.



Most of our shooting was at 200-400 yards though.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

If it’s more than 200 yards I will call in the A-10s

Danger close.

 

[SwampWolf]

Just being honest here, the most fabulous shot I ever made was killing a Redhead duck at a guesstimated range of fifty yards or so with an inadvertently chambered rifled slug in my Winchester Model 97 shotgun (I realize this is the Rifle Forum but I was shooting a rifled slug).True story and one entirely predicated on pure luck, though I never made that concession at the time (over fifty years ago).

 

[ms6852]

Last year I shot a deer at 675 yards using my S&W model 617. The harder you squeeze the trigger the farther the bullet goes. I don't like to shoot that far, getting to darn old to be dragging a carcass that far. Nowadays I prefer my deer very close, grill guard close, won't try it on an elk, suckers are too big.

 

[BigBore44]

I can’t be honest. I have a little Devil on my shoulder holding a pitchfork to my carotid artery. He says if I don’t lie he’ll bleed me. Sooo....

976 yards on a 160” Coues deer with a 22 Hornet, with iron sights, in a 45mph crosswind.....in Louisiana.

Ok, he’s gone. That was a close one!

 

[Kano383]

Been hunting since I was a kid, and have guided professionally for 12 years.

I personally never took a shot beyond 200-250m on game, even though I can easily hit an 8" target at 300m with aperture sights on a military rifle, and farther away with a good scope.

I took a great number of people out in the wild to hunt, at least a couple of hundred. Out of these, there were only four or five who I let take long shots, i.e. beyond 200-250 yards, and all of them were experienced goat hunters, with a rifle that was accurate, that they knew perfectly, and that was properly zeroed for the area, the game, and the ammunition used. In addition, I had seen them shooting game closer, and had seen their shot placement.

Now, I hunted with a lot of good hunters... But.

A BIG but. The thing that really astounded me when I started guiding, was the number of people out there hunting who either didn't know their rifle, or didn't know how to place a shot, or couldn't shoot accurately, or got completely stressed once the crosshair was on game, or any combination of the above. Mind boggling.

Hunting is about having the skills to get close enough to game to be 100% sure of making a killing shot. When you are taking the life of an animal, you owe him a clean death: there is no "Lemme try that shot" in the deck.

Hitting stationary targets half a mile away is an entirely different skillset: that's shooting, long distance shooting, not hunting.

Goat or sheep hunting in the mountains, or hunting in very open places, are the only types of hunts where you really have to combine both skillsets - and there are few hunters who do that.

Everything else, git closer... Therein lies the fun.

 

[marksman13]

The furthest I have ever shot a deer was a lasered 463 yards. I had just gotten home from a deployment and was extremely comfortable out to 800 yards. Today, I’ll still shoot deer out to 500 on a calm day. Too many variables past that and I’m not fond of following blood trails. I’d really rather keep shots under 200 yards if I’m honest.

 

[Bill Raby]

You would have to be a pretty lousy hunter if you can't get closer than 300 yards to an animal.

 

[ojibweindian]

Longest; 107 yards.
Shortest; about 75 feet.

Both with a 7 Rem Mag.

 

[Bacon buster]

468 yards. If you get nervous or have a hard time threading the needle. Don’t shoot. I’m confident at 450-500 yards and shot this yote off the bipod. Even though I hit him about two inches lower than I was trying it hit the jaw hinge and made a heck of an echo back from that 215 gr hybrid. Anyways all I’m saying is even experienced shooter can “miss” their poa. Maybe not by much but if this was a tacticool 889 yards I would have missed. Two inches at 500 yards isn’t much of a mistake.

 

[Captcurt]

You would have to be a pretty lousy hunter if you can't get closer than 300 yards to an animal.

If you are talking about here in the Ozarks you would be right. Some of the flat land out west would be a maybe. I saw places in Wyoming and eastern Colorado where you could see for miles and pronghorns have better eyesight than I do. You could probably get a little closer, but it would be on your stomach.

 

[taliv]

over the past decades, this topic comes up often. i usually link to this thread https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-hunting-some-match-data.776058/#post-9845477 which provides some interesting data and discussion.

I'd love to be able to do a more controlled test. Someday, we should figure out how to get all these long range hunters together and see what they can really do.

 

[375supermag]

Hi...
I have been hunting for over fifty years.
I have hunted only in Pennsylvania.
Spent a lot of time shooting groundhogs on farms back in the day. Longest shot probably 300yds or so with a .30/06... didn't own a rangefinder.
I hunt deer and black bear in northern Pennsylvania in an area with some very large blueberry flats. Some places you can see 1500yds across those flats.
Longest shot I have tried is about 200yds...one shot DRT with my 7mmMagnum.
Closest shot about 10yds in a stand of pines about 35 years ago...one shot with a .30/06.

Furthest kill on big game with a handgun was about 50yds on a whitetail buck about 30 years ago with a .44Magnum SuperRedHawk with a 2x scope. One shot DRT.

 

[Chuck R.]

Longest shot on big game I've taken and made was a Chamois in Austria at approx 440 meters, from one ridge to another. I've killed multiple deer at the 300+ mark and I'd feel comfortable in "good conditions" out to 400 yds with several of my hunting rifles.

Buuut, I spent quite a bit of time competing in Silhouette and long range matches. I have steel plates at 407 and 547 yds off my back deck and my personal range goes out to 760 yds. Bottom line is I get quite a bit of practice in. I can routinely drill an 8" plate off a backpack using Kentucky windage at 400, so 400 is my personal limit. Once I get past that the missed wind calls decrease the probability of humane kills, at 500 and beyond it doesn't take much to miss a plate completely which translates into wounded animals.

 

[DeepSouth]

20ish years ago I was in a club that had a good bit of pipe and power lines, 200+ yards were very common if I saw something over 350ish I’d get in the edge of woods and get closer. Sometimes they’d be gone before you could get into a decent range, but such is life. I’ve killed a very few between 300-350 yards, but I probably haven’t shot one over 150 yards in over 15 years.

I'll also say some of this maybe regional, I went on an antelope hunt in Wyoming many years ago and I think if I lived and hunted out there I’d use a benchrest rifle. I wouldn’t be surprised to here you guys say you shot +400 fairly commonly.

 

[Bacon buster]

That’s very interesting taliv. Surprising as well. Not what you expect to see from a competitive setting especially with sighted and good wind calls. I definitely agree with the what can they really do lol. I’ve seen some guys miss some close shots like in the 100-150 range and I’ve seen some guys reach out like lightening. I pretty much draw the line around 500. I’d be interested to see a similar test with some of my buddies lol.

 

[IdaD]

So much of this depends on where you live and hunt. I can think of two animals I've taken at more than 300 yards including the last deer I shot. Most have been within 200 yards, though. Most of my hunting experience has been in eastern Oregon and southwest Idaho. If you've been to these areas, you would understand why longer shots tend to be more common. Seeing game on the other side of a draw can easily put you at 300 yards. Most of my hunting has been with a 30-06. I do have a 300 Weatherby I've not done much with but I do have designs on upgrading the glass on it and getting more competent at longer distances because those shots are available to me pretty regularly.

 

[webrx]

I cant say I have ever had to shoot a deer further than 200 yards, and the closest was probably about 20 feet, though when he stood up in front of me, i recall it felt a lot closer. if they were further than 200 we snuck up closer so we could get a good clean shot. I hunted deer with a 30-30 or an old 7mm Mauser with a 4x scope back in the day