how long of a shot rifle hunting?

[RifleRidge]

Id bet him he cant do it! Very few can make that shot!  Very few

   Very well said! 

[Bob33]

A bullet drops more in the 25 yards between 975 and 1000 yards than it does from the muzzle and 400 yards. Can you judge distance to the animal within 10 yards at that distance?

[huntnnw]

Ill call BS on being a proficient shooter...Ive had the ability to shoot some very high end guns and there is a HUGE difference from your $800-$1000 set up rifle to the $5k rifles..I have watched people who have shot rifles only a couple times knock over steel targets at 700 + yards

[deerslyr]

Ill call BS on being a proficient shooter...Ive had the ability to shoot some very high end guns and there is a HUGE difference from your $800-$1000 set up rifle to the $5k rifles..I have watched people who have shot rifles only a couple times knock over steel targets at 700 + yards

LOL theres a big difference between knocking over steel targets at 700 yards and hitting the vitals on a live animal at 1000, hell even 700 for that matter.

[huntnnw]

no kidding

[RadSav]

The 7mm has the ability, but a standard hunting rifle and standard hunting bullets do not. Even 1/4 MOA adjustments on a scope make a big difference at 1,000 yards.  I think many who watch the TV shows figure if they can do it so should I even though they have no grasp of what 1,000 yards really looks like.

In my youth I shot competetive silhouette.  I wasn't setting any records, but held my own within our region.  The 500 meter ram target is quite a bit bigger than the kill zone on a deer at 32" in length and 12.5" in height.  In all reality due to the shape thats about a 2 MOA height and a 4 MOA length unless you get lucky.  At 500 meters (453 yards shy of 1,000 yards) a five MPH cross wind would take me clean off the target.  Size that 547 yard target down at only the heart lung area of a deer and even the slightest of cross wind will make you miss shooting a true tack driver of a long range target rifle with long range bullets.  Now almost double that distance with a store bought 1 MOA (10.5" @ 1,000 yrd) hunting rifle and a standard hunting bullet.  And just because it is a 1 MOA gun at 100 doesn't mean it's a 1 MOA setup at 1,000 yards.  I don't know about you, but that's a risk I'm not taking!  Not even when I was at my very best.

I like to think that if weather conditions were absolutely perfect and I had sighted in my best hunting rifle for the appropriate altitude I could make a 500 to 600 yard shot on a deer with a reasonably low risk of failure still today.  But that's still 40 to 50% shy of the 1,000 yard mark.  Or think of it this way - 1,000 yards is 100% further than 500 yards!!!  Myself I would need the mother of all spotting scopes just to know for sure if it was a legal buck or not.  Dang!!!  That's more than 9/16th of a mile away!  I'm not sure I could hit the kill zone of a moose at 0.568 miles with a hunting rifle.

But heck, it does sound like a good excuse to go have some fun at the long range!  Make some lifesized plywood silhouettes and set them up at 500, 750 and 1,000 yards.  Or make it even more challenging by setting them up at 550, 765 and 980 yards!  That sounds like a serious bunch of fun to me!  Any excuse to shoot is a good excuse

[Old Man Yager]

If my buddy told me he was gonna shoot a deer at 1000 yards, I'd drive right on past his house on my way to the woods!!! I have a problem with the ethics on that shot, alot of things could go bad on that very easily, and cripple an animal that you can probably sneak in on and get amore ethical shot on.

[ctwiggs1]

1000 yards is so far that people who don't regularly practice shooting it don't even really know what it looks like.  Without superior optics forget it on the westside for deer, you won't even know what you are shooting at.

Superior optics - you mean the kind that see through trees?  I can't remember even having 1000 yards visibility where I hunt.

 

[baldopepper]

I was taught growing up that you better never take a shot you weren't willing to walk to check for blood.  Used to hunt a canyon in Utah that had a road running thru the bottom.  Ridge above the canyon was about 300 yards  up and very steep-deer grassed out on it commonly.  Every year we'd hunt that ridge top and always find a couple of dead dear that knuckleheads had shot at from the road and never bothered to go check on because the hillside was so steep and the deer didn't drop immediately.  Like someone mentioned, a 300 yard shot for the average hunter is a very, very long shot and that's if the deer is just standing still. Used to take an occasional newbie with us and always had a chuckle when that 50 yard shot turned out to be a 200 yard shot when they talked about it at the campfire. I know there are people out there who practice and make a science of the long shot, but for most hunters I'd suggest getting proficient out to about 200 max and that doesn't mean just hitting paper at that distance.  Remember when you take that long shot across a canyon, you better be ready to go check for blood if he doesn't drop in his tracks!!

[Taco280AI]

I remember coming across a few guys in Idaho, while hunting, who told me about a cow they took (with a cow tag). Said it was something like 700 yards and about 17 shots later it was down. Exactly the type of people you don't want taking long shots.

[Old Man Yager]

Dumb asses! Im sure they could have gotten closer to a cow elk than 700 yrds!!!

[duckmen1]

I can hit a paper plate at least 9 times out of 10 at 100 yards with a 270 win or 300 wsm. Doesn't mean I'm shooting off hand at an animal at that distance. I shoot out to 500 yards at the range quite a bit on a bench but when you get off the bench it's a whole new game. I won't shoot pass 400 with a lot of practice in the perfect condition and don't want to even shoot that far. I like under 300. My longest shot on a deer was a touch over 300 and got it. And my longest shot on an elk was 250 got it. Both animals didn't run more than 30 yards and went down. I use a range finder on all my animals pass 100 yards and will garrentee I will make a good shot before I pull the trigger.
With a muzzleloader I won't shot pass 100 yards. Open sights are not made to shoot 200 yards for just about every hunter out there. Just my opinion
My muzzleloading doe tag I had around 10 opportunities to shot at around 75-80 yards and waited till I got one at 20. Way more fun.
Getting closer is more exciting and you will garrentee a good shot.

[coachcw]

shooting proan with a good bypod 400 yards with the right equiptment is a drop in the bucket , that being said most don't have the equiptment and the true knowlege of there ballistics to pull it off .  just the angle on that shot will put you a foot off .

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

My goal is to get as close as possible with any rifle I am using, sure i can shoot 700 yds accurately at the range, but the closer I am, the more certain I am of hitting my target.  I haven't shot an elk over 100 yds and I use a 338 rum.  It's nice to squeeze the trigger and know its gonna drop.

[CouesFanatic]

A bullet drops more in the 25 yards between 975 and 1000 yards than it does from the muzzle and 400 yards. Can you judge distance to the animal within 10 yards at that distance?

Don't you use a rangefinder?