How many of you are planning to shoot a deer over 300 yards?

[RileyH]

400 or under for me, but I think it's a purely personal matter.

Long distance hunting is not my cup of tea, it seems unfair to take the animals natural defenses entirely out of the equation with a 600+ yard shot like you see on YT regularly these days.

[EnglishSetter]

Being on the west side I don’t get a lot of opportunity to practice longer range shooting, and it hasn’t particularly been a handicap in the areas I hunt, as I primarily “still hunt” the big timber.

I don’t really have an issue with people taking long shots as long as they’re capable, but the problem is people that think they’re better than they are taking those shots. I think most of us have witnessed some idiot slinging lead across a canyon or clear cut trying to “walk it in” on a buck at some point.

Personally I’m a little bummed that rifle hunting has become sort of “unlimited class” by a lot of measures, I think in the end it will end up hurting us as a whole. As others have said, after a certain point it just becomes shooting rather than hunting, but the tricky part is figuring out what that point is. Laser rangefinders being so cheap these days and some of the newer chamberings with ultra-high BC has taken a lot of the learning curve away. With all the social media influencers touting long range shooting, it seems that the challenge often has turned from who can get the closest to an animal, to who can take one from furthest away.

Well said without drawing some arbitrary line in the sand. 

[jrebel]

Are we seeing increased harvest rates?  The only way I see it becoming detrimental to our hunting opportunities is if we see a substantial increase in harvest rates.   I haven't looked in a while, but it appears the harvest states / rates have remained stable for many years.....actually dropping along side of the number of actual license buyers. 

[Cougeyes]

I've been hunting now around 30 years and only recently started practicing shooting longer distances with a gun i'm confident in. Growing up hunting, shooting over 300 yards didn't seem practical with the lower zoom scopes and smaller field of view and overall lack of practice at anything beyond 300. I don't consider myself a long-range hunter and am still of the mind-set to stock in as close as possible to make an ethical confident shot. Most of the deer and elk i've harvested in the last 30 years have been under 350 yards. Deciding to buy a new gun and bigger scope to effectively and confidently shoot longer distance was a decision i pondered for quite some time, mainly because there haven't really been a lot of opportunities where i needed to take a longer shot. Stocking in on an animal and putting your skills against theirs creates a lot more fun in the hunt. However, two years ago in WY i shot a buck at 575 yards with a friends gun that was setup for longer range and i wasn't confident in making that shot with my setup. There was no way to get closer to the deer without it busting us and i still feel like those scenarios aren't that common. That hunt sold me on upgrading my setup and practicing at longer ranges in the event a similar scenario presents itself.   

[Cougeyes]

Are we seeing increased harvest rates?  The only way I see it becoming detrimental to our hunting opportunities is if we see a substantial increase in harvest rates.   I haven't looked in a while, but it appears the harvest states / rates have remained stable for many years.....actually dropping along side of the number of actual license buyers.

I don't think there's a way to get at whether longer-range shooting is increasing harvest rates unless in the harvest reporting there's a box that you provide the range at which you kill an animal.

[jrebel]

Are we seeing increased harvest rates?  The only way I see it becoming detrimental to our hunting opportunities is if we see a substantial increase in harvest rates.   I haven't looked in a while, but it appears the harvest states / rates have remained stable for many years.....actually dropping along side of the number of actual license buyers.

I don't think there's a way to get at whether longer-range shooting is increasing harvest rates unless in the harvest reporting there's a box that you provide the range at which you kill an animal.

Sure you can....look at 20-30 years worth of harvest stats and see if it has been increasing.  My guess is...harvest stats have remained stable thus illustrating that the long range hunting hasn't changed anything.  The guys shooting deer at long range were likely the same guys shooting deer at close range.  The old saying....90% of deer are killed by 10% of the hunters.  The other 10% of the deer are killed by the other 90% of hunters. 

[EnglishSetter]

Are we seeing increased harvest rates?  The only way I see it becoming detrimental to our hunting opportunities is if we see a substantial increase in harvest rates.   I haven't looked in a while, but it appears the harvest states / rates have remained stable for many years.....actually dropping along side of the number of actual license buyers.

I don't think there's a way to get at whether longer-range shooting is increasing harvest rates unless in the harvest reporting there's a box that you provide the range at which you kill an animal.

Sure you can....look at 20-30 years worth of harvest stats and see if it has been increasing.  My guess is...harvest stats have remained stable thus illustrating that the long range hunting hasn't changed anything.  The guys shooting deer at long range were likely the same guys shooting deer at close range.  The old saying....90% of deer are killed by 10% of the hunters.  The other 10% of the deer are killed by the other 90% of hunters.

This assumes the regs are biology/game management driven.  Too often they're emotion driven.  "OMG he can kill Bambi's dad at 1000 yards.  We need a law".

Harvest rate also doesn't have a way to account for lost game or misses.

[dvolmer]

Im sort of old school I guess. If conditions are right I can reach out to 400 yards if Im on my bi-pod and the wind is decent. Not to interested in taking shots past that. Most of my shots are 50-350 yards. Did shoot a rag horn bull once at 500 yards. Lots of hype, hunting shows, and expensive set ups that companies want to sell you to reach way out there. I have seen a couple of guys that do that decently. Im not to interested in it for myself. Sort of changes the sport for me but I guess others can determine what the sport is for them. I do think that you see a lot of edited rodeo's on some of those long range hunting shows. Im a big believer in bullet energy. I like to have at least 1200-1500 of ft/lbs at impact minimum.  Takes a lot of energy to shoot an elk and kill it quickly. It amazes me that most of the long range shows I have seen that show big bulls dropping in their tracks at 600-1000 yards are all high spine shots. That is a tough shot for long range or any kind of shooting.  I bet there is a bunch of never seen footage of shots in the butt or guts. That wouldn't help sell their $3000 scopes and $3000 rifles I would imagine that they are pushing on ya.   When I see a buck or a bull at 400 plus yards, Im not thinking of how I can make the shot, but thinking, how can I close the distance.  Thats hunting for me.

[Mulie87]

I’m prepared to shoot out to 1,000yds given the conditions are right. My harvest shots in WA have been under 300yds, but when I go to MT and WY it’s a whole different story. Flat wide open terrain begs for long shots. In those states i’ve harvested deer and antelope from 150yds to 728 and everything in between.

The technology, scopes and ballistics apps that we have today make it much easier than it was 15-20yrs ago. It’s not hard to do with the right equipment and practice.

[Dan-o]

I won't opine on an ethical max yardage for a shot. 
But I learned from hard experience this year that shooting at any distance is a perishable skill.   

I used to routinely drop elk at 400+ yards with no worry of a miss. 
I did it year after year after year.   I was very proficient to 500 yards, which I routinely practiced.

And then I kind of lost interest/disciple and quit practicing. 

Fast forward to this year where i missed a nice buck twice before anchoring the Washington Muley I got.

I still regret taking those shots everyday since that hunt.
I'm glad I missed rather than wounding. 

It was a serious wake up call for me.

I prided myself on only clean ethical harvests and this really bothers me.  Regardless of the range, taking a shot you're not comfortable AND proficient in is just wrong.

[baldopepper]

Reading these posts, to me, it's obvious most of ushave no problem with those who refine and work hard to incorporate their  long range shooting into their total hunting ability. Most still get out and hunt and will happily shoot an animal at 50 yards even when capable out to 1000 yards.  Guess the ones I don't have much respect for are those I see lately driving there ATVs all over letting there long range shooting ability make up for their laziness to actually get out of their rig and hunt. 

[OutHouse]

Im sort of old school I guess. If conditions are right I can reach out to 400 yards if Im on my bi-pod and the wind is decent. Not to interested in taking shots past that. Most of my shots are 50-350 yards. Did shoot a rag horn bull once at 500 yards. Lots of hype, hunting shows, and expensive set ups that companies want to sell you to reach way out there. I have seen a couple of guys that do that decently. Im not to interested in it for myself. Sort of changes the sport for me but I guess others can determine what the sport is for them. I do think that you see a lot of edited rodeo's on some of those long range hunting shows. Im a big believer in bullet energy. I like to have at least 1200-1500 of ft/lbs at impact minimum.  Takes a lot of energy to shoot an elk and kill it quickly. It amazes me that most of the long range shows I have seen that show big bulls dropping in their tracks at 600-1000 yards are all high spine shots. That is a tough shot for long range or any kind of shooting.  I bet there is a bunch of never seen footage of shots in the butt or guts. That wouldn't help sell their $3000 scopes and $3000 rifles I would imagine that they are pushing on ya.   When I see a buck or a bull at 400 plus yards, Im not thinking of how I can make the shot, but thinking, how can I close the distance.  Thats hunting for me.

To each his own, but I feel the same way dvolmer does. The funny thing is that if I could shoot that far, I would get a lot more animals! However, I just like to play it safe given my skill level. Plus, I mostly hunt archery, which is, ahem, a far more difficult hunting method than modern rifle and requires indubitably more woodsman skills etc..     Kidding around fellas not trying to stir any reactions   

[EnglishSetter]

Kind of extension of the discussion, but....

What if you could shoot remotely from your living room at say a buck in Tejas, plugging in all the dope and hitting a key on your cell phone? 

[ducks4days]

Kind of extension of the discussion, but....

What if you could shoot remotely from your living room at say a buck in Tejas, plugging in all the dope and hitting a key on your cell phone?

Thats already a thing. Anybody can spend tge money and do it. Most wont. A few will, enough to drive a demand for it.

[Dan-o]

Kind of extension of the discussion, but....

What if you could shoot remotely from your living room at say a buck in Tejas, plugging in all the dope and hitting a key on your cell phone?

Thats already a thing. Anybody can spend tge money and do it. Most wont. A few will, enough to drive a demand for it.

I read about this!!!!!

Imagine a hedge fund trader on Wall Street taking shooting a 200" Whitetail in Texas over his lunch break.   All they have to do is write the check and hit the enter button. 

Crazy.