POLL: Your maximum rifle range on Deer
 

What do you consider your maximum rifle range for a clean, one shot kill, all things being the perfect broadside, standing still shot?

If I'm standing: not too darn far!
Sitting, somewhat farther.
Prone, rifle rested on a backpack, quite a bit farther.
Wind over 20 mph and gusty: divide distance by 2
Dead calm: add 20% to max range.

With a steady rest 200 yards. I'd work to get closer if any farther.

Lying on the ground with a bipod on a calm day maybe 300.

Once on a blacktail hunt a buddy of mine, who I know shoots well, nailed a small buck from a good 400. I thought it was down, but it got up and Tony shot it again. I think if we had worked to get 100 closer it wouldn't have turned out that way. What a waste of good meat.

I don't know much about ballistics, but I remember the exit hole in its leg being almost baseball size. If the buck had been shot at closer range we theorized it would have gone down in shock and stayed down. Maybe the wind took it . He was shooting Federal 165 grain boattails in 30-06.

I shot a doe in Pa last season just over 400yds according to my girlfriends dads GPS. She was broadside and standing still. When the bullet hit her she dropped like a ton of bricks and didnt move a hair. All the conditions were just right and I was in the prone position. No wind. There was no way we could get any closer for that shot and unless I get a perfect opportunity like that again I'll never try it again. 300 yds is my max for the most part and thats with a good rest. Offhand, no more than 150 or so. My gun of choice is a Sako 3006 shooting Hornady light magnums w/ a 150gr SST. +1.5 at 100yds, -6.5 at 300 and -20 at 400. I dont guess it hurts that I like to shoot alot either:)

442 yds went went 40 yds before he dropped. The rifle was a
remington 700 25/06. made several 300 to 600 yd shots had to track them. Some times another hunter got them. never lost one they were all accounted for. RB1

Know the distance.
 

It's not so much, how far can you shoot, it's how far is it? If you KNOW the distance, you can kill at 1000 yards with a black powder 45-70 sharps.

I've pulled paper at long range black powder matches and I've seen people that can shoot that distance and HIT what they AIM at. They KNOW THE DISTANCE of the shot.

So, if you don't know the distance you are reduced to shooting within your point blank range for the rifle you're holding. Do you know what that is?? Few do. Do you know how to sight for that distance? Not many do.

Take your whirlygig magnum bullet and drop it at the same time you drop a 500 grain .45 cal bullet. Surprise!!! They both hit the ground at the same time. Same forces working on them. When you shoot, only difference is trajectory. This is determined by muzzle velocity and ballistic coeficent. They both follow a parabolic arc.

Conclusion, You must KNOW THE DISTANCE. After that all is math.

DD

Range
 

Well boys,
Digital is right. If you know how far it ain't a real trick if you can find something for a rest. After shooting over 4000 groundhogs(I got paid to do it) if you can figure close you can hit 'em. And nowdays they have the laser distance finders. Should make it a lot easier. My max range on a calm day(ain't too many of 'em) is about 400 yds or so. Have you all watched one of the good silhouette shooters stand up on his hind laigs and shoot the long range targets? It's kind of spooky to me. I can't even stand still. And they shoot great. They must be numb from the neck up!! BTW the most I ever got for one groundhog was 50 bucks. An easy 300 yd shot and the farmer stated he would pay that much to get rid of the darn thing in front of witnesses.... And they made him pay!!

Digital's absolutely right about knowing the range. Check a trajectory chart for your favorite cartridge. You'll find that, if the range is 150 yards, and you think it's 100 yards, doesn't make a lot of difference.
If you think it's 450 yards, and it's 400 yards, or 500 yards, it makes a huge difference!
At the long ranges, where a 50 yard range estimate error is easy to make, being off by 50 yards means you miss, or worse, break an animal's leg.
Rangefinder's the only way to fly.

Assuming you mean with a steady rest, using my STW on deer and elk, I try to limit myself to 400 yards. I'm sure I could pull off a longer shot, but there is too much margin of error. Like Jack, I also use a rangefinder. They are the only way for long shots.

Now on smaller critters, like prarie dogs, I try to limit myself to around 500 yards.

Shooting at deer I have never seen anything big enough that I would risk wounding it to a poor judgement shot...myself I feel comfortable to 300 yards......but like DD said.....is it 300 yards?? If you can point it with a rangefinder then the battle is half won.
I shoot a Sako 25.06, I am sure ina better mans hand, on a calm day, with all perfect conditions, it will go 500 yards easily.....but you will never see me try a shot like that...even with a rangefinder.

Gone with the wind.
 

I am rightly reminded by Jack and others that the final result of a long shot has another determining factor. When watching from behind the shooters at very long range targets, you can see the bullet wander in the wind as it goes.

The club puts out pennents at intervals along side the shooting lane to help judge the wind. It isn't unusual to see them disagree with each other, some blowing right, some blowing left, and some blowing back and forth. Wind can do this at Winnequah and your best planned shot can be literally, "gone with the wind".

I'm betting that long shots at unknown distances with unknown wind conditions are even tougher.

DD:D

I agree that wind is the big problem with long range shooting.
I shoot a lot of woodchucks during the summer. I set up a table in a likely field, and use a rest, and rear sandbag. For the long shots I use a rifle that's zeroed for 400 yards.
A rangefinder will tell you the range, and you can run trajectory charts that will tell you the hold over, down to the last half inch. You can dial in the elevation on the scope adjustments if you want to, so that you're exactly on point of aim, no matter what the range.
However, the wind is much more difficult. Is that a 10 mph wind? Or is it 17 mph? Is it steady, or is it gusting?
And, is it doing the same thing where the target is that it's doing where you are?
Shooting a high BC bullet that resists wind drift well helps, but wind is still the toughest factor.
Last summer I hit one woodchuck by holding 37 inches into the wind! I'd never try that on a game animal.

My maximum range is 400 laser rangfinder with a harris bipod and sitting with very little or no wind other than that it depends on my rest and the situation.

range
 

comfortable at 300 to 350

I made a 350 yard neck shot on a mule deer once. I thought it was closer. If I had known that it was that far I probably wouldn't have taken the shot. However it did give me added confidence in my rifle.

I have a pretty good long range rifle. I am shooting a 7 RUM. I have it sited in a bit more than 2" high at 100 which brings me at zero at 300yards. I use a range finder and a harris bi pod. That being said, I have been spending a lot of time at the range and I feel on a calm day with a solid rest 400-450 would be very much in my comfort zone. I do practice out to 550 yards. We can break clay's at that range( not flying..lol)

tko

I am a coward over long shots- or even medium ones- my 7x57 is sighted in at 100 yards and I have never taken a shot past 120. One of the guys I hunt with has the same gun same cal. and has taken deer at 250+ but I don't have the confidence that I can make a shot like that. I want the deer to fall over dead within my sight!
Daddy, on the other hand, has taken deer at 420 yards (I helped pace it off) but he's shooting a .308 or 45-70 with handloads that he's done all those trajectory figures on.

to be honest
 

Ive shot 5 bucks and bull elk. and didnt know the range on any of them.

my first buck was close pulled up the rifle and saw fur yanked away and down it went.

2nd one was running, Im guessing 150yds, 3 shots one hit. luck

3rd hm trying to remember it. ohhh I lied Ive taken 4. the 4th one was a long shot up hill, I layed my trusty old 270 on snowy tree stump and held just over his shoulder. after the shot it went down slidding probably 100yds down hill then got up and crested the ridge. I falled the blood trail to find him watching me walk up on him.

4th was 100yds or so standing.

the elk was running I emptied the the 270 and had time to stuff a few more in it. nother luck shot and Im gurssing that one was over 100.

so i guess you could say Ive just been lucky to not have lost anything. only two were long shots though

If I had range finder Id put my maxumim on 300yds, since I dont then I dont know try and get as close as i can.

Evan

Any hunter who has the right to be called a "conservationist,"
 

"sportsman or sportswoman," or "outdoorsman or outdoorswoman" knows and follows a few basic common sense rules.

1. Always know your weapon and cartridge capabilities (goes for archery as well!), and don't exceed!

2. Always know your own capabilities - also taking conditions into consideration (don't take a risky shot in a stiff breeze or with only 10 minutes of daylight left, etc.)

3. Don't fling shots or arrows at the "big one" just because its the "big one" but tooooo far away!

4. With a rifle, always, Always, ALWAYS seek a rest when shooting a gun, even to sitting or lying down if necessary to achieve a rest. Make as precise shots as possible!

5. Never take off-hand, unsupported shots!

Usually my shots are less than 250-200 yards away. Sitting down and resting my elbows inside my thighs - a 200 yard shot is fairly easy if one is experienced and knows what they're doing!

I once killed an antelope at close to 400 yards! I was totally confidant in my shot - until I learned my friend's reloads were built with a LeeLoader instead of a powder scale! Had I known how he measured his powder charges I'd have had doubts about his ammo and not been one tenth as confidant as I was prior to learning the truth.

Confidence in one's self and equipment is EXTREMELY important.

But the sage goat was standing still, the air fairly calm, and I was leaning over the hood of my partner's truck with no one inside to cause any vibrations I couldn't control (but my own heartbeat). The pronghorn didn't even go 20 yards before piling up! Best shot I ever made.

When choosing a cartridge/bullet/load combination - I always choose something that will be lethal to 400 yards. My personal formula is to make sure I can cleanly kill a deer, elk, pronghorn, etc to 300 yards, with a 100 yard "cushion" built in. So far its worked perfectly except for the one time I tried to kill a proghorn with a .220 Swift. I wounded the sage goat and it got away as dusk approached. Pretty dumb of me! :confused:

When I first started hunting big game in the West, the standard belief was that 95+ percent of one's shots would be at less than 250 yards. This has indeed been the case. I've killed one whitetail, four elk, six proghorns, and some 16 or 17 mulies. Unless there is no cover and the air is dead-calm, no one should take a shot further than 250-300 yards.

Works for me! :D

most of mine have been between 20yds to 150 with a few a bit farther
 

Ive noticed from shooting paper quite a bit that, what I think is 100yds usualy ends up ben right on 80yds when i pace it out, so hopefully thats kinda my built in buffer right there.

I think I made myself sound like one of those guys thats out there taken shots at far off game with nothn but twisted luck to connect.

this last year i took my buck, 1 shot to the vitals, from around 100yds standing, that one shot was all I fired all deer and elk season.

yeah like you said. I try not to shoot standing, but this deer wouldnt move out of the gap in the trees so went I to a knee I had no shot.

anyways, I cant wait for deer season to get here.

Evan

Depends on the rifle
 

I have been shooting a .338 Remington Ultra Mag for deer and elk. If sighted in 4" high at 100 yards the point blank range is around 285 yards. A 250 grain swift A-frame bullet is down about 11" at 400 yards. Foot-pound of enegry does not drop below 2000 until almost 350 yards!
With reasonable optics, my guns effective range is about 380 yards. It is however, not for the faint of heart or the slight of build, because it does pack a whallop!

400 yrds. - assuming conditions are good! -memtb

Both of my wallhanger mulies 28 and 30 inch inside spread were jumped up out of deep canyons. Had to wait til they stopped to look back. Both were facing me. The 28 was 525 yards 264 mag usind a bipod that I made at work. He went 15 yards. The wide 30 stopped at about 400+ peering thru a bush where he thought he was hidden. I shot prone, no rest. He was far enough that I recovered from the shot and saw him through the scope flip over backwards, dead. That was my greatest thrill hunting except seeing my sons get their mulies.

Boy this stuff gets my juices a going.

It depends
 

Shooting position, distance and wind are critical factors. If I was shooting from a standing position the range would be less. Sitting or kneeling positions would extend my effective shooting range. We shoot the National Match Course at our gun club and I have definite thoughts of how well folks can and cannot shoot from different positions at known ranges. I would suggest that the more practice the shooter has the better. All the best...
Gil

hmmmm.
 

400yds

A little different
 

from a standing position dropped two moose like a sack of potatos at 450yd. 7mm mag.;)

Was recently told by a new guy at work that he'd shot an 8pt. buck last year at 825 yards with a borrowed .308 rifle. Didn't ask for any details...lost interest when he said "borrowed" and "825yds.".

Hmmm..... Well after giving it a lot of thought, my maximum range is a lot further than I've ever had to shoot. I can say that all of the deer I've killed were less than 200 yards. However, I wouldn't feel any compunction about taking a 400 yard shot with a decent rest. Everyone has their own MER and should strictly adhere to it.

gd357

Re: A little different
 

come on now, one shot a piece?

a little diferent
 

Yes sir, the first was broadside in the hump,the other walking away from me in the neck. ;)

Comfortable at 400 with my 7mm.

I've shot a couple at around 400, but I prefer them to be around 200. My eyesight just isn't what it use to be.:D

Comfortable out to about 150 yds. Sighted in at 100. Where i hunt there ain't anyhwere where you could take a 150 yd shot let alone see something at that distance. Farthest I have ever seen deer is around 75-100 yds and 99% of the time you won't be able to due to ground cover and you'll see them much closer 10-70 yds. Wish i could say more but my shooting range tops out at a 100 so shooting 200-300 at game would be bad sportsmanship. If I ever go out west I will definitely find another range and try long distance but for now I just have no hands on experience at that range nor a need for it. take care.

Long Range Hunting
 

Ol spark and I have both shot deer approaching 800yds. Yes they were 1st shot kills, no "spotter" rounds were fired. BUT, we also knew exactly how far away they were: measured with a WILDE (sweedish optical range finder used in WWII for artilery). I know from experience there are only 2 lazers you can buy over the counter that will range a deer beyond 600 yds. Both are from Leica and only one of them does it all the time. We also knew the exact wind speed (our longest shot was in a 4.7mph cross wind). We use a Kestrel wind meter as it gives us wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature readings. As a side note, these shots were made from a standing position using a solid rest (not against a tree) but from an ultimate tripod.

The gun was a custom 6.5x284 firing handloaded 140g Hornady AMAX bullets. (actual BC of .618 w/ muzzle velocity of 2940fps)

All of that being said, it all falls upon the hunter. We are the only ones at the moment of truth that can make the decision to take the shot or not. We are the ones that have to live with knowing we made a good decision or bad.

I typically fire well over 200 rounds a summer through my 6.5 at groundhogs and other targets out to as far as I can see them. I know exactly where my bullet will hit. Some might take that statement as b.s. and I understand as it's hard to believe that a gun will put all shots into 1/2moa at all distances fired. Note I said 1/2 moa at all distances. A 1/2" gun at 100yds doesn't mean it will shoot less than 4" at 800! You need to shoot your gun at the distances you want to hunt at. This isn't to say that my gun won't miss; it is simply a mechanism. It still requires a human to hold and pull the trigger. That is where the error comes in and where we as hunters need to take responsibility.

When someone tells me that they shot an elk or deer at 800yds and just held the cross hairs on his back I feel a great sympothy for them. They don't realize what they are doing to the hunting community and they apparantly have no concept of ballistics. When we long range hunt, we use a drop and wind chart for the particular gun we are shooting. The deer we shot at 742 yards 2 seasons ago, we adjusted up 17.25 moa: now lets talk about math....
We all know that 1 moa at 100 yds is one inch...4 at 400..7.42 at 742yds. So you want to know how high you needed to hold over your desired target to hit dead on at 742: 7.42 in x 17.25 = 128" high (10'-8").

In the hunting world, that's too much for the average person to think about. And that's all I have to say about that.

how true
 

thanx big bro. i do need to invest in a range finder sooooon.
knowing the actual distance is everything. i used to think i was just a good shot , but last fall i was hunting some open fields for mulie which i am not used to but i am very used to clear-cuts and timbered areas. i spotted up a heard of deer with a good buckin a large field. guesstimated it to be a lil over 800yds and my buddie and i figured that if i could half the distance i'd be within my comfortable shooting range.
well after the second shot hit about 50yds my side of the deer i realized that the deer must have been over 1000yds away to begin with. i took another 150yds off the distance and another shot came up 10yds short. all this time the heard just looked around when i shot and kept feeding. not feeling good about getting any closer i chose to take another aproach but the light began to fail and i couldn't clearly make out the buck any more. all this being said, i think if i had a range finder i could have either got closer for the first shot or determined earlier that i needed to take another approach and would have had a buck.
a range finder would really help in new terrain. especially open fields. i am used to the bush where you have trees and stumps and rocks but it is a whole different ball game in the flats.

feeling confident
 

you have to feel confident.i've made some pretty far shots only because i was sure of myself.other times i didn't feel confident and didn't take the shot,the last thing i want to do is loose an animal because of poor shot placement,whether it be a gogher, a big bull moose or that trophy whitetail.constant shooting sure helps build confidence.;)

If a hunter doesn't KNOW the range, the effect the wind of the day will have on his bullet at that range, the exact holdover for the range he knows is correct, the actual level of accuracy of his rifle at that range, he shouldn't shoot.

In addition, if conditions at the time prevent him holding his rifle where it must be to deliver the shot properly (that means a proper shooting rest of some sort), he shouldn't shoot.

My contention is that in real hunting situations the range at which I can say I have all those factors managed seems to be way shorter than many people here are using. Without special equipment, almost no one should be shooting beyond the known "point blank range" of their set up. (I assume everyone knows what that phrase means to most shooters).

There are posts on this thread that are from people who have the equipment and who know enough about ballistics to take very long shots, and there are posts from some who obviously should never shoot beyond 250 yards. Real hunting is not a theoretical activity. Things are going to suffer and die. We need to keep the suffering as unlikely as possible.

Because of all the variables, I can't say what my longest range is. Is the wind blowing? How hard? What direction? Same direction over the whole distance? Same velocity over the whole distance? Do I know how far away it is? (Beyond about 250 yards my range estimation by eye gets really bad. So does everyone else's.) Do I have my shooting sticks? What zeroing choices did I make at the range? You can see what makes me so nervous.

In real life I have very seldom shot at anything beyond 300 yards. I'm one of Bigbrother's more average people. When I'm hunting, I can't handle the math much beyond 400 yards, and unless hunters are carrying specialized equipment and have practiced using it on gun ranges that allow shooting at extreme ranges, neither can they. So they shouldn't shoot.

Then there is the whole question of what hunting is all about. Is it not important to hunters to get closer than a half mile to their game? What role does "the hunt" have in such decisions? I suspect there are a lot of bow hunters who see discussions like this missing a very important point.

I think this whole discussion is based simply on "your maximum rifle range on deer." Most of the people involved in this discussion hunt via other means as well. The "hunt" means different things to different people. In the end, we are all hunters. There is a very important point to this discussion and it is that if we truly think about every shot opportunity, conditions, and variables the answer to the initial question will vary.

I happen to fall into the bow hunting fraternity as well, as do a lot of the others (note posts / replies in the bowhunting forum). As a matter of fact, the last deer I shot in January was with a bow at 12 yards but I enjoy hunting a variaty of ways. For me the hunt is simply about being outdoors enjoying all it has to offer. Whether it's comraderie of hunting long range with my dad, or the solitude of the forest bowhunting alone, or the fast paced deer drives with my relatives, or calling in a spring gobbler, or a host of many other instances.

At the end of the day, I'm always satisfied with the decisions I've made while hunting. It's hard to emphasize the importance of that fact.

too serious
 

i feel we are getting a little off track or mabey some people never were on track. now don't take this wrong or as anything other that a discussion point, but this thread i think is more of a pi$$ing contest like i can do this better than you! but in a nice clean way. i understand big bro and cooper very much but i think it is more of a general question "your maximum rifle range on deer." i know that everyone would like to take a 200 yd shot at a nice whitie buck on the skyline and see him drop like a sac of potatoes. not the longest shot or the shortest shot but one we all dream of.
i think the question is more of a " if you were on your back 40 that was just SURVEYED and a buck was at a certain marker could you KILL it?" i could be way off track myself but what the hell? it's a discussion group and thats what we are here for.lol


enjoy my blathering...or not!
hapy shootting.

this thread seems to be ontrack, unlike others we currently have rolling along.

variables do change from shot to shot, day to day and is difrent with every shooter envolved.. i dont see this as pissing match to see who can shoot the farthest. we all know our capabilities and abilities. we should know when a shot can be taken and have 90% clean kill rate. doesnt matter if that shots is at 5 yds with a bow or 300 with a capable rifle.

300 is very well within reach for alot of hunters with todays and yesterdays calibers.

Evan

much abliged to whoever did that for me. thanks