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.

[jojo]

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.

[trex]

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

[rb1]

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

[Digital Dick]

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

[skeet]

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.

[Wahnie]

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.

[Digital Dick]

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

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.

[bign83101]

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.

comfortable at 300 to 350

[scalerman]

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.