Are you a Long-Range (shooter) or Closer Range?

[longbow51]

The vapor trail is explained in the Army FM 23-10 on sniping.

There are folks who can shoot long range and do it regularly. I shoot with a guy that can do it. They shoot thousands of rounds a year, and are experts at reading mirage and wind, as well as handloading. I took his rifle, a 7mm Allen Magnum built on a custom action, that I had never shot before and put 3 too close to believe at 300 yards; that's how closely he had things tuned; he obv shot it much better. Rifle weighed 13 pounds with scope. And, that was basically his only hobby. Shot every day. Changed barrels more often than most of us buy new shoes. That's what it takes. And he won't take shots in swirling winds.

Unfortunately there are too many folks that either buy the rifles and don't put in the rounds and years (and barrels) it takes to get that good, or just slap a Nightforce on a Tikka Lite and dial it like they do on TV. And, I don't believe the TV shows showing no wounded animals from guys that take a weekend course and then shoot elk at 800 yards.

Personally, I can't abide ruining meat or gut shots, and prefer neck shots if I can get close enough. So 400 max, but usually 25 yards (biggest whitetail ever, almost made the book) to 300.

 

[huntin24/7]

Id way rather get in close on an animal and haven’t shot a ton of animals beyond 300 yards. However, with mature animals on public ground being harder to come by and western tags getting harder to draw, I try to better myself as a hunter. One of those ways is working on increasing my effective range. As hard as opportunities can be to come by for older animals, I see no problem in becoming a better shot and being able to take that 400+ yard shot that could be your only opportunity in a week of hard hunting.

 

[Talk2elk]

Closer the better for sure max range for me is 400 with perfect conditions

 

[3855WIN]

I’m set up for longish shots down roads in CRP trees. There’s very little terrain features to funnel deer. It’s nice to be able to shoot to 500 yards. Sandbags and good rest.

Can you find where the animal was standing after the shot? The further they are, the harder they can be to find.

 

[mtmuley]

Hammers really show it. I guess it’s from cutting oil still being in the tip

Saw a trail and heard the bullet on the way to an antelope one time. 160 Accubond from a 7mm Remington. Pretty cool. mtmuley

 

[Doublecluck]

A vapor trail is what a jet leaves behind. This sort of thing is decidedly not my my kind of hunting (I tend to use the old-fashioned way: go down and look) but I am curious as to what you mean by "follow the vapor trail". I actually thought you were making a joke, at first.

Here’s a buddy of mines cousin I took out last year shooting at a deer at 325, between my buddy, his cousin, and his brother, all guys been hunting 20+ years, all said yea “we’re good out to 400” this was the 5th deer they had missed inside 400 in 2 days. No need to go look for it, crop the video, slow it down frame by frame and you can clearly see the trace come out from the right side (shooters location) and the bullet go over the buck back and splash in the dirt above it. Buck had no reaction too being hit and was untouched. Some might not find value in the video, hell I used to think it was stupid too, but it’s proven to be awesome and I use it all the time, any distance, archery, rifle, whatever, if I got time to run video I do it.

Now here’s my 15 Y/o daughter shooting a antelope buck at 502 yards facing us. Wind was left to right at 15 at our shooting position, but mirage showed almost no wind at the lope thru the spotter, dialed 1.9 elevation, only dialed .4 for wind because I could tell by the mirage the wind would only effect the Bullet for a portion of the flight path. The intent was to shoot this animal broadside, but it had made us, I knew the rifle, I trained the shooter, she made the shot. Precision piece of equipment. We practice at a range that goes to 1700, she says the 600 yard pig size gong is boring. I Fail to see how she was more or less ethical than some dude who has a 3x9 mounted on his ol Pappis rifle that he leaves on the floorboard of his truck all season and uses his Kentucky elevation hold to determine in his own mind th “he should be good out to 400”.

That was a 7rm ridgeline , vx3i Lrp, Talley rings, with 168 Berger vld, lopes reaction was the norm for everything we shoot with that combo. Never wounded a animal, they all die. Period. Bullet hit exactly where she was aiming, pretty small target. People like “go look for it”. What?? Nope they just collapse right where they were standing.




Gunwerks has a great school for teaching anyone interested in the science of shooting further. Lots to learn and you can always learn more. The majority of the animals we shoot are under 300 yards, but I don’t buy in to the ethics of range argument because the people saying “I’m good out to 400” and the people saying they can shoot 1k are the same people. You either know 100% where your bullet will hit or you don’t based on the science and how much you practice with your rifle. Distance doesn’t matter, only valid argument in my mind is if the bullet has enough energy to perform and effectively kill the animal.

 

[Walkathon]

I'm a short range shooter. Long shot for me is 300 yards. I don't have a place to practice long range shooting, so I don't attempt it in the field while hunting.

 

[Don Fischer]

I've shot some deer around 450 but I had a dedicated practiced rifle scope combo that made it fairly easy if the wind wasn't a factor. I've always like the first twenty minutes of the season. Wind hasn't picked up yet and the critters are a little less weary. I try to keep things under 4 and 3 is much better. I think we all need to practice the more difficult shooting positions. I would like to practice offhand enough to become proficient out to two hundred but that will take some doing. Just going to need some more ammo. I don't run any video either. I think i would be classified as a short to medium range guy I guess. I do not have access to a longer range or I would probably play on paper or steel for fun.

I practice shooting the position's I shoot best, prone, sitting and kneeling. Seldom practice off hand and when I do shoot off hand I'm leaning against some support and shot is not fat by any means. I used to go out and shoot unknown ranges to maye 500 yds just for shooting practice but would never shoot at a big game animal that far off.

 

[Don Fischer]

In the early 70's I lived in laakeside, Montana, stationed there in the service. Up huting behind the garbage dump one time and several other guy's showed up. One spotted a deer across a gully from us and shot it, less than 100yds. Gully was to steep the climb down and up the other side so they went around and came at the down deer from another direction. Very heavy grass where the deer was, lot's of if. Took three guy's over an hour to find a deer they'd killed less than a hundred yds off. I think if someone that shoots those long shots had a friend with him/her and sent them out say 400+ yds to drop an object and then come back, the guy doing the shooting just might have a hard time finding the object again. Problem is the shooter see's something from one position and if there's no really clear point to head for, he'll find you just might not be able to walk a straight line to the fall! Then re zeroing from a different direction the view of the same spot changes and miss-direction set's in. Not saying it happen's all the time but more than some might think. In the really long shot's there's more to getting the animal than meerly hitting it!

I had a deal happen out bird hunting this year. The tracking collar came off a dog. No sweat, right? I've got the means to walk right to it. Well I did find it but no where near as easy as you might think! Took quite a bit of searching and I could see the thing on my receiver all the time.

 

[mtmuley]

I don't know why the LR thing is even brought up on here anymore. mtmuley

 

[Doublecluck]

I don't know why the LR thing is even brought up on here anymore. mtmuley

 

[TheJason]

I take the shots I know I can make.

 

[rwc101]

I take the shots I know I can make.

It really is that simple.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

I mostly do bank shots off of rocks and water towers when I'm not working on my draw or fade to shoot around obstacles. I bend it like Beckham.
Long range shooting is so last year.

 

[Tom_Nguyen]

I practice regularly out to 800 yards. Makes the close shots easier. Only shot a handful of big game over 450 yards. I’d actually rather have a 250 yard shot than anything under 100 yards.

I prefer to shoot at games at 300 yards or less.

 

[Don Fischer]

I prefer to shoot at games at 300 yards or less.

Brockel has a good point. Shooting greater distances make's you a better shot in closer IMO. Say you have a rifle that shoot's MOA, that's one inch at 100 yds and 8" at 800yds. I think where the real difference comes in is the shooter's ability to hold that one inch looking through a scope at 800 yds even though he's great at 100 yds.

 

[jeff_gibbons]

Closer is better. Harder to achieve especially out west. If I were really good, I’d only hunt with a bow. But I’m not so use a rifle and limit my shots within max point blank range.

 

[Dunning Kruger]

My longest was 350 on a bear 6 or 7 years ago. Shot was good, but anymore i wont do over 300, and i just dont hunt in ways that thats an issue. Almost never even carry a range finder. All of my kills the last 3 years have been between 5 and 60 yards. The closer the better. Its just a lot more satisfying to me that way. If i could make every kill less than 20 yards that would be great, but sometimes a guys gotta let lead fly at 40 or 50.
I could run up the road to public land where there are steel targets all the way out to 1300 but its just not my thing. I really like the simplicity of not dialing turrets or worrying about holdover or anything. Just crosshairs on and let er rip.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Around 250 is the furthest I’ve ever shot at an animal. I’ve passed them at further distances due to my inabilities to ethically make the shot, but I’m not saying others can’t

 

[Rhino55]

I shot on the Navy Marksmanship team for ten for before retiring and won several Sec Nav Trophy rifles for shooting long range "1000 YDS". I practice at shooting 100 for 1400 yds regularly at a range about 40 miles from the house. I have dopes on all my rifles so I'm ready for what comes. I prefer to be with-in 600 yds and if it is real windy or switching directions I'd like to be even closer. We owe it as hunters to humanly harvest game and not make a "Long Range Comp".