JG26Irish_2
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2023
- Messages
- 989
- Reaction score
- 2,602
- Location
- United States
- Media
- 17
- Member of
- Bluegrass Safari Club, SCI
- Hunted
- RSA-Limpopo, Free State, USA - KY, WV, TN, ND, SD, NM, TX. Canada - Saskatchewan
What is the longest range where you can confidently and ethically shoot and kill large game animals using a proper cartridge and a factory hunting rifle for larger game like deer, elk, moose, etc? This is not your range accuracy from a bench or solid rest and is not from a prone rest position since vegetation and terrain often prevent this shot in the field. It is your personal limit in the field on uneven ground where the grass is too tall to go prone and you have to shoot from sticks, a tall bipod, off-hand? or resting off of a tree or rock ledge? Sitting, kneeling, standing?
Think about what your longest successful shot has been on large game and let that be your guide. I know that our Western hunters get far more long range opportunity to shoot game at extended ranges and as such also tend to get better at such shots. But, the reality is that a rifle that prints 1 moa at 100y from a bench is NOT consistently able to print 1 moa at 300 or 400y when shot from improvised field type rests. The possible exception being from Prone and we are eliminating prone as an option. I know that prone from a backpack is popular out West, but too many times the grass or terrain prevent such a shot. Plus prone accuracy is at least close to bench accuracy with practice. What I am looking for is your personal limit rounded to the nearest number in the field on live game with wind and terrain and with only a sitting, kneeling, standing position using whatever rest you will normally have with you?
I would also add that this is not using a $5000 match grade custom rifle with a $3500 tier one optic. Plan for a factory rifle with typical hunting optics. I have a Sako S20 which is a factory rifle but is wearing a 5-25x target optic and while I would use it for long rang Pronghorn, it is chambered in 243 and is too small for Moose or Elk and only marginal at distance for deer. I can hit 1mao tgts with it at 400y but it is so heavy that outside of coyotes, I never hunt with it. More typical is my light weight 7mm/08 with 1-8x optic. Or my Sako 338wm also with 1-8x optic. My best long range is a 30-06 with a 4-16x optic and that is good out to 400y but I have never shot it on game at that range, so I am not claiming 400y as my max.
I use quad sticks when I hunt, even when I do not expect to shoot over 100y. I like the precision they offer and can use them as a mono pod when the range is short and time prevents proper deployment. I shoot well off of them but my groups at 200y from the sticks are closer to 2-2.5 moa as opposed to 1mao. My personal limit is usually about 300y and the longest shot I have ever made on live game (excluding coyotes and prairie dogs) is 314y. In all my years of hunting I have only lost two game animals that I wounded. One was a deer at 60y with a flintlock rifle and one was a warthog at 247y with a 7mm/08. Both were hit hard. The deer was tracked onto another farm where we did not have permission to hunt and the Warthog made it to a burrow where Cape Buffalo were in the way. What is your real limit?
Think about what your longest successful shot has been on large game and let that be your guide. I know that our Western hunters get far more long range opportunity to shoot game at extended ranges and as such also tend to get better at such shots. But, the reality is that a rifle that prints 1 moa at 100y from a bench is NOT consistently able to print 1 moa at 300 or 400y when shot from improvised field type rests. The possible exception being from Prone and we are eliminating prone as an option. I know that prone from a backpack is popular out West, but too many times the grass or terrain prevent such a shot. Plus prone accuracy is at least close to bench accuracy with practice. What I am looking for is your personal limit rounded to the nearest number in the field on live game with wind and terrain and with only a sitting, kneeling, standing position using whatever rest you will normally have with you?
I would also add that this is not using a $5000 match grade custom rifle with a $3500 tier one optic. Plan for a factory rifle with typical hunting optics. I have a Sako S20 which is a factory rifle but is wearing a 5-25x target optic and while I would use it for long rang Pronghorn, it is chambered in 243 and is too small for Moose or Elk and only marginal at distance for deer. I can hit 1mao tgts with it at 400y but it is so heavy that outside of coyotes, I never hunt with it. More typical is my light weight 7mm/08 with 1-8x optic. Or my Sako 338wm also with 1-8x optic. My best long range is a 30-06 with a 4-16x optic and that is good out to 400y but I have never shot it on game at that range, so I am not claiming 400y as my max.
I use quad sticks when I hunt, even when I do not expect to shoot over 100y. I like the precision they offer and can use them as a mono pod when the range is short and time prevents proper deployment. I shoot well off of them but my groups at 200y from the sticks are closer to 2-2.5 moa as opposed to 1mao. My personal limit is usually about 300y and the longest shot I have ever made on live game (excluding coyotes and prairie dogs) is 314y. In all my years of hunting I have only lost two game animals that I wounded. One was a deer at 60y with a flintlock rifle and one was a warthog at 247y with a 7mm/08. Both were hit hard. The deer was tracked onto another farm where we did not have permission to hunt and the Warthog made it to a burrow where Cape Buffalo were in the way. What is your real limit?
