What is a Long distance to you hunting?

This thread got me to thinking about a new rifle I have. A 22 Creedmoor with a 1-8 twist just to shoot longer ranges. I have it dialed in to 200, yea, I know that is easy. I may take it out to 600 tomorrow, if the weather permits.
 
What I consider long range depends on the conditions I'm presented with. I practice on a regular basis at various ranges with different guns and have learned what my limits are for each gun. For normal calling conditions I prefer coyotes at less than 200 yards. In a sitting position on a stand it isn't easy for me to hold the crosshairs steady enough for a 300 yard one shot kill on a coyote even 80% of the time. At 200 yards or less I'm going to kill the coyote almost every time.

Even if I can get prone, a 400 yard shot on a windy day with my 223 would be too long of a shot for me to take on a coyote. At 400 yards the bullet drift even in moderate winds (10mph) becomes to difficult for me to consistently estimate. My 223 bullets also lack the downrange energy to consistently kill a coyote at 400 yards.

With my 338 Lapua a 400 yard shot in a 10 MPH wind is an easy shot for me if I can get prone. The mule deer I shot in Wyoming in 2018, Colorado in 2019 and New Mexico in 2018 were all over 500 yards and none of them were difficult shots.

I shot a coyote at a little over 300 yards that stopped to look back after winding me with my 6mm Creedmoor and a 15+ MPH wind. That was a difficult shot. If I would have had time to set up prone and take my time on the shot it would have been a much easier shot.
 
Originally Posted By: jetmanLong-distance Hum.
I JUST got back from shooting what I conciser long distance.
.3 miles, 1500 feet, 500 yards, whatever you want to call it. It's a LONG way.
Longer than I care to walk out and check the target for sure.
I set up a life-size target of a coyote, printed on letter paper, It takes 14 sheets to print it out with feet, tail, and ears.
38 x 44" is the target backer.
To look at it without a scope you say crap that's a LOOONG way.
The wind was blowing, can you get your hands around that? in Montana?
Maybe a 45* ish and like 18 mph. Hard enough to blow my target over just before the first shot.
I Just tested 12,220 gr 8mm rounds with different powders and loads.
I found a match that at 100 the bullets almost all touched, and around 2950 fps according to the book.
I had the 8 zeroed at 3" high at 100 yards which is dead nuts center at point-blank of 240 yards with the 200 gr Barnes up around 3100.
That is what I was shooting, I adjusted the parallax to 500 yards, Put the third hash on the coyote's nose.
Shot 3 times, when we checked that put a left to right string about 5" with less than a 1/2" up or down Center coyote but up at ear level. I was surprised at the drop or lack of it. I know in my heart if I had used the second hash it would have been dead center coyote.
I was going to do it again after the check but my buddy shot his 375 Ruger and he hit the supports and blew the target over and we could not stand it back up.
I was a happy camper. Come to find out he had aimed over the target and off the target into the wind. His bullet dropped the 44" target and them some and the windage was well over the 38" wide target.

All that said:
500 yards is a LOOONG shot with any gun in the wind, in the field.
My 6mm and his 6.5 CM at that range and wind was lucky to hit the 11 1/2 sq foot target backer.

Remember: Four boxes keep us free, the soapbox, the ballot box, the jury box, AND the cartridge box

I wouldn't put a number to what is/is not long distance...it all boils down to what you are capable AND comfortable with.

I have shot a lot at ranges at or over 1,000 yards, but when and where I hunt, shots over 300 are rare. That being said, I took a coyote at 668 yards. I shot one at 428 yards. But the conditions were right for that kind of shot. The 668 was out on a farm, looking down a flat, wide open abandoned farm access road on a coyote that was standing broadside. The one I shot at 428 was from the top of a waterhole.

I think that there are a vast array of variables that come into play on a decision like this. Caliber, platform, conditions, ammo, experience, range estimation, shooters ability.

While I have made shots at long ranges, I have also missed easy, close up shots while hunting.
 
This is a great thread and I appreciate the honesty.
I regularly push my limits on prairie dogs and have decent success, but for game animals, as I get older and I seem to shake a bit more, I take less and less chances as far as range goes.
About 400 yrds max for deer, a bit closer for coyotes and such.
 
I feel a little overwhelmed reading this. Because of the cover I hunt all but a handful of coyotes I've ever shot have been within 50yds. Most 20-30. I'm better prepared now that I carry a Drilling, but haven't used the rifle bbl yet.
 
Always been fascinated with the long-range shot, especially the math involved. A long time ago now I was in Bill's Gun Shop here in Pueblo, CO when Bruce Artus came out with his huge Obermeyer-barreled 308AI, and the scope was mounted at a very noticeable forward tilt in a custom super-high ring system. I asked him what he was using it for and he said he was trying to break the record for the longest prairie dog shot (Varmint Hunter Mag. was having a contest or something), which I cant remember what it was at the time...but I had just started writing freelance for a few gun mags and I wanted an article in Prec. Shooting. So I wrote up what he was attempting to accomplish, and sent it in to editor Dave Brennan and sure enough he published it. After that Bruce and fellow long-ranger Kregg Slack kept doing their thing for several years running. At the end Kregg finally got a pd at 3125 yds. 338 Lapua AI/300 gr. SMK, which as far as we knew was the record for the longest rifle shot ever made in history...but that's now been broken by some sniper in Afghanistan I guess. I have been lucky enough to have been around some great long-range shooters in my career, and it's been a fascinating ride for sure.
 
I am in total agreement, that long range means different things to different people. I shot high power matches for over 20 years. 600 yds. is called mid range there. I never was a consistent winner, but 600 was a very doable thing. On prairie dogs, I am very conservative. I only shoot frangible bullets to avoid rickoshets. SP? And because we love those dramatic hits, we usually hold to 300yds. or less. Love high percentage of hits and the dramatic effect of how high they can fly!
 
Originally Posted By: masshunterI feel a little overwhelmed reading this. Because of the cover I hunt all but a handful of coyotes I've ever shot have been within 50yds. Most 20-30. I'm better prepared now that I carry a Drilling, but haven't used the rifle bbl yet.

No need to be overwhelmed...I have killed more coyotes inside of 150 yards than over. In fact of those, most were inside of 100 yards.

If my eyes were better I probably would still be running open sights because of the flexibility to shoot at any ranges. As it is, I practice with my scopes to shoot up to 25 yards, just so that I am ready when I am running a rifle instead of a shotgun.
 
If it's a target of opportunity or a coyote that hangs up and absolutely will not budge I'll take a long shot. But I ain't gonna do it just to do it. If they'll get close enough to trip over me I'll let them. I don't like it when they get away. Educating coyotes isn't my favorite thing in the world to do. There are guys that have shot coyotes at longer distances than I have no doubt. But how many have they wounded or missed compared to me or other guys that would prefer to take shots 150 yards or closer? Probably more.

A prairie dog town is a good place to test your long range shooting skills. If you miss you'll get another opportunity when they come back out. And they give a guy time to turn those knobs on their fancy scopes. In real world calling situations you don't have time to range them and do all that most of the time and coyotes learn a lot faster. If you miss and that coyote gets away there's a good chance you'll never see it again.
 
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Hunting I have shot a Antelope at over 500 yards, I would go as far as 700 yards on a Deer or Antelope and have my rifles set up for. But in all reality most hunting Deer average a little over 200 and Antelope 300 yards.
My longest shot was on a Coyote was just under 400 yards on a flat out run, one shot from my 6mm Rem and 75gr Hornady HP he was unlucky dog and I was lucky.
 
There is a huge difference between shooting long distance and hunting long distance. Having hunted my entire life up here in Wyoming where there is a lot of wide open space and very unpredictable winds, I would consider long distance in a hunting situation to be anything 500 yards or greater.

You better have the time, rock solid rest, capable rifle and calmness of mind and body if you are going to shoot an animal at that distance and beyond. Oh, and that does not even take into account the wind etc.

Banging steel down range is a lot of fun and definitely helps prepare someone to confidently shoot longer ranges but they two situations are not the same by any means.
 
Not to offend anyone but in my opinion long distance hunting is different from long distance shooting. Just because you've killed an animal does not mean you've been hunting. That said Ive hunted in places where 15 yards would be a long shot. Other places long distance was regulated by your ethics. I consider 200 yards long for hunting. For shooting 600 can be alot of fun.
 
I killed a 2-liter bottle at a mile...

Longest prairie dog was 701yds, longest coyote was 250yds, longest deer was 387yds. I prefer animals under 400yds.
 
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Long distance, it gets shorter every year. I like calling coyotes, if I can't hold on fur it is too far.

40 yrs ago I used to shoot Metallic Silhouettes and offhand at 500 meters on coyote sized rams was part of the game. I shot a deer at just over a quarter mile back them, built a rifle just for that one deer and practiced at that range, killed a deer but not the one I was wanting, in stead of a monster it was a last day freezer filler, sold the rifle and went back to still hunting and tracking deer, much more fun.
 
As others have said, Long Distance means different things to different people. In that same vane, long distance "shooting" is different than long distance "hunting". When an animal is involved my personal restriction is whether I m 95% confident I can make an ethical hit that will anchor the animal ... wounding a critter is not cool. Now I would also mention that a piece of Steel is a much different situation! Shooting at 1,000 yds, 1 mile and as far as 1 1/4 mile (2200 yds) is a total hoot and very humbling. My LR steel gun was a 338 Lapua in a Savage FCP... fun to shoot but not a carry rifle.

Back to LR Hunting shots; my two farthest shots were 1) 635 yds on an antelope with a 243 Win and 87 gr HPBT bullet, 2) 571 yds on a mule deer with a 257 Weatherby and a 110 Nosler AB. Both shots had perfect conditions with no wind and neither animal knowing I was there. I was able to shoot prone with a bi-pod and had done lots of practice to 700 yds and had the 'dope' sorted out for my rifle/cartridge combos. And yes I had a laser rangefinder in my binos so I knew the distance.

Having practiced and put lots of time in sending bullets downrange to verify my comeups I can still tell you that a 400 yard shot on an animal is a far piece and typically my outer limit. When I can't close to this distance, then conditions have to be ideal to consider shooting another 100-200 yds on an animal. I feel I owe a critter that respect.

Just my opinion and personal limits/guide lines.
 
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