Long Shots?

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azhunter122

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Well today when I was scouting I saw a few bucks but they were super far away, like a mile or so. Anyways I shot my rifle the other day at about 150 yards and it was shooting about 3" high. Will I have to worry about this during my hunt? How precise should your rife be?
 
3 inches high is fine, if you know that its gonna hit there every time.
Practise, practise,practise, untill you "KNOW" where your gonna hit, as your bullets placement means NOTHING if it dosent place where YOU want it, when you want it.
Maby adjust your sights, maby get used to it.
My M-39 hits 2" high at 150 and dead on at 200yards....I just place ithe top of the front sight along the bottom of my "meats" jaw and blow their brains out.:D
 
<rant>

I worry whenever I see this kind of question.

The level of "precision" available from the rifle is relatively unimportant, as very few people are able to take full advantage of it. Moreover, many, many hunters shoot a few groups from the benchrest and then feel that the best group from the bench is what they can do in the field, every time, from offhand.

I for one would be a much happier fellow if the average hunter actually took his rifle into the field, with the equipment, optics, and ammunition that he will be hunting with, and fired a couple of hundred rounds at targets of unknown size and indeterminate distance, in real world conditions, and from real world positions. This, IMO, would go a long way toward reducing gut shot animals, not to mention slightly unnerving questions about long range shots/game animals at a mile away.

</rant>
 
Don't know what you're shooting, but a good rule of thumb for standard deer calibers has been 1" - 2" high at 100. Should take you out to 250-yards with crosshairs-on, assuming a reasonably flat-shooting caliber. Accurate 300-yard shots and beyond aren't consistently made unless you practice at such ranges & know where your rifle shoots at those ranges.
 
You should have to worry about its, but why are you talking about deer a mile away? As for precision in a hunting rifle...so long as you can consistently hit a 6" plate at the ranges you will be hunting you are fine. Some will say if you can hit an 8" plate you are fine, but I would be a little worried if I could only hit an 8" plate consistently.
 
If your rifle is one of the more flat-shooting calibers like a .243 or 6.5x55 or .25/06 or 7mm/08 or .270 you should be OK out to 250-275yds. or so.

Would suggest you not attempt any shots at game beyond 250yds. until you learn your rifle's trajectory very well. Would also suggest you invest in an inexpensive rangefinder that you can experiment with until you have a good mental ability to judge ranges. It's fun and you'll be surprised how quickly you can become good at estimating distances - at least within 400yds. And what you'll be trying to accomplish at first is to have the ability to make good "shoot/don't shoot" decisions based on the 250yd. limit.

Practicing in the field, as a couple others suggest, is really, really valuable.

But remember - learning to stalk closer is always much, much better than learning to shoot farther.

:cool:
 
Everything that Shawnee said plus :

3" high at 150yds with say a .30-06 165 bullet at 2800fps means you are zero'd at about 250 yds. This doesn't chg much whether you have a scope or open sights.
"They" say that you can hold 'dead on' at any distance up to and including the distance that your bullet stays either high or low by 3" on a deer sized target. That makes you good for about 290 yds (unless you're shooting some ballistically inferior cartridge like a .30 carbine or 12ga. slug).
 
....I just place ithe top of the front sight along the bottom of my "meats" jaw and blow their brains out.
Click to expand...

One season I was in a hunting camp with a fellow who bragged about making head shots. I wasn't able to be in camp opening morning, but he came back to camp telling of a nice 8 point he'd shot at. As he told it, he knocked the buck down, but it got up and ran off before he got to it. Although there was quite a bit of blood, he just couldn't find the buck.
When I was able to hunt a week later, I went to where he'd shot at the buck. Of course the blood trail was long gone, so I just went to where any injured deer would go; the nearest cover. Sure enough, there in a small cedar choked draw was his "8 point", a small forkhorn. Our bragadacious "head shooting" hunter had blown the bucks muzzle off from the eyes forward. I don't know how long it took that animal to lay there and die, but I was disgusted beyond words.:fire: Point of this story is: You take head shots long enough, especially with a open sighted rifle, and you'll eventually do the same thing.

May I ask why you take head shot? Please don't tell me it's to save (a couple of ounces of) meat. I've heard that before and it's lame. Anyone who is proficient enough to hit an animal in the head, can much more easily hit it in the lungs. Does anyone here eat lungs or would they miss a couple of ounces of the meat between the ribs?:scrutiny:

35W
 
azhunter122 ,
Practice at a range from a bench rest and then from standing, sitting like when hunting. Shoot at ranges that tax your ability. When you cannot hit a 6" kill zone anymore everytime, then you reached your personal limit on long distance shots.
 
35 Whalen;

Hey, I shoot Head/neck shots because I "Can" and also because I live and hunt all year around ,Hunting for a living.
I am proficient, and I use FMJs ta boot.
I hunt on open Tundra, and nothing I aim to get, gets away.
Your head shooting friend obviously didnt know what he was doing, or his eyes would have seen the "Fork" and not some 8 pointed rack....sounds like you were talking to an amature BS'r with Buck fever.

How many idiots out there missed a lung shot and blew out the guts?
Bad shots happen, thats for sure, so Practise alot, me thinks...shoot for fun, food, and practise, reload and do it again...:rolleyes:
How many have shot 8 point Does? thats the story I love....LOL!

Its not at all lame to shoot the head, because I dont eat it, and I throw them away with the antlers, stomache, and alot of the intestines.
I do preferr the front shoulders for eating , as the sweet , tendermeat is always by the bone, and with Caribou especially, the front shoulders are the best meat in the animal.
Lungs arn't that bad fresh, like Liver and Kidneys.
Tounge and Heart are my favorites, but I try my best not to hit the Tounge.
I also save head shots for 150yards and less. Then I shoot the neck, and beyond 300 yards, I willdo thebody shot.
Theres nothing lame about saving meat, if thats what your hunting for....then again, if I started ruining good meat, I'd just have to shoot more meat.....nawwww...

Your one experiance of another guys bad shot years ago sounds sad and a bit tramatic. I hope you get past it. If you can, try a head shot and blow the antlers off with the brains, I sure laugh when that happens:D

Heres a vid of a normal head shot, Sako rifle, Czech LPS, about 200 yards.
th_CLIP0142.jpg


th_CLIP0143-1.jpg
 
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35 Whalen;

Hey, I shoot Head/neck shots because I "Can" and also because I live and hunt all year around ,Hunting for a living.
I am proficient, and I use FMJs ta boot.
I hunt on open Tundra, and nothing I aim to get, gets away.
Your head shooting friend obviously didnt know what he was doing, or his eyes would have seen the "Fork" and not some 8 pointed rack....sounds like you were talking to an amature BS'r with Buck fever.

How many idiots out there missed a lung shot and blew out the guts? I have. Ive completely missed too.....LOL!..but I grew up, carried on and kept on shooting, getting better over time.
Bad shots happen, thats for sure, so Practise alot, me thinks...shoot for fun, food, and practise, reload and do it again...:rolleyes:
How many have shot 8 point Does? thats the story I love....LOL!

Its not at all lame to shoot the head, because I dont eat it, and I throw them away with the antlers, stomache, and alot of the intestines.
I do preferr the front shoulders for eating , as the sweet , tendermeat is always by the bone, and with Caribou especially, the front shoulders are the best meat in the animal.
Lungs arn't that bad fresh, like Liver and Kidneys.
Tounge and Heart are my favorites, but I try my best not to hit the Tounge.
I also save head shots for 150yards and less. Then I shoot the neck, and beyond 300 yards, I willdo thebody shot.
Theres nothing lame about saving meat, if thats what your hunting for....then again, if I started ruining good meat, I'd just have to shoot more meat.....nawwww...

Your one experiance of another guys bad shot years ago sounds sad and a bit tramatic. I hope you get past it. If you can, try a head shot and blow the antlers off with the brains, I sure laugh when that happens:D

Heres a vid of a normal head shot, Sako rifle, Czech LPS
th_CLIP0142.jpg


th_CLIP0143-1.jpg
 
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