What your longest ethical range on whitetail deer

[troy fairweather]

I try to cap out at about 500 yards on deer, I've hunt with some cartridges that have to energy to reach out more and have plenty of energy and speed. But I've always felt after 500 there to many thing to happen and chances to miss a animal or worse injure the animal.

Even if you know the drop and wind which can be hard some places I just think the small amount of time from when you pull the trigger to when the animal is hit is a bit to much after 500 yards. The animal could move quite a bit in the time the bullet needs to travel.

The longest shot I've made in a deer is about 540 from the gps, I was on a big hill on the farm I used to hunt, are shooting range was there. A week before I was shooting my 270 at the time there and hitting a large rock next to the cow pond and had the drop figured out. The wind is pretty light there because it was like a small valley. That day out hunting I'm walking up the hill from a spot I sat in the morning and see the bucks and does by the pond.

I sat there for 20minutes watching them and the weren't moving much so so I decided to shoot the bigger buck. It was grasp enough I could see the vaper trail, the buck dropped dead.

So whats the farthest you feel comfortable nshooting.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

As I don't use scopes, 200 is my maximum range, with a modern rifle. For the average shot, the average hunter, and anyone with less than very good range estimation abilities, I think 300 should be about max. That's going to upset some people!

My longest shot was 350 yards, with a scoped 7.7 Arisaka.

I hunt 99% of the time now with a muzzle loader, so 120 Yards/paces/meters, under ideal conditions, is my ethical maximum distance. I still take a modern rifle (well some kind of antique military cartridge rifle) sometimes to hunt bear or cougar, but those shots are always very close.

 

[JimKirk]

Measured 414 yards .... Once ... Down a LP gas pipeline .... distance measured before hand ...stakes driven at 100 yards for 600 yards both West & East ... 7 point ...stopped and lingered too long.... .25/06 115 grain Nosler BT....

 

[27hand]

Longest shot I've ever made on a deer ( about 50) was 95 paces with an Ithaca M87 Featherlite 12 ga.using Rem copper solids.
My Savage 111 ( .300 WM) can do sub minute and I've shot it to 300.
I would say my limit would be 200 although where I hunt with heavy cover & some open woods, seeing 100 would be rare.
I generally shoot from a sitting position

I get most of my deer these days with crossbow out to 20 yards.

I did shoot an elk a few weeks ago at 180 so I suppose that's my longest shot ever..That was prone over a backpack.

 

[md7]

I’m limited by the lay of the land. My longest possible shot on any of our hunting area is just over 200 yards. Maybe 220 yards max.

I killed a 9 point yesterday at just over 200 yards while he was trotting after a doe. He fell within a few feet of where he was shot.

A 300 yard shot is about as far as I’d take on live game, in theory. Maybe more if I practiced at longer distances and actually had the opportunity for shots that far out.

Pic of buck taken yesterday

 

[Rembrandt]

Probably 200+ yards, limited in our state because of gun restrictions....no necked high power rifles allowed.

 

[Captcurt]

It would depend on the gun that I was carrying at the time.. My M18 in 6.5CM, Savage 10 300 WSM or my Rem 700 243 I would be confident out to 300. If conditions are right, I have my Bergara B-14 in CM and my rangefinder I would do 500. I have shot it out to 500 and the BDC in my scope is on with the load that I have. We had a 6" steel disk at 500 and we could ding it every time on a calm day. Haven't been very good at doping the wind yet. I have taken 2 mulies and a whitetail that were 400-425yards with my Ruger 77 270 and that was before laser rangefinders.

 

[stillquietvoice]

The 2 longest I have taken are 245 prone, with an m88 Winchester in 308, and 210 with an m111 savage in 3006 fromy sister and BIL's kitchen window. How far I might take a shot depends on which rifle I'm hunting with. My 223 bolt action or AR 5.56 200 or less, less is preferred. My 243 win 400 Max, 350 preferred. My 7mm08 500, but only in the cornfield. It has enough energy for longer distance, but 500 is my absolute max with 400 being preferred. Most of my hunting is done at considerably closer ranges.

I have shot out to 550 and practice regularly at 300 meters. I hit about 96 percent on 6 in steel targets with all 3 mentioned calibers so I know I'm capable at longer distances, but closer is usually better.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Yep, I've had lots of training and practice shooting long distance with open sights, especially with the M1, and the 03A3, and can put the bullets on torso targets easily at 300 yards, and maintain a good "hit probability" out to 500 yards. But on innocent animals, closer is better.

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

What your longest ethical range on whitetail deer

For me it would be 100 yards or less, which is fine by me as where I hunt, that distance would be uncommon.

I sometimes get flack for not having a scope on my deer rifle, a model 1917 Remington in 30.06 with peeps. All others at camp have scopes, but I don't have to deal with snow and/or rain!

Practice and sighted in @ 100 yards, the longest shot taken was probably 60 to 70 yards. (No range finder) Yeah, got 'em!

 

[courtgreene]

I think that I, like many, have thought about this a lot... I’ve come to the conclusion that asking this question seems to get the process backward. The question implies that we come up with a number before ever hitting the field. That makes sense to me I suppose, but in practice I’ve noticed that the question can’t be answered until I am staring at a sight picture.
When I see the vitals in my scope or over my front sight is when I actually make the decision. Can I actually hit those vitals? Can I see them clearly enough? When It was a target in front of this sight picture instead of an animal, did I make the shot at a range like this?
I think that’s really the deciding factor. All of the rest is good information but completely hypothetical. If we aren’t asking that before pulling the trigger then we haven’t done the work of “ethics.” Let me explain that last sentence.
If we decide at the range, “I’ve practiced out to 350yds, so if a deer walks out at 300yds, I will shoot it,” then we are in the realm of mechanics. One could argue a case for that being deontological ethics, but I will stick with mechanics. It is not until the target, the environment, the light levels, and everything else involved is accounted for that we actually enter the realm of what an “ethical” shot would be, or in this case an ethical distance for a shot. In my opinion, that can’t really take place until the target is in focus.
Having said that, the longest shot I’ve taken was 175. It was not the longest shot I’ve had available, but was the longest shot I’ve been offered with which, after acquiring the sight picture, I was comfortable taking.

 

[horsey300]

The intersection of 1800+fps and a 5" circle, we've applied this to whitetail, muley, and pronghorn. Some rifles, 5"=300 yds, others..... quite a bit further....

 

[D.B. Cooper]

For me, my rifle (243 Win) and what I hunt (caribou on open tundra)...300 yards. I hand load my own ammo (Barnes 85 grn TSX, max powder charge), which I've chronographed, so I know, using a ballistics app, that my projectile velocity will drop below the minimum velocity (2k fps) required for reliable expansion at 325 yards. SO I make 300 my maximum.

My gun range has a 300 yard range to practice that distance (mostly from the sitting or prone), and I shoot service rifle competition sitting and prone from 300 yards as well. I use the same 1907 style loop sling on my hunting rifle that I use in service rifle, so it all works to pay dividends during hunting season.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

So whats the farthest you feel comfortable shooting.

110 yards...,

But....,

I'm a bit more low tech then most of the folks on this forum...,



LD

 

[FL-NC]

The short answer is as far as I can make a good hit with a caliber/rifle that can put a deer down at that particular distance. Of course, along with that goes all of the other variables that the shot presents. But since I am doing pretty much all of my hunting in Fl where a 100 yard shot is considered "long", its not really an issue. This afternoon I will be using a 308 AR10 carbine. The longest shot I will have there is about 60-70 yards. I won't be bringing my range finder.

 

[DocRock]

For me? MPBR of the cartridge my rifle is chambered in, provided the bullet is suitable for that distance.

 

[Chuck R.]

IF everything is "right" (meaning perfect) I'd be pretty confident at 400 with either my .270 or .300WM.

Buuut, I have steel at 407 and 547 right off my back porch, so I shoot at those distances frequently, and I competed in NRA Silhouette and long range with BPCRs. Which is also my reason for not stretching it further, I've missed quite a bit once the distances stretch past 500 and I was a master class shooter in Silhouette. Longest shot on game I've taken was a lasered 440 meters on a Chamois in Austria. Literally ridge to ridge and no way to get any closer.

 

[Gus Chiggins]

I'd be confident at 65-70 yds with black powder and open sights.
125-150 with 30-06 and a 3x9x40 scope.

 

[Laphroaig]

I shot a small buck across a valley at 400+ once. I estimated the range from the holdover I used compared to my rifles trajectory (25-06, 117 Hornady boattails). Long story short, the deer ran but I found him dead shortly thereafter. I was extremely proud of the shot until I skinned the deer and saw where I hit it, square through the tenderloins. I was lucky and so was the deer considering that I didn't wound him.

All other shots have been 250 or less. We used to have a late doe season in our WMU and I had a place to ambush them as they came out to feed. I used that 25-06 with a bipod and was confident at those ranges. A deer's vitals aren't that big of a target from field positions and lots can go wrong as the range increases.

 

[hq]

Whatever I feel comfortable with, with a sufficient certainty of hitting the vitals. So far the longest shot has been just over 370 yards with a .308; calm, clear weather, daylight, shooting sticks for support from a sitting position.

In any case I like to get as close as I can or wait for the deer to come closer before taking the shot. That particular one had been annoying me the whole afternoon, grazing on the other side of an open field so I eventually ranged it, made some quick calculations and dispatched it. Not a big buck or anything, a fairly small doe but it kind of asked for it. Great, tender venison.

 

[MacAR]

It's funny this came up. Just last night, I passed a shot on a large doe at about 250. I don't like to shoot much past 200, and I shoot an '06. Nothing to do with the gun or caliber, just my skills. Its getting harder to hold a rifle steady for longer shots. So in the end, I think it comes down to the shooter rather than the rifle as to ethics.

Mac

 

[Fyrstyk]

In the area I hunt, and my gun of choice (Flint lock long rifle in .58 with open sights) a 100 yard shot would be a long one and highly unlikely due to heavy brush. I would say and do limit myself to 75 yards, and that is only if I have a clear sight to the vitals.

 

[buck460XVR]

Depends on the weapon at the time. 40 yards is about max for me with archery equipment. It's also about the max range for me when I use the .357 revolver. 70-80 yards for the .44 revolver and 125 for the .460 revolver. Haven't used a rifle for almost two decades. Where I hunt, anything over 100 is a rarity anyway.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

110 yards...,

But....,

I'm a bit more low tech then most of the folks on this forum...,

View attachment 965566

LD

With a rifle like that, the deer probably walk up just to look at it. I have still never encountered another hunter with a flintlock. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, a Hawken type percussion rifle. Where I hunt I don't usually encounter other hunters in the woods, actually almost never, but still. Anyhow, nice smoking-pole you got there.

 

[gotboostvr]

Not a big buck or anything, a fairly small doe but it kind of asked for it. Great, tender venison.

Those are the kind of deer we were after with my buddies I used to hunt with back in Ohio. If it wasn't a buck of a lifetime, we'd be thrilled with a nice younger doe. Easy to manage it out of the field, easy to butcher, a good amount of great meat. If it wasn't a monster you would get mounted, we'd typically go for the "eatin' deer" given a choice.