So this has been bothering me for a bit. Mostly from my own hunting club members I hear this that I want to shoot animals from at least 300yd.

I've shot 2 animals at 200yd+ in 9 years of hunting. One was an axis doe with my 22-250 with a Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14x50mm and 55gr Hornady VMAX in 2013, sitting on my rear end and resting on a uprooted treelimb. The second was a pig with my dad's 30-06 with a Nikon Buckmasters 4-12x50mm and 150gr Federal Fusion. The axis doe took 1 shot and a difficult tracking job: the super-flat shooting 22-250 did a ton of internal bleeding but left us nothing to follow with a chest shot. My 22-250 has shot 45, 55, and 64gr bullets within a 2" margin at 50, 100, and 200yd; that's why this was possible. The pig had blood everywhere, but took my 5 shots to drop: 3/5 connected. I was shooting standing, using a BOGPOD tripod as a rest.

There is no NEED, as a hunter, sportsman, to shoot at absurd distances. I took these two opportunities because I had to: the axis doe busted me while I was stalking her herd and the pigs were on higher ground than us so we couldn't get closer. I have shot deer on foot as close as 30yd. From a blind, 80-110yd. From a truck/mule, 100-200yd. It is your responsibility as an ETHICAL hunter to get as close as you can to your prey in order to deliver your hot little piece of molded lead or infused copper at it's best amount of energy into a living animal to take its life away.

That being said, a hunter does find himself in situations where un-ideal shots must be taken, such as in the above cases. That's where I have my pet peeve: one cannot just put trust in performance (of optic, gun, and shooter) at 100yd as the baseline for a 400yd shot. Anything at 300yd or higher is science and skill, not a smooth trigger pull and closed eye. Ballistic coefficients, wind drift, "dope," MILs, MOA, 1st Focal Plane, 2nd Focal Plane, bipods, cant, parallax, and PRACTICE all come into play here.

If there is ever a chance that you will shoot at 200yd, practice at that distance. 300yd? practice at 300. And NEVER shoot further than you've practiced for: I took 5 shots because I had only shot to 200yd, and at 273 I had to keep correcting for bullet drop. One of my hunting partners, a 14 year old who routinely shoots out to 600, dropped his pig with one shot--a headshot, to the eyeball--while shooting prone (I was standing. Now I know what sort of rest to use/have).

Long range shooting is not a joke. Please don't shoot if you haven't practiced at that distance. It's better to let the animal slip away, healthy and unharmed, than to put it through a miserable few hours before it dies or you can finish it off. Or worse, have it live with a bullet lodged inside of it, in pain every day because of lead poisoning or a badly healed bone.

You had to take those shots?

You had to take those shots?

Maybe you will finally learn a .22-250 is not a do-all cartridge


That and learn to shoot at 300 yards.



300 yards, while a good distance, is not unachievble. It's within the realm of common big game hunting

You had to take those shots?

I should have known better than to post anything asking for advice. Y'all are a tough crowd: darned if you try to know, darned if you don't know.

It's the closest I could have gotten.

That is not the proper answer to the question. The reason should be obvious upon reflection.

I'll not weigh in on the larger issue, as I'm not really sure what advice you are seeking/giving from your OP.

I have hunted all my life and never had to take a shot over 150 yards. Yes I left a few animals to walk away. I try to stalk until I am close enough for a good clean kill. I've shot antelope in Wyoming and mountain goat in British Columbia, got within 40 yards, plus mule and whitetail. However my wife takes shots at 200 -300 yards routinely. She has taken 24 shots and has 24 kills. So, each to his own. The hunting world is big enough for all of us without us attacking each other.......PETA will do that without our help.