Long post on long-range hunting and shooting

WJM1000

FNG
Joined
Mar 4, 2022
Messages
45
Location
Johnstown PA
Long range hunter/hunting.

I’ve been long-range hunting (over 20 years) and have been a 1000-yard completive shooter for a number of years and winning a IBS/NBRSA national championship for 1000 yard score and two state championships for smallest group.

Sometimes First off to be successful you must have excellent equipment to do the job, that’s fairly easy to do if you have the money to buy what is required. In my opinion the weakest link in the chain is the scope, buy the best you can afford, the rifle can sometimes be purchased off the shelf, manufactured by several commercial rifle makers. That being said, in my opinion if you’re going to spend your hard-earned dollars, go to a qualified gun builder and have a custom barrel chambered in your favorite caliber. That will take care of part of the equation.


Now for the hard part is acquiring the skill set. I really don’t know how to tell you how to go about it, other tan practice when the conditions are bad at the longest range you can, 300 to 500 yards or so would be good. Shorter ranges can work, but not be as dramatic of changes as the longer ranges. I should mention quality ammunition is of major importance. (Good scope + good rifle + bad ammo = bad groups.) When shooting in windy conditions I pay close attention to the wind in front of the rifle, when the bullet exits the barrel gravity and wind acts on it immediately and stars to pull it down and in the direction of the wind and I think it effects it the most at that moment a few thousands of deflections at the muzzle can be huge at distance. I also look at the conditions along the bullets' path that can counteract or add to what’s happening at the muzzle, and I’ll adjust accordingly. I don’t pay too much attention to what’s happening at the target except for light conditions, the bullet is already there.

In all honesty, while having many one shot kills at distance, I’ve also had my share of near misses on the first shot, but if having an opportunity for a second shot I more often than not make a clean kill. In the many years of hunting long-range, I never crippled one and have it got away. On rare occasions I did have to shoot an animal again not wanting to let it bleed-out and suffer.

I’ll probably have a lot of blow-back on this and maybe called BS, but this is what works for me.
 
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
3,714
Sorry, I thought you were being sarcastic. My mistake.
No worries, length of a post (as in long) is relative to the person doing the writing, and can also be to the person doing the reading. I see your post as an average length post, but well written.
 

2five7

WKR
Joined
Jul 15, 2017
Messages
663
Solid points. The shooters knowledge of his own abilities and limitations is paramount. If you don't KNOW that you can make the shot, you probably can't.
 

hereinaz

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
3,021
Location
Arizona
Excellent advice. I love to go shoot on windy days. Makes me understand my limits…

A one moa gun with match ammo and a good scope can kill reliably at long range with practice and the right gear. It isn’t necessarily cheap. The other gear like rangefinder and ballistic calculator is necessary as well. My first rifle I shot to 1000 cost me $1000 bucks but I bought the rifle in sale and scope was a used SWFA SS.

I have killed with one shot inside 600 several times. I have never shot past 600 on animals. But, I have set up guys on my rifle and they got second shot kills from 730 to 1000. Long range usually gives you a second shot. Weather conditions matter too. We had calm conditions on those shots.
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2018
Messages
1,084
Location
ANF
If you are interested in long-range hunting & shooting history in PA check this article out.
So what your saying is, in Pennsyltucky I’m meant to shoot distance. Lol

I got a neighbor that’s a nationally ranked silouhette shooter out of Ridgeway. We are up near Warren. That range though in Ridgeway is the only 1000 yard range I know of.

In all of my travels around the ANF, I opted for a tiny fold up .300 Blackout. The opposite of long range. Why? Because the giant bucks and bears live in thick hellish places here. If you wana shoot long range, power lines are the only ticket in my opinion. Or large beaver swamps.
 
Top