Getting better

SC Hunter · #1 (**permalink**) 05-03-2012, 07:26 PM

Have enjoyed and continue to enjoy (and will always enjoy) the debates/comparisons on "which is the best deer rifle".... But one point that is almost always made in those threads is that with effective shot placement, they're all good. So my question for the forum is " how do you develop the skill required to take a 300 yard shot? Shooting off a rest at the range is not the same as shooting a live animal out of a tree stand on a cold morning. Many ranges don't get out to 300 yards. Wounded deer are unacceptable.

So how do you get better?

daddus1 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-03-2012, 07:35 PM

Practice at 300 yds! see where your rifle shoots at that distance and practice, practice, practice!
daddus
No one can "tell" you how to do it. It is expensive in money and time!

Hellbilly · #3 (**permalink**) 05-03-2012, 07:54 PM

Ill take a 300yd shot after Im proficiant at 400yds

Karl.Luhr · #4 (**permalink**) 05-03-2012, 08:12 PM

When I start to feel like I am a good shot, one of two things happen. One is I get an idea to shoot at 200 yards that is a reality check. The other is someone that is really a good shot(one holes all day at 100yds) starts shooting next to me. I shoot with low power scopes either 4 or 4.5 power at the high end, when shooting at 200 yards that bull is starting to get small.

Karl

Scorpion8 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-03-2012, 11:39 PM

There is no substitute for practice, and a lot of it should be in real situations: standing, rifle rested against a tree, shooting sticks. You can shoot off the bench all day and feel good but miss a close shot because you don't practice that way.

Hunting Man · #6 (**permalink**) 05-04-2012, 12:07 AM

Your rifle must be sighted in at 100 yds and shooting 1" groups. Moving out to 200 yds makes a whale of a difference in seeing your mistakes. 300 yds and you need some nice glass aboard the rifle and a caliber that shoots well at that distance. Like they said it's expensive to know you can make the shot and only practice will tell you if you can do it. I have started moving my optics to 4x12 and 4x16 as my eyes aren't what they used to be.

SC Hunter · #7 (**permalink**) 05-04-2012, 07:58 PM

Lots of great observations and advice.

Reason I originally asked is that we have a cut over that will be perfect this year and some shots have the potential to be fairly long.

Interesting a friend let me borrow his range finder today. I measured a distance that I thought was 300 yards and it was 190. Poor judge of distance I guess. So frankly, I doubt I will be taking any shots at 300 as initially posted. 200 will be challenging enough.

Have a 223 with the same optics and ammo less expensive than 270 wsm with almost identical drop at 200 so will practice a lot with that. Will shoot off knee pod or rest simulating buddy stand to make it more realistic.

We'll see

Karl.Luhr · #8 (**permalink**) 05-04-2012, 09:08 PM

Someone smarter than I am once told me your personal range limit is where every shot goes into a Pie Plate. For some in this forum that is really far, others are not capable of doing it at 100 yards in actual shooting positions. A Whitetail isn't that hard to kill if you put your bullet into that Pie Plate size kill zone. That is assuming that the bullet is of suficent mass and construction to hang together and do its job. The more I see Deer and Elk killed the more I agree with this theory. You can't kill em quickly if you don't hit em in the right place. The Whitetail is a wonderful animal and deserves to die quickly.

Karl

onehorse · #9 (**permalink**) 05-05-2012, 10:06 AM

[QUOTE=SC Hunter;69687]Lots of great observations and advice.

Interesting a friend let me borrow his range finder today. I measured a distance that I thought was 300 yards and it was 190. Poor judge of distance I guess. So frankly, I doubt I will be taking any shots at 300 as initially posted. 200 will be challenging enough.

This is a good point for everyone to remember. No matter how good you are at hitting the old pie plate at any known (at the range) distance, you will be totally lost in the field when you are looking at an animal and have absolutely no idea of how far away it is.
I have 5 articles in the Tips section of this site that put the whole subject of long range shooting at game into a comprehensive package. I've got about 50 years of experience in there, so take a look at it, and let me know what you think.

SC Hunter · #10 (**permalink**) 05-09-2012, 06:54 PM

Onehorse - read them all. Very well presented.

I really doubt that I will be taking a shot beyond 250 based on my recent experiments with the range finder. Since there are only 2 stands where this distance would be necessary, I plan to use the range finder to measure certain landmarks and base distances on those. With the rifle zeroed at 200, the most I think I would need to do is keep it mid/high on the brown to be effective, if those are the ballistics that the rifle demonstrates on the range.
Finally, once sighted in, most of the practice will be off the knee pod or the equivalent of the gun rest on a buddy stand.

Thanks