What’s your go to long range hunting rifle

I treat hunting and shooting a solo game period. If you have a buddy great, to rely on one is silly, but hunting isn't prs where you get to have training wheels and bromances. So my recommendation was for doing it ALL yourself, including not just watching the trace but seeing the impact. Plus it's fun. Seeing the impact and when they flop over or turn and the hole out the other side and blood already flowing as they flop over etc. is a full and complete level of satisfaction. We did 5 critters with 2 different 6.5 Grendels last year, I dumped 3 of them (antelope and 2 deer) from 200 to 250 and literally saw it all, very sweet, my kids hammered a couple deer with green dot ultralight grendel which drt'd at 100 and I shot a buck at 175 with a 308 and didn't see sh1t lol...it went 15 yards. Funny, the grendels were all drt's, the only big boy rifle kill went 15 yards. I digress

SO the OP for his next fun gun has a full line of perspective of what he may want and enjoy for this particular project, long range prairie prone deer and I assume coyotes and maybe the odd speed goat too. And range time to get proficient and help that, even if solo, I give me recommendation. I think the 6cm 108's in heavy rig with right scope would be the ultimate joy ride and make proficiency to 600 easiest to obtain. And I only talk about things I can buy off the shelf including ammo so all readers online can play, not just the reloaders. Brakes suck in every way for this game and pretty much every game except the range and competition. We have enough options now to reach and drt things way out there without the need for a brake to watch it happen, just a bit of weight and you're all set.
 
My go to longerange hunting rifle is a Defensive Edge 338 Edge, built on a BAT action with a 30” Hart barrel. If I had to bet everything I owned on one shot thats the gun I’d grab. Trouble is, at 17 pounds with the Nightforce the one thing its great for is the only thing its good for.

Practicalities being what they are; various 300s and big 7s that weigh in around 12 get more use. Still clubs but usable in other than rested prone. Barely.
With carbon fiber a fat barrelled rig can get into the 10 or high 9s and start feeling like a rifle again. As my barrels die they’re getting replaced with carbon, at least they fit the inletting.

For zero to 500 or so frankly it doesn’t take much. You can’t swing a dead cat in a gunstore without knocking over a bunch of 500 yard rifles. 500 yard ammo is tougher, and 500 yard shooters are starting is get a little scarcer. All it takes is moderate wind reading ability at that distance assuming you’re using a real bullet at real speeds.

Much past 5/600 yards and things get hard in a hurry. Theres not a lot of room for error and its almost like the difficulty doubles for every 100 yards or so.
 
fitycal said:
You're right, but your reply is also a misnomer.
The majority of hunters are qualified to make an ethical shot within 100 yards. The vast majority of hunters are not qualified to make an ethical shot outside of 800 yards.

I guess the bottom line is, it is unethical to take a shot where you cannot put the animal down. It's significantly more difficult to do that at 800+
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you are doing nothing but trying to cast your own virtue and rigid view of what is acceptable onto others and I find it laughable at best.
Your generalizations are just that, generalizations, based on your opinion and nothing more. You have no statistics to back up your statements, only your preconceived misconceptions and like I said, your own virtue and what you deem is ethical.
Long range hunting is practiced all across the open country of North America and globally and for those with the skills , I see no problem with it.
I "personally" like to be close enough to see them blink without magnification but hey.... even I have taken pokes to moderate distances and only needed one shot.
To judge others for a legally accepted method of harvesting game....whether they want to jump on thier backs and spear them or shoot them from 1000 yards..... who am I to judge and exlaim that those hunters have no ethics? and who are you to judge?
 
For me long distance hunting is 400 to 500 yards. This is easier said than done and for me required a lot of practice. I could probably shoot longer if I put the work in but for what and where I shoot that is about as far as I would have to shoot. At this point I can repeatedly hit a coffee cup out to 500 yards.

I've taken a couple of deer at 450 plus, both one shot bang flops. I wont hesitate up to 500 as long as the wind is soft and the animal is not moving much.

I saw the "flat shooter" term surface in this thread; I would offer that most modern cartridges are flat shooting and the difference between a 3006 and 300wm is not significant, whereas the difference between a 4570 and a 300 wm there is a significant difference.

Mt goto rig is a customized Winchester New Haven Model 70 Classic. It's chambered in 338wm. I use a 2.5 - 10 Nightforce with the MOA reticle. I have the gradations charted so when I know the distance I just pick the right line and pull the trigger. I also only shoot one load; 250grn Swift AFrames at about 2800fps.

I have a feeling this thread could grow legs of it's own so here are a couple of parting thoughts...

IMO any "modern" bottleneck cartridge from 6.5x55 swede, 7mm08, 270, 280, the fast 7mm's, 308, 3006, the fast 300's, 338wm, 35w, 375H&H, etc, and even Gatehouse's 375 Ruger will all work up to 500.:)

A tuned trigger (less than 3lbs breaking clean), Alpha glass in your scope (Swaro, Leica, Zeiss, Nightforce, USOptics, etc) with either turrets or hashmarks, and a good rangefinder are absolutely required.

And your diligence to practice until it's routine to smash that coffee cup at what you consider long range.
 
45ACPKING said:
you are doing nothing but trying to cast your own virtue and rigid view of what is acceptable onto others and I find it laughable at best.
Your generalizations are just that, generalizations, based on your opinion and nothing more. You have no statistics to back up your statements, only your preconceived misconceptions and like I said, your own virtue and what you deem is ethical.
Long range hunting is practiced all across the open country of North America and globally and for those with the skills , I see no problem with it.
I "personally" like to be close enough to see them blink without magnification but hey.... even I have taken pokes to moderate distances and only needed one shot.
To judge others for a legally accepted method of harvesting game....whether they want to jump on thier backs and spear them or shoot them from 1000 yards..... who am I to judge and exlaim that those hunters have no ethics? and who are you to judge?
Click to expand...
I have a friend who can easily make a first round hit at 800yds and produce a 3-4" group at that range. The problem is that the average shooter cannot image such a thing is even possible and thus feel compelled to expound upon the "morals" of making a shot they don't even know can be made.

Who is anyone to judge another person's hunting morals? Because I can assure he who feels the need to judge that there is someone out there happy to judge their chosen hunting method as immoral or not really hunting. Then of course there are millions of people in this country who think that killing animals is immoral and hunting should be banned. So, maybe, take the opportunity to keep your moralizing to yourself?
 
grendel is super underappreciated. all the benefits of a 6.5, none of the weight or kick.
blakeyboy said:
I treat hunting and shooting a solo game period. If you have a buddy great, to rely on one is silly, but hunting isn't prs where you get to have training wheels and bromances. So my recommendation was for doing it ALL yourself, including not just watching the trace but seeing the impact. Plus it's fun. Seeing the impact and when they flop over or turn and the hole out the other side and blood already flowing as they flop over etc. is a full and complete level of satisfaction. We did 5 critters with 2 different 6.5 Grendels last year, I dumped 3 of them (antelope and 2 deer) from 200 to 250 and literally saw it all, very sweet, my kids hammered a couple deer with green dot ultralight grendel which drt'd at 100 and I shot a buck at 175 with a 308 and didn't see sh1t lol...it went 15 yards. Funny, the grendels were all drt's, the only big boy rifle kill went 15 yards. I digress

SO the OP for his next fun gun has a full line of perspective of what he may want and enjoy for this particular project, long range prairie prone deer and I assume coyotes and maybe the odd speed goat too. And range time to get proficient and help that, even if solo, I give me recommendation. I think the 6cm 108's in heavy rig with right scope would be the ultimate joy ride and make proficiency to 600 easiest to obtain. And I only talk about things I can buy off the shelf including ammo so all readers online can play, not just the reloaders. Brakes suck in every way for this game and pretty much every game except the range and competition. We have enough options now to reach and drt things way out there without the need for a brake to watch it happen, just a bit of weight and you're all set.
Click to expand...
grendel is super under-appreciated; all the benefits of a 6.5, none of the weight or recoil.
 
langbanger said:
Looking at putting together another hunting rifle for long range big game, what are your go to caliber scope and rifle set up? Looking for something factory, not a build and I have no budget really. Post some pics and show off your long range rigs.
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I am in the process of developing a good load for my newer Browning Xbolt Mountain Pro LR in 6.8 western. 26" stainless 7.5 twist. Scoped with Leupold VX-6HD 4-24 x 52 34mm. Hand loading copper Hammer hunter tipped 160 grn. Cheers
 
blakeyboy said:
yup my latest pet sako 308 20" spits 168gr eld-m at 2592 fps and around 760 yards still 1600 fps, plenty for deer, but the only thing alive that may get lead sent at that distance, provided I actually put a scope on for that, would be a coyote, it's got all kinds of poke to handle elk to a little over 500, and pet 2 tikka 308 20" with 165 fusions rated to 1900 fps and starting at pretty quick 2676 fps is about out of gas for big game work by about 475 yards so bullets matter quite a bit, eld-m's work really good to 1700 fps by what I've seen others recover, I've impacted personally with them at 1800 fps and drt deer with an exit...but lots of reports eld-m work down to below 1600 fps if the odd guy really wants to play the extended long range target (elrt) game on animals, elrh some might call it but not really hunting imo so elrt is more like it, see how far you can consistently smash hung up called coyotes and maybe add 150-200 yards to that at most for deer....that distance is gonna be way closer than one 'wishes' for despite what heroes they think they will be because of their range performance in controlled conditions and no tag pressure ;)
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All kinds of poke for elk at a little over 500?? I for one would like a lot more than that. I don't put a lot of stock in FPE, and lost a nice bull myself hitting one with 1500 ft/lbs. with a light bullet. Knew better, but figured I'd make a quick recovery in the snow with my hunting partner being a good tracker. Hit another one with 180 gr. and about 2400 pounds of energy, and I wished I had used a bigger rifle yet. The 180 shed 44 percent of its weight, and didn't exit. I followed up quickly with a second one that did, and decked him before he made it into the bush. A premium bullet likely would've helped a fair bit.

And therein lies part of the problem with long range. Just trying to figure out where you hit him, if there's no immediate stoppage to follow up.
 
fitycal said:
You're right, but your reply is also a misnomer.
The majority of hunters are qualified to make an ethical shot within 100 yards. The vast majority of hunters are not qualified to make an ethical shot outside of 800 yards.

I guess the bottom line is, it is unethical to take a shot where you cannot put the animal down. It's significantly more difficult to do that at 800+
Click to expand...

Not a misnomer. And the majority, or if you prefer the minority capable or incapable of making a certain shot is immaterial to the topic at hand. We can really only make some kind of assessment on an individual basis. I've seen a video of a fella struggling to put shots into a moose at probably about 50 yards, but putting everyone in lowest bracket of skill based of someone else's performance is a bit backwards.
 
I Dont Care About You said:
Both of these are fricken CANNONS that are expensive to shoot and require a lot of practice to be good with. Thats not a good combination for a newbie long range shooter.
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Not exactly target guns for sure. But if a fella wants a long range hunting rifle, with real horsepower.... it's not going to be cheap to shoot or recoilless. Shooting a big rifle well, will take a certain amount of shooting to master however.

Neither would really be my first choice. The easier choices in my opinion would be one of the steamier 30 caliber magnums with a more common case, or .338 Winchester Mag, or .340 Weatherby Magnum.
 
I can't really claim to be an expert on long range, but there are a couple, few challenges associated with it. One is accurate ranging, where just being off by 10 yards could mean an error of around 6" in trajectory. The bigger issue is wind. Extreme range stuff like 800 yards is improbable, due to varied conditions and topography. Just an average wind speed of 5 mph halfway down the range perpendicular to your bullet path, could throw your bullet off by a foot, turning a marginal shot into a horrible one. And likely you wouldn't even notice.

And as far as ammo/rifle/scope, you dang near need two set ups, though I think there's some good compromises. A bullet that performs well at long range, will likely blow up at close range, or hard bullet that performs well close, will fail to open at LR. I think the solution would be a Partition or A-Frame, but then I don't think they are exactly match bullets, or very aerodynamic, and can shed the nose at close range. I much prefer a low power of scope at close range, with 3x being ok, but 2x better, which means that a variable factor of 6 covers the bases better.

My solutions for longish range is a full size 7mm RM, and an 8mm RM. The 8 wears a 2.5-10x scope, and with proper handloads hits extremely hard at long range. The 8 is slightly limited by lighter bullets than are available in .338, but out to 700 yards, hardly anything hits as hard while shooting as flat. The 200-220 gr. good hunting bullets were a little more available than the equivalent in .308, and I remember hearing that the .338 Winchester killed better with the light 200 gr. anyway. Neck in neck with the .340 WM with similar weight bullets, but with heavier bullets available for the .340, it begins to pull away, but trades some drop for energy retention. In simple terms, what a heavy bullet 30-06 will do at the muzzle, the 8 will do at 300 yards.

I kinda pulled a 700 yard (theoretical) max out of my rear, and picked my 8 RM, for the basis of killing large game at long distance with practical considerations such as available bullets and trajectory, at the forefront. It's not a stationary gun, though hefty, and I don't really concern myself with what it can do at 2 k, but where and how it hits where the trajectory correction is more like 2 or 3 feet.
 
My most capable factory rifle, is my Christensen Traverse in 6.5PRC. After I removed the noisy brake, and readjusted the scope 3moa , it averaged around 3/8" at 100m with the factory Precision Hunter loads. My custom 7mmstw is excellent as well, but it isn't even close to factory. Even though both shoot well at longer distance, I won't shoot at an animal past 500m.
 
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