What is your typical hunting/shot distance?

When I lived in southern Alberta, most of my shots on the open prairies and foothills were usually 150 to 300 metres. Only ever took a couple longer shots on the prairies, one at 450 metres and the other at a bit past 600 metres. Mountain hunts were often 100 to 400 metre shots. Now that I spend most of time in the Parkland and Boreal regions, the shots tend to be under 100 metres. Central Europe, 50 to 200 metres, much like hunting in Parkland regions of Alberta.
 
All of my rifles are zeroed in at 300 yards, point blank is 350 to 375 yards, depending on cartridge. My longest shot was 489 paces and average killing distance is about 125 to 130 yards, that is with a count of over 250 big game. I have no go-to or prefered cartridge for huntng, love all what I shoot equally, however I have a liking for the 300 H&H.
 
I have killed animals from 10 yards to out past 300 with my favorite hunting rifle. The majority of the 33 big game animals with that rifle have been inside 150 yards.
The rifle is chambered in .303 British, and I shoot 150 grain TSX bullets around 2774 FPS
Cat
 
Over 38 years of hunting big game, I have recorded the harvest of 111 animals (antelope to bison) with various cartridges from the 6.5 Creedmoor to the 376 Steyr, and archery equipment (recurve, compound and crossbow), ranging from 5 to 475 yards, with an average distance of 128 yards. (The last time I figured out the average, it was 137 yards)
Most of my rifles are zeroed for 200 yards.
 
It was either the OFAH or the Ontario MNR that did a survey a few years ago and found that the average shot at a deer was 40 yards and the average moose was 70 yards .
 
Regardless of what I am using or what I am hunting, I always attempt to get as close as possible. IMO hunting is the art of using skills to get as close as possible to wild game to ensure the most ethical shot with highest odds of a clean kill. Nothing gets the heart going like a spot and stalk to within spitting distance of an unsuspecting critter.
 
Average definitely under a 100yds, my first moose 40+ years ago was definitely beyond my skill level at the time over 400yds. Since then lots under 50, several over 300yds, 3 under 20 feet, been using a 300 zero for a long time I found it matches most Leopold scopes I've owned. Currently with my 300 WSM the top duplex at 10x gets me with in a inch at 100 - 200 and the bottom one the same at 400.
 
It’s interesting to see how close most people are in distance’s they shoot animals, I remember when I first started hunting I had this picture in my head of having to make 300-400 yd shots on animals and thinking a higher mag optic would be needed.

Fast forward to a few years later, I had a hard time figuring out where my crosshair was on a buck at the lowest setting (x4) when he was about 20mm from me. Was nothing but fur in the view lol, I now use much lower power optics.
 
Of 110 white tail my average shot is in the single digits. About 3/4 of those were taken with crossbow. Southern Ontario offers small woodlots and a large deer population. Group hunting has allowed me to have extremely great years when multiple additional tags are available.
Muzzleloader and shotgun deer kills are generally 20 yards or less with 1 being around 200 yards
Furthest coyote was just shy of 800 yards but I missed him twice first. That was with 2506
Furthest bear 164 paces 458wm. Closest was almost as point blank as you can get. My stand was 6' off the ground and the bear was directly below it. I have 26.5" barrel and the bear was a common average Ontario bear on all 4 feet so maybe 3.5'. 458wm
Wolves have averaged around 30 to 40 yards. Never really measured as they were all pretty close. 2506 and 9mmx19
 
Heydaddy said:
What would you say is your typical hunting distance? What would be your average and like most? Short-medium range? Medium-long range?
How many yards? For which Big games? (Deer, Elk, Moose,etc)

And what caliber?
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Well i took up archey about 30 years ago so my average shot distance has really shrunk. With my bow I would say my average shot is 30 - 35 yards.

With my rifle I would say my average is in the 100 - 120 yard range. The longest shot I have ever made was lasered at 402 yards on a pronghorn antelope. I probably shouldn't have taken the shot because my first thought was "Holy s**t, I hit him." That shot was made with a 7mm Rem mag with a 120gr Sierra hand load. That bullet planted that pronghorn on that spot.
 
Upland birds with a shotgun, 40 yards is about it, and that's stretching things considering open chokes, I'd probably pass at that distance unless it's a nice open shot. Don't want to just cripple birds just to have them die days later.
 
25-50 yrds most of the time. I hunt big woods and swamp lands mostly. My longest shot was 110 yrds, where I took a 4 pt buck with my Marlin 30-30.
 
25-75 yards when I was hunting whitetail out in Eastern Ontario with a .243.

We'll see now that I'm out west. Bought a 6.5 CM. Most stuff I have seen so far when scouting (both deer species and moose) was in the 100-250 yard range, but I'm just stomping around.
 
Butcherbill said:
Fast forward to a few years later, I had a hard time figuring out where my crosshair was on a buck at the lowest setting (x4) when he was about 20mm from me. Was nothing but fur in the view lol, I now use much lower power optics.
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Thst is interesting , have had no issues killing deer at less than 15 yards with scopes of 4x or 6x with fast sight acquisition.
The last few years , one was at 11 yards and another at14 yards.
Cat
 
iron cat said:
Thst is interesting , have had no issues killing deer at less than 15 yards with scopes of 4x or 6x with fast sight acquisition.
The last few years , one was at 11 yards and another at14 yards.
Cat
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Was a heat of the moment thing, I wasn’t expecting a buck to be standing there as I came across the old side trail. Didn’t take long to get lined up and shoot him in the vitals.

I’ve gone from that 4-12 to 2-7 & 2.5-10 optics since then, better fov at close range is better. I find I never go above x6-x7 anyway while hunting.
 
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