Your No. 1 Long Range Hunting Shot

rookie wildcat said:
Longest shot 568 yds. White tail buck. K-98 chambered in 30-06. 165 gn Nosler Ballitsic Tip, can't remember the charge (I'm still at work). One shot, double-lung pass-through, bullet lodged on the skin far side. He just kept feeding until he fell down. I was so far away, he didn't think he was in danger. That was my one and only shot at game that far away. Very young, perfect eyesight, shot all the time just for that one chance. Now, I keep them under 400 yds, however my longest shot in the past few years has been a HUGE whitetail at 364yds, ranged before the shot. That was a fiasco, though when the bullet failed to expand and I tracked that poor animal for 4 hours, busting him up out of a bed every 20 minutes.
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which bullet? pm if you don't want to say it here
 
prairie lover said:
which bullet? pm if you don't want to say it here
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No, I'll say it here. I bought a rifle, Ruger M-77. Burris 4-12x scope on it. Guy wanted $400. Gave me several boxes of cartridges with it. Asked why he was selling it. He was moving up to a .300 Win mag because the .30-06 wasn't knocking animals down anymore. I laughed at him in my head since that was not my experience.
Went home, no intentions of using that rifle, just the scope. Broke the extractor on my fav the day before hunting season. Grabbed that M77, guy had it dialled in for 165gn Remington CoreLokts. Checked the zero, it was right on. Took it hunting.
Shot a large cow moose the next morning. It turned around and kept grazing. Shot her again, she walked off into the woods, not overly concerned. Myself and 4 friends looked for her, or any sign I had hit her, for four hours. Finally, convinced I had missed twice (hard to take on my ego, but reality) we quit looking.
A week later, I come into this field where I KNOW a large buck hangs out. When he comes out, with his nose in the doe's tracks ahead of him, I range the shot, fire, so steady, I saw the bullet hit, EXACTLY in the middle of the boiler room.
He stumbled, ran across the field and jumped the fence. I went to look for signs he had been hit. There was a cough right after he jumped the fence. Went back to the truck to wait. After 15 minutes, I went out to track him. 25yds past the fence, I busted him out of a bed. Went back to the truck. Repeated this for 3 hours.
Finally this animal died. Gutting, I ALWAYS want to know what the bullet did. This time, it hit a rib, glanced fwd, penciled through both lungs, hit the off-side shoulder and blew up. Shrapnel from the shoulder damaged the off-side lung.
Bulllet failed to expand. I had never used CoreLokts befo and I will never use them again. CGN member from Lloydminster was talking them up and I told him he could have all of these. He came to get them. Hope his luck was better than mine.
Just after the new year, a friend who owns a farm near where I shot that moose, finds a dead cow moose in his field. I didn't miss her, I just didn't kill her. His wife went out to see it and fell down on the ice, breaking her arm (he posted that on Facebook, so I went to look). Sure enough, when I got her pried open, there were two wound tracks, pencilled through both rib cages and lungs. ZERO Expansion.
This was the buck, about an hour before he finally died. He would lie down for about 20 minutes, gather enough strength to make a 25yd dash and then lie down again.
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Same rifle, my handloads. 268yds. He had held up on the wood-line when I shot him. He took 1 10-metre jump and piled up in the scrub poplar. Heart and both lungs were jelly.
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Coyote 750 yards. 25/06. WW brass. 49 gr varget. 75 gr Vmax win lr primers. 35-3550 fps. I use a powder thrower now so my spread is about 50 fps. Was 15 when I weighed each charge.
First shot went right beside him and he pounched on the snow where the bullet hit then sat down looking back across the field at me. Second shot took him just off center in the chest. He fell over backwards. Got up and then fell over. No exit

He was missing fur on his shoulders so I didn't recover the bullet. Doused him with gas and lit a match

Missed a lot of crows at 900+ but I was close
 
964 yards (lased) on a boulder, at the end of my 2011 hunt in Zimbabwe (got it on the third and fourth shots). 375 H&H in a Ruger RSM (3.5-10 Leupold VX III with illuminated reticle - not that I used the reticle!) using 300 grain Swift A-Frames. Rock was stone-dead. Happy to say it got captured on video.

On game, just under 400 yards on a kudu in South Africa (2007). 7x57 Mauser with 140 grain Triple-Shocks out of a custom Mauser (by Karl Schmidt, KS Arms). Two shots, both through the chest.
Pics here:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/174930-Hunting-in-South-Africa-Awesome-!
 
Three year old bull moose in the Thunder Bay region 7-8 years ago. 380yard frontal shot at the base of the neck, bullet penetrated the entire length of the animal and was recovered under the hide near the rump. 340 Weatherby Mag, 225gr Barnes XLC (the blue one's) loaded to near max. Recovered weight was 212gr . He was dead before he hit the ground.
 
rifleman338 said:
Three year old bull moose in the Thunder Bay region 7-8 years ago. 380yard frontal shot at the base of the neck, bullet penetrated the entire length of the animal and was recovered under the hide near the rump. 340 Weatherby Mag, 225gr Barnes XLC (the blue one's) loaded to near max. Recovered weight was 212gr . He was dead before he hit the ground.
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That shot angle is so deadly, same happened to me with a bull elk, only about 200 yards, with a .300 Weatherby. It was like lightening hit him when I pulled the trigger.
 
I was out coyote calling one day it was like -20 out. I had a coyote a long ways out in the bottom of a draw. I tried to use my range finder but it was so cold it wouldn't work. I decided to hold over about 2 feet, pulled the trigger and he dropped like a rock. Right after I shot, I saw another coyote on a hill to my right. Through the scope, the coyote looked to be about the same size so I held over the same amount, pulled the trigger and smoked him!!! I freaked out and was yelling like crazy because I couldn't believe I made the shots. I went back to my truck and heated up my range finder... After it warmed up. I ranged the first coyote at 517 yards and the other one at 521 yards.

I was absolutely amazed... definitely the best (luckiest) shots I've ever made.

Shots were made with a Remington 700 VSSF II 22-250 with 55gr bullets.
 
Back in 1983 I shot a groundhog with my .270 Win using cast 125 gr gas check with Unique powder. Standing freehand shot at 198 paces. I pace out 100 yards in 103 paces so around 192 yards. I missed my estimate on the steady wind from 9 o'clock around 10 mph so I missed the first shot wide right. Added some Kentucky windage and put one through his neck. This was before I joined the forces and I was shooting a lot for practice around 40 - 50 rounds daily for a couple months.

270 totheend
 
When I was 17 my father took my brother and I on a caribou hunt on the Barrens, North of Yellowknife. On the third day of the hunt a band of caribou swam around the point where we were camped and came ashore on the back side of the esker. We booted up there and my brother hammered a nice bull at just around 100 yards. The other two bulls ran around the bay and stopped at around 415 yards. I held on the line of his back and touched off a shot. The bullet impacted low through the shoulders, anchoring the bull low through the lungs. I made the shot with a Sako L61R 30-06 with 180gr Nosler Partitions. The rifle was my father's. Then he gave it to me. I traded him back for another rifle. Now it's mine again. For good this time.
 
Young bull moose taken at 975 meters. 300 win mag shooting 210 grain berger vlds. Conditions were perfect, slight 6 o'clock wind, firing position where i was able to lay prone and shoot. The moose came out right in front of a rock that i had been taking a few shots at honing in my skills curing boredom during the mid-day slump. The shots must have scared the animal out of the treeline basically right into my scope. My load was pushing the envelope of adequate velocity but i knew i could make perfect shot placement. I got a complete pass through hitting both lungs, the bull never made it 25 yards. I do a fair bit of LR shooting and reloading and have hit targets out to almost a mile, however most of my hunting shots are 700m and in, and i doubt i will shoot past that range again on game. Its just the stars aligned that day for me to make a confident shot at extreme distance.
 
Not my shot but witnessed it. Squirrel running up a tree, 98 yards, moving full speed, head shot with open sight .22 LR.
 
Mountain goat, 428 yards, 243 win, 100gr Nosler partition, win brass, H4350 40.0 gr sparked by CCI250M. Ranged and dialed up for the hit. Chambered round.....click. Try again. Click. Damn what are the chances of a first round squib. :redface: Removed round and replaced....bang. :sniper: Bullet pencilled through and reaction on the Billy showed sign of hit. Sent three back up shots and failed to hit home, 100 yards travel on the hoof over small cliffs and scree to eventually where the Billy died with back legs dangling off a 100m cliff and wedged on top. :sok2
Had to remove horns before releasing it whilst looking over that cliff. Sending the body into space and picking up the rest on the scree below. Learning... observed the outermost limits of the cartridge and my abilities at the time, and will not repeat.

Same rifle, best bull elk to date bugled in on a 1 hour courtship, same load...9 feet to the entry and 80 yard recovery. Even the shortest "long range" hunt may very well be one of the best.
 
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On game, in Africa on the edge of the Kalahari Desert shooting a Blesbok at just under 700 m (680 to be exact) with a 300 win mag 180 gr off a bipod. 1 round right through the heart.


1 Gallon milk jug filled with colored water at 1270 m with a 338 Lapua 300 gr.
 
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