300 yard off hand shot at a deer!

[FEENIX]

A co-worker was praising a young Airman of 22 y/o in our squadron for apparently making a good shot at a whitetail last year at 307 yards. I simply said he just got lucky. The kid was shooting a factory Remington 770 in .270 with 3-9x40 scope (not sure of brand) and factory .150gr Hornady SSTs.

Then my co-worker claims he can shoot at that range off hand all day. He shoots a Ruger M77 MKII in .280 but was accurized and AI'd by WPA, topped with Nikon Monarch 5-20x44 BDC. Ammo was factory Nosler .140 NABs. I then raised the BS flag. .

(Never stand when you can kneel, never kneel when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down.)

How many of you guys can make the shot all day long?


Ed

 

[bigngreen]

I shoot Schutzen matches and we put 25 shots on a target off hand at 200yrds, oh and we do it with black powder and open sights It's just like shooting any other way, accurate rifle, lots of rounds down range, more rounds down range hit percentage goes up. May have been and early flag on the play!!

 

[justgoto]

How many of you guys can make the shot all day long?

Now would this be an 8 hour day, or do I need to go the whole 24 hours?

 

[FEENIX]

bigngreen,

I totally agree, practice, practice, practice! My co-worker might do the occasional sight in check before the hunt and blast away whitetails off the brushes, and that would be the extend of the load count ... match competitor or accomplished shooter/hunter he is not .

justgoto,

LL! I know what you mean, if he just said I can do it or have done it, I would have been OK with it.

Ed

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

I had no idea you where a fly boy......


Some people can shoot better than us even though they never practice. I shoot my m4 more than anyone I know. yet at qual time Im not the only one standing there with EXPERT. JM2C

 

[rtv900]

I agree. I have just raised the BS flag up the pole. Lucky maybe (luck is good), all day long - doubt it.

 

[silvertip-co]

...hard to say what happens some times with good marksmen, feb 08 i sold a sav 111 .270 with bushnell 3-9x32 to a guy. gun was sighted in off the bench at 200y by me. having never shot the rifle he goes by the NRA Whittingon center on his way south and is banging the 650y gong off his rolled up coat...with witnesses there. said he missed the first shot dadgum it. my best off hand was 235y with a .243 on a doe in PA about 1997. so 300y offhand IS possible( not by me). bs is in the eye of the beholder i guess...

 

[FEENIX]

I had no idea you where a fly boy....

I am not! I retired from the USAF in 2007 but still work as a civil service in a ...

Missile Wing
- Groups
-- Squadrons

... and am assigned under a squadron.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

FEENIX,

Don't know how many of you guys have ever shot Metallic Silhouette, but yeah, there's some folks around who can shoot like that all day long. In that game, we shoot chickens at 200 meters, pigs at 300, turkeys at 385 and rams at 500. All targets are life-sized, ten at each distance, and all shooting is offhand. I watched Derrick Greenway set a long run national record on pigs at St. Louis some time back; 57 consecutive hits before he missed one, if memory serves. A really good shooter in decent conditions will shoot scores of 32-33 out of 40. There's also a small bore version of this game that uses 1/5th scale targets at 1/5th distances. There's been a couple perfect 40/40 scores shot in that discipline, but it's tough.

The rifles are basically hunting type guns, have to have sufficient power to take down the heavy steel targets (you only count the targets that go down, not the ones you just hit), and unlike conventional XC HighPower, there's none of the heavy jackets allowed.

Very tough game, but if you want to learn how to shoot offhand, that's how you do it. Besides, it's just plain addictive fun!

 

[Bravo 4]

Only one way to find out... take him shooting with you.

Last M4/CCO qual I was running the range and had 6 of my Snipers mentoring repeat shooters. The SGT Maj told me to show them how to do it and so I shot two lanes at the same time, 80 hits with 80 rounds. Then standing hit seven 300m targets in a row before a miss. Every dog has his day and this one was mine! Am I the man? Heck no, I have missed deer from 100 yards out with a rest!

 

[justgoto]

The rifles are basically hunting type guns, have to have sufficient power to take down the heavy steel targets (you only count the targets that go down, not the ones you just hit), and unlike conventional XC HighPower, there's none of the heavy jackets allowed.

Sure just might be able to hit deer all day long at 300 yards offhand, but wounding deer all day long isn't what we are talking about. We are talking about hitting the kill-zone of a deer at 300 yards. Totally different animal.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Justgoto,

That it is, and that's not a range that I'd be attempting such a shot on an animal. I've earned my Grand Slam (ten in a row, on all four banks of animals, sort of like Distinguished Riflemen's Badge in Silhouette), but the kill zone is a different matter. Derek's aggregate on that long run record, however, probably wasn't much more than a fist-sized group if all of them were superimposed. I know a few others who can shoot at this level, too, but they're few and far between . . . and most are national chapions of their respective disciplines.

Still, as training for offhand shooting, there's really nothing that beats Silhouette. It'll also teach the shooter what his realistic limits are, and there's a lot to be said for that.

Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA

 

[justgoto]

but the kill zone is a different matter. Derek's aggregate on that long run record, however, probably wasn't much more than a fist-sized group if all of them were superimposed.

Oddly enough, I tried my first attempt at offhand shooting at 300 yards 4 days before this thread was started... I was under the assumption that I would only need that type of skill in a self defense situation, so I used a human silhouette.
I only took 2 shots, I hit the large target once but still counted it as a miss since I missed the 6 inch steel that was to be the kill zone.

The day before i tried at 200 yards, I hit the whole target twice in two shots, hitting the 4 x 5 inch kill zone once, (I took 2 shots over 2 days.)
Those 2 hits were less than a deer kill zone in size yet the one was a miss wounding whatever animal I may have been shooting at. Groups don't count if your not hitting the specific area for a clean kill.

I bet I could get good at it, if I had a scope I bet I could be very good at it, but it is just a game. I would still find a rest to shoot from at either distance, (and in a self defense situation cover,) when it counted.
Heck, when I shot my deer this season, (357 handgun,) it was running full bore and I still instinctively ran 50 feet for a rest before I took the 65 yard shot. I didn't need to, I just feel the game I take, needs to be killed as cleanly as humanly possible.

 

[FEENIX]

Kevin Thomas and Justgoto,

Excellent cross-feed and thanks for validating what I was trying to convey, especially on the unnecessary wounding of a deer or any wild game - we owe it to the game we hunt a clean and humane harvest. I totally agree practice makes perfect. I personally limit myself off hand shots at 100 yards on scoped rifles and 50 yards on open sight (because I am blind pass that ) but only as a last resort.

My co-worker's last deer harvest was shot at the knee before finally putting her out of her misery ~ 2 hours later .

Thanks again.

Ed