At What Yardage Does Long Range Begin?

[KillerBee]

Was having a talk with a friend of mine the other day. We are discussing long range shooting and had a different idea of what was considered a long range shot. I said long range shooting starts at 500 yards, he said 300.

What do you guys think?

 

[FEENIX]

Was having a talk with a friend of mine the other day. We are discussing long range shooting and had a different idea of what was considered a long range shot. I said long range shooting starts at 500 yards, he said 300.

What do you guys think?

This is LRH so answers would be different from non-LRH practitioners ... and it will vary based on experiences and capabilities.

A few years ago, Dave Petzal wrote a nice article about it; he stated at 300 yards, the challenge becomes x-fold where an average hunter cannot hit an average target at x-efficiency.

Having said that, 300 yards is not a bad baseline to start with.

 

[shooter72]

I would have to say 600 and beyond. That is the distance in my experiences that pretty much any caliber starts to really be affected more than just an elevation adjustment and a wind call.
If your just adjusting elevation and calling wind and don't have to take anything else into account it's not really what I would call long range then. once Temp, Elevation, Direction come into play now we are talking long range IMHO.

 

[KillerBee]

This is LRH so answers would be different from non-LRH practitioners ... and it will vary based on experiences and capabilities.

A few years ago, Dave Petzal wrote a nice article about it; he stated at 300 yards, the challenge becomes x-fold where an average hunter cannot hit an average target at x-efficiency.

Having said that, 300 yards is not a bad baseline to start with.

That is interesting and for most shooters very true. Personally I find shooting at 500 yards and under easy.

Most people that scoff at long range shooting and are incapable of doing same do not have the aptitude and more importantly don't have the right equipment, so taking shots at distance especially on live game is foolhardy and unethical.

 

[FEENIX]

I do like how Len set this site up. There's a ELR subforum that starts at 1K+ yards. So to me it covers a wide spectrum for LR; X - 1K yards.lightbulb

IIRC, there's also a poll about it.

 

[ntg]

My first thought is are you shooting 22LR or a 26Nosler? Or anything in between...it depends. IMO 150 yards is LR for a 22, but nothing for most popular hunting cartridges. With that in mind, beyond roughly 400 yards is when it starts to interesting for most popular hunting cartridges.

 

[KillerBee]

My first thought is are you shooting 22LR or a 26Nosler? Or anything in between...it depends. IMO 150 yards is LR for a 22, but nothing for most popular hunting cartridges. With that in mind, beyond roughly 400 yards is when it starts to interesting for most popular hunting cartridges.

If you are asking me, these are my go to hunting rifles. The first is a Browning Mountain Titanium 300 WSM. My newest addition is a Weatherby Ultra Lightweight 300 Win Mag. Both are topped with a Huskemaw 5-20x50 Blue Diamond.

 

[Engineering101]

I agree with shooter72, 600 yards. I my mind it is pretty easy (about 80% success) to land a cold bore shot within 4 inches of point of aim and for the 20% that are outside of that, they still are within the kill zone for most big game animals. However, when you start trying to move past 600 yards it gets dicey, mostly because of the wind but also because the bullet starts dropping like a rouge elevator thus shrinking error margins, targets start to get small, optics get challenged, the hold has to be better and so on. I used to consider 300 to 400 yards as long range, until I got the proper equipment and tried it. Then I realized it was boring. 600 yards is not quite boring for me yet, thus that is my number.

 

[4xforfun]

This was hashed out a few weeks ago on this fourm.

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/long-range-hunting-qs-whats-long-range-165231/

Good stuff.

Tod

 

[KillerBee]

I agree with shooter72, 600 yards. I my mind it is pretty easy (about 80% success) to land a cold bore shot within 4 inches of point of aim and for the 20% that are outside of that, they still are within the kill zone for most big game animals. However, when you start trying to move past 600 yards it gets dicey, mostly because of the wind but also because the bullet starts dropping like a rouge elevator thus shrinking error margins, targets start to get small, optics get challenged, the hold has to be better and so on. I used to consider 300 to 400 yards as long range, until I got the proper equipment and tried it. Then I realized it was boring. 600 yards is not quite boring for me yet, thus that is my number.

Like I said LRH has a lot to do about having the right equipment, which most hunters don't!

 

[Deleted member 48126]

At exactly 101 yards!

Seriously though, 500 and under for me is pretty simple, with any one of my dedicated long range rifles (.223, .243, .308, etc.) Once I get past 500, stuff starts "getting funny." I would say my limit right now for reliable shooting is 750 yards. So to tag in with what some have already said, is anything past 500. There is all kinds of theories, math, ballistics, and science to back up the 500 yard rule, but I probably wouldn't do you any justice trying to explain it with my southern upbringing.

 

[shooter72]

With my set up I shoot ground hogs and white tail deer. Under 600 is just dial and a little wind hold not bad. between 600-1000 it takes a little more time to be sure your temp, and direction are accounted for in your program and the wind call is still correct. over 1000 yards is a complete new game again.
-600 and under for anything is pretty simple and fun
-Between 600 and 1000 you get a miss here and there on ground hogs but deer are pretty easy.
-over 1000 ever shot takes a lot of care nothing is still 100%
But I would say at least 60% of it is equipment and 30% the knowledge to know what your doing and why. the rest is physical ability.

 

[4xforfun]

This is a copy / paste from the other thread.

For me.....I'm going to say 500..for this reason. I have steel set up where I hunt. Targets range from 300 yards to a mile. Some times I randomly select targets,sometimes I start at 300 and work out from there. I have a half dozen LR rigs that I shoot, from 6 Dasher to 338 Edge. I can honestly say that I have NEVER missed the 300 and 400 (10 inch square) yard targets with any gun. But, at 500.....once in a while ....not often.....I miss the target on the first shot (12 inch square). usually It is a windage deal......just not paying attention to detail. Or use the wrong dope from a different gun. Whatever.

The fact that I am not 100% on first round hits at 500 makes that the starting point for LR for me.

 

[Wachsmann]

So here my 2 cents for what its worth. I'm going to say 400 yards because....
I started with a 30-06 hunting. A lot of people have or something close to this. I don't want to say caliber is not dependent but it is a little for what I'm getting at. Over all a vast majority of factory deer rifles and mangums have about 20 to 30 inches of drop at 400 yards. This can be a definite miss if you are shooting line of site or trying to use some backyard hold over (non calibrated) and yes I am guilty as anyone and have made some good shots like this with cheap equiptment. Maybe should say lucky shots. So like a 308 or a 30-06 zeroed for 200 yrds has about 6 to 10 inches of drop depending on the weight of the bullets. You can usually at 300yds place the cross hairs at the top of the back and pull the trigger and make the shot with ease or shoot for high shoulder and still make it in the boiler room on deer or antelope or such size game. Clean kill. Getting out to the 400 yards using factory ammo you really start to see significant drop and wind can be a factor. Really hard winds can be a factor at 300yrds. I gut shot a deer one time in about 20+ mile hour wind when I was a lot younger and for the life of me I could not figure out what had happen. My 06 was a good 300yrd gun when I was a teenager and in my 20's. I also thought I would never miss at 300 and took a few out to 400. This was before I ever thought about long range and all the factors that come into play. So my point being I think 400yrds where long range starts. This is based on factory equiptment, and factory loads. This can be changed greatly by practice, proofing your ammo(what it is doing at longer ranges), and better optics.