The Ethics

Many hunters feel that the long range shooters more often than not carelessly launch big high velocity projectiles cross country, in their pursuit of our treasured game animals, never caring about how many are only wounded to run off and die a slow painful death.

Hunters are often faced with a long shot. Knowing what it takes regarding equipment and skill will help you decide if you're up to taking such a shot.

Long-range shooting at big game animals and the ethics involved has generated heated debate from both sides for many years now.

Similarly, many archery hunters feel the same way about the hunter who repeatedly takes shots at distances great than 50 yards, only because they themselves are not able to consistently hit the kill zone with their archery skills at ranges beyond that.

As a young hunter growing up in Wisconsin, I remember all too well one particular opening morning of the November deer season, with many orange “pumpkins” high up in the trees positioned strategically along the local deer trails.

Suddenly, shooting erupted with 10-20 total shots being fired, all at less than 100 yards, at a little whitetail buck running through the trees. When the dust settled, the deer was still running, with hunters in hot pursuit looking for the tiniest specks of blood on the leaves and grass of the forest floor.

How is that type of shooting/hunting any more ethical than the hunter who practices and is able to consistently take game animals at the longer ranges?

Long- and close-range hunters are both going to miss once in a while and both will wound an animal occasionally that will get away.

But is one type of hunting/shooting more ethical than the other? I think not, as it really boils down to the individual hunter and their ability regardless of whether they take their animals at long range or short, archery, handgun, muzzleloader or centerfire rifle.

The Rifle

Long-range shooting at big game animals is a whole 'nother world compared to long-range shooting at targets.

Target shooting generally requires only that you put multiple shots into the tightest group possible through a piece of paper and it matters little how the bullet performs after it passes through the paper.

In contrast, shooting big game animals at long range requires that the impact velocity/energy of the projectile on the animal be sufficient to allow for proper bullet expansion and a good clean kill, with one shot.

A rifle for long range hunting should be able to shoot 5-inch groups at 550 yards and deliver a hunting bullet at or above 2,500 fps and 1,500 ft.-lbs. of energy for deer-size game.

In my more than 25 years of taking more than 80 big game animals at longer ranges, (200+ yards) I normally get good killing performance if the impact velocity, downrange on the animal, is at or above 2,500 fps while retaining at least 1,500 foot pounds of energy on deer/antelope sized animals and 2,300 foot pounds on the larger animals like elk, goat, caribou and moose.

In addition to killing power, high velocity at the longer ranges gives you a flatter trajectory, less of an arc if you will, so that there is a greater margin for error if your range calculations are not exact, which can happen when your rangefinder gets a hit on a tree or rock 50 yards in front of or behind the animal you are actually ranging.

High velocity at long range also cuts down on the margin of error when calculating the actual distance/holdover for an animal that may be at a steep angle, greater than 20^o up or down from straight away.

Now that you have chosen your caliber to meet these criteria, you need to choose a rifle chambered in that caliber, that will shoot a premium hunting bullet with supreme long range accuracy, as 100 yard group sizes mean very little at 500 yards.

My personal accuracy standard in the field is the ability to shoot three shots from a clean cold barrel into a 5-inch group or less at 550 yards.

These standards are not easy to meet and if your rifle won’t do that, you need to limit your shots to the ranges that you or your rifle will shoot a 5-inch three shot group, that simple.

And not only must your rifle be up to these standards, so must you be.

If you have chosen one of the new super magnums, recoil is going to be a factor that you must deal with and you may need to adjust the way you hold the rifle to consistently perform at the longer ranges.

Do it any way you need to, but these personal standards that I have for rifle and projectile performance have served me well for many years.