What exactly is a long shot.???

If your hunting coyotes and not paper from the bench, 300 yards is for sure a long shot,if a guy snickers at that,he is as full of it as a christmas goose....or hasn't shot very many coyotes.
 
I'd have to say a long shot would be farther than you know you are capable of making a clean kill shot. A long shot for me would be past 400 yard. And this all changes with the weather.
 
I know that on steel I'm good out to 550 with my .204, in reality though 375-400 is where I draw the line.

While 300 is nothing to laugh at, it isn't a major feat by any means.
 
I just got back from New Mexico earlier today. I six in three mornings of hunting for about 3 to 4 hours each day. this is a cattle ranch that my father in law runs and they are popping like crazy right now so to yotes are a problem. first day the ranch hand told me that he saw 3 in the area of the calves, so got there and so 4 watching in calves I grabbed my AR15 shot three times One @ 150 yards number 2 @ 80 and number 3 @ 5 feet .223 was not too friendly at 5 feet. This morning driving in same area I glasssed one @ 602 yards with my bushnel range finder I couldn't get closer because I would have to cross an open field so i took the shot out of the window of my truck with my .17REM. I hit him mid section he spun around and then ran off about 100 to 150 yards. The next two stands called in one coyote @ each. Both with .17 REM one @ 160 yards on a tree line and the other @ about 30 yards on the run. What I'm trying to say is if you know your weapon and yourself what is long. For me in "normal" hunting conditions 250 to 300 yards is far enough. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Your not shooting at a steel gong, your shooting at a living breathing animal,and not a very big one at that. Most steel gongs,at most gun ranges, have a kill zone the size of an African elephant, probably 24" across or so, maybe larger for the 500 yard mark. A coyote on the other hand, has a kill zone approximating the size of the average bottle of soda pop, which IS, a great feat under hunting conditions and make shift rests at 300 yards.
Ive added a photo,which has been posted before, but this particular thread could use it for grounding once again. A gong is like a trash can lid,kill zone of a coyote is like this:

Picture015.jpg
 
Great picture for comparison.
For me, anything over 200 yrds is a long shot. 90% of my shots are under 100 yrds. 50% or better of that is probably under 50 yrds.

Frog, You seen my fur gun. It could reachout there if you know how to shot that kind of distance. I just prefer to keep em under 200 if possible. Remember, I can use a fridge to block the hole. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I was saying I'm comforable shooting coyotes at those ranges. I don't take unethical shots, but I know both my capabilities and limitations.

I'm not here to start a pissing match, I was just responding to the post.

That is a great picture by the way, albeit slightly on the small side but still gets the point across.
 
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Your not shooting at a steel gong, your shooting at a living breathing animal,and not a very big one at that. Most steel gongs,at most gun ranges, have a kill zone the size of an African elephant, probably 24" across or so, maybe larger for the 500 yard mark. A coyote on the other hand, has a kill zone approximating the size of the average bottle of soda pop, which IS, a great feat under hunting conditions and make shift rests at 300 yards.
Ive added a photo,which has been posted before, but this particular thread could use it for grounding once again. A gong is like a trash can lid,kill zone of a coyote is like this:

Picture015.jpg





That coyote got mange or what? No wonder you don't save fur. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Puts it in perspective. I'm a much better shot than I thought I was. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
For me shooting coyotes anything over 250 is a long shot. I have hit a couple between 300-350 and my longest shot lasered is 385. I shoot a 22-250 by the way.
 
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Bring your beer to the prairie where you can drop a golf ball on the ground, walk 1/2 mile in any direction, turn around and see it. We'll drink your beer and laser stuff for distance..............lol.



Go to your local Wally store & buy a bag of the reclaimed golf balls & tees. Out here in the flats they make for some great target practice. You find out real quick if you are a hooker or slicer (not a golfer, are those terms correct?). They really are a great way of teaching and learning the old saying of aim small miss small and they are a lot more fun to shoot at than paper targets.
 
I haven't been able to practice like I did in years past. There was a time I could take insanely long shots. Now, 200 yards is a real stretch under field conditions and I probably should only attempt that off sticks at this point. Fortunetly, most of my shots are well under 100 yards. Even at that, I've missed a few gimmies in recent years. Age and lack of practice takes it's toll.
 
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Bring your beer to the prairie where you can drop a golf ball on the ground, walk 1/2 mile in any direction, turn around and see it. We'll drink your beer and laser stuff for distance..............lol.



Go to your local Wally store & buy a bag of the reclaimed golf balls & tees. Out here in the flats they make for some great target practice. You find out real quick if you are a hooker or slicer (not a golfer, are those terms correct?). They really are a great way of teaching and learning the old saying of aim small miss small and they are a lot more fun to shoot at than paper targets.



We have prairie dogs and they provide a much great form of entertainment than golf balls. Both reactive and biodegradable...two things golf balls are not.
 
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Go to your local Wally store & buy a bag of the reclaimed golf balls & tees.



The problem is that with the condition my golf game is in right now if I tee them off and shoot them where they land then I am only working on my short-range shooting.
 
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To be honest at this point I would consider 200 yds to be a pretty far shot. This is based on the fact that I have not seen a coyote at much over 100yds in several years. Don't worry though, given enough beer, campfires, and barstools I can still stretch a 75 yarder out to the point of legendary distances.



This guy has the insight. A long shot depends on many things. I am a pretty good long distance shooter. I have entered 1000 yd competitions so I know what I am talking about. A 308 with standard Walmart bullets usually will start tumbling just after 850yds.

A long shot is anything without a rest or even 200 with just sticks. I can hit a Deer off sandbags at 1000 yds every shot with my long range hand loads but with 308 hunting loads in the field without a range finder anything on Deer size game over 300 is a long shot for sure. Try the same thing on a Coyote or Bobcat and that Range shrinks fast. Because of size anything over a 100 on a Bobcat is a long shot.
 
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I shoot a ruger heavy target/varmint rifle in 220 Swift, but I'm thinking of going to something else for long range only. I know what the Swift does up close, not pretty. At 200 yards and farther, it performs well. Longest shot so far was 540 lasered yards. .



Couple years ago i was at a match where there was an 8" suspended silhouette tgt. @ 600 yds. I was shooting a 6.5-284 XP-100 handgun and i was competing against a guy that was using a 223 AI shooting 40 gr. bullets. There was no wind and about the 3rd or 4th round he finally beat me. Under ideal conditions some pretty amazing things can be accomplished out to 500-600 yds. or so with most semi-custom rigs shooting std. higher BC factory bullets.

I would think that rig of yours would be capable out to maybe 500 yds. or so with a fair amount of consistency given a good rangefinder and a TESTED LONG-RANGE SHOOTING SYSTEM ESTABLISHED.

If u want to get out to the longer ranges with better consistency i'd take a good look at that new Savage 6.5-284 they have out these days. Supposed to be a nice rig for factory.

What kind of optic do u have on top of that Ruger??
 
My longest shot on a predator, a red fox, was right at 300 yards, as determined by the bullet drop compensator which put the bullet where I wanted it, based on my estimation (which happened to be correct for a change LOL)

But, I have shot groundhogs at slightly under 600 yards, lasered. It gets very difficult to hit groundhogs at over 500 yards. The bullets are dropping around 1 more inch for every 10 yards between 500 and 600 yards, making range estimation very critical.

But, I have a friend who doesn't like to shoot at them unless they are at least 400 yards away. He uses a .22-.243 AI and I have seen him kill groundhogs at over 800 yards, lasered. It takes some sighting shots, and reference to his ballistic tables, to calculate winddrift, mirage, and exact range, but he's usually real close in 3 - 4 shots. He shoots a lot of ammo when the wind is blowing for each groundhog killed, though.

Around here, the 6 mm X .284 and .25 06 are very popular for coyote hunting, where most are driven or dogged, rather than called. Long shots tend to be the rule rather than the exception.
 
I would call a long shot in the field as being 200 yards. I say that not because I can't hit a coyote sized target at longer ranges, I just don't feel comfortable in MOST field positions to take the shot. One day I killed two coyotes, one at 403 yards the second was 423 yards. The next week I missed two, one at 150 and the second at 125ish. It was not a good day for me to hunt as I was dealing with a really bad headache and was too pumped up on Excedrine Migraine and caffiene to shoot reasonably well. I just flat out missed both due to the jitters.

I do use a laser, but seldom use a 223, too much wind where I hunt.
 
666 is my longest and another at 402, I shot those with my custom 270 win, with target turrets, if you don't have turrets on your gun shots like these are luck shots. trying to make these with anything in the .22 cal is luck too, well it can be done at 400 but get much beyond that and the .22 just run out of steam and are effected too much by variables
 


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