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How far is too far when it comes to long-range shots in hunting?

Here we go again. I recently read an article in one of my hunting magazines titled “Is Long Range Shooting at Animals Ethical Hunting?”

The author claims that unless you’re an excellent marksman who has perfected long-range shooting with the right rifle and sights, you should not take those 1,000 yard shots at any animal. The implication here is that some of us aging hunters – without our new sophisticated firearms and sights – should not take long shots and risk wounding an animal. On this, I totally agree with the author.

The author says “it’s OK to take long range shots with the right equipment and you’re an accomplished marksman”

Here’s where the author and I part ways.

I’ve said it before in my writings and I will say it again:

Shooting an animal at 1,000 yards is not my kind of hunting. It just simply proves you’re a damn good shot with the right equipment.

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Allow me to quote myself in a column I wrote a year or so ago.

“Age has taken away some of my gait, so my hunting these days is limited. There’s not much more I can experience about big game hunting.

I’ve hunted big game from caribou at the Arctic Circle to Cape buffalo in Africa to elk in several Western states. Yes, I am an old, big-game very-experienced hunter. This is not my first rodeo. So grant me my opinions.”

Yes, I’ve taken a lot of big-game animals over the years, but never at 1,000 yards and I never will. For many years I reloaded all my hunting loads in various calibers. I easily shot 2- to 3-inch groups at 300 yards from a bench-rest, which was the maximum distance at my public range.

If I had access to greater ranges where I live in New Jersey, I certainly would have tried more distant targets. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the range shooting and testing my reloads. But bench-rest shooting is not hunting.

To me, the pure joy of hunting is walking the woods, scouting game trails, looking for rubs and scrapes. Picking out a stand…building a treestand and climbing into it before dawn and watching the woods come alive and waiting for sunrise to take away some of the cold.

When a buck showed up, it was rarely more than 100 yards away, usually closer. Sometimes you could hear its hoofs shuffling the leaves. You froze because you knew the slightest movement would spook that buck and it would disappear in a flash.

That’s my kind of hunting.

At 1,000 yards, that buck wouldn’t even know you existed. Big game animals deserve better than to be dropped by a bullet 10 football fields away. Killing that animal proves nothing more than you are an excellent marksman with a finely-tuned firearm. To me, it is not hunting.

Admittedly, most of my hunting is in the East, where big game is generally taken at closer ranges than in our Western states. As I recall, on my mule deer and elk hunts, most of my shots averaged 150 to 300 yards. Unless you have mastered long-range shooting with the right equipment and a solid rest, I believe 400 yards should be maximum.

I’m sure I will once again incur the criticism of more than a few hunters, especially those with high-tech rifles and optics. If that’s your choice, so be it. I’m also sure that a good number of hunters will agree with me.

I love hunting, but I fear that we may be allowing modern technology to take away the challenge and adventure out of our great hunting tradition. I hope not.

Sparano is the author of the The Complete Outdoors Encyclopedia, available at www.amazon.com.

11 thoughts on “How far is too far when it comes to long-range shots in hunting?”

Mark Forget
December 23, 2025 at 6:22 am

The animal does not deserve along shot , a better hunter sneak his way in , or wait for the right shot , the closer the better… for a clean kill , all wild game deserves that …..

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Thomas Nickles
December 24, 2025 at 8:43 am

Hunting is the ethical pursuit and harvest of wild game for food or conservation, involving stealth, skill, and close range, while “shooting” often refers to the mechanical act of firing a gun, sometimes at paper targets or long distances without the close-quarters challenge and ethical connection of a true hunt.

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Mark
December 24, 2025 at 9:40 am

Why is anyone shooting over 3-400?
I’m sure in the west there is some good long shooting. !
In the east too many hunters , I see the over shooting in Archery I believe they push the boundaries

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michael
December 26, 2025 at 2:33 pm

i think it should be pennsylvania only

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crackerjack1618
December 29, 2025 at 7:53 am

Well said. Hunting is scouting and stalking, reading wildlife signs, adjusting tactics to different situations, fooling the prey, getting close. Shooting over 300 yds to me isn’t hunting, it’s killing.

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Leo Mc Donald
December 29, 2025 at 8:15 am

Amen too much distance is too much chance of something going wrong. At 300 plus it doesn’t take much of a move on animal’ s part to change from a good shot to a gut shot.

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JJ
December 29, 2025 at 10:43 am

I know alot of people that should not try a shot beyond 200 yards. But there are way too many wounded deer by archery hunters crossbow especially shooting over 50 yards who should stay on the couch.

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Mark Mittelstadt
December 29, 2025 at 9:52 pm

Hmmm, good article and good comments.

My perspective is from upper Midwest & whitetails (not long shots at pronghorns or elk on a mountainside). Too often, we hear a volley of 5-6 shots, and if one of them knocks the deer down the hunter is sure he’s an excellent marksman. Too often, the brag is about a 400+ yard kill, without mentioning how many times he missed or winged; a gut shot or rump shot is not exactly good hunting.

In my group, we boast about dropped-on-the-spot shots, head shots for does or heart/liver quick kills. It’s how little the deer suffers, and how quickly we recover it.

My longest is 425 yards. But it was a fawn that some other group had wounded (dragging a broken leg behind), and I wouldn’t have even considered the shot at that distance or on a fawn, except that it was going to die anyway and must have been hurting badly. I sat down and stabilized the gun on my knee, missed on the first round but took it on the second. I was glad I ended it quickly; I didn’t like that it was ‘just a fawn’, but was pleased that it died fast. And we never saw any other hunters tracking it; either they didn’t know they hit it or didn’t care.

Otherwise my longest is about 200 (and I can hit a business card most of the time at 165). It’s about a quick respectful kill, not a macho long-range, if-I-get-lucky shot.

If you want to get all braggy about long-range, go to the gun club and pick on a paper target. Hunting is about respecting the animals.

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Vin T. Sparano
December 30, 2025 at 8:14 am

Thank you for your comments. A lot of hunters out there agree with us. We are hunters. For the long range guys, stick with paper and tin cans!

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gjmpilot
January 1, 2026 at 8:06 pm

Won’t be long before “Hunters” take animals from their recliners with their remote control drones.

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1. Vin T. Sparano
  January 4, 2026 at 3:15 pm
  
  You’re scaring me!
  
  Reply