There are many levels of shooter, equipment, and knowledge and experience.
Be ethical and do your homework. I have shot many deer at 900-1000 yards with a rifle and bullet suited for doing this.
I have shot 100s of deer at at ranges from 30-300 yards.
A great gun writer Bob Hagel once wrote, "there is no such thing as shooting to much gun, dead is dead."
I think there is an equally important statement, you can't be a too experienced shooter.
If you are going to hunt at extreme distances, practice with what you are going to shoot.
You can't rely on what someone else says.
Sit down an shoot your rifle and loads from 50 yards to your desired distance. After reaching 300 yards you need to practice at 25 yard intervals. Keep a log of your scope settings. Because your vertical changes more rapidly and your velocity drops off.
There are accurate rifles and there are flat shooting accurate rifles.
They are not always the same. Generally flat shooting rifles have more recoil and muzzle blast.
With the general shooting population there is an inverse relationship between flat shooting rifles and accurate rifle shooters. The General population can not shoot a flat shooting rifle as accurately as an accurate rifle. Example the average guy can't shoot a 7mmSTW or 300 Ultra Mag as well as he can shoot a .243 or 308 Winchester.
Shot placement and bullet performance are more important than flat trajectory.
Shot placement comes from knowing your distance and your equipment, confidence and a little luck.
Shooting a 2-3" group with .243 or 308 at 600 yards is much easier than shooting the same group with a large magnum.
Again practice practice and practice some more.
After you get your equipment issues resolved you will have to learn to read the wind. There is no better teacher than shooting F-Class or Long Range Bench Rest or Tactical rifle.
If you don't have time to shoot your rifle a couple hundred rounds every year you should not shoot game at ranges at over 300 yards.
I personally shoot tens of thousands of rounds every year. At known distance I can hold my own. At unknown distances I consider myself to a novice with 45 years shooting experience.
Get yourself a good range finder and go practice with your rifle.
Be a responsable shooter and remember you represent all of the shooting community out in the public.
Nat Lambeth
first of all let me state that I've successfully taken several deer with a bow (recurve 80# pull weight in my 20's) with a revolver and a 30/06 pump still hunting.
But in the late 70's I was introduced to long-range hunting and never looked back. Here a few things anyone starting to hunt long-range or currently hunting that way should consider.
1 Well first of all you have to find a safe place to shoot from and to shoot to.
2 you need really good equipment,
A. Good optics, twin packs made from quality scopes (two put together in a
frame) a really high-quality rifle scope and a good range finder.
B. An accurate rifle and stable shooting platform and of sufficient energy to put an animal down quickly and humanly.
C. Precision rifle ammunition.
3 I my opinion the most difficult part is to acquire the skill set to read the conditions and the shooting skill to make clean shots at distance. And to
know your skill limit, have the discipline to not take the shot if you have second thoughts. (Don't poke and hope!)
My equipment: rifle .338/.408 (Big Baer) 30" Bartlein barrel left hand twist gain twist 1/10" to 1/9.25", 300 grain Elite Hunter @ 3135 FPS H50BMG @ 137 grains, Nightfore Actar7X35X56 second focal plane.
