I grew up hunting whitetail deer in the brush country of central Texas. Any shots longer than 100 yards were rare; consequently, there was no impetus (and no open range) to learn long-distance shooting skills. My trusty .270 and my husband's .30-06 were more than adequate for any scenario we encountered. We simply developed loads tuned to each rifle, and zeroed our 9X scopes at 100 yards.

We had a rude awakening on our first elk hunt! In 1992, we hunted the Chama Wilderness in northern New Mexico. I was the only one of our party to even see an elk. My guide and I located two bulls at 450 yards, quietly feeding. I had practiced out to 200 yards in preparing for the trip, but had not shot any further than that. I elected to NOT take the shot, as I had no data on my rifle's performance over 200 yards. In attempting to get closer, the bulls spotted us and bolted--missed opportunity #1. We resolved to get me more rifle, and to practice at much longer distances than 200 yards.

We upgraded me to a .30-06 in the summer of 1993, zeroed our rifles at 200 yards, and practiced out to 400 yards to prepare for our next elk hunt. Our groups at 400 yards were 6-8 inches, off sand bags; nothing to brag about, but we felt we could be effective at that range, in the right scenario. Fall of 1993 saw us heading to near Eagle, Colorado for our next adventure. On the last day, my husband was the first hunter in camp to have an opportunity--a bull at 600 yards. Again, we elected to not take the shot, as we had no shooting data past 400 yards--missed opportunity #2. Another hunter in our camp saw the same bull from a different vantage point. He was able to work within 350 yards of where the bull bedded down. He harvested the bull, but took 7 shots to do it--shooting the bull to doll rags. He had not done any target practice past 200 yards. The net effects of his barrage were broken left front leg, clean miss, broken pelvis, clean miss, G3 knocked off left antler, clean miss, broken neck (kill shot). Interestingly, all 7 rounds were aimed at the bull's chest/vitals, but his shot placement skills were resoundingly poor--he was clearly shooting past his capabilities, which is unethical.

We swore off elk hunting, after our 1995 hunt in Idaho in a wilderness area, where our entire camp went home empty-handed (Dale shot a withe-tail for camp meat). This boycott of elk hunting lasted until 1999, when we succumbed to temptation and booked a hunt in southwest Colorado. This time, though, we were DETERMINED to be prepared for all eventualities.

My husband talked to the outfitter at length that summer about what to expect with this hunt. Among other things, the outfitter told us to expect 300+ yard shots. We decided to upgrade our rifles to high muzzle-velocity magnums, rather than the workhorse .30-06 Remingtons we had carried for so long. We knew that a fast magnum would shoot very flat out to 300-400 yards. Having such a rifle zeroed at 300 yards would allow us to aim "center of mass" out to 350 yards, with reasonable hold-overs at 400 yards and further. We chose a Remington 700 chambered for .300 Winchester Magnum for me; my husband chose a rifle from a different manufacturer chambered for .338 magnum. Dale was unable to get that rifle to shoot consistently even at 100 and 200 yards--a classic example of how, sometimes, manufacturers' tolerances create a lemon. A scant week before our hunt, he gave up on the rifle, and purchased a Remington 700 accurized and chambered in .338 Jarrett (a wildcat round, basically a souped-up .338 Win Mag), with a heavy fluted Sendero-style barrel. Both rifles were also equipped with muzzle brakes, dramatically reducing the physical punishment we had to endure with firing them. We also upgraded our scopes to Leupold Vari-X-III 6.5-20X variables with duplex reticles, to allow for the longer shots we were anticipating.

After developing loads for each rifle, we zeroed at 300 yards, and developed drop charts for 400, 500 and 600 yards. We also measured how much distance the reticle of our scopes covered at those distances; using the drop charts, we put together hold-over charts for 400, 500 and 600 yards (see example). I printed and laminated the hold-over chart into luggage tags; we carried these tags on our belts in the field, for quick reference. We then practiced each weekend all summer shooting at 400/500/600 yards prone, sitting, and kneeling, and offhand using shooting sticks. Our groups were very sloppy at first, but with practice, we were able to consistently group 3 shots in 6-7 inches at 500 yards, prone/sitting/kneeling. Our 600 yard groups were inconsistent, so we elected to limit ourselves to 500 yards.

The results of our 1999 hunt were, to say the least, gratifyingly better!! We both harvested trophy mule deer bucks with "short" shots of 240 (me, sitting) and 226 yards (Dale, prone). My husband scored his first bull elk at 330 yards, shooting prone. I had one shooting opportunity at a bull elk--a beautiful 5x5--moving, at 450 yards. Unfortunately, I had three big problems with this scenario: 1) no idea how to properly lead a moving target at that distance; 2) I had lent my shooting sticks to Dale as his had broken, and so did not have any kind of a shooting rest; 3) I was in such deep brush I could not shoot prone or sitting. I attempted harvesting the bull, kneeling, but was completely unsuccessful--missed opportunity #3. I resolved to learn how to hit a moving target, and to always have a proper shooting rest with me.

Needless to say, we looked forward to our 2000 elk hunt! We returned to the outfitter in southwest Colorado. I trained on dealing with moving targets by shooting trap and skeet that spring and summer. We practiced at distance diligently that summer, and abandoned the wobbly shooting sticks for the stable platform provided by retractable bipods affixed to the sling mount on the forestocks of our rifles. We upgraded my rifle to an "accurized" Remington 700 action chambered for .300 Jarrett with a match-quality after-market barrel, and after-market adjustable trigger. Dale had his .338 Jarrett rebarreled for .300 Jarrett--the .338 just did not shoot as well at long range as the .300 Jarrett. We could now consistently shoot groups at 600 yards of 6 inches or smaller, so we extended our effective range to 600 yards. We also started spotting for each other, checking the range, reading the wind, and calling the shots. Our hunt was the 3rd rifle season, and the elk were skittish due to hunting pressure. Day 1, the hunt started on a sour note--a hunter took the first bull in our camp at 320 yards with 9 (nine!) shots, including one that almost blew his right horn off. It turns out that hunter had never shot at anything past 200 yards before. Afternoon of Day 2, I dropped a heavy 5x5 bull elk in his tracks at 480 yards with one shot, sitting on a milk crate on a rocky perch over a deep canyon with bipods fully extended. The next morning, off the same perch over the same canyon, my husband dropped his bull with one shot at 525 yards, prone off bipods. Our hard work had paid off in spades!

May 2001 we did something a little different--we went on a spring bear hunt in Montana. Dale took a beautiful 6-foot 19 3/4" cinnamon-phase boar with one shot at 486 yards. I was Dale's spotter, monitoring range, angle and wind, and calling his shot. Through the range-finder, it looked to me like the bear hit a trip wire. We found my bear in a clear-cut at "chip-shot" range--226 yards. One shot later, that cinnamon 5 1/2 foot boar was going home with me.

We were now very confident hunters and shooters, comfortable with most any scenario we could think of game throwing at us. We found that, accurate as our rifles were, we were unable to extend our effective range past about 650 yards, as our shot groups started falling apart after that. However, we knew we were deadly up to 650 yards. Isn't there a saying somewhere about "pride cometh before a fall?" We found that out during our 2001 elk hunt, again in southwest Colorado. The morning of the third day, Dale had an opportunity that morning for a bull elk at 645 yards. We spotted the bull and 3 cows about 1 mile away. We decided that I would stay at our present position as a safety valve if the small herd moved towards me, without being seen by Dale and Joe. They ran as far as the terrain would let them and keep them in cover from the herd. They were able to work to within 650 yards with an uphill angleof approximately 30 degrees. Dale fired three times from a prone position, and had 3 clean misses--missed opportunity #4. In rehashing the scenario, we realized that we had failed to take into account 3 things. First of all, the effective horizontal range of the shot was reduced due to the severe uphill angle. Thirty degree angles reduce the effective shooting distance by 1/6, or, in this instance, by 124 yards (We'll teach you about this phenomenon later) Dale had shot harmlessly over the bull's back! A second variable we did not have enough data on was the effect of wind (again, we'll show you how wind drift works later in the article). Where Dale was positioned, the wind was approximately 5 mph, left to right. Where the bull was, we found the wind was approximately 30 mph, left to right. Wind drift of those 3 shots was in the range of 25-35 inches. We now realized that we had two more variables to tackle--angle of fire and wind drift. The third item lacking in the situation was a spotter. Dale and I spot for each other on shots over 400 yards, to provide range, wind data and information as to where each shot ended up. Our guide was fabulous, but certainly not used to estimating wind, angle of fire, etc. We resolved to develop wind drift tables and angle of shot tables as soon as possible, and to not attempt long shots without one of us to spot for the other.

Fortunately, my half of the elk hunt went more favorably. I dropped my bull, a beautiful 5x6, at last light of the 3rd day with one shot at 332 yards. I had not drawn a mule deer tag, but Dale filled his tag with a high, wide and handsome old buck. Dale crawled on his belly in an irrigation ditch for over 500 yards, and dropped the buck with a 435 yard shot, taking into account light wind. Unfortunately, Dale did not have any further shooting opportunities for a bull elk that hunt.

Dale hit the internet to find a late-season bull elk hunt as soon as we got home from the 2001 Colorado elk hunt. He hooked up with an outfitter based out of Ruidoso, New Mexico. We've all heard about the legendary trophy bulls of New Mexico--Dale was now going to get to hunt one in January 2002!! We blew in to Ruidoso on the heels of a winter storm; 12 inches of snow everywhere made the elk hunting area incredibly beautiful, and VERY noisy to get around in. I didn't have an elk tag, but came along to help locate game, and spot for Dale if a long shot came up. Mid-morning of the second day, we located a monster bull elk at 214 yards, browsing on mountain mahogany. Dale calmly pulled out his bipods, got in a sitting position, and dropped the bull in his tracks with 1 perfectly-placed shot. We knew the bull was big before Dale harvested him, but were stunned when he measured out to 359 5/8 gross! The outfitters shared with us that they had never seen a big bull dropped literally in his tracks like that. Correct shot placement is everything!

We decided, spring of 2002, to upgrade rifles again--we wanted to extend our effective range to 1000 yards. If prairie dog hunters can hit a target the size of a shoe-box at 1000+ yards, there MUST be a way to place kill shots ethically and effectively on big game animals at that same range! We ordered custom rifles from our gunsmith, .300 Jarretts with custom Nesika actions. Once the guns were ready, we equipped them with Leupold Vari-X-III Long Range 6.5 X 20 scopes with target turrets and side focus. Target turrets allow for quick, tool-free adjustment of windage and elevation, critical for accurate long-range shooting. We mounted Harris 3-stage bipods with axial rotation to the sling post on the forestocks, and put bubble levels on the top of the scopes to make sure we always shot with the rifle held perfectly vertical. We developed a load for the rifles (the barrels are sequential, so shoot virtually the same), and zeroed them at 300 yards. We then zeroed the vertical and horizontal turrets on the scopes, allowing us to adjust elevation and windage as needed for each shot, but then return to zero/zero afterwards. We developed drop charts out to 1000 yards using each rifle's individual muzzle velocities and standard ballistic software. We verified the drop chart on the 1000 yard range at the N.R.A. Whittington center in Raton, NM. We found we could consistently shoot, prone off bipods, 6 inch groups at 800 yards. We ran out of daylight before we could verify data and practice at 1000 yards, so elected to limit ourselves to 800 yards. We converted the verified ballistics data to clicks elevation from zero (remember, "zero" is the scope elevation setting at 300 yards) in 25 yard increments from 300 to 1000 yards. We also converted wind drift from 10 mph wind to clicks left or right from zero, in 25 yard increments from 300 to 1000 yards. In addition, we developed an angle-of-fire effective horizontal distance conversion chart, from 0 degrees to 60 degrees, for distances from 300 to 1000 yards. We printed these 3 charts and laminated them, creating quick-reference pocket field guides only 3 inches by 6 inches in size (see example).

We've already shared with you the extraordinary success we enjoyed this latest hunting season, using rifles correctly set up for fabulous accuracy out to what are commonly considered extreme distances. The sum total of our elk hunting experience is a total of 15 guided rifle elk hunts (8 for Dale, 7 for me),11 shooting opportunities, 7 bulls down. The sad truth is we haven't had any "easy" opportunities, and not one hunt with multiple opportunities. In fact, I personally still haven't had a shooting opportunity on a bull elk less than 300 yards. If we had not developed the ability to shoot at longer than what is considered standard distances, we'd have just 1 bull down.

The reason for the above dissertation is we wanted to show you the different levels of skill and equipment we worked through, so you can pick your individual comfort zone and shooting goal. Please follow along with us, as we lay out a "recipe for success" delineating the steps needed to confidently, accurately and ethically extend your effective shooting range.