Ranging fast moving game

After a weekend of culling where we were mostly jump shooting at close range, but also having shots at 300+ M where disturbed animals only pause for 5-10 seconds before disappearing what's people's approach on getting consistent hits.

We were occassionally ranging but estimating quite often as well and mostly guessing hold overs with about a 50 % hit rate which was pretty disappointing.

I'd like to get quick enough to dial (or maybe use a reticle) for these sorts of shots but you need a very quick "solution" and a lot of practise.

Thoughts?

Flatter shooting chambering ?

Cheap option-use a caliber with a point blank range that works from 0-250/300 and don't shoot further.
Medium cost option-use a scope with bullet drop compensation, I'm assuming cds will be too slow?
Expensive option-scope with intergraded rangefinder and ballistics calculator.

well you could have somone standing alongside calling out the range - but that would require those bloody awfull hold over reticles - keep doing what you are doing and dont try long shots on running stuff

Plan ahead of the shooting, range features in the distance at bracketed distances or adjustment values.
Shooting as a pair with one on the gun and the other doing the ranging.
Simplified and written out drop chart rather than referencing a device.
Wind on enough elevation to satisfy the rule of thirds, then dial when beyond that. (Queue ROT FUDZ).
One of those eliminator scopes must be quick to use.
Practice at the range under timed drills, a little duress makes a huge difference to your shooting.

What animals ? Assuming goats? they are small

range landscape features so you have a reference in advance. If you want high kill rates you need to be patient and tactical in how you plan and approach before starting shooting. Get close and give yourself the best chance to get the lot.


Knowing drops for your reticle or having a marked BDC turret. I use a fine point & paint to put 100/50m increment marks on my turret - environmentals don't change enough that you won't make hits out to 350-400.

Goats and very flighty Fallow does/juveniles. We usually get in close to start with but its the ones that reappear for a quick look back on the next face that are difficult to hit

As sure as shit theres no time to go from ranging to solution to dope and sighting using more than one device besides your scope

Its that 325 to 400M area that is difficult.

the process of making a shot involves not only knowing and correcting for drop, but setting up a position, getting a sight picture and making the shot.

There may be more time to be saved in the latter parts of the process. for work on goats I've been finding that a PRS-style bag with ultralite fill is extremely fast. use low magnification. practice getting the rifle lined up on the animal (NPA) before trying to find it through the scope.

Before you start shooting, range some landmarks so you’ve got an idea of ranges. If you’ve zeroed for 200m like my 223 then you can hold dead on to about 235m, then if a mil dot reticle first dot is 305m @9 power with my scope. Misjudging windage is possibly going to stuff you up though. If a plain reticle then you have to spend more time at range learning approx holdovers. Just an observation but most shooters probably shouldn’t be shooting at moving animals at 200m let alone any further. And an animal that pauses for 5 seconds or so doesn’t give a lot of time to dial. Lately I’ve seen guy’s take 2-3 minutes getting set up for a 200m shot at stationary target and still not get a good hit. Not a dig at OP in any way, from his posts I gather he does a lot of range time and knows his gear but there’s a lot out there that don’t.

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hells bells 400 m moving goat or fallow I would hazard a guess that less than 2% of the hunters on here could do better than 50% - certainly when I was culling and doing big goat jobs the hunters I was with were very good shots but not that good 150 - 200 was our self imposed limit ( all .222) - 400 thats a long way on a moving target - wind calls - elevation man good luck

Now I know this won’t be a popular statement but back in the day with goats we’d try and figure out the lead animal and tag that first. Rest of mob often wouldn’t be sure what to do/where to go. Gave more time to get rest of mob then go back and finish leader if not already expired. Ruthless maybe, but effective. With deer always shoot the front escaping animal, will often make following animals hesitate and/or reverse direction.

hells bells 400 m moving goat or fallow I would hazard a guess that less than 2% of the hunters on here could do better than 50% - certainly when I was culling and doing big goat jobs the hunters I was with were very good shots but not that good 150 - 200 was our self imposed limit ( all .222) - 400 thats a long way on a moving target - wind calls - elevation man good luck - so you are likely doing better than you think