LONG-RANGE SHOOTING METHODOLOGIES

MOSTLY LONG GUNS

- Brian Pearce

Dialing and holdover aiming methods are both useful in the field. After a busy morning of calling coyotes, Brian’s son, Porter, zeros-in successfully on some tiny 800-yard rocks.

It has been 25 years since my first trip to Quebec, Canada, which was a self-guided caribou hunt that proved to be especially fun. The opportunity to take this hunt came up fairly sudden, so I grabbed a previously tuned Ruger M77 MKII All-Weather rifle chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum topped with a 3-9x variable scope with a drop chart attached and carefully tailored handloaded ammunition that would easily group under an inch.

The weather was windy, wet and cold and the caribou were migrating, but I was being rather picky regarding the size of bulls that I would take. Besides, I was having great fun hiking many miles daily and exploring the Hudson Bay region and even saw a couple of polar bears, but I digress.

When the first suitable bull was found, it was really on the move and I hustled to more or less intercept it, but the distance was still well beyond 400 yards and it was on the move. If I was going to shoot, I would need to make the shot in just a few seconds and do so accurately!

I quickly got into position, using my pack as a rest, measured the distance, took control of my breathing, accounted for the wind and bullet drop and carefully squeezed the trigger. When the trigger broke and the rifle fired, I already knew what the result would be. The big bull reacted, staggered and went down, while the distinctive