I have looked on-line with this question and not seen too much consistency. The question is, for the average case, what is the maximum ethical range of shooting a 180 grain bullet on a medium sized bull elk (say a 5 X 5 bull, hence not a "monster" bull). I would also add to consideration that the shot would be a broadside shot, understanding that if the shot is a quartering away shot that the maximum range might be less. I would further add that it is assumed the shooter will put the bullet in the 10" diameter area of the vitals (if the shooter can't put the bullet in the vitals, even a 50 yard shot might not be ethical, right?).

I don't think this is a theoretical or abstract question but a very practical question. At what range do you pull the trigger; at what range do you NOT pull the trigger -- given a broadside, mediocre elk? I would hope there would be some sort of consensus that would emerge -- unlike discussions that involve whether a .270 is or is not a good elk cartridge; or whether one can hunt elk with a .243; or whether the .30-06 is a marginally better elk cartridge than the .308.


This is an aside to this question. It seems that for a shooter evaluating a shot there are two questions involved. (1) How far can I shoot and put the bullet in the vitals? and (2) How far is my cartridge capable of making an effective kill shot? If I can only shoot accurately to 100 yards, then clearly the .30-06 cartridge is not the limiting factor on ethical hunting range for me. On the other hand, if I can accurately shoot to 600 yards, very possibly the .30-06 cartridge WOULD be the limiting factor on ethical hunting range.


I passed on a shot at an elk last October because I didn't know if I could make the shot. It looked a long ways out there -- maybe 300 yards, maybe 400 yards. But maybe my distance evaluating skills are poor and it was only 200 yards out there? I got a laser range finder for Christmas, so in the future I'll know the range (I'll range objects in my shooting lane at a given hunting spot to find the "border" of MY ethical shooting range and shoot elk inside that border and pass shots on elk outside that border). I'm now going to follow up and find out at what range I can put 4 out of 5 shots in a 9" diameter target when shooting from a sitting position -- elbows on knees. But do I need to test my ability to shoot to 400 yards if my cartridge is only effective to 250 yards? You get the focus of my interest.


Just as an aside. I have had shooting opportunities 4 times on elk. Two were broadside, including the opportunity that I passed on last October. One was head-on. One was quartering towards me. Probably the worst of these positions is head-on. Other than the shot I passed on last October, the other three elk I shot and killed. Also as an aside, the ranges for these elk was not very long: the broadside that I shot on was about 60 yards away; the head-on was about 160 yards away; the quartering towards me was maybe 70 yards (a cow elk running about 1/2 speed). I never got into the position where the range looked like it was questionable to me before -- the elk were either clearly in range or were a mile away.