"Not by a long shot" used to mean bad odds for a gambler trying to fill an inside straight in five-card stud. Nonetheless, nearly every hunting catalog and magazine we look at these days bombards us with "long-range" ammunition, "long-range" optics, and "long-range" rifles.

Long shots in the 400-plus-yard range should never be attempted at whitetails unless you have practiced thoroughly and are using an adequate long-range rifle/ ammunition/optics combo that you have confidence in.

For most whitetail hunting situations in the eastern half of the country, "long-range" is pretty short. But consider this: One of the most common land units in rural America is a 40-acre field. And there is scarcely a whitetail rifle hunter living who hasn't at least once in his life been sitting in a ground blind or tree stand along one edge of a 40-acre field and seen a buck of his dreams feeding placidly at the fencerow on the opposite side.

How far away is that deer? Just a quarter of a mile, or 440 yards to be exact. Should you try that shot? Probably not. But the temptation can sometimes be overwhelming. Not to mention the growing amount of whitetail hunting occurring in the more open states of the Great Plains and West.

If you're preparing for a whitetail hunt in which a truly long-range shot may present itself, you first need an ammunition/rifle/optics system capable of precise and consistent long-range bullet delivery. The most important ammunition consideration is sufficient downrange energy. Even if your rifle can deliver pinpoint accuracy at long range, it won't do you any good unless its cartridge delivers enough energy to let its bullet perform as designed once it gets there.

I use the "100-yard equality" principle. For whitetails, I take the classic .30-30 as my reference point. A typical 150-grain .30-30 load delivers about 1300 ft/lbs of energy at 100 yards, which is universally considered adequate for whitetails. A typical 150-grain .30-06 load delivers 1300 ft/lbs at about 450 yards. A typical 150-grain .308 Winchester falls below 1300 ft/lbs at around 425 yards. Do the math. A .308 is marginal across that 40-acre field, a .30-06 is OK ballistically, and your .30-30 is not.

Even if you have a truly capable long-range ammunition/rifle/optics system in hand, the weak link is still you. You have to know you can do it. That means you need to actually practice with your system at long-range targets, not just sight it in at 100 yards and rely on what a printed ballistics chart says it will do farther out. The minimum range for proving whether your system will deliver at long range is 300 yards.

I have fired many gun/load combinations that hold sub-MOA 100-yard groups but fall apart by the time they get out to 300 yards, and subtle instabilities in the bullet's flight send it veering off. On the other hand, if a bullet retains its performance to 300 yards, it will have proven its stability, and you can nearly always count on it to continue true as far as it can fly.

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