Shooting 1,000 Yards

Humans regard certain round-number measurements as especially significant, though that can change with time, technology and even inflation.

- John Barsness

At one time, a millionaire was considered “rich,” but these days middle-class Americans in a few cities spend one million dollars on a pretty basic house. During the first half of the twentieth century, some experts though it might be physically impossible for any human to run a mile in four minutes, but in 1954 Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. Today’s record is 3:43.13, but that does not have the same ring as a “4-minute mile.”

Shooting a rifle accurately at 1,000 yards, however, still retains considerable mysticism, especially for most big-game hunters who think 500 yards is a really long shot. Now, this feature will not be about “long-range hunting,” a byproduct of hand-held laser rangefinders. Instead it will discuss shooting targets of various sorts out to 1,000 yards, partly because it can be a lot of fun, and partly because longer-range practice makes shooting game at shorter ranges more certain.

Tim Fallon runs a very good shooting school for hunters at his FTW Ranch in the Hill Country of Texas, and often says, “The reason to practice at 700 yards is to make 500-yard elk relatively easy.” One of the drills in Tim’s Sportsman’s All-Range All-Weather Marksmanship (SAAM) course involves having almost every student eventually hit steel gongs at 1,000 yards – partly to improve their shooting, but partly to demonstrate how things can go wrong if a hunter shoots too long.