On Veteran's Day, as I was hauling out my buck at SHNF, I noticed a doe feeding in one of the utility line clear cuts. A few weekends later I returned to hunt that area. Around 8:30 AM she popped out and was feeding again. It was a long shot, but I put the cross-hairs on top of her back and pulled the trigger. It was a clean miss and she bolted. I paced it out afterward and it was around 300 yards. My rifle is sighted in at 100 yards and I have no idea how much drop my bullet has at 300. The shot was out of my league, I know.

My question is will that doe risk being caught out in the open again this season? I've been back several times and set up closer to the spot she came out of but haven't seen her again.

She probably came back that night.

yep

Look up the ballistics chart for your bullet on winchester or reminton's website so you will know next time. Most bullets aren't going to drop far enough for a complete miss at that range.

Depending upon the gun and load, being sighted in at 100 yards can be worse than being sighted in at 50 yards.

With my 06 and 150 grain bullets I'm nearly dead on at 40 yards and about 1 1/2" high at 100 and dead on at 180-190 and would put me about 8" low at 300.

If I were dead on at 100, I would be about 3 1/2" low at 200 and 13 1/2" low at 300.

Here's an example where sighting in at 50 yards would yield better (albeit not optimum) results at longer distances.

Definitely a good idea to look at the ballistics so that you aren't seighted on the "peak". You want the bullet to cross the line of sight through the scope twice.

sprigsss,
Thanks for the chart. I shoot a Rem Model 700 30.06 and use Rem 150 grain accutip bullets. I can only find these at Bass Pro Shop which is a good drive so I now have the 165 grain core-lokt from Academy. I'll re-sight it at the range for 100 yards and then shoot it at the 200 yard target (they don't have a 300 yard target) to get an idea of how much drop there is.

Get closer.