Is this story about you?
M.Bird
4/17/13 7:44pm
With all the hype about bullet speed and rifle accuracy, have we lost the art of hunting?
You can get your rest out, set it up on the concert bench, adjust your chair, check your target with your 60 power spotting scope (you see the fly landing on the upper right hand of your target). You bring your rifle to your shoulder, wearing you t-shirt with gun brand on it, get your check weld move a little, adjust your scope, reset your check, place your hand on the stock, start squeezing the trigger, then let off because someone else fired, you go through this again and hit the black, you do this 2 more times. You bring your target back, lay it on the bench and get you digital calipers out and start measuring the group spread, you come up with 1.05 inch 3 shot group and you are happy.
Don’t laugh you have done it also!
Ok you are ready to move your target from the 50yd line to the 100yd line.
You get your target to 100 and crank up that scope to max power (14? Or better) you shoot up your target, have a couple of flyers, but most are in the black of a standard 100yrd sight-in. you are happy
You go home and clean your prized rifle from a hard day at the range, the bore is cleaner than the day it left the factory, it is oiled in all the right places, you tuck it to bed in its special place in the safe and dream of hunting season 3 months away.
Why you are waiting for the start of season, you use countless ballistic programs and know every hold over on your dot system, you have calculated the turns on the knob for every distance.
Hunting season arrives, you are up in the hills opening day with your buddies, have a great camp area and know there are lots of deer. You are dressed in the latest and greatest high-tech layers, poly-pro base, thermal 1st layer, space age 2nd layer, fleece 3rd layer, good jacket and safety vest to top it out (you look like the little kid in the “Christmas Story”) you get to your favorite spot you can see opening and parks over 700yrds away.
You spot movement, you know it is a buck, buddy confirms buck, you see horn shine from the morning sun, you range this buck 456yrds true yardage downhill, you dial the scope turrets to 450, you put the cross hairs on him, can’t see him clear (scope power up scotty) now I have him 14 power I see all now, you shoot and miss, but he is standing there, shoot again, another miss you are high, hold low shoot again miss low, now he is moving you shoot again clear miss 10ft behind him.
What could have gone wrong?
If you cannot answer, YOU HAVE LOST HOW TO HUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope everyone has a good season
M.Bird
I will post my thoughts in the next couples of days. it is just MHO
You can get your rest out, set it up on the concert bench, adjust your chair, check your target with your 60 power spotting scope (you see the fly landing on the upper right hand of your target). You bring your rifle to your shoulder, wearing you t-shirt with gun brand on it, get your check weld move a little, adjust your scope, reset your check, place your hand on the stock, start squeezing the trigger, then let off because someone else fired, you go through this again and hit the black, you do this 2 more times. You bring your target back, lay it on the bench and get you digital calipers out and start measuring the group spread, you come up with 1.05 inch 3 shot group and you are happy.
Don’t laugh you have done it also!
Ok you are ready to move your target from the 50yd line to the 100yd line.
You get your target to 100 and crank up that scope to max power (14? Or better) you shoot up your target, have a couple of flyers, but most are in the black of a standard 100yrd sight-in. you are happy
You go home and clean your prized rifle from a hard day at the range, the bore is cleaner than the day it left the factory, it is oiled in all the right places, you tuck it to bed in its special place in the safe and dream of hunting season 3 months away.
Why you are waiting for the start of season, you use countless ballistic programs and know every hold over on your dot system, you have calculated the turns on the knob for every distance.
Hunting season arrives, you are up in the hills opening day with your buddies, have a great camp area and know there are lots of deer. You are dressed in the latest and greatest high-tech layers, poly-pro base, thermal 1st layer, space age 2nd layer, fleece 3rd layer, good jacket and safety vest to top it out (you look like the little kid in the “Christmas Story”) you get to your favorite spot you can see opening and parks over 700yrds away.
You spot movement, you know it is a buck, buddy confirms buck, you see horn shine from the morning sun, you range this buck 456yrds true yardage downhill, you dial the scope turrets to 450, you put the cross hairs on him, can’t see him clear (scope power up scotty) now I have him 14 power I see all now, you shoot and miss, but he is standing there, shoot again, another miss you are high, hold low shoot again miss low, now he is moving you shoot again clear miss 10ft behind him.
What could have gone wrong?
If you cannot answer, YOU HAVE LOST HOW TO HUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope everyone has a good season
M.Bird
I will post my thoughts in the next couples of days. it is just MHO
12,517
Then again, this is why I only use the crosshairs and know what my bullet drop will be out past 300 yards. I can "guesstimate" the holdover needed past that range, if I feel comfortable enough with the shot, to put the round close enough on target for a good hit.
Ummm...we are supposed to guess what went wrong, right?
If terrain, a setting sun, or other factors make you take the shot right then, you had better practiced enough to make it count. I doubt throwing a few rounds down range to sight-in is enough.
Please don't turn this into another "let's all bag on long range shooters" thread. We all know that no one should not be taking shots at game that they are not qualified to take. Lumping all long range guys together is a shallow stance. Also, be careful not to put down a facet of the sport that some folks might love. In my opion, legitimate long range shooters have just as much place as muzzle loaders, archery shooters, and road hunters. In other words, to each their own. I have actually found that true, practiced, long range marksman make the highest percentage of ethical kills. Maybe that observation makes the naysayers mad, but it is what it is.-----SS
Im waiting to hear to hear the original posters thoughts on this
When was the last time you hunted in your t-shirt for Big Game in the west? You add several layers of clothing changing how you hold you weapon (if you think this is wrong: try it)
How many have had a bench to shoot off of when they spotted game in the field with your chair and spotting scope set next to it: practice shooting over your back pack after running in place of 1 minute)
Do you take your rifle out midsummer and happy with a 6 inch group off a bench at 100yrds? A hunter is a marksman, a marksman is a hunter: others just send lead and powder downrange
Not shoot from other positions and not shoot at all during the fall? Practice scout scout and pratice
Most of you got the part about the hold over with your mil-dot: is your scope a true mil dot? Unless you have spent some big money (more than the cost of the rifle) I will guess not
You plant you butt in a spot and start looking, you spot your game and don’t try to stock the animal: close is good!
How can you be competent when you never put yourself in the situation?
Hunting is not long range target practice
This is the most true statement that you make. As for the rest, I overcome all of these things by utilizing the one pivitol thing that long range provides......that is time. Years of experience have taught me that a buck, happily feeding 500 yards away is most likely not going anywhere fast. My best advice to potential long range shooters is to set up for a shot, then dry fire several times. Be honest with yourself about your sight picture, follow through, breathing, etc. All of these things will become extremely evident by where the crosshairs are when the hammer falls. Double check the wind, the distance, and the holdover. Adjust your position until everything is rock solid and comfortable, and then drop the hammer like you have done hundreds of times before and all summer long. The only difference is that this time the target is a deer instead of a plate or a rock. I will make this contoversial statement. I would much rather see a novice take a 300 yard shot from a rest than a 50 yard running shot offhand.....yet no one is ranting about the ethics of running shots or offhand shooting, both of which are affected by the same variables mentioned above such as clothing and breathing. What do you want to bet that my prone, rested 600 yard group would compare nicely to your 100 yard standing offhand group? Bottom line is that practice and familiarity are essential to ALL hunters who take to the field. I agree 100% with Mr Birds post, I would just extend it to include all hunters, not just long range guys.----------SS
When season rolled around, I was confident any deer within that range was as good as dead. On the third day, we found the bunch of bucks I'd been on for the last three weeks. We set her up on the shooting sticks and waited. The deer used the same route to feed they had the last few days I'd watched them. One stepped into a clearing in the brush at a laser ranged 498 yards. She dialed the scope up, got on target, and when I said I had him in the spotting scope, and the wind was calm, she let it go. There was a brief pause, then I watched the buck drop in his tracks before the sound of impact came back to us. And before you go thinking this was a girl raised up hunting all her life, she never even picked up a gun before we met ten months before she got her first deer, a 28" five by five. Not bad for a first buck if you ask me. So, two points in your post are valid. As for the scouting, yeah, it made all the difference in the world. We could set up on these deer and watch them for two days before we got the perfect shot opportunity. Second, she shot more practice rounds at 500 to 700 yards than most "serious hunters" will in ten years from "real world hunting positions".
And by the way, my scope didn't cost more tham my rifle. If you have a rifle accurate enough to make 100 percent kill shots on game out to half a mile, you've spent way more on the gunsmithing and parts than an $1100 dollar scope will set you back. Don't knock those of us who do what we do just because it goes against your idea of "ethical hunting". I've tracked more deer that were shot running than I ever have those shot at "long range"
There will always be acceptions to every rule of hunting. It is good that you have the resources to obtain a rifle capable of shooting long distance and were able to practice.
If that is your preference in the way you hunt, there is nothing anyone could say to change your views. Everyone hunts different: I will stand by the Statement Long range shooting is not hunting.
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living organism, usually wildlife or feral animals, by humans for food, recreation, or trade
You say you did all your scouting and found these buck traveling the same route for the last 3 days.
You could not get to a better (closer) point, you must have some specialized training to read winds across valleys and canyons (or just dam lucky)
No matter how much practice you do at 500yds with a full value wind moving your bullet 14 inches and a drop of 38inches, can you honestly say that there was no way to get closer to these animals?
I will say a very remarkable shot for taking her first deer (if not first animal)
Best of luck on further hunts
M. Bird
And no, there was no way to get closer, these bucks were using a trail that could only be seen from a higher vantage point. Believe me, we got as close as we could. I'm not strictly a long range shooter, but it is in my bag of tricks and I can do it if the need arises.
Yes, I am very good at reading the wind, in the off season I shoot prarie dogs and coyotes as far away as I can find them. There is no school or training you can take to learn to read the wind. Only experience will tell you what the wind will do to a bullet. But unless conditions are perfect, i WILL NOT take a shot over 400 yards.
What a change of tune in that song by “LeupoldnkIVm3”
His 7th post on site all this long range practice beyond 500yrs and talking about custom rifle and all the money he has spent and the amount of lead send down range and a 500yd shot by spouce
His 8th post: “I will not take a shot over 400yrs” and first rifle put together shoot SUB MOA (WOW)
There is no school for reading wind? Yes there is: Gunsite is a fine school, CheyTac USA has a great school. Couple schools down southern US (I have not attended the civilian schools there)
I was right (last post) that I should have keep my mouth shut and let people spout off.
I will accept Springville remarks because we have agreed and disagreed on point before. (his views and mine are not always)
If you are going to post make sure you have consistence view or stories, stories that keep changing are called lies.
Best wishes to all
V/R