I see lots of questions on here regularly about what rifles and scopes to choose and thought I would share a few observations and conclusions that I have come up with. All too often I see people steered towards heavy, high powered scopes and varmint style rifles as more accurate and needed for long range hunting.

I used to have a thing for accurate rifles . I used to shoot off the bench canstantly trying to alter loads and work on my shooting skills to shoot tinygroups. I used to think the smaller groups I could shoot the more comfortable and confident I could be shooting game. Over the years I have gotten pretty proficient off the bench shooting true sub MOA with several rifles out to 500 meters. I gravitated to large scopes and heavy barreled varmint style rifles.

Last summer I started something new. Once I zeroed my rifle and had it shooting where I wanted, I only shot from feild positions. Both at targets and cardboard cutouts of animals. It took a lot more practice to get proficient at shooting the carboard cutouts than you would think, totally different than shooting at bullseyes. I also practiced moving targets, I would practice shooting balloons in the wind or tied to the antenae of a RC car. I did most of my field shooting with 22lr and 223 but I made a point of shooting at least 100 rounds from field positions with each of my hunting rifles. I found a few things out that were pretty interesting.

Number one was that even out to fairly long range I was able to shoot just as well from feild positions with low power scopes than I was with higher magnification. It was fairly easy to center a 10" kill zone out to 300 yards even with a 2.5x scout scope. Matter of fact unless I had a very stead feild rest or shooting stick position no more was even helpfull out to 300 yards.

Number two was that lighter, handier, more comfortable rifles work better. Given the choice between a heavy unweildly rifle that shot 1/2 MOA off a bench and a lighter, handier rifle that shot 1.5-2 moa, I would choose the lighter, handier rifle every time. While it may not be the more accurate rifle it is easier to shoot accurately in hunting situations. They were also infinately more comforatable to carry and hunt with, especially when climbing or hiking back on snowshoes.

Number three was that I could shoot MUCH better at extended ranges with a ballistic plex scope. When armed with a decent range finder and a ballistic plex scope I could place shots out to 500 meters, my fartherst range,fairly consistantly inside of a 8" paper plate. Usually 80% or better depending on wind. It was much easier to aim dead on than try holdover. Even in between distances was much easier to aim halfway or third way betweendots than just aiming high with crosshairs. As a result all of my long range rifles now wear a ballistic plex reticle scope, the biggest being a 3-12 on my 338 RUM.

I have never been more comfortable shooting at game. I shot my moose this year at 270 yards with a 9.3x62 using a 2.5x scout scope with no problems, I also shot a nice whitetail with a 243 usint the lowest setting on my 3-9 scope. I hit it 4/5 times in the heart lungs as it ran by from 80-120 yards, offhand. Any of the shots would have worked but the deer was all jacked up on adrenaline and I'm a shoot till they drop kind fo guy. I'm sure the miss was deflected in the brush.

Another classic example is a buddy of mine. He shoots everything with a Ruger 77 in 300 Win Mag with a 1.5-6 swarovski. I doubt his rifle is capable of much better than 2.5-3" groups at 100 yards but it just plain kills things. He hardly ever misses game with it.