I've thought about this for a couple of days, and want to appeal tothe long range shooters, and responders that advocate the use of the 50 BMG for hunting. I will fight to the end to defend the right of the advocates to own them and use them. But why give peoplethe opportunity to attack our sport? I feel the advocates of this long-range shooting at gameare promoting the wrong thing, and I appeal to reasontoget it back to a sport.

I've firedhundreds of rounds of 50 BMG, and managed the training(read responsible for knuckelhead mistakes) forthousands more;and 20MM and rockets. The 50 BMG IS magical, in that with grazing hits the bullet remainsstable and it just seems to keep on going, and going. Lots of momentum and yes, trust me, at least 1700 yards beyond theelk that big roundwill still be going strong. I don't care if there's a mountain behind the elk, from my experience the 50 BMG round will figure out away of climbing out of the valley.The range fanis about 4 miles deep.

And to compare it's effectivenessto a 300 magnum at 1000 yards, I ask, why shootat an elk at 1000 yards?Contain the impatience;stalk, ambush, or simply wait for another day? Is shooting an elk that important, to risk breaking it'slegs, or make other poor hits?

I'm not an elk hunter yet;I'd like to be;sending the fees in to Wyoming this year to establish preference points.I'm a deer hunter, and I hunt with a muzzleloader. I'm going to learn to bugle, and probably go out there and hunt marmots to get the lay of the land. I'm going to learn how to hunt elk.

While I examine my capabilities from experience in High Power Competition,I have no doubtI can hit a critter at a 1000 yards. I'm also practical--realizingthat in a hunting situation some of the hits will be legs, jaw, guts,rump---maybe the elk or deer will lay down, maybe not.

SoI wouldn't shoot at that distance. I care about the animalandshooting at animals at these distancesdoesn't meet my standards of sportsmanship, nor can I be SURE of a good solid killing hit. Just asimportantly, I want to have some assuranceofwhere the bullet will end up if I miss the critter. A 1000 yard shotat a game animal, even with a 50 BMG, does not meetthese standards.

I think it's time to stand up to the long-range shooting crowdand voice the opinionthat it's not good for thesport. I suggest if there are any of the 50 cal cult reading this, just to reflect on how at least one otherhunter viewsthe use of the equipment and methods in the hunting field. I disapprove.