Sounds like a ' holier than thou' attitude if I' ve ever heard one. I' m tiring of this thread (moreso of it' s originator), but I' ll bite.

First of all, I will not say that you are a poor shot, I' ve never seen you shoot, but you won' t make me believe that you' re an above average, avid shooter by claiming to shoot ' thousands of rounds a year' , that' s really not much at all, not enough to impress me at any rate; on the year I run about an average of 300-500 centerfire rounds a week at paper/steel/cardboard, more in the summer, and a bit less in the winter, as frequent fire and deer hunting don' t coincide well. (not to mention the play I have weekly with rimfire .22lrs and at least once a month my SKS' s and other semiauto carbines.)

I don' t know exactly what you' re referring to when you call someone a ' needle blower' , I' m assuming someone who runs a 22cal or 7mm or other ' small caliber' and tries it on game at long ranges, I' ve used 7mm on deer, and they are fully capable of very long range shots, 22cals are not good for more than 85yrds where legal. My long range shooting is less done with a .22-250 than with a 30cal, all of my long range big game hunting is done with a 30cal, or larger. I don' t know what size of needles you sew with, but I wouldn' t call a .30-06, .308win or .300win mag a ' needle' , let alone the .416rigby that gave me that 491yrd 187# dressed weight doe.

I' ve taken 87% of my rifle-harvested deer at under 75yrds, and only a handful at 250+, the rest being somewhere in between those, the shortest being 7ft and the longest as mentioned above at 491yrds. Based on these performances, I don' t think my smell has much to do with why I am capable of taking long range hunting. As mentioned above, I own a 1200yrd range, in my serious hunting rifles, and my target rifles, I' ve often used the entire length of it, I have data collected for every shot taken by me on that range over 400yrds, most of my rifles' files contain data for various loads for every 50yrds for the length of it (or at least out to as far as they shoot accurately enough to hit my targets, shortest being 800yrds), for my favorite load in my favorite .30-06 that includes at least 10-5shot groups at 10yrd increments for the entire length of it. I do my homework off-range as well as on-range practicing, looking at a published data card or reading a reloading manual doesn' t count as ' looking at the downrange energy' of your rifle, analyzing your own data, interpreting and correlating it does.

I will never tell a beginner to ever expect to be able to ethically shoot a deer past 250-300yrds, as a beginner never should anyway, and probably 85% of experienced hunters should never surpass this mark, if for no other reason than their equipment limitations. BUT, there is no reason that I should be limited to crawl when I am fully capable and practiced at running, I' m by far not the best shooter in the nation, probably far from it in my state, but I know where my bullet is, and I know what it is capable of out to quite long distances, so why is it unethical to take the shot? Making a close shot isn' t hard, getting close is, I' ve proven time and time again I can get close. Getting within 500yrds of a deer isn' t hard, but analyzing the conditions, and being given the right opportunity to prove that your accuracy and range practice is good for more than just ringing steel is difficult, shooting well at 500yrds on paper on a range isn' t difficult, successfully harvesting a deer at 500yrds in the bush is.