Originally Posted by
Muley Hunter
I don't think the question is, are you capable of making the shots. Not with me anyway.
My question is........is it hunting,or shooting?
Look at it this way. Lets say you take someone who's an expert target shooter. Lets even say he's an ex sniper. One of the best. However, he has never hunted.
Now set him on a high ridge, and tell him. Glass for an animal, and when you see one. Shoot it. He does it, and the animal is dead at 700 yds.
Is he a hunter, or a shooter? Look at it with an open mind from every-bodies view, and give us your answer.
The same exact argument happens in the bowhunting world, except "long" is more like 50 yards. So if one argues that the bowhunter who takes the 50-60 yard shot is not a hunter but an archer, then why is the rifle hunter at 50-60 yards a "hunter" but the rifle guy at 500+ is a shooter?
It's all relative. It comes down to two things:
1) The goal of hunting: simple, hunters kill animals to eat.
2) Your personal goal of hunting. Insert your favorite motivation here.
There are some lines, but they move. For example RR is a "hunter" with his really LONG shots. Shooting is a skill in hunting, he's honed it to an extreme. Stalking as MH does is a hunting skill that he's honed. Both in my mind are hunters.
I used to go to PA to bowhunt. Lots of hunting camps there. The B&B owner that we stayed with told us about the crew at one of the hunting camps. has a GREAT farmers porch that looks across the valley over his B&B to the hillside behind. The camp is owned by a group of ex military snipers who are now to old to run around the mountains. They get deer every year from sitting on the porch. guns setup, scoping the hill side 600+ yards away. Spot a deer, shoot the deer, send grandchildren up to get the deer. This is how their "hunting" evolved as they aged.
I also talked to an elk outfitter at a show. He had his success chart up on the wall that had one HUGE anomoly of spiking up to 80%+. I asked him about it. He was honest, it wasn't normal. Had a group of ex snipers in camp. 8 of them that year. They were 100%. Hunters told them coming in, if you can spot us an elk, we can kill it. They did.