This is not a specific reply to anyone. But rather my general thoughts about this subject in particular. We have had very similar discussions on this board before.......where many posts openly supported long range shooting. And now faced with this incident......that support seems to be flagging, to say the least.

I contend there are only three situations that "long range shooting" should occur, and none of them are what we would commonly refer to as sport hunting. (Long range varminting being a partial exception. When an animal such as a prairie dog is hit with a high velocity midbore it is frequently shredded or even halved. The animal is so completely overwhelmed with shock that death is instantaneous, or nearly so.)

Long range shooting has a place in target shooting. Whatever the target happens to be. Paper, steel, etc., the only criteria is that it is a controlled, safe, environment. This is the best way to improve long range shooting skills. Especially when done in a structured situation, coached by an experienced shooter.

Long range shooting has a place in warfare. (But if you've missed your "target" 50 times......or even 10 times.....and you are still in position. You are a "DEAD MAN". You will not have that many opportunities to miss your target with impunity. A lesson that should be shared with the hunters in that first article.

And finally......if you were in a true life and death circumstance. Lost in the wilderness, survived a plane crash is the bush, etc., then a case could be made ethically to attempt to "stretch" the bounds of "normal" behavior. If someone were attempting to survive......it would be ethical and moral to do what ever was necessary to survive!

Other than those three circumstances I personally can find no ethical reason to shoot as live animals at the ranges we are talking about. And all the talk about what people do at a range is just that......a range, (and in some cases "just talk"!) Not hunting. If you slightly pull a shot into the nine or eight ring on the range your target does not crawl off to die a miserable death! A paper target does not take those two or three steps just as you finished the trigger squeeze. There is no intervening brush that you overlooked from 1000 yards away. There are no range flags to gauge the wind, (or its multiple shifts between you and the target). And you know your background and a certain range. Maybe it is because I have shot matches. The common leg course includes 200, 300, and 600 yard targets. But I've also shot 1000 yard any rifle, any sight. And because of that experience I have have very strong opinions on this subject.

This type of long range shooting has no place in ethical sport hunting! There are to many variables......too many things to go wrong.....and the practitioners frequently conveniently forget to mention those instances that didn't turn out well! And the best reason of all, is no animal deserves to die a slow, miserable, death in an effort to "massage someone ego"!

That is my opinion.....and everyone is welcome to theirs!

Dave