I am the dad to the girl who took her first deer at 281 yards. First if you look at the country we hunt it is wide open and shots out to 350 yards are not uncommon.

In my daughters case she was shooting a .243 with 100 grain bullets and we had spent many, many hours at the range shooting targets out to 300 yds. I put a 6x burris scope on her rifle so there was no guess work in dialing the scope up or down to a certain power. In addition her rifle is outfitted with a bipod so she can always have a solid rest

The shot was taken while the wind was calm, the light conditions were perfect, she had a solid rest, knew the range, was confident in her ability and she took her time. She passed on other shots during the season because she wasn't comfortable.

If she had been shooting a muzzle loader with open iron sights then it would have been a totally different story. Take the shots you are comfortable with and don't worry too much about what others are talking about because it may depend upon what part of the country you are hunting in.

Nemont