smokey92

The trigger assembly in my Kodiak is not to be removed or taken apart, so I see no need to remove the barrel for cleaning.

Because my rifle may shoot minute of "pieplate" @ 200+ yards from the bench doesn't mean I can do it in actual hunting scenarios. Therefore after practice, mirroring hunting situations, be it prone, sitting etc., I limit myself to repeatable shots in the different positions. So sitting with shooting sticks could be 150yrds, and on one knee with my elbow on the other may only be 75yrds. etc. etc.

Phathead

Ethical doesn't have to be long range.

I have taken two un-ethical shots and learned not to do it again. I practiced and was hitting 1-2 inch groups no problem at 100yrd. Doe at 25 yrd only thing visiable was the head. Clean miss! Though about it that night and realized I could have hit lower jaw or snout meaning no recovery and slow death for the deer, never again. Other shot was 40 yrd only head neck showing, dropped down and back going for boiler room. Hit in butt, tracked for 3hrs found her in shock and finished her. Never again.

Backwoods7

With my scoped Remington 700ml I'm good to 150yards(never tried farther) and with my iron sighted side hammers about 80 yards max. That's my comfort zone with my ml's and I won't try no farther with them. I think ethics has alot to do with trigger control not takeing the first so so shot you get but waiting on a perfect kill shot even if it means passing up a good buck. I have made one unethical/bad shot makes me sick to this day because I rushed it and a deer suffers because of it. I was hunting a strip mine watching a huge field(500+ yards) had my 30-06 with me watching the ridges and caught something move below me in a gully I look a 6 point was standing quraryerd to me at 40 yards I threw the gun up and fired didn't account for it walking and hit it in the guts couldn't never find it lost blood trail so I learned to control my trigger finger so to speak

rem700man

This very question has been haunting me since this past early november,,when our ML season started here in Va. I had trail cam pics of a big buck coming to our foodplot and i knew that in order for me to get a shot @ him it was going to be 200 yds,,,The area im hunting is a wide open field that the deer enter from neighboring properties. A couple years ago i built a box blind that sits on the ground and from the bench inside the blind i am rock solid. So i start practicing taking shots @ a known 200 yds. and everything is spot on! Long story short,,,the buck enters the field,,,goes straight to the foodplot and starts eating,,,he's totally relaxed and standing broadside @ 196 yds. I get the gun out the window,,,the rest is as solid as i could ever have wanted it to be,,i mean everything is just perfect! At the snap of the trigger the gun recoils straight up in the air,,and as the smoke clears i see the buck walking off straight back to where he came from,,unharmed,,,and im thinkin wtf just happened????? I knew right away that something in the recoil of the gun was WRONG,,,but i had to get to where the buck was to make sure it was a miss. I came home,,disappointed to say the least,,,and i still could'nt figure out what went wrong,,,so i got up the next morning,,went back to the field and looked again,,found nothing so i walked back to the ground blind and as i opened the window i saw something white and after closer inspection it all came to me! When i got into the blind i took my sling off the gun,,,when i put the gun out the window to take the shot at the deer i remember moving the gun a little bit farther out the window so the sling stud was on the outside of the 2x4 it was resting on and @ the shot the gun could not recoil back into my shoulder because the sling stud caught the 2x4 causing it to jump up into the air throwing the shot, The white spot that i was seeing in the window was where the stud ripped a piece of the 2x4 apart,,I immediately knew that even though i thought that i had thought of everything,,,practiced my a$$ off at the range and had perfect conditions,,,i left one small equation out and had taken an unethical shot! And missed the biggest buck of my life,,im glad i missed and didnt wound him as i seen him 2 days later 1/4 mile down the street chasin a doe. (he was even bigger that i thought)

scottycoyote

im not going to second guess you b/c you were there and i was not, but i dont see why you say that was an unethical shot. If you have practiced and can hit at that range, and your bullet has the proper amount of killing power at that range....how is it unethical. You just muffed the shot, it probably would have been a miss at a closer range too.....i wouldnt equate a miss with taking a shot you have no business taking. Ones a miss (which we all do) and ones unethical.

Breechplug

I Practice Practice Practice and after that I Practice More. For me I know My Limitations, I know what I can do and what My MLer is capable of. Now shooting Paper vs a Real Animal is totally different. For ranges out to 200yds there's just so much that can go wrong after the shot. Even if the Wind is right and you have a Solid Rest and have taken that same shot a thousand times you just cant know what will happen. Say your setteled on the Animal, He's Brodside Feeding and Relaxed, you Fire, at the Shot He takes a Step and you hit further back that you would have liked. How were you to know the Animal was going to move just as you shot, you could'nt have, now was this a Unethetical Shot? if so then all shots would be considered Unethetical as you cant read the Mind of the Animal or see into the Future.
So all anyone can do is do there Best at the time of the shot, sure in 99% of the cases you'll be on, but you just never know what will happen that 1% of the other time.
I live in Farm Country, I Hunt both the Hardwoods and Open Fields, (Corn, Soybean ect) Sure 'd like to have every Animal within 50yds of My sights but it does'nt always happen that way, so in the Open Fields I may have to settle for a 150yd plus shot or go without taking the Animal I've been Hunting, can I make the Shot, sure if all goes well and that's all we can hope for at any given time. Im sure there's Some Bow Hunters among us and they have had a Deer at 15 yds Brodside Feeding, a Ethical Shot, Yes, after the shot the Deer Jumps the string and you either miss or get a Bad Hit, now was this a Ethical Shot, Yes, but the outcome was'nt what you expected because you could'nt see into the Future.
We All know what our Limitations are and what we should do or should'nt, but even then sometimes things just dont go as planned. So all we can do is our best at what we do and hope the best is good enough.
(BP)

smokey92

Well said Breechplug.

Chasam60

My Omega is sighted on a clean cold bore.That is how it will be in the woods. My PBR is 175 yds.Only on a standing relaxed deer with no wind will I take the shot at long range. My longest kill was at 163. After checking my zero before the season,my stock does not come off,and the rifle does not come into the house.

Charlie

smokepolehall

Well i ain't shot a Tick Toter with a ML past an est. 100 yds. I only shot the Doe cause she was on a logging road broadside to me with my Renegade 54 & maxiball. Most all of my deer are shot less than 75 yds, on my place unless you happen to see one through a hole in the woods will be less than 40 yds. I don't get no long range shots so i don't practice past 75 yds.