James B

Troy. I am afraid you give this type of hunter to much credit. I did guided hunts for about ten years. I lost track of the number of hunters who showed up having NEVER shot thier rifles or they bought a new scope and had the store boresight it and headed out. I have seen many hunters miss big bucks that were standing still broadside at 50 yards. I have seen them empty thier rifles at animals that were 1600 yards away. Many don' t have a clue what bullet they are shooting, I bought what was on sale they would tell me. They may have had 220 grain bullets last year and this year the sale was on 130 grainers. One kid told me he hit a cardboard box about 20 inches square at 25 yards at the range so he should be right on. I even had a hunter show up with the wrong caliber of shells. He wondered why he couldn' t hit anything, he was shooting his brothers 7mm-08 shells in his 308. At one hundred yards they were hitting the ground about half way out to the target and about 25 yards to the left. I know these are rather extreme cases but they happen. Another gun dealer, a gunsmith, and myself took ten different factory rifles in 270 and 30-06 out to the range one time. Only two of these rifles would shoot groups inside ten inches at 500 yards. One a Savage weather warrior shot under five inches and one model 70 winchester shot just under eight. We fired only one factory load in in each rifle five shots each all winchester PP' s so other loads may have shot better but it goes to show that most equipment is just not capable of that kind of shooting without refinements. Most hunters on this site are very likely much better than average hunters and I am not aiming this at them. If they care enough and are interested enough to participate on this hunting site then they probably pay more attention to details than the once a year hunter from the city.

Troy R

Sounds about right, that' s why I am nervous to go in the woods sometimes.

Troy

Briman

I think hunters should spend more time practicing practical accuracy for hunting applications than long range shooting. It impresses me alot more when a shooter can hit an 8" target every time under any conditions from improvised rests or a standing position out to 200 yards than having them hit the same target 500 yards away using a large pile of sandbags or fancy mechanical rest. [:-]

I mean realistically, how many deer do people see 500 yards away while they have their rifle rest set up in the direction of the deer- there' s no reason for it. If you are hunting over bait- move closer to the bait pile. If you are spotting and stalking, if you have the time to break out some sort of rest or bipod, wouldn' t you have the time to belly crawl a little closer?

Celt

If a deer is 500 yards away, you will most likely have time to get an improvised support or get you rifle on the bipod.

I personally will not shoot a deer at over 400 yards, a whitetail deer with a 308. A mule deer or Axis I think I would limit to 400 yards and that is with a 300 RUM or Win mag.

It is easy to loose a deer when shooting at long distance if it runs very far and / or is close to thick cover.

If I where going to purpously shoot a long range shot at a deer, I would set up in a big open area that the target would be far from thick cover. I would be in the prone on my bipod.


BTW,
I practice shooting improvised positions, sitting and kneeling at 300 - 500 yards often. 300 tards is pretty simple to hit a 8" gong from sitting and kneeling. from the bipod, it is almost boring 400 yards.
But, then again we compete often at the Sniper comps and have all kinds of unknown distance long shots from diggerent positions.

FWIW
Celt

James B

I am going down to Sioux Falls tomorrow. I may get to pick the rifle up. I have had my daughters Pick-up up here to work on it and I am taking it back tomorrow. Anyway Deer Season opens Saturday In SD and I have tags for both rifle and Muzzle loader down there. Still have a little farm In western SD.