DonKnows, I've been abstaining from this, watching most of the fellows defending long range shooting digging yourselves in deeper. NO comes on a little strong, but common sense and physics are on his side. Anyone claiming to shoot regularly at wild animals at 1000 yards or more and always making either a clean miss or a vital hit, is stretching our credulity. And that is true the more we know about shooting, not the less.
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<br> I applaud the advances you guys are making in technoloogy and the art of extreme long range accuracy. I'm not comfortable with some of your choices on game shots, but life is too short to waste time disagreeing on this kind of issue. I'd actually enjoy talking over hunts and shots on game with you in person, as I would with any personable hunter. Your thin skin makes it sound like you are trying to convice yourself, and that makes for an uncomfortable conversation.
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<br>Now Big Stick, he shoots long when needed, but it's just one of the tools in his kit. He stalks a lot of them close and shoots them through a hole in the brush. Curiously, he has impressed me with his judgment about when and how to shoot long. He's done that by not making such extreme statements, and by hunting accounts that match real life experience.
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<br>Whenever anyone starts making or implying absolute statements, like always going up to a mile across country to check an apparently missed shot, all bullets can be seen at the end of a 1500 yard flight (in all light conditions?), long range shooters are more conscientious than others, etc. you hurt your case. I knew one really good long range shooter, who killed a lot of deer across a canyon at ranges from 900 yards to over 1500. He wounded a few. His 25 or 30 immitators wounded a lot, so many that the game department made it illegal to shoot across that canyon, written in the game regulations as a no shooting area. I applauded his ability but was disappointed at the overall outcome. All of those guys were long range hunters, not just the one who could shoot well.
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<br> Hey, we'll give you slack to lug out a heavy rifle and shoot as far as you want. I'm interested in hearing about how you do it. Just don't be like most special interest groups in America and demand we approve. Most of us are tolerant, which by definition means we tolerate something that we don't endorse or that makes us uncomfortable. You don't need NO's approval to shoot at a deer a mile away, nor mine.
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Last edited by Okanagan; 02/26/02.
