very entertaining discussion. obviously some very informed people here. but what does all this mean to average joe hunter who just wants to shoot a deer at long range?
about 40 years ago in my home state of pa. i had the following experience.
while driving along a dirt mountain road i encountered a small group of guys.
they had two vehicles and one had two bucks secured to a roof rack.
i was familiar with shooting deer at distance and prided myself in having done some of that.
or so i thought. i was about to be educated about shooting deer at distance.
they were shooting a wildcat 7x300 weatherby with a 30" heavy barrel. the scope was a 15x unertle ultra varmit.
bullets were 162 hornady bt match.
the system was simple. they found deer by scanning the sidehills with large tripod mounted binnoculars. they used a ww2 surplus rangefinder for getting the distance. they had a click chart taped to the rifle stock. elevation was added according to the distance.
the key to their success was the person following the shot thru the binnoculars. corrections were made in the event of a miss.
its possible brian litz wasent born yet at that time.
i now know for a fact one of those guys couldnt have even read that book.
most of the bullets discussed here didnt exist either.
information was gathered by what was called mountain side testing. that settled all the arguments.
that system is still being used in that region.
it will work equally well wherever similiar conditions exist.
certainly the plains of wyoming pose a different situation.
the necessity of a first round hit can vary depending on the animal. antelope for example wont hang around like deer do.
it is also more important for some individuals than it is for others.
to my mind there is no right or wrong way. its what were having for supper that counts.
