I'm not impressed with long range shooting. I prefer to hunt. The big advantage to premium bullets is the ability to hang together on high velocity impacts and still expand on low velocity hits. 400 yards and further, to me is a hunter failure.
In regard to this video, I agree with you. If they blew their stalk or just bumped the buck w/o seeing it, they could have shot it while it was much closer, or at least attempted to put together another approach. Not shooting a closer shot when it is straightforward, and half the distance irks me a bit. Then they made a marginal shot. Don't know what the hell they were doing, but it looked screwy to me.
I don't, however, concur that as a rule shots 400yds and farther are hunter failure. Trying to get closer can take up over a mile and a couple thousand vertical feet, depending on where one hunts. If it is a confident set-up, I see no ethical dilemma with shots past 400 on game. This is more the rule than the exception where I hunt. I don't shoot hard bullets either. To each their own.
