Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting NRA Rag article....

Read the NRA article on long range hunting shots. IMHO it left a LOT to be desired. From reading it seems you can buy the gear, take a few days or a week at a shooting school and be done.

And come ups in 100 yard increments only? WOW is all I can say. Its much harder to get good than mentioned.... IMHO. Sad to think where this article will lead.

Jeff

Who wrote the article..........

Should I really answer......

I would like to know if you don't mind..........

Jeff
Saw the article, thought the same thing. Pandering to the 5 minute attention span, I presume.

JWP
Ian McMurchy..... would not have had quite as much an issue if it would have talked 300-400.... especially with the reality of the test article attached, though its hard for me to believe that average folks shoot that friggin bad....

Jeff

Average folks shoot that friggin bad. Check any public range a few weekends before any fall season and you will be unimpressed to say the least.

"Check any public range a few weekends before any fall season and you will be unimpressed to say the least."

I volunteer at my gun range the two weekends before hunting season for the public sight in days. Holy %%%% is it scary. When you have to check to make sure the ammo matches the gun you know you have a problem.

Two Quick stories---Guy goes to local sporting good store and buys a Remington with scope included. Walks directly to a 200yrd line and says its on at a 100yr it was bore sighted! He was not even going to sight it in before he went hunting!

Next guy shooting a 30-378 Weatherby. I watched him shoot 1.5 BOXES of ammo in a afternoon at $95.00 a box. He could not shot a 6 inch group at 200yrds. He had to leave and go buy another box of ammo. He would almost fall of his stool before he pulled the trigger he was flinching so bad. And these are the guys we share the woods with. THis is why I hunt in the desert away from everyone. Do not hunt on public land around Portland OR.

Last story I shoot at 600yrd every week at the range. it is open to the members every Tuesday. A member showed up with a Christianson arms 300wsm and was leaving on a sheep hunt in Russia. Scope was a Lupy with the Boon and crocket reticle. It took him 3 shoots to hit a 6X6 cardboard backer. That�s 6 feet! He was all over the target. He finally by the grace of god flinched in the right place and hit the X ring. At that point Packed his gun up and said "I'm good to 600yrds"

Sorry for the rant but articles do Long-range shooting a dis-service.

Jeff: Course they shoot that friggin bad.......... Can't zero rifles, have no idea about trajectory,etc. Some you see make you talk to yourself.

I'm a little weary of McMurchy's "long range" articles. Many reading them are unaware of how many tens of thousands of rounds fired it takes to be truly proficient at really long range. They can be told a hundred times, but not many have the time behind the butt and in the field to be remotely profficient at it.

I thought that it was Ian's article,just wanted to make sure. Ian is a savy long range shooter.It is impossiable to cover everything when you are limited to 2500 words or so give or take..I haven't read the article as yet,but in general I like Ian's articles..............

JWP

I know Ian is a good shot, just the article was very much double speak IMHO. No one can shoot and hit at 300 yards, but you only need "come ups"(which are TACTICAL terms-- come on I"m a highpower shooter, come ups are not a tactical term, simply a term....) every 100 yards out to 700 yards(what about every 25 yards?) and a good school. What about the thousands of rounds I have down range at 600-1000 yds before I was shooting good enough to be able to learn the wind. Wind isn't only a wind speed meter..

I think the bottom line was don't do it if you can't, which we all agree to, but I think more emphasis should be put on what it actually takes to get there and pointing out what effect errors can have on the shot, much less shooter error. Thats what opens eyes in my hunter ed classes.

Nothing against Ian personally, just thought the article was a disservice. I've gotten into it with him over another article about shooting a bear that was charging him from 200 yards out etc..... I just think wording and article could be different(thats not saying better, just different) As they say, just because you can do it, doesn't mean you can teach it.

Jeff

The amount of experience it takes is my point exactly. You gotta start somewhere, but the notion you can go buy the equipment and "do it" is erroneous. You need years at 600-1000 to be proficient.

Guess I seem strange-- I jump in on folks that say long shots are un-ethical. Yet it can be done easily in a lot of circumstances. But those circumstances also say I've often shot 600 or 1000 yards almost every other weekend for years at a time with iron sights since 1990. I was horrible in 1990. Now I'm good or at least was till 2 years ago.... Gadgets help, I use them to set up parameters, but only time and experience make you good enough.

Personally I like having qualifications for shooting or hunting. If you can't hit X target at X range then you have no business out there, that would get rid of a LOT of the shooters that have no business in the woods. Want the PRIVILEGE of taking game? Show your ability. Tis no right, IMHO, to harvest game.

Jeff

Jeff-----I will say this about long range shooting of animals at risk of being called ugly names but so be it. 90% percent of the people who go hunting should not attempt to take lets say a deer at over 200 yards. Why � some because of equipment and some because of skill some both! That being said less than 2% of the people who hunt should attempt long range hunting period.

Most people have neither the skill, experience or equipment to routinely and humanely dispatch game at lets say 800yds. Point----if you took everyone on this board who claimed to be proficient in being able to adjust for a condition I submit that less than maybe 1 in 10 would be able to do it. Judging condition for you and I is something we do every time we compete or practice at range. I have a place to shoot ultra long range and do so all of the time when practicing � never once have I had anyone who did not compete try and judge a condition at 1200 yards that was within 6 feet of the 8 inch gong! Most are real good shots at short range and memorize trajectory tables and will just about let their jaw hit the ground after they shoot a few rounds at long range because they are so far off. You should hear the excuses from my barrel is clean to this is a new can of powder---never well my skill set really needs work!! I see where they hit and will make careful note of the conditions and usually shoot much closer on the 1st shot than they did after 10 or 20.

In every single case they do not realize what extreme spread will do to you vertically at range nor do the understand the relationship of using a rest correctly not to mention the wind which still continues to give me fits at the ranch because of the varied terrain and wind currents. You must understand how these elements although disparate are all very closely related and must be integrated together seamlessly to make a successful shot every time not just to get lucky and wing one in!! That is for unethical hunters IMHO!

Not over 200. Heck some don't have business at all IMHO...

You are true to form on what it takes. Been many a time I"ve wanted or could have taken a mid range or long range shot and walked away scratching my head. No guarantee in that condition to shoot an X as a "sighter" so why shoot.

Having made the P100 a few times at Nationals, which generally is over 1000 shooters vying for 100 spots, generally around 1300, and me generally having the highest or close to highest score on the 600 in that match, I see many in the P100 that would be deadly to 300- 400 but have no business past that even though they are in the top percentages of national shooters....

I can't stretch my legs past about 600 right now, maybe 1000 later in life if I trim trees right, if I ever get my gear to load the 700ish grain bullets I may PM you to test her out....

Jeff
PS very wet down here again. West of me, and your brother is west.... they had up to 4.5 inches of rain yesterday AM and more is coming now they claim.....

Yep--more rain here as well--Danny said he was not opposed to putting in a range!! That is something that he and I will discuss but anything less than 400 is a waste but we will see.

Good luck with the long range development!

DWM

I'm sure I'm not as experienced as you guys, nor as good...but it isn't that tough to shoot MOA at 700. Certainly doesn't take tens of thousands of rounds of practice...

Shhhhhhhhhh....

It doesn't take that much to shoot MOA at 700. Its reading the conditions in between and being able to know when and when not to shoot, such that the MOA group is unimportant, its the first shot hitting the target that is important. Not that I doubt you can do that also. Some are simply better than others.

That being said it took me years of shooting to be able to avoid the unexpected on the 600 yard line. Those unexpected shots would be bad on game. Merely shooting a number of good ones in a row is not that difficult. Of course if you can shoot MOA at 600, then you are fully capable of shooting a 200-20x which has never been shot in competition on a range with wind flags helping you.

The difference therein, and you both know this, you 2 and a few more of your crew-- that other one too, less I get banned too....(grinning) know when to shoot and when not too. And have shot more than a bit checking zero's.

Jeff

You never have replied to my shooting challenge Steelhead??? Shhhhhhhhhhh everyone hears you shaking cowering in the corner!