Leon wrote
"I have noticed that a lot of the guys who have 4 MOA rifles spend time at the range after missing a deer on opening morning. Ironic to see them trying to figure out why they missed. Usually the blister pack scope was off by a foot or more and was usually loose in the mounts. Never figured how that how that happened, It was fine at the end of the season and hadn't been shot since."
As I said above, it's 98% the hunter and 2% the gear.
If indeed the scope is off by a large amount, you can't blame the gear at all. You could have a USMC M40-A5 with the finest optic on earth mounted and off-zero by a foot or more on loose mounts and have the same results. A lack of attention is a lack of attention. A man who doesn't practice can have such poorly mated scopes or sights and not know it because he is not involved in ANY degree of self-training.
I often hunt with iron sighted rifles and when I used handguns, they are mostly 100% stock with the exception of me doing "smooth and tunes" when I feel the need.
I also hunt with flintlocks in both 50 and 62 calibers with 1770 era sights.
I have never fired a shot with any handgun at any game that I have not killed, and I can say the same thing with all my muzzle-loaders. With revolvers and with muzzle-loaders I have been hunting on and off for over 50 years and all the misses I have ever made in my life, and every animal I have ever needed 2 shots with have been shot with scoped rifles (with one excepting where I killed a deer with a 45 ACP that I shot 2 times) And ALL of the times I ever missed with a scoped rifle were with guns and scopes that were just fine but one. That one was 3 years ago when the eyepiece on a Burris cracked at the threads and was moving around enough to cause misses at 100 yards of about 4 feet. I assume I cracked it riding in the back of a 4Wheeler I was riding in. (Burris sent me a new scope of a higher value in 1 week. I was impressed with their service)
I have hunted and killed game with a smooth bore 62 caliber French style flintlock and killed deer just fine.
Just 2 weeks ago, (on the 16th of August) I killed an antelope with a neck shot from an iron sighted 6.5X54 Mannlicher which I spotted from about 1/2 mile and did a stalk to within 20 yards. (yes -- twenty)
But I HUNT and I am very very often putting my belt buckle in the dirt. I seldom go hunting and don't bring back the game. I get skunked at times, but not all that often.
I own about 15 rifles that will shoot MOA and of them about 1/3 will shoot under half MOA. I own 2 that shoot at about 1/4 MOA. Such accuracy is important to the target shooter and also to the prairie dog shooter. But for deer and larger game, it's a good confidence builder, but truly not all that important. One of my 30-06s, a "Scout" style Mauser, shoots about 1.3MOA on demand, and another, my Browning M95 Lever action has issue buck-horns and a 1/16" bead and I don't know exactly what it will do. Now I am in my 60s. I can shoot over a rest with the lever action and keep them into about 2.5 -3 MOA. But I can say at I can hit what I shoot at with both of them. I have never fired a shot with the Scout at any big game over 450 yards, and the longest shot I ever made with my M95 30-06 is about 300 yards. Yet those two 30-06s have perfect "track-records" so far, in that I have never fired a shot at game with either one that I have not killed, and I have never fired a 2nd shot at any game with either one. I am batting 1000 with them both, and have been for the 30+ years I have owned them.
In contrast, I own a 270 on a Mauser I made myself and it shoots under 1/2 MOA so often it's gotten boring. I did it yesterday when I was shooting all my rifles to confirm zeros. Yet I have misses 2 deer with that rifle. Why? Because I missed the deer........that's why. I fell for the notion "It's so accurate I just can't miss". Ummmmmmmmmm Yeah I can! I have learned that when the man fails, the gun will cooperate------ 100% of the time.
A good hunter will bring home the game because he can HUNT. When I hunt with a smooth bore flintlock ,or when I hunt with a handgun, I get close. That's why it's called hunting. And if you can hunt you will find that getting into range with a high accuracy scoped rifle is the same hunting techniques you use if you carry a bow and arrow or a stock revolver. But when I get a 100 yard shot with the 270 I named above there is NO doubt I am going to kill the elk, deer or antelope with that rifle as long as I don't rush and get sloppy (See if you can just take a wild guess as to how I would know that)
So again I beat the drum. It's the man......not the gun. A good hunter hunts within his abilities no mater what he is carrying at the time.
