My late Brother started as a wrangler for some bigger outfitters in Wyoming then became a guide between Idaho and Wyoming. He would not tolerate high risk shots and longer ranges. I don’t think he ever told me what he considered extreme range cause a lot depended on the hunter’s ability and his rifle’s acceptable range. One of his beefs were clients that started to feel the pressure when only a day or two are left to hunt. They wanted to stalk and hunt at reasonable ranges in the beginning then wanted to take almost any shot toward the end. He would allow some of this early in the day but couldn’t stand to see some guy shoot across a deep canyon late in the day knowing the animal would likely roll to the bottom or fall on the other side. To try and recover the game would mean going back for the horses and ride for hours in order to cross over or try to get into the bottom all in the dark. Often the animal was never found until next day sometimes never.
Clients bitching the guide couldn’t or wouldn’t retrieve their prize. After a while he got fed up with this crap and passed the client off to the outfitters kids or anybody who’d take them. He had one client who filed a formal complaint so he had to go to the Wyoming Board of Outfitters to explain his decision to drop a client who wanted to shoot at an elk in late day low light across a steep draw that was impassable with horses without riding ten or so miles around in the dark. The shot was guesstimated at around 600 yards. He felt his actions were well within the Board’s rules of ethics and they agreed. So it’s up to the guide really if you try what he thinks is a high risk long range shot that could end in crippled or wasted game. Of course the outfitter can see this as lost future income and a nick on his record so some awfully good guides have to look for outfitters who understand. Not all outfitters are guides so some see this as business only.
Rick
