You know, Jeff...you've a few blind spots that you seem completely unaware of. We all have them, but yours are out here twisting in the wind for all to see. In fact, you're waving them like a red flag every time you engage in one of these threads.

From one of your posts:
So tell us again how a little more energy at extreme range, a few inches less drop at extreme range, a little more wind-bucking at extreme range, matters one bit in normal hunting?

You say you won't hunt with an X of blue tape over your barrel because, as you put it, you'll hedge things as much as possible and can use all the help you can get. To me, the practicality of what you're saying is absurd...because I've killed deer while wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue hat, blue taped wrapped on my barrel�you get the picture. My frame of reference and yours are opposite.

The thing is, though, that collectively -as hunters, shooters, etc. we all go to great lengths to iron out, down to the last detail, every advantage we can wring from our gear. Whether it's squeezing that last hundredth of an inch from group sizes on the target to putting custom zippers on our sleeping bags to shed a few ounces, those things obviously do matter. We flute barrels to save weight, shave stocks to do the same, map come-ups to 1200 yards, pore over every last detail of nutritional value for our selected backpack diet, and buy tubes full of Astro-Glide to shoot our favorite bullets into as a means of evaluating their effectiveness on flesh and blood. (still speaking of 'we' as the collective group of hunters, shooters and outdoorsmen)

For people who hedge things as much as possible and can use all the help we can get, no stone remains unturned. It was said somewhere on this thread that advantages are never a concession. When it really counts, all else being equal, who here will grab the less accurate rifle in the safe? The heaviest pack or pair of boots? Maybe sometimes, when you get right down to it, a few extra fps do matter, just like a few less ounces or a few less inches of drop.

You've said 'no hunter' hunts deer with a 7-08 at 'those' ranges. I don't know anyone who will go out of their way to take a longer shot than necessary, but I do know people who shoot deer on occasion at 'those' ranges. Ranges that I doubt you would even believe. They are able to do so because terms like 'good enough' and 'for practical purposes' aren't part of the picture.

Can I look in the canopy of your truck and find a half-dozen sets of book-size deer antlers rolling around among your fishing gear? Have you book-sized elk on the wall? Trophy life-size bear mounts? Sheep mounts? I don't either�and before you say an animal doesn't have to be book-size to be a trophy, let me just say I'll agree with you. However, some people consistently ring up such accomplishments. They make their own luck, hedge things as much as possible, and use all the help they can get.

Maybe a little more energy, a little less drop, or a little less drift doesn't matter in your okey-dokey, easy-peasy quest for the 'schizit' or whatever you call it.

Maybe it should.