Sounds like your heart is in the right place. With the right skills you can take game at long range, and as 458 Lott pointed out, you discard a lot of marginal gear as you learn. The best way to learn the wind is to shoot NRA High Power, Palma or F-Class. You live and die on the wind in those matches. When I was a kid in the Oklahoma National Guard, our rifle team ruled when the wind kicked up because the wind always howled on our ranges. Guys who didn�t live in windy states couldn't touch them then.
The most important skill is the ability to handle unexpected outdoor logistical chores like a good infantry platoon sergeant. I mentioned land navigation in my first post, but I�ll repeat that the ability to get from exactly Point A to exactly Point B and back is crucial. Half the best hunting time is at dusk in the fall, so learn to do this at night and in bad weather, too.
The ability to analyze terrain is also critical. Maps and aircraft help but you really learn it on the ground. Your goal is the ability to predict from whence the game will come. But if you can do that, you don�t need to make long shots.
Also learn to pick routes over rough terrain and be physically hard enough to get game out over them. Warren Page or Jack O�Connor (I think) wrote of a �Six-Mile Shot.� The actual shot was 5-600m across a canyon. To reach the meat, he and his guide had to ride around it, six miles one way. Luckily, the writer made his shot in the morning, the elk fell in his tracks, the guide knew the area, and the pack horses cooperated. Can you imagine having to track an elk that had a six-mile head start? What if he had made that shot at dusk and had to find the bull at night? What if the ride had taken two days?
Lots of things to think about before you cue up a long shot.
Okie John
