I've watched a lot of antelope hunters. A lot. And shots at our ranch can be very long if you're a bad hunter, or you want the shot to be long, or both. Once in a while there is no way to close the distance and sneak closer (this is usually still a poor argument for taking a long shot since enough animals are there to choose from that you don't have to stretch things.)
Here are some things I've seen "long range" hunters do: I've seen them show up having not sighted in their rifle and/or with no idea about what the their trajectory is other than what's printed on the back of a box of factory ammo. And I've seen them show up without rangefinders or with rangefinders that don't work worth a damn.
Now I'm sure, no one reading this would ever do those things, right? Of course not.
Well how about showing up to the hunt having never shot the rifle past 2-300 yards? Most guys live in cities and shoot at ranges that only go out to 2-300, and the ranges often don't allow people to get off of the benches. You think that "old army training" from 30 years ago still makes you a crack shot from a sitting position that you haven't tried in years? How about never having run a few shots over a chronograph? These things happen more often than not. Yet the hunters show up thinking they're "good to 4-500 yards" since they're sighted in at 200.
A lucky few, and I mean very few, show up to their hunt with a rifle that's pretty accurate - either an tweaked factory rifle or a full custom - and they've spent a fair bit of time at the range with it, maybe having worked up a pet load for the rifle. It's a legit sub MOA rifle, heck, they've got photos of the groups on their phones to prove it. They've even shot the rifle at 5 or 600 yards and also at 1000, and they're confident they can kill a buck at 5-600. They might even crank one off at 700 - if the buck wasn't moving.
So what's wrong with the that? Well, things I've seen include: the hunter shot all of those fine groups on windless days. In fact he only goes to the range on windless days, even after load work up is done. He still doesn't get off the bench. He's not in good shape. He's using a hash mark reticle instead of elevation turrets. He doesn't know what altitude he's hunting at (I've told several hunters the altitude of our place, but I can't recollect ever having one ask me for it). That 500 yard target the hunter shot at? It's a 30" gong that he can't go downrange and inspect, so he's estimating group size and location. And the 1000 yard gong? It's as big as a VW Bug and the hunter has no idea where he hit it.
The end result of this guy shooting at 600 yards is a rodeo, or, if he's lucky, a clean miss. (As an aside, what's up with the hunters who have an ugly rodeo and then have the animal mounted? Who wants to look at that mount and be reminded of incompetence? That's no longer a trophy in my book, regardless of "score.")
I could go on but the bottom line is most hunters live in the city, not in big country where they can practice long range shooting properly, nor do they know how to dope the wind. Most hunters mean well and try but can't get it done reliably at long range. Those that can shoot on days when a 9" group at 300 yards is a hell of a group. And because they've seen that, and worse, they often have the judgment to pass on iffy shots at unwounded animals. If I had a guy show up with a .338 Lapua, saying he "thought" he was good to 1000, I'd ask him to leave.
The morning after antelope season, when the hunters are on the road going home, I have to drive the ranch, check the windmills and count cattle. I see the birds eating the eyes out of the bucks that were gut shot and ran off and died uncollected, and I see the bucks that got legged and are laid up in the shade of a lone tree or windmill. They stand up stiffly and hobble at first, then find an amazingly good gait, considering. But they're not going to outrun a coyote. Ranchers carry 22-250's or 243's to put them out of their misery before coyotes eat them alive. Most "long range hunters" never see those shots.
You owe it to your animal, the quality of the meat, and your memory of the hunt, to be better than "I think I can kill one at X yards."
