I've done a fair bit of shooting out to 1500 yds and realistically I've found that getting on target in what I would consider the kill zone to be 700 yds or less for me. Though I have pulled off some incredible groups at well over 1000 yds for me it's not consistent enough to warrant shooting at game.
Shod
I looked up the word Ethical and would probably substitute Honorable. Cause it seems when the Ethical word is thrown out there folks tend to get there panties in a bunch. As some have here then come back with a better mindset. Funny how that works.
I personally have never shot a mile or even past 1000 yards. I spent 2 years behind a scope sending thousands of rounds down range, it was a job, and I did it well. That was back in 1978 to 1980. I shot in every shooting condition possible, high winds, rain, snow and shine. I still play with the long range shooting just to keep my skills somewhat sharp. Although at my age I see things going south, but I'm still "Not Bad". No where near how I could shoot back in those earlier years.
With all of today's technology it is making it easier to shoot a long way out there. Sub-MOA rifles are a dime a dozen these days, optics with dials and dots/hash marks, and of course Laser Rangefinders that tell you temp, altitude, angle corrections & give you a shoot to range. Hand held weather stations that give you wind at your shooting position along with all the other climate stuff you need to know. Hand held PC's with sophisticated software programs loaded. Tremendously high BC bullets that seem to have wings and stay in the air a long way!
I commend you guys that have all posted on this thread since it seems you have put in the time to learn how to shoot! It's truly amazing what technology can help you with in today's long range shooting world.
Love the comments from the guides also. I'm sure it's all true & sad to say the least. I've seen some of it around here and talked to many others that like to talk about it.
Morals, Ethics, beliefs, & principles all boils down to your freedoms to choose in this wonderful free country that we all live in!
Now I don't want to ruffle any feathers here, I just have one question. How many of you take into account the projectile flight time? I am sure you know how many MOA or Mils or even inches your bullet drops or how much your bullet will move with a full value wind. But how many of you put limitations (on yourself) as to your max shooting distance based on flight time?
If we took Tanners limitation of being able to hit a 8"x11" target (Cold Bore) every time and lets say that is 700 yards (just as an example). Do you even care what your projectile flight time is?
My point here (I'm sure you are wondering by now) is if your animal moves at the break of the trigger and you have a dead hold on the center of the 8"x11" kill zone:
if the animals moves at a mere 1 ft/s to the left, you just shot him in the guts @ 700 yards.
Lead is 10.1" with a 7mmRM 168gr Berger w/a muzzle velocity of 3000fps @ 700 yards. And the time of flight is just under one second (.840 of a second to be exact).
This is why I don't hunt/shoot big game animals at long range. Varmints all day long, I have no moral problem with that, but on Big game
I'd choose to keep my distances under 500 yards. With this Rifle/cartridge combination because @ 500 yards if my target moved I could still at least keep the bullet in the back of the lungs. Since flight time is just over 1/2 second and the lead is half of 7".
So since I don't own a 7mmRM but still love shooting at long range on steel, targets, & varmints my Ethical (honorable) kill distance on Big Game is 300 yards max. And would only take the 500 yard shot if I had all the time in the world to observe that animal and be able to pattern his/her movements & angles. Then I would start reading wind & all of the other technical stuff required to be able to kill that animal quickly.
I've enjoyed this thread and hope it continues sensibly.
