I bet the miss had more to do with the tough position than any thing els. Look at the picture of where he shot from. No one is in disagreement about proper equipment and practice as well as proper dope and a consign indicator. No one is saying different from what I have read here.
I agree, BUT the OP stated himself that his dope was off due to angle so I have to take him for his word.
I have some self imposed rules I try to stick to and I broke them last night; I try not to post when I'm pissed or frustrated. I can't seem to get my point across about this deal.
The thread is about each person's limit of distance that they are able to make one shot kills. Yeah, sometimes there are misses and that's not the issue here. The issue is why the miss happened.
If the miss is directly due to the shooter's lack of preparation for the shot that he has total control over and simply not because "stuff happens", then the question of honor or ethics comes in.
What frustrates me is that aren't any here in this discussion, save 338Norma, that understand the point. I thought more here who post, would.
First, like I've said before, I can't imagine in any situation, hunting or Match shooting, being so negligent in making sure my load data is dead nuts accurate at the location that I will be shooting. For hunting, not to do so is a huge ethics problem as I see it.
To me it's THE most important thing in this game. I'm blown away that so many think its trivial.
What we have all been talking about here is making your best effort to make clean, one-shot kills at your personal limit of range. If you don't account for data differences, a certainly controllable factor with I think is a basic, fundamental prerequisite for anyone wanting to hit a target at long range, I have to call it as I see it. Amazing to me that not many here think that it is important.
The entire reason I hung photos was to illustrate that very fact. The pics were of very small targets that were taken with first round hits at some fairly long ranges for some. If i had not made exactly, positively sure that my drop data was correct for each of the locations, do you think there would be any possibility of accomplishing this? Do you think that not taking an elevation change of 3000' would yield the results? They're certainly not 24" targets.
Secondly was the position. I think his rest would easily be good enough to hit a 2 foot target at 565 yards if any type of practice positionally was had. This is in the shooter's control as well. If you haven't had the practice time in positions like this, you have to pass on the shot to be ethical. Like was posted earlier, it increases the probability of wounding by a ton, EVEN if your dope is perfect.
Now, go back to wildwyo's initial question to the board which showed a picture of an elk at a known range of 565 yards and if I thought it was Ethical to set up for the shot.
If he would have provided the information that his data for his load he dialed was for 3000' lower and he would be shooting from an unsteady position on a rock for which he had little practice to further complicate the situation, my answer would have been different
...and yes Tanner, I've missed. Once.
