Posted on 07/13/2016 10:32:57 AM PDT by w1n1
Recent advances in technology enable hunters or anybody to take shots at extreme ranges (TrackingPoint), no untrained shooter would even consider shooting an animal at such range.
Video from Extreme Outer Limits highlights hunters successfully making a 1,315 yard shot on a mule deer. These hunters were using a rifle chambered in .26 Nosler using 140gr Berger VLD bullets with a ballistic coefficient of .612 (an extremely aerodynamic bullet).
There's a mixed sentiment conversation taking place out in the online world whether it is ethical or not.
Some comments were: – the bullet duration time of flight taking too long, even for a high end long range cartridge. With the lag time other what could have happened was that the animal could have moved and be struck to only wound it.
– takes most of the "hunt" out of the experience and turns the experience into target practice on live animals. See the video here. What do you all think about this?
There is never a good reason to give deer a shot of whiskey, unless you are going to operate on the deer and whiskey is the only anesthetic you have.
Where is the SPORT in such extreme ranges? How do you hone your stalking and concealment techniques from a quarter mile away?
I agree with the last sentence posted: It takes most of the “hunt” out of the experience and turns the experience into target practice on live animals.
I abhor using live animals for practice.
When the fawn is bedded down, waiting for the return of its mother?
The word "ethical" has nothing to do with guns or ammo, but taking a deer.
Take a deer and eat it ?
The most ethical thing you can do.
Kill it n' grill it, as my man would say.
Then of course there are the Axis of evil. Yum. ;o)
Out in the great wide open a mile is not such a great distance.
Some times when hunting a half mile or quarter mile is as close as you can get.
1315 yards is 3945 feet or close to 3/4 mile.
Has been done long before the new technology and will continue even without the new technology.
Personally I would never take such a shot but there are serious hunters who can and have for many years.
If you’re hunting for food then the rule I was taught is: “If you can’t make the shot then don’t take the shot.”
If a shooter is skilled enough to make a 1000’ shot then God bless him!
Oh, and if it’s a coyote I’ll give it a go no matter what.
Well there was that one company that had a robot with a rifle on it on their ranch, and you could control the robot over the internet from the comfort of your couch. That’s going a bit too far I think... especially cuz they probably didn’t even send you the venison if you made a kill!
I see more military applications.
Instant sniper kit.
Asking the wrong question.
The proper question is whether it is unethical to kill for ‘sport’.
If you are hunting to eat, there is nothing unethical about the longer range.
A lot depends on the terrain...The 1200 yard shot is excessive, IMO...The longest shot I’ve taken was approx. 425 yards over a soybean field in Middle Tennessee with .270 cal Remington... No way to stalk over the flat, open terrain...Other than that, the longest I’ve taken is about 30 yards in woodlands...
OK, going to play devil’s advocate here. What is the difference between a guy that taking or missing a 100yd shot, which he thinks he can make, and a guy taking or missing a 1300yd shot he thinks he can make? What is a “ethical” range to take an animal from? Are bow hunters more “ethical” than rifle hunters, because their shots are normally 10-40 yds, vice 50-100+ yds? Are the guys that run up on wild pigs and stab them with a spear more “ethical” than bow hunters?
Did the animal suffer, was it just left on the ground to rot, or was it taken illegally? If the answers are no, then anything else is just anti-hunting fodder, IMO
As one who endured $8,000 damage to his fairly new Chevy Colorado and three weeks to get it back, (by the way Chevy guys did a great job), I vote, ANYTIME!
I got two coyotes with head shots with a .22 LR at 340 yards which is the best I’ve ever done. The bullet drop was almost 36”. OTOH, most of my kills with the Remington 700 .308 Police Rifle are all within 340 yard range ( My back fence is 340 yards away).
One man passing judgement on another man’s skill and ability based on their confidence and ability with their own weapon is unethical.
Not everyone is hunting for the “Sport” or the “Challenge”. Some are hunting for the meat.
A man hunting in the hills of the South East is not going to have the same experience or skills of long distance shooting as someone in Montana or Wyoming.
Neither is more ethical than the other. If the animal is dead and is not lost, wounded or needlessly suffering, the question of ethics has been answered.
Clean kill = Clean conscience.
What about Elmer Keith’s (in)famous long range 600 yard shot with a .44 magnum pistol! He got the deer.
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