The video that started this thread shows fabulous shooting, no question about it. And fabulous equipment, pushed to the edge of its capability by thoroughly knowledgeable operators.
At the same time, it is disturbing for several reasons, some significant, and some petty. For one thing it feeds the bozo shooters who wound at long range, and feeds the anti's who think anybody with a scoped rifle can kill at any range. There is no solving either of those however, no matter what we do.
Ethics enters every shot at a living critter, at ten yards or a thousand, mouse or moose. I'm no ethics cop and have learned finally that only God can ask other folks to obey his conscience. There are other more universal codes of conduct than personal conscience, fortunately.
Long rangers come over as defensive, which pushes them into denying reality at times, like the idea that at long range a bullet either misses clean or kills. That kind of claim raises more argument than it settles.
Long rangers would be better served to say up front that they like to shoot long, enjoy pitting their ability and gear against real field conditions, and put their hunting energy and learning into ballistics etc. In short, the risk of wounding an animal due to its movement, a puff of wind, etc. is a risk they are willing to take. That's reality and I handle that just fine. To varying degrees that's true of every shot at every animal at every range.
That’s far more honest and less argumentative than the song and dance about not missing and the “need” to shoot long (claimed by the same shooter on another of his videos about an 840 yard elk). Bow hunters kill all kinds of big game regularly, so the claim that long range is the only way to kill a particular animal rings hollow. I.e.: “Nah, it was just easier with my skills, and better odds of getting the critter to shoot from here rather than stalk closer. Plus, I have this fabulous long range gear and want to shoot a critter way out there."
As others have mentioned, we only see videos of successful shots. The odds are against this guy, even with all of his gear and ability, or we wouldn’t be swooning over what a shot it was. Look at the slight mirage and pulse wobble. The guy is extremely good at trigger control. But the inexorable math is that increasing distance from muzzle to target increases the probability of a miss --- for anybody.
Bringing up the many people who miss at close range as if that justified long shots is irelevant. It's not much of a defense for Ted Bundy to say it is OK for him to drop bodies in the woods because Jeffry Dahmer buried bodies in his back yard.
I’m not against long range shooting at critters by people with the ability and proven equipment. I suppose it makes me inconsistent, but I have fewer qualms about doing it on smaller predators and varmints than I do on big game.
The flaunting of long range shooting at big game bothers me, but I distrust that in myself because it is mainly intuitive. I suspect that the main negatives of long range shooting of game are still unseen and will produce unintended consequences for hunting as a whole. I know that in BC such long range shooting (and wounding) has closed some areas to hunting. Whatever happens, it is a new era, and that video shows Olympic, world class shooting.
