Slimfinn wrote:
So I just finished watching a series on a YouTube channel(I am not naming) Where they were out hunting and taking some long shots on small deer and not very successfully, missed, wounded and lost, wounded and recovered. At first I just shook my head and thought WTF. But it gives you a lot to think about, and wonder why they even uploaded the videos.
You read the comments to their videos and you can just image the variety of responses; chastising, supportive, defensive.
I will say it is great in that you can use so much of it to help educate other hunters. First off they were not under gunned and I am sure they have had plenty of trigger time, and know their equipment(and still miss). They showed that hunting isn't just physically demanding but also emotionally draining and how hard it can be to come to terms with a lost animal and not wanting to give up on the search. Long range hunting is not easy and technology isn't fool proof. You need to be ready for a followup shot(every time, they weren't).
My Rant (Why not try and get a closer shot, spot n' stalk not spot n' snipe, be a hunter not a shooter. You may loose that one opportunity, but the game lives to give that opportunity to someone else, it's all part of hunting. Do not give the non-hunting public/voters the opportunity to criticize and impose new more restrictive regulations!)
I will say also the guys on the channel do a fantastic job promoting fair chase, conservation, ethics, education, public access, and the outdoor way of life. They could have chosen to edit or not even upload this hunt, and not sure why they did other then to show the reality.
Well your rant simply makes the observation that folks today think they are WAY more talented than they actually are,after watching a few episodes of "best of the west" or similar program. After watching folks blunder shots at game for the last 45 years it has become very obvious that fancy rifles, premium bullets, and scopes with custom cut turrets, are only part of the overconfident attitude.
The part most of them never get after the 600yd shot , and the animal limps off; Is the simple fact that unless the game is hit "EXACTLY" where it needs
to be ( which is highly unlikely) you have now just wounded an animal, with a bullet that has arrived at the 600yd distance pretty much " out of gas" with barely enough grunt to have got it done correctly, had the hit been perfect. Having watched hundreds of head of game been fired at over my lifetime, I can tell you that "one shot kills" on shots over 350yds are
rare indeed................these movies showing instant kills on Big Bull Elk and Moose at distances in excess of 1000 yds from calibers that have diminished to about the energy of a 32/20 or 38/40.
Is a fantasy in reality......
Long range hunting is cool, and takes ALOT more skills than most actually have. The shows you have watched are the absolute truth, to the reality of most hunters" taking a poke" at one at 6/800 yds. Them documenting wounded animals draging themselfs off is exactly what really happens 80/90% of the time.............
E