I do not know anyone who has ever attempted (or would ever attempt) a 500 yard shot on a deer.
Maybe I'm too cynical, but it seems as though folks are trying to substitute technology for skill.
I agree. Hitting at distance is not a deterministic event based on technology. It is based on skill. Range estimation is of course critical, but having shot at distances out to 1000 yards, I am very skeptical about those who think they are going to line up the sights, yank the trigger, and hit sometime way out there. The further you go out, the more little errors in sight alignment and trigger pull make the bullet go wide. And then, unless you have zero'd your rifle at that range, how do you where its zero is at that range?
Here, because I had previously zero'd this rifle at 300 yards, with a similiar load, I was very happy to get a pin wheel ring first shot at 300 yards. So at 200 and 300 yards, I have a lot of confidence in my hit probability. If the range was 350, not so confident. I could make estimates of elevation.
Here was an attempt to zero that rifle at 600 yards. There are about six shots off target. With even a 300 yard zero, that Burris scope was not exactly 4 clicks per MOA, it turns out, it is closer to 3 clicks per MOA, and, windage was slightly different.
Once in the ten ring, sure, if I knew the exact distance, yes, high probability of hitting the 12 ten ring at 600 yards.
Was doing it another day, with another load. But, I had a previous zero to work off and this group is shots 11 through 20. Sighters make a big difference in getting a group centered. Also, cracked case necks will fling bullets unpredictably. I am shooting up old ammunition I loaded up decades ago, before I learned that gunpowder deteriorates.
Composite group
For those who want to make consistent 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000 yards shots, just how are you determining your zero at distance? Through books and ballistic calculators? Those might get you on a 16 foot by 16 foot target, but I have pulled targets at 600 and 1000 yards where the shooter on the line was hitting the berm, or targets to the left or right, based on book values. If the shooter hits the berm or a target, we can walk the bugger onto the black. If however, he is shooting so far above the target, that he is hitting nothing but air, it is going to be a long day in the pits. At one of the range I shoot, you get five sighter shots to hit the 1000 yard target and then we stop pulling. Target pullers got tired of 10-20 minute sighting periods where shooters did not hit the target once. Aggravates everyone. And yet, people think they are just going to show up with some book value for a zero, dial it in, regardless of wind conditions, and they are going to hit some animal. Well sometimes they do. We are not also seeing, the misses and lost animals.
Do you feel robbed? Robbed because your technology can't compensate for poor shooting skills, skills that you don't even know, you don't have? That's being so incompetent that you don't even know you are incompetent.
