Thread: Are hunters taking longer shots these days?

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

People do shoot longer ranges than they used to - successfully - but those people have adopted it as a specific hobby.

(In the old days people used to shoot long range too, mostly unsuccessfully, shooting deer in the legs more often than not. )

But because it is heavily gear dependent (or people want it to be) manufacturers cater for the fashion and place advertising in youtube and tv hunting shows, which gives the impression that its more prevalent than it is. There's money in selling products to long range shooters. Like golfing.

Long range shooting has developed into a specialist hobby within the field of hunting. Like fly-fishing is to fishermen. You need specialised knowledge to do it, and you need specific equipment. But you dont need it to catch a fish.

Same with hunting clothing, used to be ex-army or whatever your mum allowed you to wear out of your closet. I've even seen guys out there in in old suit jackets - lots of pockets I suppose.

Long range shooting is a skill and it is 'gear dependent' there's not many out there who can accurately assess range. I was a bush shooter, it was where I was comfortable at and my scope of choice was 3X. Need good ears, eyes, nose and patience for that sort of stuff - much easier to 'farm shoot' if you can get access to such a place - and I did one of those 'hunts' a few years back and never fired a shot.
Saw more game than I ever seen, and they were all out there 400 yards away (I think) - and I doubted my ability to kill cleanly at that range.

On that trip 6 deer were shot, 3 recovered. The others ran away and the father of the shooter told me his son had taken over 350 fallow off that block - and I wondered how many had run off he hadn't bothered looking for.