Thread: Who got the last laugh? You decide

That's a good write up with some good reflections at the end.

Focusing on low hanging fruit, my 2c on where to improve would be

1, get a rangefinder. you don't need to splash out big on these either, 2nd hand leupold that reaches out to 600 is plenty for what your doing. Also find out what the subtension is in your scope reticle.
Once you accurately know range, you can use the reticle subtension to measure distant objects, (measure size of animal). Even it is just a standard Duplex reticle on a variable scope, there are at least four solid increments you can use. If you have a ballistic reticle, even better.

2, if you aren't good at fixing a distant position in your head and going to it, use the range finder and a compass to work out the distance and direction. Then you can plot a waypoint to navigate to with a GPS. But ultimately this is a key skill in recovering animals you have shot, especially if you do any shooting in scrub and gorse.
A way you can make it easier is leave someone at your shooting point. That person keeps a visual fix on the position of the shot animal. When you walk to where it is they can guide you in. This can work by yelling, phone or radio. At night a lazer pointer in the hands of the spotter and a torch shining up into the tree tops from the finder works fairly well too.

One thing with steeper hills, is that from front on they usually look a lot more two dimensional than they really are, what can look like a cliff face overhang from front on, can actually be a walkable slope once your on it. In hilly scrub country the small dips and the walkable slopes become an optical illusion that compresses the dimensions of the landscape from a distance. It's a bit like stepping into a tunnel where the exit has a much bigger opening than the entry, it will look shorter than it actually is. It is not until walking some distance inside the tunnel than one can realise the true length. Hills are a bit the same.

Being good at picking a spot and walking to it is something that can be worked on. You don't even need to be on a farm with a rifle to practice.


3, With the up down shooting, inside 200m with a fast calibre, there will be very little practical difference in POI from inclined shooting. Unless you have a rangefinder and have practiced with a graduated reticle or dial, you will most likely get more innacuracy from distraction and overcompensation than you would get if you just ignore this factor and put the cross hairs where you want the bullet to go. Maybe avoid head shots if the ballistics are more marginal, but inside 200m and under 45deg, if you just aim for the centre of the boiler room without worrying about angle, you will still get an animal on the deck.

4, If you want to learn ballistics, download a ballistics app or two and have a play, I personally wouldn't recommend using it in real time in a hunting situation, but just punch in some different ranges and angles and winds and get a feel for your calibre. Also enter some scenarios from your trip, and see how much or how little certain factors affected your shot. Do this before you buy the rangefinder, it will inform you how crucial (or not) the angle compensations are.

5, Put a target out at 200, shoot it at lease 3-4 times, your rifle doesn't need to be zeroed for 200, but most if zeroed for 100 are starting to drop a bit by 200 so it is useful to know by how much. It will also inform your ability at that distance. It may seem like waste of bullets, but it's easy to waste many more trying to hit an animal by guesswork. If you can't get on paper at 200, adopt a shorter maximum shooting distance.

Keep at it, and keep practicing, unless your shooting mosquitos or shooting long ways out where spin drift and earth rotation becomes a thing, then instinctive shooting is better than over calculated shooting. Good instinctive shooting usually takes a bit of practice and experience.

Goats, especially the bigger ones, can take a solid hit in the boiler room, not visibly react and sometimes walk away like nothing happened. But then you find them 20-30 metres into the scrub with their lights out and with a pulpy mess where the heart or lungs was. You won't always get a bang flop, so having a spotter who knows what their job is and being confident of where the bullet went is hugely beneficial.