wankerjake
Member
We had multiple DAYS of seeing not 20-40 deer, but 100-200 (per DAY, not throughout season) deer this past year. Once the colder weather hit, I had days of seeing over 500 deer within a half hour of driving past winter wheat fields.
This is what we're talking about. It's so easy to say "oh, you don't have to take long shots, that's BS etc" when you see that many deer a day. Even in open country you will have so many opportunities to stalk because you see deer every time you turn around. IT IS NOT LIKE THAT OUT HERE. How is this not understood? I haven't seen 500 muleys in the last 5 years put together, between hunting, scouting, hiking, driving etc.
If my choices are between a marginal shot i "might" make, or no shot at all
And here is the other misconception. The range a shot becomes marginal depends on the skill of the shooter. 400 yards is an impossible shot for some. For those who practice it's not marginal at all. If you guys actually had to adapt to shoot far you would, or you would go hungry more often than not. For deer, in the areas I hunt, I have to. Now if I have a buck at say 450 yards and there is a reasonable chance I can pull a sneak and cut that distance in half without the deer seeing me I'll try. If I can't, that's why I practice for a long shot. The deer aren't stupid out here. They don't have 80 other deer around to watch for them, it's up to them to see danger coming. They get in spots where they can see, and they set there most of the day unless they are spooked out. Ha ha, you guys who have never hunted Coues deer have no clue.
The way I hunt elk is a totally different story. My max range on my elk rifle is 250 yards, that's what I practice to and that's how closer I need to get. I hunt thicker cover and landscape that is conducive to pulling sneaks. It helps that there are a lot of elk, and usually I'm hunting antlerless elk. So yeah, I've "passed up" dozens of elk at 300 yards or more because they are out of range and I'll have more opportunities. Either I get closer, or go find more elk. I have filled every elk tag I've ever had. If that's all I did, I could sit behind my computer screen and call people bad hunters for not getting closer because I'd be ignorant to how things may be different elsewhere.
I would truly love all you guys who think shooting past 300 yards isn't hunting to come buy tags. We'll all camp out, and you guys can see what I mean. My guess is that you would be mad you wasted a trip to AZ because we "don't have any deer." We do have them, but you have to hunt them.