775yd moose

[LoonWulf]

Yeah, that's the excuse I always used when Dad scolded me for shooting a head big game downhill from the road or way down in a black hole - "But Dad, he FELL down there, I didn't shoot him down there."
For that matter, I remember once when Dad arrived on the scene as I was trying to drag a large mule deer buck out of a creek in the bottom of a very steep canyon. As usual, Dad started to say something about how many times he told me to not shoot a deer downhill from the road, and I told him, "But Dad, he wasn't downhill from the road when I shot him! He was just on the other side of the canyon!"

Doe on the road is better than buck in the bush........

 

[Cayle]

If you can make that shot it's not unethical.

I also notice a lot of people say it isn't "sporting". I laugh when people say this. "Sport" is nothing more than a word that people use to make killing something ok with themselves and their critics. There is NOTHING sporting about today's hunting with today's technology. Scent reducers, firearm ballistics, camo patterns, modern optics, food plots, etc, all designed to give the hunter the upper hand. Unless you drop from a tree naked with a knife between your teeth onto your prey I don't want to hear about "sport". Be honest with yourself. You like killing and eating things. I crossed that bridge years ago and don't hide it behind key words.

 

[BreechFace]

@Cayle agreed

 

[Varminterror]

I build/rebuild, develop, and practice with my “out of state big game rifles” and chose cartridges for them - 300wm and PRC - to enable me to reach as far as I can competently reach to deliver the shot. For some unfavorable conditions, shot opportunities, and field expedient support opportunities, that range shortens to near zero yards. For favorable conditions, shot opportunity, and support opportunity, I cap out around 750yrds. For me, that coincidentally - but conveniently so - aligns limits for impact velocity, flight time, and my field support precision relative to my tolerance for vital size for these rounds and rifles. Can and do I shoot farther? Yup. So I know where the bullet is going to go - but it’s not quite holding small enough and hitting fast enough for my desires. The difference for me to deliver that shot at 450-500 yards versus 750yrds is razor thin - either I have the support and shot opportunity, or I don’t.

Recognizing that I haven’t hunted moose and such my standard for precision is inevitably tighter on the elk, mulies, antelope, and bear I have hunted than that required for larger moose, eh, those ~25-30yards wouldn’t likely phase me in the moment - just add .3 more elevation.

I’ll cast a stone at a hunter flinging bullets offhand at running game, especially buckshot, far sooner than I’ll cast a stone at someone shooting game at 700-800 yards.

 

[daniel craig]

What's everyone think about this?
Is it un-ethical to take a shot at that distance if you know your skill is up to it?
Personally, I commend him.

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/giant-moose-775-yards/

Is it ethical? I think its one of those things where there is fine line and the answer is often determined by success or failure. He succeeded in taking the animal with a good shot.

Personally I think if you're that far away there is too much than go wrong and any little mistake on your end is magnified a lot at that distance. Also, something about shooting an animal further away than either it or you can even see/smell just doesn't feel like hunting to me, if feels like shooting/wannabe sniper stuff. I'd be a LOT more impressed if they glassed the animal at 700-800 yards and were able to play the wind and terrain to get within 200-300 (or less) yards of it and take the shot, because to me, that is using hunting skills and is therefore much closer to 'hunting'. I'm also super skeptical of any videos that get posted. We really have no way of knowing if that is that guys first shot at the thing. For all we know he had already missed a few times before that.

I also think that arguing ethics like this is a bit of a futile effort/waste of time. It's going to vary from person to person and you're not likely to change anyone else's mind. Decide what your ethics are and live by them, let others live by theirs. I'd never hunt with a guy who shoots like this but I'm sure plenty of people would, and that's fine.

 

[Aletheia]

The standard defence for extreme long range shooting of game is that I can make the shot because I do it regularly on the range. My response to that argument is that, as is the case in so many other circumstances in life that we can all imagine and likely have seen, the fact that you can do something is not a legitimate argument that you should.

 

[.38 Special]

The standard defence for extreme long range shooting of game is that I can make the shot because I do it regularly on the range. My response to that argument is that, as is the case in so many other circumstances in life that we can all imagine and likely have seen, the fact that you can do something is not a legitimate argument that you should.

I'd just like to see the scores if the targets were set to randomly move a couple of feet.