I almost got to use my load at 800 yds yesterday.

m14dan

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I have developed a load for my sniper type m-14 using a 168 barnes x bullet and I have had really great results way out to 1000 yards and I am not even getting close to dangerous pressures or anything. Yesterday I was laying down prone on the edge of a feild getting the scope dialed in on a 800 yard big old buck and sure as luck would have it another hunter steeped right in my line of fire about 300 yards from the deer. I thought he was gonna shoot it himself as he was scoping the area where the deer was and it wasn't exactly hiding either. They both stood there for more than ten minutes then the deer moved and the other hunter started flinging bullets in that direction off hand. Yeah right I was laughing to myself. It looked like he had a rem woodsmaster in his hands. The cartrige was sure capable but darn sure not the gun. I came so close to pulling the trigger and lobbing one directly over his head to kill the deer but I thought it would be much safer and more fun to hear his stories back when we got to camp and have a good laugh over the one that got away.
Turned out the other hunter was a poacher probably since nobody else admitted to the deed of missing 5 times in a row. Would you guys have taken the shot if you knew without a doubt you would hit the target? From a safety point of view?
 
It sounds like you made the right choice. Most of us would do the same. Including myself. I know it would be tempting! But I would have to pass

If I knew someone was there, even if I couldnt see him in the scope, even if he were in the general direction, I would still pass.

Hunting isnt like being in a hastoge situation where the shooter might have to shoot an inch away from a hostages head to incipasitate his target.

In this day and age activists are looking for any angle to smear hunters like us and even some hunters dont generaly like long range hunters as most of them think we are not responible. Even though we know we are because of the intense practice and knowledge we aquire that our practice and research leeds us to. I belive a true long range hunter can take game more cleanly more often at 600 yards and beyond than a typical hunter can at 200 yards. That hunter may out hunt us any day of the year, but he will never out shoot us. Most typical hunters do not understand this though and most would be ****ed off if we pulled a stunt like that

That is just my opinion.

Keep up the good ethics!
 
Oh he was in my scope. I was real careful to keep the crosshairs well clear but he was in it. I was just talking to my hunting partners again and they are pretty mad about the guy that got in my way. Poachers aren't looked upon very well here in texas. I was invited on this hunt because of my ability to hit far off critters. Nobody has been able to get any deer yet. They are a little upset at me too because I had no less than 16 deer I think in my crosshairs that day. I didn't shoot any though. I kept seeing all the does and figured a big buck just had to be around somewhere. I saw a couple smaller ones earlier but not getting to shoot the big one has us all kinda ticked really. We are meat hunters more than anything and I really should have taken a couple doe but just couldn't bring myself to it. I hope I am not getting old. I just turned 35. My grandad went hunting all the time and just watched the deer too. I think he enjoyed being out of the house more than anything. Last night on the way home I tried to tell them why they never get any deer. They pay no attention to the wind whatsoever and romping around in the open fields all day sure doesn't help much either. I snuk into a field where one of my freinds was in a stand and watched two doe go through about 50 yards from him and a whole load of turkey. He must have been sleeping. He never saw me and neither did the deer or turkeys. Later on the other freind walked by loud enough to wake the dead and I just stayed quiet hoping maybe he would scare something out down the fence line. He never saw me either. The truck sure got quiet when I explained all this to them. Were still freinds though.
 
One thing I'm very careful about is how I'm perceived by others in the field (hunting field, outdoors, walking around field).

Max ordinate would probably have been WAY MORE than enough to actually put the fella in no danger BUT you may be putting yourself in danger by taking the shot... If the fella had some experience and heard the "crack", turned around and saw you he may be inclined to take the action as hostile... could turn into a bad situation... from his end it may look like deliberate fire on his position!!


I've been "scoped" by quite a few hunters (mostly out west) and many of these seemed intent on studying my person to great lengths even with me obviously glassing them through binos... From my end the situation looks like this... I'm a big "hunter orange" blob in clear view being carefully examined by a person with a rifle (rather odd feeling by the way), several long seconds to perhaps nearly a minute later this activity ends. I clearly indicate that I'm actually "alive" and watching the events by acknowledging with an "arm wave". If that fella fires a round at me what am I to do??? Take it as a deliberate hostile action seems to be the obvious option.


As a side note... I have hunted in parties that during the course of events have fired over one anothers position(s)... this is with an understanding of the likelyhood of the event before this same event happens. We agree on this option and it's acceptable to all concerned (we trust one another).
 
I kinda figured you guys would agree I did the right thing not taking the shot. I am still pretty mad about that guy though. On a 10,000 acre ranch out in the middle of nowhere and I get some nut poacher in my line of fire. What are the odds?!
BTW I rarely if ever use orange down here. It's legal on private property. I was tought some pretty neat stuff about concealment and LOOOOOONG shots in the military and still use it to my advantage in the hunting woods. My son and I almost got run over by a farmer on his tractor once laying in a grassy field we were so well camoed. When I sat up that farmer about had a stroke! If I had shot te deer yesterday this guy never would have seen me or been able to tell where the shot came from. Flash hiders do a little more than just conceal the muzzle flash. They also disperse the sound in all directions making it almost impossible to zero in on it. I have been in a big hole on our 1000 yard range neer our silhouetts on our hunting lease while my son shot from various places with my rifle and I never could tell exactly where he was. Did any of you all get nice big deer this season. I didn't but that's ok, we got lots of prairie dogs and still got deer in the freezer from last season. It was my sons first deer season and we really tore em up last year.

[ 12-29-2003: Message edited by: m14dan ]
 
right in the line of fire? no. however, if i was a safe distance above the hunter in which case the bullet has no chance of coming close to him while in flight, then yes. much like shooting over a road, i wont do it if the road is in line, but i have taken shots at game in which i'm high enough to shoot over the road, including the power lines beside it, into fields on the other side.
 
Not if he was in my scope or any where close.
Regardless of skill! Now... If he was in the bottom of a draw and I was well above him. I'd be shootin!
I've had the pleasure of taking out a number of young hunters. Not insinuating you are young.
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. I mean 8yrs and up. Nothing quite like being a part of that. One of the things I've always told them is... If you have to think about it, Its not safe.
Not tring to be a smart ***.
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I've been in other hunters scopes and had some bullits wizz over my head...Close! Its not a good feeling.
I don't know how long your season lasts in Taxas,but if the season is still on, you get to keep huntin him. Hope you still have the vacation.
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Good luck!
 
No. Not to say he'd of been in danger if off to the side far enough, just not something I'd do, or want done with me.

I just had a guy this last summer shoot near me from about 600-700 yards away while target practicing out on the river bar. He parked his rig and what looked like something to shoot off of about 100yds away from us and headed off to the sand dunes to my 10 o'clock to set up what I thought was a target. When he fired back to us from up there, I looked over as I was about to shoot my rig and saw he had set up a target up next to us, not something to shoot from! I heard the bullet ricochet past us, then the blast, right in the direction of my house across the bare river bar! No friggin backstop with a subdivision a mile or so away. I refrained from firing back, barely. I yelled at them and they jumped in their pickup and drove off the hill and took off! A$$holes! I was HOT!! But couldn't catch the little ba$tards!!
 
168 xlc at 2650 fps. zero 800 the bullet is 66 inches high at 300 yards. Bullet in the brain pan on a 6 foot man on level ground.
 
I like that "bullet in the brain pan" . funny!
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I was slightly higher than him but still you gguys are right. It wouldn't be worth it. I have been shot at in the woods before a long time ago before I learned the art of concealment. It was a nut up a tree with a muzzleloader on my property. I did shoot back though. At the base of the tree, not him. These days I may not have simply killed the tree though. I was shot twice 2 years ago in the army and lucky for me they were both grazing shots but the one that hit my helmet, cut my left ear and took me right off my feet. The other scratched my ribs. It was from an m-60 that somehow got out of control 5 feet away probably due to a loose nut behind the trigger. I practice safe hunting as much as possible and I can definitly see where it wouldn't be cool shooting near someone. I have been taking my son hunting the last few years and it wouldn't be much of an example for him if I took the shot either. I am sure glad to see so many of you all feel the same. I wish we had more responsible hunters around here. I left my last lease because everyone else was drinking too much. They would be drunk as a skunk when they went off to their stands. I really didn't want me or my son around that. One night I even took everyones bullets that had been drinking. That didn't go over too well. They were playing with their guns in camp though. How would you have liked one of them types of hunters getting you in his scope?
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