I need your opinions

[Demon061]

I was fixing to say...I wouldn't imagine the hadji's having Dragunov SVS or SVD's...But an Al Kadesh makes more sense. I forget they also made their own weapons.

When I was a kid I shot a Dragunov at a local shooting range, and have wanted one ever since. Those suckers got expensive over the years. Should have bought one years ago when they were 1/2 what they are now. LOL

Buddy who lives with me has an SVT-40 and a PSL (the receiver is a hunk of crap on that PSL, if anyone has a spare Nodak from when they made them or a flat let me know hahah) and they both shoot great. Interesting info on the 7n1 by the way, never heard of it having unusually nasty terminal effects I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Demon061]

I can respect that. I am always trying to improve as well.

The only difference is that I view long range shooting ability as a reserve skill that should be used only when needed, not a skill where a person sets goals to shoot big game animals at farther and farther distances. The farther you shoot, the lower the hit percentage which raises the probability of wounding and losing an animal.

I can hit paper at 1000 yards with excellent accuracy for hunting, but when I head out to the field to harvest game I am not looking to kill something at that distance. If my quarry is 900 yards away and there's a ridge 300 yards from the animal that I can get to in time to make the shot, I'm gonna head for that closer ridge. I respect animals enough to make the extra effort to harvest them with a high percentage shot for a quick and humane kill. That's just good hunting ethics. But to each his own. I am nobody to judge, just voicing where I stand.

A good philosophy on it, IMO. In the mountains where I hunt most years long distance shooting is a fact of life though. I've taken friends out into the bush here and usually what they're most struck by is the vast openness of Nevada.

Day 3

12 hours later. Lolz.

Love it here. Everything from brush busting and woods hunting in the high aspen country to ride to ridge shooting. All with a ton of grueling hiking =P Unless you're the guys who bum around on quads and scare all of the deer into their beds *eye twitch*

 

[LeddSlinger]

I'm not saying that long range shots on big game don't have a time and place, I just don't set it as a goal.

The farthest shot I have made on a big game animal was 655 yards and I didn't even want to do that, but a hunting partner wounded the buck with the first shot and it was getting close to going over a ridge in thick timber so I brought it down for him

Second farthest shot was on an Antelope doe at 643 yards. Normally like to get a little closer, but there was no terrain to allow a closer shot. We hadn't been seeing a ton of goats, it was getting close to the end of the hunt, I had a solid prone rest and knew I could make it so I took her down with one shot.

I'll admit, I'm proud of those shots, but I never go into the hunting field with the intentions of beating those distances. Perhaps one day a situation will present itself where I do make a kill at a farther distance. Dont know, don't care. But I will still do my best to make sure I always get as close as possible.