Montana Guy
Member
Hello fellas,
I spent most of my life in NW Montana but now live in Northern Idaho, with stints in Utah, Washington, and parts of 12 years in Alaska. Now retired, my profession did not allow me to hunt in Alaska but I hunted the other states frequently. I was a certifed active Hunter Education instructor in all the states I lived in except Idaho. New hunters need to know, safety is the name of the game because you can never take that shot back once you pull the trigger. My strong belief; the measure of a hunt is not the kill but what you as an individual do along the way. Just as strong a belief; you must make a hunt, a kill, a prayer of thanks, and the complete salvage of the meat, by youself to call youself a hunter.
The one area I have learned about, for me, is the hunting tool, my rifle. I was taught, back in the late 50's spot the game at 300 or less and then stalk as close as you can so as to make an open sighted shot at less than 100 yards. This is all I knew until introduced to long range hunters here in Idaho 4 years ago. First Idaho is naturally open country or heavily logged on private ground so there are lots of opportnities on deer out to 750 yards. I had to learn from scratch so I decided to build a rifle, which turned out to be a Norma Super 7x61.
I did my homework and practice and last fall took one shot which hit both lungs of a 4x5 whitetail at 559 yards. The blood trail was broad and continuos until I found him 200 yards away bleed out dead.
This might not be long range to others but it was about 300 yards more than my previous long shot.
My next question to myself: is this fair chase. In our camp the shortest shot was 471 and the longest wss 1697 yds yes 1697. My quandry till next season, what is fair, legal,and ethical.
I spent most of my life in NW Montana but now live in Northern Idaho, with stints in Utah, Washington, and parts of 12 years in Alaska. Now retired, my profession did not allow me to hunt in Alaska but I hunted the other states frequently. I was a certifed active Hunter Education instructor in all the states I lived in except Idaho. New hunters need to know, safety is the name of the game because you can never take that shot back once you pull the trigger. My strong belief; the measure of a hunt is not the kill but what you as an individual do along the way. Just as strong a belief; you must make a hunt, a kill, a prayer of thanks, and the complete salvage of the meat, by youself to call youself a hunter.
The one area I have learned about, for me, is the hunting tool, my rifle. I was taught, back in the late 50's spot the game at 300 or less and then stalk as close as you can so as to make an open sighted shot at less than 100 yards. This is all I knew until introduced to long range hunters here in Idaho 4 years ago. First Idaho is naturally open country or heavily logged on private ground so there are lots of opportnities on deer out to 750 yards. I had to learn from scratch so I decided to build a rifle, which turned out to be a Norma Super 7x61.
I did my homework and practice and last fall took one shot which hit both lungs of a 4x5 whitetail at 559 yards. The blood trail was broad and continuos until I found him 200 yards away bleed out dead.
This might not be long range to others but it was about 300 yards more than my previous long shot.
My next question to myself: is this fair chase. In our camp the shortest shot was 471 and the longest wss 1697 yds yes 1697. My quandry till next season, what is fair, legal,and ethical.
