yobuck
Well-Known Member
Well Jim, i would have more questions, but they would no doubt lead to a big controversy.yes , we shoot the same range all the time . yes , first round hits is what we all try for . shooting sighters would be ok at a target under similar conditions , not for hunting in conditions that we probably haven't shot in .
a couple years ago I was sitting on our firing line during deer season . it was snowing fairly hard , around zero degrees temperature . I had a couple of deer come out feeding just behind our one target . I think it was our 1500 yard target . I get the rifle positioned , find the deer , try to range the deer , and get all kinds of weird readings . 30 yards , 100 yards , 30 yards 400 yards . I'm assuming the rangefinder was getting screwed up by the snow in the air . I get a dope book out and see what I dial at that target . then I quit , I knew I had no dope for these conditions . after the snow stopped I ranged the target the deer were next to . the rangefinder showed I needed 17 more MOA than I had in my dope book . if I had shot at these deer I doubt I would have seen any splash with the snow in the air and being 17 moa low .
if I would have had a kestrel I could have put in the target distance and probably made the shot .
But let me share a true story about what can and has been done many times by quite a few people.
First realize that maybe 20 years or so ago, very few people had lazer rangefinders.
And for the most part the ones who did were using a stolen military unit, mostly Russian.
Those units werent eye safe either.
And even fewer people had ever heard of things like a Kestral.
Fact is to this very day, ive never even seen a Kestral.
And i can introduce you to quite a few others who never have either. Yet for many many years they have been successful at long range hunting
But to the story, which happens to involve one of my sons and his then 15 year old daughter.
She was at our camp for the first 3 days of the first week of buck season.
This happened on Wednesday, her final day.
They were going to hunt till noon, come back to the camp for lunch then make the 3.5 hour drive to take her home, so she could be in school the next day.
So they had to stay close by in order to maximize their hunting time.
He decided to go to a location about 15 minits from camp.
But as he arrived there, he saw there were already several vehicles at that spot. So he never even drove all the way in there but instead just backed out to the road.
Which as it turned out was a shame, because he would have found they were old friends from a nearby camp, driving vehicles he didnt recognize.
And they had a nice 4 point buck laying on the hillside that was illegal for them to shoot. But not for my grand daughter.
It would have been an easy shot for her and a very easy drag for him. And he wouldnt have even needed to get his equipment out of his vehicle.
None the less, he headed up the road not knowing for sure what to do.
When he reached the top of the long hill up the valley he came to another location he had never been to.
He had to park on the shoulder of the dirt road, and carry the gun, 2 sets of glasses, the tripods, and a portable bench about 100' down to the actuall lookout.
He had no information at all on that location.
He also discovered that he didnt bring a rangefinder.
But thinking they probably wouldnt see a buck anyway they got setup and started glassing.
There was snow on the ground which of coarse made for better glassing.
Within 5 minits he found a decent buck alone and laying down.
The only choices he had was to let it lay, or simply guess the distance and shoot.
Now here is where the rubber meets the road, and knowledge and experience pays off.
He knew he would be better off guessing long than splashing dirt on the deer.
So he guessed 900 yards and added that elevation to the scope.
Told his daughter to get on the gun, which he had already placed on the deer.
He got on his glasses and watched for the bullet trail, which went over the deers back, but caused it to get up on his feet.
He then used what is referred to as the one shot zero.
And rather than confuse people, it would be best to research what that really means, and then practice actually doing it.
She got back on the gun and dropped the deer on the second shot.
She hit it high on the front leg, right where it meets the body.
The deer limped off a few yards and stopped.
He told her where to hold and shoot again right now.
With that shot the deer dropped and slid down the hill out of site.
He carried all the stuff back up the hill and loaded it in his vehicle.
They then walked over to where the deer was and found it dead not very far downhill from where she had hit it the second time.
On 2 out of 3 total shots at about 800 yards with no rangefinder.
Now mind you thats not bragging, thats simply what knowledge and experience can mean for a long range hunter.
And no freakin Kestral will ever teach you that.
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