If you visit your local gun range or sporting goods store, or pick up a current hunting publication chances are you’re going to hear or read an article where someone brings up the topic of long range shooting and hunting…and almost as soon as the topic is brought up a passionate yet often misguided and uninformed debate begins.
Questions like …What caliber do I need to shoot an elk at 1000 yards? What scope can I buy that will allow me to just range and shoot? Are often followed by …Is long range shooting really hunting?? Is it ethical to take animals at extended range? What ever happened to fair chase? Etc..
So the question then comes down to…What is it about long range hunting that fuels such debate?
I think a lot of the debate comes from the way that long range hunting has been portrayed on television and in turn capitalized on by manufactures hoping to ride the next hot trend into the sunset sitting atop a wheel barrel of cash. Now I don’t hold it against anyone for making money…and I dang sure don’t hold it against anyone who is lucky enough to make a living in the sporting industry…but I do have a problem with the lack of education that has been provided along the way.
This is where I think that we ought to throw away the term long range hunting and replace it with something called maximum effective range. What the heck is maximum effective range???
Maximum effective range is a simple yet vital term that describes your maximum effective range with your chosen weapon. It isn’t relegated just to rifles as it is essential to know your MER regardless of your choice of weapon be it a longbow , 338 Lapua or a muzzle loader. MER doesn’t come with a preset yardage it functions on a very tried and true method that you get out of it what you put in.
Each and every sportsman or women needs to know and understand their MER in order to make rational and measured choices in the field. MER is as individual as the hunters themselves and can’t be a blanket statement or fact that can be passed on from one person to the next. It is a learned and established distance that ought to be in the back of every hunters mind when they steady to take a shot.
The more you choose to practice and develop your skills and the better you learn to take advantage of the new technology and equipment available the further you can develop your MER.
Two essential steps in developing your MER include knowing your equipment and understanding your skills with the given weapon. This is where it starts to get tricky..in today’s world the sportsman has so much technology at their disposal that it becomes easy for them to take for granted that just because you can afford it …doesn’t mean you know or understand how to use it, and just because your caliber is capable of extended ranges it doesn’t mean your skills will support it! It’s easy to understand how this can happen when you can flip to about any hunting channel and watch with your own two eyes as a host takes an animal at a range that makes you go hmmm.
What you don’t see and what isn’t sold in a store are the necessary skills and understanding that it takes to make those types of shots in the field. All too often the sportsman relies on new technology and products rather than understanding and practice.
Very few hunters take the time to truly learn what their equipment does and how to properly use it to extend their maximum effective range. Those that decide to take the time necessary to school themselves in the use of their equipment and get out in the field to practice often find that it allows them to take shots beyond their old MER. For those of us who have learned and practiced what it takes to develop a consistent MER we have at our disposal a new tool to add to our hunting toolbox and when an opportunity presents itself that would have previously been beyond our skill set we can settle in for the shot knowing “ I got this”
Jordan@406
Questions like …What caliber do I need to shoot an elk at 1000 yards? What scope can I buy that will allow me to just range and shoot? Are often followed by …Is long range shooting really hunting?? Is it ethical to take animals at extended range? What ever happened to fair chase? Etc..
So the question then comes down to…What is it about long range hunting that fuels such debate?
I think a lot of the debate comes from the way that long range hunting has been portrayed on television and in turn capitalized on by manufactures hoping to ride the next hot trend into the sunset sitting atop a wheel barrel of cash. Now I don’t hold it against anyone for making money…and I dang sure don’t hold it against anyone who is lucky enough to make a living in the sporting industry…but I do have a problem with the lack of education that has been provided along the way.
This is where I think that we ought to throw away the term long range hunting and replace it with something called maximum effective range. What the heck is maximum effective range???
Maximum effective range is a simple yet vital term that describes your maximum effective range with your chosen weapon. It isn’t relegated just to rifles as it is essential to know your MER regardless of your choice of weapon be it a longbow , 338 Lapua or a muzzle loader. MER doesn’t come with a preset yardage it functions on a very tried and true method that you get out of it what you put in.
Each and every sportsman or women needs to know and understand their MER in order to make rational and measured choices in the field. MER is as individual as the hunters themselves and can’t be a blanket statement or fact that can be passed on from one person to the next. It is a learned and established distance that ought to be in the back of every hunters mind when they steady to take a shot.
The more you choose to practice and develop your skills and the better you learn to take advantage of the new technology and equipment available the further you can develop your MER.
Two essential steps in developing your MER include knowing your equipment and understanding your skills with the given weapon. This is where it starts to get tricky..in today’s world the sportsman has so much technology at their disposal that it becomes easy for them to take for granted that just because you can afford it …doesn’t mean you know or understand how to use it, and just because your caliber is capable of extended ranges it doesn’t mean your skills will support it! It’s easy to understand how this can happen when you can flip to about any hunting channel and watch with your own two eyes as a host takes an animal at a range that makes you go hmmm.
What you don’t see and what isn’t sold in a store are the necessary skills and understanding that it takes to make those types of shots in the field. All too often the sportsman relies on new technology and products rather than understanding and practice.
Very few hunters take the time to truly learn what their equipment does and how to properly use it to extend their maximum effective range. Those that decide to take the time necessary to school themselves in the use of their equipment and get out in the field to practice often find that it allows them to take shots beyond their old MER. For those of us who have learned and practiced what it takes to develop a consistent MER we have at our disposal a new tool to add to our hunting toolbox and when an opportunity presents itself that would have previously been beyond our skill set we can settle in for the shot knowing “ I got this”
Jordan@406
