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Mike Davis

Martin.....how far,how fast,what position is ethical can be sorted really quick by answering ONE simple question....are you minute of milk bottle capable 100% of the time????
WTF you ask???
can you CONSISTANTLY hit a 3ltr plastic milk bottle at a given range from given position everytime.....if you can,well you can chest shoot a deer at stationary deer at same range,afterall a 3 ltr milk bottle/jug is pretty darn close to 8"x8"
standing I will back myself to 75 yards on that...sitting braced on knees 150-200
prone over something 300-350
so thats about as far as a deer of pig is in trouble from me.
I cocked it up last month...took offhand shot at twice range normally would at 2nd deer as it exited left into fern,had bum and back half in view,led and fired...got over there with dog.found good half cup of blood,then another patch same size 5 yards away...this should be easy...1.5 hrs later,dog n I still going around in circles...eventually I went where dog,wanted in first place,where we had looked for blood 3 times...but its uphill you dopey dog!!!
no sign at all,no blood at all,kept looking and following Meg...we going in direction of home...highly P.O. with myself....go 4-500 yards and look ahead to see deers head looking at me from 50 yards...only head n neck visible,ears swiveling...took ANOTHER offhand shot at head,deer staggers forward so gets 180grn in boiler room...down she goes...get over expecting to see bullet graze in head..nope nothing,clean miss (I seldom try a head shot) gut deer and carry out whole as not far to wagon,get home and find fist sized hole on rump.close to spine...why the deer staggered....learnt valuable lessons
#1 dont take off hand shot at that range
#2 trust Meg,she knows better than me
#3 the hour n half helped,as deer had settled and stiffened up.
#4 poke hole in boiler room like I normally do and deer is going nowhere
I had got complacent after string of easy shots.
I do alot of offhand shots when targeting wallabies and get rather good at it...but score far more consistently if able to sit down and shoot off knees
Im enjoying this thread immensely,and funnily enough on another forum a chap has just come along asking pretty much the original thing discussion started about...buy a new rifle etc to shoot out to 1000yards and wanted to do it CHEAPLY...