The 10 ring is 8-10" wide at 200-300 yds, but then it's 20" wide at 400-500 yds? I mean, do men or deer suddenly get 5x as much surface area, just cause you are shooting at them from farther away, or what? An 8" diameter circle has a 4" radius, which is 16 when squared, x 3.14, is 50 square inches of surface area.. A 20" circle has a 10" radius, squared is 100, x 3.14 is 314 square inches.
Everything about the long range matches, from the wind flags to the spotter shots to the large, black bulls on white backgrounds to the numbers on the targets (so yoou don't shoot a nice score on the next guy's target) is intended to help you kid yourself about what range you can be effective at, when in the field.
Granted, you get to have a scope and a bipod, which aint allowed in the matches, but when you go prone, most of the time, you can't see the target. So the best firiing position that you can count upon arranging, in the field, is sitting with the rifle rested across your backpack. Also, while you can use bthp match bullets on men, they don't expand in flesh, so they are inhumane on animals, and softpoint hunting ammo is not nearly as accurate as those match rds.
Bullets take time to travel 1200 ft, guys. about 1/2 second, with the fastest big game loads available. It' really easy to take a step in 1/2 second, and just 1/2 step means that you gut hit the animal. So long range shots at game best be taken only on animals that are bedded down, or the shot is being made by a jerk who doesn't care if he makes an animal suffer for 1/2 hour or more while he tries to find and finish the cripple.
As Jeff Cooper has said" You should not brag about making long shots in the field. Instead, you should apologize for not taking the time to get closer to your quarry."
I spaced paragraphs, and indented the first words, but this program won't accept such editing
Everything about the long range matches, from the wind flags to the spotter shots to the large, black bulls on white backgrounds to the numbers on the targets (so yoou don't shoot a nice score on the next guy's target) is intended to help you kid yourself about what range you can be effective at, when in the field.
Granted, you get to have a scope and a bipod, which aint allowed in the matches, but when you go prone, most of the time, you can't see the target. So the best firiing position that you can count upon arranging, in the field, is sitting with the rifle rested across your backpack. Also, while you can use bthp match bullets on men, they don't expand in flesh, so they are inhumane on animals, and softpoint hunting ammo is not nearly as accurate as those match rds.
Bullets take time to travel 1200 ft, guys. about 1/2 second, with the fastest big game loads available. It' really easy to take a step in 1/2 second, and just 1/2 step means that you gut hit the animal. So long range shots at game best be taken only on animals that are bedded down, or the shot is being made by a jerk who doesn't care if he makes an animal suffer for 1/2 hour or more while he tries to find and finish the cripple.
As Jeff Cooper has said" You should not brag about making long shots in the field. Instead, you should apologize for not taking the time to get closer to your quarry."
I spaced paragraphs, and indented the first words, but this program won't accept such editing