Are Accurate Long Range Rifles Really That Useful?

By John Heatherly

I love to attempt long range shots. Who doesn’t? The study and practice of long range ballistics is fascinating and fun but it raises an interesting question: Is long-range hunting humane? All Outdoor considers the issue in the following well-done piece.

Field and Stream guns writer David Petzal bought up an interesting issue recently. Are rifles that promise half-MOA groups at long ranges all that useful to most shooters or hunters? It is an issue that I have explored for several years. Today some rifles can shoot a tight group at 300, 500 or even more than 1000 yards, but so what?

Just like the super magnum craze of several years ago, now the “in” thing seems to be precision shooting at extreme ranges. Just last night on the Outdoor Channel I watched a program placing Ruger’s new Precision bolt action rifle. The shooters were sitting high up on a hill that looked like West Texas. One of the guys being interviewed was talking about regularly hitting targets with the new rifle out to 1500 yards. He finally began to miss at 1600. Wow!

Now, I have …read more

Source:: Patriot Outdoor News