Mountain Mule Deer Hunt Video!

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Mar 5, 2012
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Can’t say I’m impressed with that hunt, in fact it was terrible to watch. I’ve been on Rokslide for a long time and this wasn’t a good look.

You could and should have done better than that. You tried to help yourself with the voice over but in the end it didn’t cut it for me. Poor judgement, you missed your second shot by 3+ ft!

But you are right, it is arrogance. And a lot of long range “shooters” share this same mind set. But guess what, most will do the exact same thing the next time!


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I agree with your thoughts but I thought that second shot was off by 5 feet.
 

Steve O

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My interest was piqued with all the build up, “world premiere” on YouTube and all...I was very disappointed in what I saw and I’m surprised it was set out there for public consumption.

I’m very intrigued by long range shooting because I understand the difficulty. I’ll most likely never do it because I don’t have the stomach for situations like that shown and I won’t put myself into them. I’ll be happy with my unpunched tags from trying to get closer...

It’s not very often I’m disappointed with the decisions of management here, but this is one of them. Some judicial editing could have made that much more palatable. Situations like this happen no matter the range but I see much more harm coming from this video than good.
 

Ryan Avery

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Can’t say I’m impressed with that hunt, in fact it was terrible to watch. I’ve been on Rokslide for a long time and this wasn’t a good look.

You could and should have done better than that. You tried to help yourself with the voice over but in the end it didn’t cut it for me. Poor judgement, you missed your second shot by 3+ ft!

But you are right, it is arrogance. And a lot of long range “shooters” share this same mind set. But guess what, most will do the exact same thing the next time!


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I disagree, these kinds of stories need to be told and learned from. Too often in this industry, we only see the highlight reels. Why is it people love to attack long-range hunters? I know far more people that stick bull or bucks with their bows every year and never find them. Why does this seem to get a pass?? Hell, don't even get me started on trad bows. Then there is the Idaho legal muzzleloader that should be renamed the crippler or long death season.

No form of hunting is perfect so let's stop vilifying one way over another. Every person on here is one trigger pull or string release away from being in the same situation, no matter the practice or confidence in the shot. God knows I have. I would guess that 99.9% of the bad shots are never talked about or lied about. Justin made a bad shot and owned up to it. I would rather see the hard truth than most of the bullshit this industry is peddling these days.
 
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I think it's good to own up to the bad shot and decision making. I will absolutely say that's a bad angle to shoot a bedded buck at 800 yards. I've screwed that angle up at 200 yards! It was a lot easier to clean up my mess at shorter range and in sagebrush though.
 
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Maybe he should rethink long shots. He also had issues on his antelope hunt on the live hunting stories thread. He blamed his suppressor on that one
 
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I think it's good to own up to the bad shot and decision making. I will absolutely say that's a bad angle to shoot a bedded buck at 800 yards. I've screwed that angle up at 200 yards! It was a lot easier to clean up my mess at shorter range and in sagebrush though.
Agreed. Made the same mistake at 340 on my buck this year and was able to do the same, though it took all 4 rounds I had in my mag.

Kudos to @Justin Crossley for talking about it. I agree with @Ryan Avery , we can get into a finger pointing match whenever one of these videos come out and we need to talk about these mistakes more within the choir. I just hope an anti doesn't get their hands on a video like this. Those boys over at Elk101 got plastered for their lost elk back in '19.

We definitely live in a damned if you do - damned if you don't world with these conversations.
 

Fatcamp

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we welcome all respectful comments.

Here’s mine. I gotta back Justin for the simple fact he had the guts to post it. He knew what the feedback would be like.

And I missed a buck at 135 yards last year...lucky I don’t wound it.


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Ha! I just watched that video. Your hero status took a hit bud. Just being honest.

And no doubt this young man knew what he faced posting that. Wish I could say I never lost an animal. Horrible feeling for sure.
 

COSA

Lil-Rokslider
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How many “long range” shooters would take a $1000 bet they can hit a milk jug (coffee can at this angle) at 800 yards, first shot, cold barrel, wind inbetween unknown, new elevation, rifle/scope being hauled around the mountains for days, in field rest conditions? Odds of hitting it are way less than 50% for most. Nothing’s 100% at any yardage; I think over 80% confidence (think $1000 bet) is a good number to work off. A lot of people get overconfident at the range, but all of the small unknowns in the field get magnified at these long ranges. It seems that most of these long range videos have shots getting walked in by a spotter?
When a bad shot is made, it’s a lot easier to make it right when your not across a canyon.
And long range shooting is what I did for a living in a former life - not for me on animals though.


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Justin Crossley

Justin Crossley

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How many “long range” shooters would take a $1000 bet they can hit a milk jug (coffee can at this angle) at 800 yards, first shot, cold barrel, wind inbetween unknown, new elevation, rifle/scope being hauled around the mountains for days, in field rest conditions? Odds of hitting it are way less than 50% for most. Nothing’s 100% at any yardage; I think over 80% confidence (think $1000 bet) is a good number to work off. A lot of people get overconfident at the range, but all of the small unknowns in the field get magnified at these long ranges. It seems that most of these long range videos have shots getting walked in by a spotter?
When a bad shot is made, it’s a lot easier to make it right when your not across a canyon.
And long range shooting is what I did for a living in a former life - not for me on animals though.


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I think your point of view here is pretty close to mine. Before that hunt, I shot hundreds of rounds in varying mountain conditions at different ranges including quite a bit further than that. Is anything 100%? Not in shooting or hunting like you pointed out. My confidence when taking that shot was more than 80%. The part the video doesn't show is the 10 to 15 minutes it took to make sure I had everything set perfectly so I was as sure as possible of a clean kill. It doesn't matter and doesn't change the result.

It's easy for me (and others) to say I should have gotten closer, I should have gotten a different angle, I should have done any number of things differently.

The fact is that I screwed up on my shot and I can't take that back. I could have easily had Jordan edit the video so that it looked perfect and not shown the truth. The reason I told her to show it is that I wanted to show the truth so others could learn from it. I'm not proud of those results at all but I'm proud that we did everything in our power to find it and make a bad situation right.
 

COSA

Lil-Rokslider
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I think your point of view here is pretty close to mine. Before that hunt, I shot hundreds of rounds in varying mountain conditions at different ranges including quite a bit further than that. Is anything 100%? Not in shooting or hunting like you pointed out. My confidence when taking that shot was more than 80%. The part the video doesn't show is the 10 to 15 minutes it took to make sure I had everything set perfectly so I was as sure as possible of a clean kill. It doesn't matter and doesn't change the result.

It's easy for me (and others) to say I should have gotten closer, I should have gotten a different angle, I should have done any number of things differently.

The fact is that I screwed up on my shot and I can't take that back. I could have easily had Jordan edit the video so that it looked perfect and not shown the truth. The reason I told her to show it is that I wanted to show the truth so others could learn from it. I'm not proud of those results at all but I'm proud that we did everything in our power to find it and make a bad situation right.

Your overconfident and have may have not learned a valuable lesson. Your not 80% on a coffee can at 800 yards, unknown wind, etc. Hell, there’s up to 4” of play on a .5 MOA rifle at that range. Being wrong on the wind by 1 mph can move a bullet 2-4 inches at 800. I’ve shot with some very good professionals in the military (way better than me), and I’d take the $1k bet against them hitting a coffee can size target, 1st shot, with unknown variables.
I do give you credit for sticking with the trailing/recovery.


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PNWGATOR

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Justin,
Appreciate you sharing the video of your hunt. Jordan did a great job of putting it together!

Fact of the matter...sh!t happens in hunting.

There is no question in my mind that you did your very best on this hunt. There is no question in my mind that THE vast majority of hunters and especially Rokslider’s do the same.

When we kill animals, we want it as humane as possible.

Regardless if we shoot a stick n string, wheely bow, musket, over a bait pile out of a box blind, out of a tree with hounds baying, in the high country afoot solo with a svelt mountain rifle within 300 yds or a hunter proned out putting together a measured shot afield across canyon.

Sh!t happens and when we do this long enough, it happens to all of us regardless of your chosen discipline. We’re hunters.

I applaud your resilience and tenacity in recovering your buck and your willingness to share so we can all learn.
 
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