Observations of Failures consistent with RS Testing

CTXhunter

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Feb 3, 2021
Messages
171
TLDR:Summary- (observed in one 30 minute YouTube video)
-leupold scope that didn’t maintain zero through
-poor shooting fundamentals
-poor shot with 300WM which led to wounded animal
-unsafe firearm practice
-overall a general rodeo that could have been avoided with training supplemented with better equipment.


I’d just like to share some observations from a video I just casually put on this morning over a cup of coffee. Had no intentions of making this post or roasting anyone. Not calling out the guy, never seen one of his videos before this morning. I’m simply putting my thoughts together on this post because I don’t post much here and don’t have any friends that give a flip about terminal ballistics and shooting fundamentals so I’m stuck here with you heathens. It’s a bit of a rant but please chime in.


With that being said, I’d like to walk through some red flags I saw as I watched this video. I think this type of situation is all too common in hunting and is great example of where some of cartridge/caliber debate comes from as well as the emphasis on “field shooting” like in the shoot2hunt courses.


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First and foremost, leupold scope and in the intro the guys says, “just checking out the guns and had to make a few adjustments but nothing major”. This for me appears to be consistent with the shifts in the drop test we have seen. To me this is absolutely major. Looks to be 3-4 MOA from point of aim- assuming it was zeroed before he traveled as he insinuated.

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Secondly he goes to take a shot at 360 yards from the prone position on a group of aoudad rams that don’t seem to be too spooked but somewhat aware of their presence. First I’d like to point out how high his shoulders/torso is off the ground. Doesn’t appear to be necessary given the shot angle. The bipod is also extended out very high. 360 yards isn’t a chip shot for most people and I would hesitate to take this shot at all given the position shown in the video. A proper prone with a good rear support at 360 is an incredibly high percentage shot for the systems I currently hunt with.

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He takes the shot and hits the animal pretty far back. I hear a lot about insurance on marginal shots with magnums. Well, here we have a shot taken from a long way off, with a poor shooting position and a marginal hit. How much insurance did it give him? He couldn’t spot which ram he hit or if he even hit it, so that wasn’t much insurance. He immediately looks over the top of the scope and says “could you tell?” And the camera man says “I can’t quite tell”. In my opinion the only reason he ended up with his hands on this animal is the forgiving landscape where the animal had nowhere to hide. Had he been in any kind of timber or vegetation that animal would probably have never been recovered. Had he spotted the shot/animal, he probably could have gotten a second shot off before they popped over the ridge.

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Lastly, just because I have to, I saw him apparently flag his guide 2-3 time just on camera. We have to remember as a community that these little tools will kill you or worse, someone else, if you’re not careful. Please don’t point your muzzle at the back of your buddies head.


He ended up getting close to the wounded animal and put it down with a shot while it was running at maybe 30-40 yards.


Two other things I will mention but not comment on as I’m not an expert, he was shooting some variant of Barnes bullets and his action had a complete failure and he had to completely take apart the bolt to get it to function in order to put the mercy shot on the animal. Im assuming the action failed because of the dirt? No idea. Anyway, like I said at the top of this thread- a rodeo and it didn’t have to be.
 

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Bugger

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 24, 2024
Messages
166
TLDR:Summary- (observed in one 30 minute YouTube video)
-leupold scope that didn’t maintain zero through
-poor shooting fundamentals
-poor shot with 300WM which led to wounded animal
-unsafe firearm practice
-overall a general rodeo that could have been avoided with training supplemented with better equipment.
That’s a slight variation on the classic Meateater episode recipe!
 
OP
CTXhunter

CTXhunter

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Feb 3, 2021
Messages
171
Im not worried about him getting views. I think it was mostly just lack of experience and training mistakes. I also did want to put the guy on blast. Seems like a decent enough guy. Just probably shouldn’t be videoing and posting hunts to YouTube which is probably true for a lot of us lol
 

TaperPin

WKR
Joined
Jul 12, 2023
Messages
3,590
I’m glad you called out the flagging - that’s way too common, and allowed to go unchallenged way too often.

The short bipod and rear bag is a double edge sword - it provides the greatest steadiness, but it is much slower to get on target and is not forgiving of slight humps between the shooter and target. Like anything, the more practice the faster it is to put into action and faster he shooter will recognize if it’s appropriate for the situation. I lost a bear that should have been a piece of cake because of the time and height limitation. Then antelope hunting the short bipod was useless, and then again shooting at a mule deer across a nearly flat meadow was impossible that down low. I haven’t hunted with a short bipod since, and when using a tall bipod don’t mind being fairly high up. Teenagers, wives and inexperienced adults in our social circle have reliably connected to 500 yards using a high bipod and no rear support. Of course each person has to test themselves in various positions to know what works and doesn’t.

I’ve lost a few wall hangers early on running out of time dinking around when it wasn’t necessary, and now use the fastest position for any given range. Even if the rifle had a bipod, shooting over a pack would be faster.

With many cartridges it takes 1/3 of a second to go 300 yards - I don’t know if the ram was walking, but if it was that’s a very common reason for hitting too far back. Too many shooters have no idea how far to lead, but can get fairly close with one Mississippi and dividing by 3. Saying the word “three” takes me right at 1/3 second, so that gives a quick estimate of animal movement during bullet flight.
 
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