A game animal isn't the same as a target. Hunter ethics demand that we dispatch the game animal with the best chance of making a clean and swift kill. I'm sure this subject has come up here a zillion times. That means we match the rifle with our shooting ability. Let's face it, there are only a handful of popular hunting cartridges with the terminal ballistics that can cleanly kill an elk beyond 500 yards. Even so, you need as much knock down power as you can get at any range. In most cases, the rifle is more capable than the shooter. Very few hunters have the skill to hit a pieplate consistently at 500 yards....very few! Simple fact is that the probability of harvesting an elk goes up as the shooting distance decreases.
Having said that, the advances in rifle design, cartridges and optics have extended ethical ranges to a certain degree. My rifle kicks out a 130 gr streamlined bullet at 3100 fps. Yea it is a dang flat shooter way out there! However, I need 2000 fps at the target to get the bullet to mushroom. So my effective range is about 450 yds max. If I am at an ambush point and I have time; I use long range tools to get as much of an advantage as I can get for a shot within 450 yds. I have previously loaded my rifle profile via bluetooth from my phone to the rangefinder. I attach a wind meter to my phone and point it in the direction of the animal to get windage. After I lase the target and the elevation data jives with Strelok Pro on the phone, I dial up the scope and take the shot.
Stalking is another matter. A hunter is lucky if they have enough time to sit down and pull the bipod or use the pack. More than likely there is no time to lase let alone to dialup. That is what I practice most when I go to the range. Sometimes I will bet on a long shot at the track, yet most of the time I lose.
