I think the choice is all context related, and flight time is just one part of a great many things to consider. The difference between a "stationary" shot on a moving animal and a moving shot on a moving animal is significant.
I am just fine launching a bullet at an animal out to 1000 yards even though time of flight is long. The question is whether the animal is likely to move. I've watched through glass and my scope, and counted seconds how long animal tend to stay in one position, and when they are likely to move. When calm and feeding, there is most definitely a rhythm to movement and there are highly predictable windows large enough for high confidence.
I hear and see repeatedly people say, "an animal can move during the time of flight of a bullet, so it is unethical". But, those same people fail to mention other time related factors, so I don't think they have put much thought into it. I think it is their personal preference, and that is fine with me. I have no issue with whatever someone decides is right for them.
I have used "scientific" method to test my hypothesis that I could make ethical shots and there were points at which a very high confidence existed. So, I evaluated whether I could confidently make the call to shoot with the certainty necessary to make it ethical. When scouting, I practiced hundreds of times deciding when I would pull the trigger and then counted to three to see if the animal moved. If anyone did it, I think you'd be surprised at the outcome. I did that enough, to develop a high confidence that the bullet would get there in time. I would say that I have a greater confidence that a coues deer won't move on a long range shot than I would that the little bugger won't jump the string on a bow shot.
Of the compounding factors that made a miss on an 80 yard bear vs. rolling a moving 250 yard bear, there is one that has nothing to do with the rifle. In the conversations about flight time, very few people recognize the neurological processes required to fire a rifle or bow, and that actually causes more misses than "flight times". With the moving bear scenario at 80 yards, there is no way the stride of the bear was such that just the flight time made that great of a miss. And, on the other shot the bear didn't cover 15 feet in the fraction of a second it took the bullet to travel 250 yards after the primer popped.
The difference is explained best by comparing shotgun shooting. The reason you swing a shotgun when you fire is in part because of the flight time of the pellets for sure. But, a greater issue of target movement is the variability and the built in lag time of neural processing the decision to fire and then the actual firing. There are multiple paths that impulses travel from our brain deciding to shoot and the finger breaking the trigger. And, there is even a processing or perception error baked into the system, that when we think we press the trigger is earlier than even the neurons start firing.
The brain can't make so fine a calculation to determining timing the firing on a moving target with a static gun. So, on a moving target, our brains can't calculate the time appropriate so that we can maintain a static firing position on a moving animal. Because, no matter when the shooter thought he broke the trigger on the animal, he most certainly broke it later than he perceived it. Thus, the target had already moved because he didn't factor in all of the compounding factors that delay the bullet reaching the target, besides time of flight. You have to factor in far more than flight time. You can't hit a pigeon at 40 yards without swinging the shotgun and having your brain already built in the intuitive calculation. How do you think you can hit a bear at 80 yards without factoring in everything else.
Our brains are really effective at working out a solution that factors all of those things in, so we can intuitively know how far to lead an animal with enough practice. Its why you can get into a groove shooting shotgun once you get "the feel" for it. Your brain has subconsciously built the algorithm and as long as we have that amount of lead built in and are maintaining the appropriate lead at all times, then it doesn't matter what delay there is, because the amount of delay is baked into our brains algorithm. And, once that is there, our brains can then amazingly adapt it to pigeons crossing, moving away, and any combination.
And, that intuition is what allows a guy to know how far to lead a bear at 250 yards and roll him. It wasn't a calculation of flight time of the bullet. It is the brain's amazing intuition from prior practice that creates an algorithm.
how bout supercalafragilisticespyalladocios? lol
