I really thought I was done with this thread, but I guess not. Look, alot of good points have been brought up here. Alot of not so good points have also been brought up.
As for telemark, I was not bragging about my 448 yard pronghorn shot. I was young and stupid and I really should have known better. As a preface I was a USMC rifle range coach and we shot iron sighted rifles out to 500 meters all the time, so I am a fair hand at estimating range, wind, etc at that distance. So I thought it was fine. I have since learned that even though it worked out that it was wrong. Kodiak beer understood and explained my meaning perfectly.
As for the bean field guy in MS, what you are doing is not hunting. It is going to the supermarket with a rifle. Which honestly I have no problem with. I know it's unrelated, but I also don't have a problem with high fence hunting as long as it's done right and the hunter doesn't try to pass the experience off as anything other than what it is. But thats another discussion for another time. Another way to look at the bean field "hunting" is to call it target shooting at live targets. You know the range precisely, you know where the bullet will go, precisely. So in all honesty there is very little that is unethical about it. I may not agree with it, but I don't have anything against it either. It's just not my cup of tea. But to take those kinds of shots at ranges you are unsure of, at a place you have never shot before, and with an improvised rest is just asking to wound an animal. These two scenarios are NOT the same thing. And I think that's the point here.
Also when I said a couple hundred yards, I was thinking more like 300 than 200, since some folks want to split hairs.
"The last day of season, and it was the only group of elk we had seen for a couple days"
A very good chance at going home empty handed does not give you an excuse to abandon morals and ethics. It should be viewed as a learning experience. I am glad (for the elk) that it worked out that time, but it very easily could have ended up badly. Try to imagine how bad you would have felt if you had wounded it and never recovered it. Would it have seemed worth it then? If you would be OK causing that kind of suffering just to fulfill your ego, then I pity you. I am not being mean spirited, I am just being honest and blunt. A sharp knife cuts the cleanest and hurts the least, they say. So don't take it the wrong way.
And for the guys who are habitual long range guys, I saw a funny poster once. It was a picture of a tree that had been felled by a beaver. You could see the stump with the tooth marks all over it and the log laying on the ground beside the stump. Then if you looked closer you could see the beaver smashed dead under it. The caption said "Just because you do something all the time does not make it a good idea" or something like that. Just food for thought. Ok now I'm done (I hope).