Those l-o-n-g shots
Just to post something- I am bored with reading only...
Bought some meat at a butcher's during my holiday in the Eastern Cape. Kudu country, very dense bush, so shooting (hunting?) is slope to slope across the valley. This guy had many photo's of himself and his dead kudu in his meat shop, taken over the years, with distances like 733 yards, none closer than 500.
Talked to him a little and I came to the conclusion he was an excellent marksman but not so good in range estimation..
But it is true, some guys regularly shoot springbok with their .270W at 300 yds. They also wound some.
An animal shot at such long distance accross a valley may jump and run away and when you get to the position where he stood, and if you can find it exactly after the 600 yards slog through the dense bush (if you even take the trouble to go there) you may not be able to follow the tracks. To make certain that it was NOT wounded is rather necessary, I believe.
I once went out with a hunting party in Namibia, all members of a local legal firm - they in fact chartered my aircraft to take them there - so I hunted with them, except that I walked on my own. I am not a corporate man.
I hunted each area the day after they had hunted it. Found one of each kudu, gemsbok and hartebeest and a few springbok carcasses, most of them with perfectly placed shots.
Lesson? If the animal does not drop dead at your shot it does not say that it was not a perfect shot. So one must take the trouble and check out carefully. But worse, it may have been a low or a high shot, or the wind may have put it into the stomach (although the slap of the strike is unmistakable)(Of course I've done it.(Twice!).
Problem is, with that LONG shot you may not find the exact position where the thing had stood and then you have a problem to get all the facts.