Thanks H20, I do a lot of shooting in the off season, and even more since I started reloading before last season. I was prone with the bipod spread and my pack beneath the butt of my rifle. Practically sand bagged in. Wind was negligible, more thermals than anything else. You can actually hear shortly before I shoot that I dry fire my rifle and then put one in the chamber before the shot. It was a practice run to make sure I could calm my breathing and hold a bead throughout the trigger pull. I was able to and was confident, let it fly, and the rest is history!
I did hit him a bit high in the back though. I actually needed 7.37 MOA or 29.5 clicks, but because my scope adjusts in 1/4s rather than 1/8s I opted to round up to 30 clicks. I knew if that VLD dropped in to the boiler room great, and if it ended up a touch high it would come apart on the spine. That's exactly what it did. At the end of the video you could see the bulge in his back. That was where the bullet blew out about a 4" circle of spine and the gut bag was actually trying to swell out of there. Never seen such a damaging bullet!
You're dead on when you say that with the right skill set, practice, and equipment knowledge you can hunt ethically at long ranges. I'd still take a nice BT buck in the vine maple and alder patch with the bow over something like this any day, but it's still awesome nonetheless!
