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If a hunter doesn't KNOW the range, the effect the wind of the day will have on his bullet at that range, the exact holdover for the range he knows is correct, the actual level of accuracy of his rifle at that range, he shouldn't shoot.
In addition, if conditions at the time prevent him holding his rifle where it must be to deliver the shot properly (that means a proper shooting rest of some sort), he shouldn't shoot.
My contention is that in real hunting situations the range at which I can say I have all those factors managed seems to be way shorter than many people here are using. Without special equipment, almost no one should be shooting beyond the known "point blank range" of their set up. (I assume everyone knows what that phrase means to most shooters).
There are posts on this thread that are from people who have the equipment and who know enough about ballistics to take very long shots, and there are posts from some who obviously should never shoot beyond 250 yards. Real hunting is not a theoretical activity. Things are going to suffer and die. We need to keep the suffering as unlikely as possible.
Because of all the variables, I can't say what my longest range is. Is the wind blowing? How hard? What direction? Same direction over the whole distance? Same velocity over the whole distance? Do I know how far away it is? (Beyond about 250 yards my range estimation by eye gets really bad. So does everyone else's.) Do I have my shooting sticks? What zeroing choices did I make at the range? You can see what makes me so nervous.
In real life I have very seldom shot at anything beyond 300 yards. I'm one of Bigbrother's more average people. When I'm hunting, I can't handle the math much beyond 400 yards, and unless hunters are carrying specialized equipment and have practiced using it on gun ranges that allow shooting at extreme ranges, neither can they. So they shouldn't shoot.
Then there is the whole question of what hunting is all about. Is it not important to hunters to get closer than a half mile to their game? What role does "the hunt" have in such decisions? I suspect there are a lot of bow hunters who see discussions like this missing a very important point.
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