Thread: Long-range hunting: is it sporting?

I'm inclined to agree with Sidney - to me hunting is definatley not a "sport".
So far as long ranging, I was brought up with the imperative to get as close as it took for the safest cleanest shot. Just how close that is depends on where I am (Tahr hunting vs bush stalking etc) and probably my experience in knowing if the shot is within the limits of me and my gear mostly with good gear my limit is me and human fallibility.
Now days we have better and more specialised gear allowing the potential to take shots at even longer range than before.
Just because the gear can do it doesnt mean the hunter is up to it. I feel a lot of the long range hunting drive is commercial- selling gear as part of a trend, Im not sure there would be enough people spending enough time at the range to use that gear to its potential.
What Im trying to say is by all means get the best latest gear to improve range and accuracy but i dont think its necessarily healthy to encourage a "mainstream" to be attemting very long shots without encouraging the experience to back it up.
There are lots of theoretical maximum effective ranges for different calibres all over the internet but bugger all (zip) to back up who hits what at what range how often and how cleanly.