Thread: Experienced Advice Appreciated For Long Range Hunting

My brother and I have got two different takes on hunting, I thought I'd share with you guys. I know he will be reading this thread, so please feel free to offer up your advice.

We're both new to any sort of long range hunting and we've just gone to the range recently to test where our rifles are shooting out to 200m (that's as far as this particular rifle range will allow).

We've got the deer block booked for next weekend, which involves shooting at longish ranges out to around 700m, however, we haven't tested our rifles out to that range yet, so we don't know where our bullets are actually going to shoot?

It's supposed to be a two day affair (Saturday and Sunday) and my theory is to get there first thing Saturday morning and shoot the rifles out to 8-900m or so, (at a framers place that neighbors the block we intend to shoot) that way we can see where the bullets are going and therefore be more comfortable that we're liable to connect with something, then do our hunt later in the evening. My brother, on the other hand, wants to get there early, get lead in the air ASAP by shooting at deer out to ranges previously untested, then later that day, at our leisure, after the dust settles, and sometime after the wind whips up, start to shoot targets and see where we went wrong!

Now, to me that's a kinda putting the cart before the horse, style of thing, I mean, come on imagine it, you've got to then get in behind the cart and push the blastard thing and drag the horse on the strength of it, or, at the very least hope the horse is gonna follow happily along behind you, so you don't have to drag him... it starts creating all sorts of problems IMHO.

What do you guys think, to firstly do the hunt and aim blindly shoot in the general direction of the animal in the hope that a wild child bullet grazes it's hide or, have a better idea of where your bullets are gonna go, by shooting at targets, out to those ranges, before hand? What's the standard procedure or is there none?