Big-Game Hunting, as compared with Military Sniping
In yesterday’s Quip, I apparently succeeded in confusing the above issue.
When we’re hunting big-game animals (deer and up), our goal is (1) a lethal hit which (2) deanimates the animal within seconds. The animal (3) becomes comatose and dies quickly with (4) minimum suffering, and (5) does not run any significant distance after being hit, and (6) the vast majority of meat is salvageable and ultimately consumable.
When hunting “varmints” (coyotes and down), our goal is pretty much the same, except that point six (“corrupting” the meat) is usually not a concern.
While there are no guarantees, confining our shots within reasonable ranges surely stacks odds in our favor. Thus for me at least (depending on caliber and optics), my big-game rifle-hunting range limit is between 250m-300m.
So when big-game hunting, I for one, have no need of laser range-finders, nor wind-gauges, nor tri-pods!
When distances are great enough so that any of the above goals are significantly compromised, ethics demands that the hunter decline the shot. Poor decisions in this regard produce missed shots (mercifully) , but the worst case is wounded animals that run off and are never recovered.
The foregoing represents my opinion. Not everyone agrees.
Now, the job of the military sniper is not at all similar!
The job of the military sniper is to “manufacture casualties,” as many and as often as possible, and at whatever range it can be accomplished. In order to “qualify,” quarry of military snipers need only wear the wrong uniform, or be in the wrong place!
“Clean kills” are not the goal.
Rendering enemy soldiers “combat ineffective” is!
So, none of the ethical hunter’s goals (1-6 above) apply.
For the military sniper, “mission is accomplished,” whether the enemy soldier is killed instantly, is seriously wounded and dies minutes, hours, or days later, or is wounded but ultimately recovers and happily lives-out the rest of his life (after the war is over).
Thus, military snipers have a legitimate need to practice shooting human targets at distances far beyond what big-game hunters, or citizen self-defenders, would ever consider practicable or necessary.
Citizen domestic self-defenders need to positively identify a person as representing an immediate deadly threat to innocent people, before considering lethal force in response. Thus, in our DTI Urban Rifle Courses, the vast majority of our rifle (carbine) challenges are between point-blank and 50m
Domestic police “snipers” (a better term is probably “precision shooters”) have a mission similar to domestic self-defenders. Ranges are short (almost always within 100m), but precision is paramount, since threats are typically mixed-in with non-threats. Instant deanimation is always the goal, so legitimate target areas are small.
As always, when thinking about acquiring a particular rifle/caliber/optic combination, the first question should be:
What is it for?
All the foregoing tasks are legitimate (under appropriate circumstances), but thinking “I want a rifle that does it all” is probably not realistic.
American citizen/soldiers have always been competent riflemen, skillful hunters, fearless self-defenders, and ever prepared for war.
That audacious mindset has sustained this nation since our dauntless ancestors arrived here centuries ago (some before that), and hopefully for many centuries into the future!
/John
