How accurate to be ethical

[Headhunter]

When I want to find out my Max Range, I make a FULL SIZE, LIFE SIZE, target of the critter I am hunting.

I Start at 25 yards and go out in 10 yard increments until I can't put one RIGHT BEHIND THE SHOULDER from field shooting positions.

When you practice like this, the PAPER DON'T LIE.

You will know right quick where your max yardage is with that gun, that load, that light condition, that target clarity.

HH

This is what I am talking about. Although its not a Muzzleloader, I use the same technique with my Hawken Rifles.

With my Sharps, bears are in trouble out to 250 yards. If their broadside.

HH

 

[catman]

A couple of weekends before season opens I shoot at a coffee can hanging from a string @ 50 yards off hand in different positions, nealing, sitting & standing conditions all around it. Thats basically a 6" X 6" area.
Works for me.

 

[jtmattison]

Inside 2 inches at 50 yards is what I strive for. Inside 8 inches at 100 yards. That's the best I can hope for with open sights. This is with a rest. I always try to shoot with a rest of some sort.

HD

 

[sutherland]

I've killed a lot of deer up to 75 yards with shotguns that would put three slugs into only a six-inch group at 50 yards. Some of those guns had rifle sights, others only the front bead. Of course, better accuracy is desirable because sometimes you only have part of the vital area for an aiming point. But you don't need varmint-rifle accuracy for deer hunting. And, by far, most of the deer I've had shots at and bagged in Iowa have been shot at under fifty yards.