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FYI, check your factory ammo

Tons of people don't check drops, probably over 90% of hunters. The users of this forum tend to skew heavily into that 10% that does, but you shouldn't forget about the crowd that just shoots a couple groups at 100 yards in September and calls it good.
Or fired one round at a milk jug at some random distance between 50 and 100 yards.
Calls it "minute of deer" and takes to the woods.
 
The ones back in my day would strap it over the hood of their pickup truck and ride thru town all day!
Showing my age now! lol !
And ride around so long the buzzards start circling the truck.
I always did the opposite. Put it in the back of the truck and put the tailgate up. Then kept quiet. If you didn't next thing you know "Deep Pockets" is trying to lease the land out from under you.
 
I watched a guy send his kid down range to gather targets with dad behind the gun looking through the scope!! Kid returns and started to pick up a 5k rifle of mine that I was doing load development on !! Not to mention a high and far right 4 inch target at 100 yards , dad said that's good enough for him
 
Donald Trump Head Shake GIF by Election 2016
 
Obviously you have never hunted in Montana. Hell we have guys here that buy new rifles, have the sporting goods store bore sight it and then they take it straight to the field hunting. Checking the info on the box against anything is asking way to much....... :(

That is not just Montana. That happens everywhere.

At my club working RSO prior to deer firearms season It is great to see hunters sighting in months prior. It is also common to see hunters the week or day before opener bring in brand new boxes right from the retailer with a box of the cheapest ammo. If they are lucky they grabbed the right ammo. Having someone with .300 WM ammo and a .30-06 rifle or a similar combination is not a rarity.

If they are even close to the point of aim on the first three shots they are doing good, pack up, and head home. It is not fun when they have issues. They always want to start at the 100 yard range. I try to tell them to start at the 25 or 50 to confirm first. Many do not want to spend any more on ammo than the one box they have. Often they are not on paper and have to head over to the shorter ranges anyway. Many times they burn through the one box and have to go buy more anyway.

They often want us to help and actually fix things. We are there for safety and will not touch a firearm except to ensure safety. At least twice a year we have an RSO get hands on with a rifle where it ends up costing the RSO money. It does not matter that the RSO did not mess anything up. The customer will get repair money out of the RSO. I have not been privy to any of those dealings. I do not want to know. I just advice and observe to make sure the customer is not in danger and the other shooters are safe as well.

I love our new shooters who give themselves enough time before the opener especially with a new firearm.
 
Shooting a milk just at 50 - 100 yards and calling it good is OK as long as you know WHERE on the milk jug you hit AND you aren't going to shoot at a target smaller than a milk jug farther than 50 - 100 yards. But that isn't what happens. They'll try neck shots at 350 yards or more across a watermelon field down here. I've marveled at a couple of older and very experienced hunters in our club this year already miss or wound an animal because they were trying to make a neck shot on a doe at 100 yards or so in the brush. Good grief, man, give it a few minutes to clear or just catch her out tomorrow evening.

Practice does more harm than good when it involves repeating bad habits or poor techniques. I got my little doe at 120 yards (we were mandated to do so before Jan 1st by the club officers) with a little 6.5mm wildcat I'd done load work on for a year or so. Bullet went right where I put the crosshairs. Amazing how that works! I let that little doe walk a half dozen days before because she wasn't in the right place or there were too many bucks near to educate or it was too early, and I wanted to see if anything else came out (whether or not I wanted to shoot it). I would have let her walk that time, too, if she hadn't been broadside (left side) in the back corner of the plot. 10 yards more and she'd have been in young pines where I'd never have attempted a shot. Not worth it to me.

I got my replacement box of .243 95gr ammo. I will likely use that rifle on my next sit. It will be loaded with my 103gr ELD-X handloads, though. The Remington ammo is usable because I know where the point of impact is in that rifle AND it would only be used at modest ranges. I've shot this rifle enough to be pretty familiar with it and the Schmidt scope is my absolute favorite. Balance is perfect, it isn't too heavy nor too long. Trigger pull is decent since I've gotten accustomed to it. To keep you from rereading the thread, it's the new Remington 700 Alpha 1 Hunter. It's not a long-range precision instrument, but it's plenty good enough to do what I require it to do. Most importantly, it shoots almost every bullet in both factory and handloaded ammo to nearly the same point of impact @100yds, so I can grab pretty much any ammo in a pinch regardless of speed or weight from 80 grains to 103 anyway. No, I won't be buying any more Remington ammo unless I'm in a pinch.
 
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