I really enjoy putting together the weekly written articles for this Substack, but in some cases I think the message can be better delivered by video. For those who prefer to read, the transcript is included below. With either, the message is the same. It’s better to be curious than judgmental.
TRANSCRIPT
This is my Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT rifle in .25 Creed. It’s a pretty lightweight rifle with the Swarovski Z5 scope and the Banish 30 V2 suppressor attached. It weighs seven and a half pounds, just like you’re looking at it right here. It’s also a good shooting rifle. I spent a little time yesterday working up hand loads, and one of the bullets I used was this 100 grain North Fork bullet, and at 3,000 feet per second, this rifle with that load, will put five shots into about an inch. I can hold dead on out to 200 yards, hold a little high at 300 yards. And beyond that, much further beyond that, I can always dial in a shooting solution, or I can just get closer.
And yesterday I made a reel on social media essentially saying the same thing. I said, the secret—and that’s important, the secret—the secret to long range hunting is to hold dead on out to 200 yards, hold a little high at 300 yards, and if the animal is much further than that, you just get closer. There’s a lot of comments on social media, a lot of positive comments. A lot of people agreed with me.
And then, as usual, you had the negative comments and the judgmental comments that comes with social media. I don’t interact with judgmental people on social media. I learned a long time ago the quickest way to look like a fool is to argue with one. But I’m happy to communicate and interact with curious people because lots of times during the information exchange, everybody learned something.
But to give you an idea of some of the judgmental and negative comments, like one was, if you can’t shoot past 400 yards you just can’t shoot anyway. That you need to hunt in New Zealand and out west for elk and mule deer because all those shots are past 300 yards. Some people said that I didn’t have any business, I didn’t know what I was talking about, had no experience, I wasn’t an experienced hunter or shooter, and then I had no business telling anybody how to hunt.
And all of that reminded me of a TV show I used to watch called Ted Lasso, and Ted Lasso was a show about an American football coach who went to England to coach professional soccer. And he didn’t know shit about professional soccer. And it appealed to me at the time because I was coaching high school soccer, and I didn’t know shit about high school soccer. But I didn’t take the job to teach those boys how to play soccer. I took the job—I took the job to help them learn how to become teammates, how to compete, and how to become respectable young men. I hired a guy that was an excellent soccer coach, and we were very successful.
But anyway, back to Ted Lasso. There was an episode where he had a quote, and he said, it’s better to be curious than judgmental. And had those people making all the negative and judgmental comments on social media, just being curious, they could have asked me something. They could have said, well, Richard, why is that your opinion? Or, Richard, do you have any experience to back up that opinion? Or have you ever shot at long range? And then they could have learned things.
They could have learned that, yeah, I’ve hunted multiple times in New Zealand and out west for elk and mule deer, hunted all over the world. But I’ve trained with Caylen Wojcik, a Modern Day Sniper. I’ve taken long range classes at FTW and Gunsight Academy. And maybe most importantly, that I’ve killed animals at long range, missed animals at long range, and wounded animals at long range.
And I think they could have also—if they would have asked the question—they could have got to the foundation of what I was trying to say, anyway, which that the secret—the secret to long range shooting—is to get closer. If you get closer, you don’t have to worry about shooting solutions. You don’t have to worry about wind speeds. You don’t have to worry about barometric pressure, the angle of the shot, the slope. The humidity or the damn Coriolis effect. You don’t even hardly have to worry about the BC or your bullet. The secret to long range shooting is don’t do it. If you don’t shoot at long range, you don’t have to worry about it. You just get closer and kill the animal.
And I don’t care how people hunt. I don’t care what distances people shoot animals at. That’s your hunt. You do it the way you want. You find your success or failure however you want to. I’m just saying. The secret to long range hunting is get closer.
And I also believe that the low probability—from an ethical standpoint—the low probability of a long range shot can never be the equal of a stalk or an attempt to get closer. Sometimes the shot just ain’t there and you gotta pass. And a lot of people can’t accept the fact that they have to pass on a shot at an animal. And I also believe, in the true spirit of hunting, that you should rely on your feet more than you do feet per second.
Regardless, and the most important message out of all of this, when it comes to guns or hunting or just life in general, you’re better off to be curious than judgmental, because when you’re curious, you very often learn something.
