Where I hunt this is rarely an issue. The timber is so thick that 19 out of 20 times one shot is all you will get anyway. On the rare occasion that a deer I have shot continues to stand there or runs a short distance and stops then sure I might put a second bullet in them but it has been a rare case in which it was needed. I don't like taking running shotsat alldue to the risk of hitting edible meat.

I know one guy that lives near me who ripped off 4 shots at a big buck in a clearcut one year.Two of the last three shots missed and the lastshot blew the bucks left horn off and ruined a damn nice rack. As it turned out his first shot was right behind the shoulder and lethal. If only he had a little faith in his first shot.

Which brings me to a point I'd like to make. Having confidence in where your shot hits is very important and is (IMHO)the end resultof a lot of good practice at the range. I'm a pretty good shot but I'm by no means perfect. What I can do however,thanks to the number of days I spend shooting my rifles, is call my shots. When shooting at distances where I can not see the bullet hole I can still tell you if I was spot on or pulled the shot a bit. That being the case, if I feel good about the first shot on a deer then I will not take a second shot unless the animal stops and offers another sure shot. If you couldn't hit him standing still then the odds that you will hit him running are pretty low.

I'm also a bowhunter and I see a pattern here of other bowhunters saying things similar to my thoughts. We like to be sure of our shots because we are used to getting only one.