I respectfully disagree, I think it all depends on the terrain and how skilled and confident the shooter is--I've probably killed 25-30 bucks and another dozen does in my life and at least probably 8-10 were running at distances of 50-200+ yds. I did not feel that it was a low percentage shot at the time and still don't. In fact, if I have to shoot offhand--I would 10x rather the target be moving than holding still. the only deer I've missed were holding still and I was moving uncontrollably "with the buck fever"...I'm not saying that any of this discussion pertains to this particular incident--obviously the shots talked about in this thread were not in the 10 ring but it sounds like these hunters are young and hopefully will get better--I believe that anyone who started hunting at a young age has probably had a few learning experiences at least the animal did not get away.
Shuler--sounds like the first guy is probably the one who got the deer--you said his second shot was below the spine--did he hit the vitals? or just hit that "no man's land" between the vitals and the spine?--the guy that shot the deer in the @ss--did he hit anything else (back bone?) surely these two can figure it out w/o having to get their lawyers involved (grin) good luck--be careful out there
hb