davidmor

Although I will take a standing shot over a running shot any day of the week, if you drive hunt, you will take running shots. I have two groups of guys I hunt with. One group only does stand hunting so the deer are almost always standing still. This my favorite way to hunt. The other group I hunt with we stand hunt in the mornings, drive the middle of the day, and stand hunt in the evenings. We are extremely safety oriented and we all know where everyone else is, where our safe shooting lanes are, and most importantly where we CANNOT shoot. We all have radios so the drivers are always in contact with the shooters so that the shooters know when the drivers are coming out of the woods. We also set the shooters so they are either far enough apart to be safe (we use slug guns), or use the lay of the land to create barriers between us so an accidential shooting would be impossible. My opinion is that drive hunting shouldn't be done with rifles. IMO it is just too dangerous. Yes the risk of a non-lethal shot goes up on a running deer but that is where self control comes in. If the deer is running away from you, don't shoot. If it is running towards you, you need to know your shooting skill level before pulling the trigger. I personally don't shoot if they are running at me. (one exception, 3 years ago I broadside shot a buck through the lungs and he turned and charged me. I shot him in the chest and killed him. Then I changed my shorts!) If they are running broadside I will shoot. Out of all the running deer we have shot, I can only think of a few that we actually needed to track and kill. All of the rest either dropped in their tracks or only went less than 50 yards before piling up. I guess the ethics involved is directly related to your shooting skill level. If you can't hit a moving target, you shouldn't be shooting at running deer. That would not be ethical IMO.