Newguy23,

You have made it a point to say that hunting with these calibers is unethical, and not just implying but flat out saying that hunters like me who hunt deer with 22 caliber rifles are unethical hunters. It is this, and only this, that I have a problem with.

I'm not saying that everybody should go out and buy a .223, or other .22 caliber rifle to deer hunt with, but if somebody who knows how to shoot a gun wants to hunt with a .223 who has the right to say that person is unethical?

I, and others I know that hunt with .22 caliber rifles, harvest deer every year cleanly and humainly. We have a darn good track record with these calibers. The hunters I hunt with that shoot .22 caliber rifles have not wounded any more deer than the hunters that shoot the magnums. As a matter of fact, where I hunt the .22s have a much better track record than the magnums.

Now I only say the following to make a point. I do not feel that ethics is an issue here. But you take any magnum caliber and shoot a deer through the lungs. That deer basically drowns in it's own blood, which takes a few minutes. I take a 22-250 and shoot a deer in the neck and break the neck bone. That deer darn near dies instantly. Which animal do you think suffered more?

Now before everybody bashes me for being a liberal PETA so and so, I have no problems shooting a deer through the lungs. I don't think that is unethcal. I just say this because several people have made it clear that we owe it to the game we pursue to give that animal a clean and swift death. When you break a deers neck, it doesn't get much swifter than that.