Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I was always schooled never to shoot anything on a skyline always to make sure the bullet had something to stop it preferably at a downhill angle. Here I am watching "Best of the West" last night and the hunter in question shoots a pretty good Coues deer on the skyline at long range with an ULtramag. I won't judge anything just want to hear opinions on this.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Skyline shots-just don't take'em.You just never know even in the backcountry.
BBJ

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Its just what I've been talking about. Hunting ethics via the television. I was taught and teach never to take a shot unless you are sure of the target and what is behind the target. That would most definately preclude a skyline shot. But, I'm sure that it made for good TV, backlit and all. I'm sure the guy behind the camera said: "I'm on him, take the shot" so that makes it ok.[:@]

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I am not so sure about this...

First, I usually don't take them, HOWEVER, I could envision several instances where it wouldn't really be an issue...

All are remote locations... including where we shoot our coues deer in old mexico... a 250,000 acre ranch where we are the only ones hunting it and frankly on it.

The areas that I have moose hunted in Alaska would be a none issue... as would a few of the caribou areas that I have hunted...

Where were they hunting and were they the only ones in the area?

SA

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Spyro-Gutsy choice.

Let me put up a senerio for ya,
Say you are on a Couse deer hunt in Mexico and you spot this big buck laying on a ridge on the skyline above you.So you take the shot and whack he hits the ground.Now you and your guide walk up the hill and find your buck but also 10 feet on the other side is another buck.Now don't say it can't happen,I've seen bullets do funy things when they come out the other side,say this bullet deflected down ward and hit this deer.Now you have a problem you have 2 deer down and now what do you do.
You can walk away
You can call the game warden and tell himyou have 2 deer down,and not only will you be ticketed,you will be fined and lectured for shooting on the skyline.
or
You can beg someone else to tag the deer.
Now wouldn't it been easier to know your target and beyond and miss all this trouble.
Like I said is't just a senerio not the gospel truth.
BBJ

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I was always taught to know your target and beyond. A lady here around 10 years ago or longer, was killed by a bullet from a 30 06 while she was in her back yard and no one ever heard a shot?

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

It was Sonora on a private ranch . I can't tell if they were the only ones in the area and the show was "Best of the West".

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

NO! About 4 years ago, my neighbor shot over the hill at a running deer. On the other side of the hill a local was driving down the remote dirt road, and unfortunately the bullet went through the truck, through his chest and killed him. A husband and father of 2 young girls. I dare anybody to tell those girls that shooting shooting over a hill blindly is okay! The only safe way to shoot is knowing where the bullet is going... no exceptions. Just as learned in basic Hunter's Education. Anybody that thinks different needs to re-take the course. Just my 2 cents.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

10-4 KS! I agree 100%

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Just as learned in basic Hunter's Education. Anybody that thinks different needs to re-take the course. Just my 2 cents.
[/quote]

Agree completely with KShunter,
Just because you can legally take a shot, doesnt mean you should,
lots of reasons why its just wrong,
its simply, cant see beyond your shot, dont take the shots,
best hunters give up more shots than they take for simple reasons,

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

took the words right out of my mouth.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Never in my life would I take a skyline shot! Too risky.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I want the whitetail still hunters to chime in on this...

How about you guys that like creeping through the timber after elk?

I think that this "no exceptions" stuff is a little over blown...

I can give an example of a "sky line" shot I took, that happened to be on a caribou, that I would take every time.

A friend and I were floating a river in Alaska. We would get out and glass from the highest point. We could see for MILES. Nobody, nothing, nada...

I make a 30 minute "stalk" to intercept a group of caribou. My shot end up being about 90 yards... slightly up hill... at the bull as he was cresting a small ridge.

Well, we would tag it...

The ranch we hunt gets 16 landowner permits, which I buy from the landowner, and I maybe hunt 5-6 people on it per year.

Now if it was in the states... I'd turn myself into the warden and deal with the consequences.

Not to sound harsh but my concern is for human life... The 1 in a 1,000,000 chance that I shoot/wound another animal, along with the one that I intended to kill, would be a chance I was willing to take.

It seems that many believe that I am advocating shooting at some 20 or 30 degree angle or something in the middle of some public unit or farming area.

I am talking about extremely remote and/or large private areas.

SA

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I understand where you are coming from Spyro,I've been in some very remote places where you could probaly shoot skyline and not worry about hitting nothing but trees or tundra.There is always that chane that there is something else there that you won't in tend to hit or kill,just to risky.

As for stalking the timer for elk,I known far to many guys who think in the mentality of "IT's Brown It's going Down",all I can do is make myself as visible as posbile.Thats all I can do,and hope that someone remembers their hunting saftey.
BBJ

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

If anyone is there then anyone else could be there. There is no excuse in the world and no animal in the world that should intice any hunter to take a skyline shot. This is hunter saftey course 101 or even pre 101. That is something you don't do. No Exceptions No Time. Every darn year hunters are killed by boneheads that can't follow the laws of safe shooting.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

If you take a shot in a remote location and don't have a incident then if the same situation comes up in a non-remote location a person could easily think well it'll be ok. I hunt alot with my kid and I always say to myself if I wouldn't do it when they are with me then I'm not going to do it when they are not. The rule should be cut and dry, not conditional.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I don't follow your logic here...

"If anyone is there then anyone else could be there"

I had just glassed the entire area was someone magically tellaported onto the tundra?

But I'll play along with you... how far off of the ridge top does the animal have to be before you can shoot?

2 feet?

10 feet?

50 feet?

300 feet?

What about possible ricochets due to rocks and etc?

What about shots in the timber? Is that a compete no shoot situation?

Interesting topic...

SA

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I respect your opinion and reason...

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I also watched that show last night and the coues buck was totally skylined! I mean, if that bullet missed, it was flying off into never-never-land at least 4-5 miles distance. Nobody can use binoculars and see another person 5 miles away! I agree with the mantra here that it's "better to be safe than sorry"! People do get killed from bullets falling from the sky from miles away.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I didn't get to see the show...

Was the buck on a ridge top with the shot being level or even downhill... or was it a shot that had a good uphill grade to it?

SA

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

The shot was severly uphill with the buck walking on the knife edge! A miss high, low, frontward, or rearward and that bullet was gone. Even the pass through had to carry a long way since he was using a 7mm UM!

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I'm with Spyro on this one. Many of you have never been to a remote area, where the only people there are you and who ever was on the same plane as you when you got there, or boat! I would've taken the shot, if it would've presented itself, while in AK. last fall. Heck, just getting to see 1 or 2 animals in a day was doing good, and we never saw another human, never heard another shot becaue there was no one else even remotely close to us. I know that it is one of the first rules of gun safety to "know what is beyond your target", BUT in AK. where I was hunting, I felt I knew that "beyond any given target" there was nothin' that I was worried about hitting accidently!

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Here's a hypothetical situation for you. Lets say you had taken the shot and missed, then backed it up with another and killed the game animal. You dressed the animal and pack it out and your back at camp or home and you hear on the news about this lady that was struck by a bullet and died a few miles from where you were hunting. Would you turn yourself in, or remain quiet and live with the remorse that you may have caused that womans death due to a negligent decision? Just wanted to throw that out to see what everyone would do.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

MY point is that there is nowhere on this earth where there could be no other person. I Have hunted the most remote areas in Canada and the U.S. If I am there, there could sure be someone else there as well. I don't have an answer for how far down the ridge is far enough or to far. The question was skyline shots, and thats a NO BRAINER You don't take skyline shots. It a damn poor habit to get into or to teach another maybe younger hunter. I don't by for one second that there is a circumstance brought on by lack of oppertunities or anything else that warratns skyline shots. If you try it and the rare case happens and you kill another hunter or bystander, you have ruined your life and lord knows how many others. Tell me, What would make that worth the doing? A trophy? A filled tag? A notch on your gun stock? I think nothing. There are just not a lot of things that just should never be done but this is one of them. I shudder to think that every hunter does not feel the same way.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Very good advice, James!

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I don't wear a seat belt............heaven for bid if I'm killed in a car wreck, and to think.. there is a law that requires me to....BUT yet I ride a motorcylce...and it doesn't have seat belts... It's not like anyone is making a habit out of shooting critters that are sky lined. I haven't and don't and have yet to.............BUT I feel that while in AK. last fall, if the shot presented itself, I would've. If we are going to worry so much about a sky lined shot, why not worry about every miss and the possibility of a richochet and where that bullet is going to land? Heck, when I shoot prairie dogs, the pasture is flat as a pancake, the chances of a richochet are very high, so before every shot do I need to drive a mile or two beyond the prairie dog to check "beyond" the target to make sure no one else is there? Or since there is only one gate into the pasture, can I assume that know one else is out there but me? Apparently not, who knows, maybe someone crossed through the fence, is trespassing, looking for arrow heads! This situation is more apt to happen than in some of the remote areas of the great north!
I am not perfect. At least not as perfect as so many on computers are these days!![:o]

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I am not perfect either but I learned as a child that skyline shots are taboo. IMO. and thats all I have, only an idiot would blast away on a skyline shot. And again, thats was the question here. Nothing more nothing less. My worry is that a hunter who would take a skyline shot in AK. May be pretty apt to practice the same lousy habits in SD. Or MN or NE. Its just something to stay away from.

I don't wear seatbelts either. But then its just me that I might kill by that.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Skyline shot? Absolutely a NO-NO!!! Know your target, AND what's behind/beyond it.
Just fundamental gun safety, nothing more, nothing less.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Dangerous!!

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Here's how I look at it. We all drive, right. There is a speed limit every where we drive, for our safety and the safety of others, BUT yet how many of us speed.. say 5 miles per/hr. over or 10 over. I mean heck, don't you have some places in the roads you drive that the speed limit seems ridiculous. You can see for miles, no trees, no other trafic, nothing, so you go faster than the "posted speed limit" After all, your an adult and you've driven for years and you see no danger in doing so, to yourself or others, so you risk it.
Same thing with shooting. There are places that are so remote that the risk of hitting someone, something, beyond the target is less than the chance of getting struck by lightening, or winning the lotto. So, as an adult, you are able to weigh the risk factor. Heck, we are told that if we can here the thunder from a storm, we are to seek shelter because the storm is close enough that we could be struck by lightening, but yet how many of us don't run for shelter, or don't make the kids come inside. We've all heard of people getting struck by lightening when the storm was miles away!! And if you don't beleive that there are places so remote, I only wish everyone would have the chance to hunt in such a place, because there are places where it's just you and the critters. And for those of you that it is a black and white issue, more power to you. I also wonder, how many squirrel hunters wait and only shoot squirrels that are on the ground?

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Thank you Hunter_59 I agree with you completely


Like the man said nothing behind the buck but air pure uphill shot

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Howler. You like to make excuses for what every hunter knows is a absolute no no. Remote areas don't excuse lousy habits. Thank God you are in the big minority on this issue. When next I hunt those remote areas, I hope you are not there. I can't say anymore. This is an understood rule of hunting. No skyline blasting.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Maybe the problem is the word "skyline"...

How about the phrase "non-visible backstop"?

Have you ever taken a shot at an animal that had a non-visible backstop?

Like a animal in the woods?

If you are shooting level or even slightly uphill, because of a sitting position, at a deer in the woods... woods behind him or not... you don't have 100% visibility of the eventual backstop.

Like when I shot that caribou, while the bank/ridge he was on wasn't very high, like 15' above me and 30' above the tundra on the other side of the river, it did conceal alot of land. Granted, that I had glassed the enitre area for miles and was 99.99999999999999999999% positive that there wasn't anouther human with 3 miles of me, even if I had missed, my bullet probably wouldn't make it 1000 yards past the caribou, you wouldn't have taken that shot?

This isn't about lousy habits... this is about dealing with reality... If people waited for a 100% solid non-ricochett backround, I don't think many would be taking shots.

Don't take offense because this comment isn't directed at you specifically... however... I think that alot of people on this site talk a good game but, in the field, it really becomes a case of... do as I say... not as I do...

Since we are playing hypotheticals here...

If you were in a bush plane crash and needed food, I doubt that you'd be starving to death due to passing on a shot because the backstop wasn't 100% solid and non-ricochetable...

SA

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I quess that when you get into hypotheticals, A person may be able to justify almost anything. I would hate to take a humane life but hypothetically I can see where it could happen. However the question asked here was not hypothetical. It was asking for opinions on skyline shots. I think that skyline shots are not acceptable. Now could I dream up a reason where I might make an exception? The answer is that I would have to be there to know. To save my life? Never been there but ones desire to survive is pretty strong and its hard to imagine that one would not do what it takes to survive. That doesn't change my opinion that skyline shots are not acceptable under almost any other circumstance.

Do I practice what I preach? The answer is I sure try to. I am not infalable but I was taught firearms safty my my father and tried to pass it on to my kids. Be sure of whats behind the shot you are going to take. Thats the most basic of firearm safty rules. Its impossible to be sure whats behind a skyline shot. Where I do most of my hunting is prairie when the animals are out feeding and high steep canyon walls when they are in cover. The place you don't shoot is when they are going over the ridge to the next canyon.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

James,

I'll take your hesitation is not answering "no skyline shots" to my hypothetical as a "yes" to the question. That when push came to shove, you would risk the safety of another.

Anyway, am I correct in assuming that you denounce all hound hunting for bears, lions, coons and other treeing animals as being unsafe?

SA

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

spryo, id have taken that shot at the caribou. without a doubt.

i about got shot a couple years back, me and a buddy were sneaking up on a nice whitetail buck. anyway, we were close, and he was about to jump a fence and be on the property we could hunt. these out of staters who were hunting with a local "guide" (and i use that term loosly) drove up, got out of their vehicle, got off the road to be legal and started shooting. their first bullet went directly over my left shoulder, nearly killing me. my buddy thought i was hit. nearly a tragic day.

now, what did the out of stater do wrong?

in this case nothing.

my buddy and i were sneaking through an irrigation ditch in the middle of this field to get at this buck. when we walked in it, it was about chest deep, and it was not plowed and planted like everything around it. there were weeds 3 feet high all along it. we had to sorta part the bushes to look out and see where we were at in coorelation to the buck. we were both wearing our blaze orange, but honestly there was no way in hell that guy could have seen us. i got lucky, plain and simple. after the first shot, we both hit the deck, where we were totally safe in the ditch. after the fact we even caught up with the other hunter and gave him a ride, and told him where we were when he shot. he was devastated, even though we both told him over and over it wasnt his fault. i have been to the spot where he shot from, and there was NO way he could have seen us there. this wasnt a skyline shot, or even a cant see my backstop shot, just nearly tragically bad luck.

i of course would never take a sky line shot here. i alway check my background before i shoot. but like spyro was saying, are we always DEAD sure of what is behind what were shooting at. i have shot deer in the trees. i could see what looked like my background, but what was really there? looking back, maybe that isnt always right either. i have heard my bullets ricochet. i believe we all need to do what we can to be safe,
and maybe that means holding off on some no brainer shots once in a while.

practice what i preach? i try, but again, im not infalable.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

If push comes to shove I can't say that I would risk anothers life. I don't know where you got that Idea. I did say that most including maybe me would do many things to survive but thats a damn far cry form the subject of this discussion. I have never hunted anything with dogs. can't answer that question at all. No hound hunters up my way. When I was a kid we used to have some hound hunters from down south come up to our area in the summer to hunt coons in the cornfields but I never went with them and have no idea how its done. We have cougars but I have never seen them hunted with dogs. We don't have bears here. I have often hunted them in Sask but never with dogs.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

There is always going to be hypothetical situations where a certain type of situation could work... Everybody has their opinion on that, and that's fine. But never under any circumstance would I call "Skyline shots, responsible shooting". And yes I do follow responsible shooting and would pass up any shot that wasn't one. Risking your own life for a trophy is one thing, but risking a life of someone else is another. There are a lot of risks that can't be controlled when hunting(ex. ricochet accidents, etc.) but skyline shots is a hunters choice to take. Any skyline shot that kills a person should be and usually is considered not an accident, but manslaughter, in the name of the law. It's your choice; you tell me if it's worth the risks...

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

I agree completely with not taking sky-line shots. It violates the basic 10 rules of safe shooting.

I am familiar with the shooting accident that kshunter reported. We must be from the same county in Kansas - Washington/Clay counties.

RE: Skyline Shots any thoughts?
 

Also, to reiterate the point that has gotten lost in this worthwile discussion. This skyline shot was taken on a popular tv hunting show that I am sure a lot of young hunters watch. If we are going to condone this type of shooting behavior on tv then what is to stop these young hunters from doing the same thing or maybe even more reckless behavior. Careless behavior breeds more careless behavior! If we relax the 10 commandments of shooting safety then the outdoors gets more dangerous for all of us.