Mule Deer Video
 

Here is a great video of me and my buddy last year on a Wyoming Mule deer hunt.

Edited out by Turkeyreaper

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

Hey thats a good vid you got there. So was it a stinky gut cause it kind of looked like you hit him in the spine or did you get him in the boiler room? But other than that at 375yds thats still one hell of a shot.

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

You've GOT to be kidding me??? [:-][:o][:@][:@][:@][:@]

First off DUMBARSE, do you think you are Carlos Hatchcock or something? You can't even properly hit a broadside animal at 375 yds, much less one that is bedded!!! [:@][:@][:@]

Second off DUMBARSE, thanks for the video evidence I will gladly forward too WY G&F, you are required to wear HUNTER ORANGE while big game hunting in WY!!!

With "hunters" like you we are ALL doomed!!!

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

LOL the guy with the video camera sounds like Jack Black. By the way Red, I don't think he would have posted the video if he knew he was breaking the law in it, and knowing that he helped fund important conservation efforts in Wyoming with his licensce money and helped support Wyoming's economy by buying food and other things here I think we can let his slip up slide. Lets not deter him from hunting in Wyoming again by turning his hunting experience into a bad one. Besides, hes the one endangered by not wearing orange. As for his shooting, well, I won't make any arguments for him, but I'll bet he regretted that second shot the instant he opened the deer up and the guts and that nasty smell came shootin out.;)

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

WTG I don't honestly think that most other WY residents feel the way you do about out of state hunters that come too their state, take shots that they obviously are NOT prepared nor good enough to take. And they CERTAINLY don't want non-res' slinking through the brush while disregarding state regulations. What other laws were violated on that hunt that we DIDN'T see on the video? Are we to assume he was even legally on that land? Did he have the proper licenses?

I can tell you that when I mulie/antelope hunted in WY the year before last it was the non-res hunters who gave ALL of us hunters a bad name. The outfitter I used had a 100k acre ranch leased in the Crazy Woman Creek region southwest of Buffalo. We spent a couple hours on two different days chasing down non-res IDIOTS who were riding the roads looking for bucks close enough to be shot from the roads. One of them was from Oregon and another was from WIS so they come from EVERYWHERE. Their arguement? "Oh we thought we were on BLM land". As the old adage goes, IGNORANCE is no excuse for the law. (Likewise in cases such as this video, that same IGNORANCE is blissas well.) I used my own video camera to film the poachers from Oregon dragging a small muley off the ranch and up onto the road and loading it into their truck. The outfitter was going to use the footage as evidence to be prosecuted.

I just won't dismissthis as a "honest intentionsgone awry". The morons in thevideo seemed completely content with such inept shooting and doing so while blatantly breaking the orange law as well. Justun-acceptableIMHO. If he would have turned around after that gutshot with a grimmace on his face and expressing remorse for such crappy shooting I might have been a little more understanding. But instead you could clearly see the relief and happiness of just putting a hole in something, regardless of whether or not it was a quick and humane kill. The buck didn't walk back over the crest of the hill and drop dead either, at least not by the video. How are we to know that he didn't high tail it 1/2 mile across the plains in excrutiating agony, and all because Sir Bust A Cap was just content to poke acouple of holesin his hide!

Sorry if I have offended anyone else, but I won't retract my statements too and about the clown in the video as I think ANY criticizement iswarranted by such careless actions!!!
RA

ps
BTW "reaper" did you have ANY clue what was over the hill? I guess you slept through that part of Hunters Safety like you did the part about hunters orange huh? If a ranchers house, livestock, other game animals (or gasp another person like a ranch hand or other hunters) were over there, what do you think they would have to say about your "fine shootin"? Did the landowner see this tape? If so I seriously doubt you will returning too that place in WY next year!!!

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

I pretty much agree with RA.

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

Since video is gone can someone who saw it say what happened. From what I picked up is it possible he didn't know he hit it in the guts? 375 is a long ways to tell the impact and if you just see the animal hit, it could be possible to be mistaken. But I can't see it so I don't know.

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

Red, First of all, I agree with the orange concerns, even though you sound like a arrogant prick that never had a bad shot in his life.I'm sorry that I am not as good as a hunter as you, maybe you should have your own show and demonstrate how cool you are, You can call it "Red Knows All" and you can point out how everyone does it wrong and point it out in the most distasteful way. Did it ever occur to you all I wanted to do share some video's? Not that it matters to someone who is clearly a bitter person at heart.
Having said that I edited the link off the page,NOT because of you and your ridiculesrants I might add... Get some therapy!!!!

For everyone else.. Sorry, just wanted to share the hunt.

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

MThunter, I saw the vid link that was posted. It entailed 3 shots where the cameraman zoomed in on the animal;
#1 was low when the animal was bedded down
#2 was clearly in the guts, Heavy hunch looked sick, hide ripple and they even discussed after the shooting was all done
#3 was 1/4 awayupper lungs

After shooting they (shooter & cameraman) discuss 350 yards, never said if this was determined by a LRF or best guess.

Yes, he knew it was gut shot at the moment and for sure upon fd'ing the deer, to answer your question!

turkeyreaper, really what did you expect would be the reaction?

Yes we all have made poor shots and hopefully learned from them. I think red was commenting more onthe poor decisions made onyour hunt???? Excitement can cloud judgement, which this obviously protrays (not only the video itself but the fact you are wondering why such a reactionof the events well after the excitement has dwindled of the situation). IMHO a mistakecan bea learningopportunity but only ifthe individualtakes responsibility, realize what could have been done differentlyand vow to use it to futhertheir education. To sideline it is irresponsible and frankly many hunters don't like this attitude as it is the bad decisions that reflect more than all the good ones on us as a whole. Hopefully once you mull it over some, let the back lower &will learn something for your future hunts.

Thanks for sharing and instead of be p'd about it use it to make you a better hunter. Lots of experience & worthhere so don't leave the sand box just yet!:)

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

I have not seen the video, I do however see most every video of every good and bad shot I have ever taken in my head. Most I would take again, some admitidly I would take back. Most of the take backs I only ruined meat on, however I hunt in area that is so brush'y that if an animal runs even a short distance,it can mean an exhaustive search. I can however say I know where all my bullets shot at animals reside, and I thankfully have none un-accounted for. I Have had close calls and my personal rule is if my bullet hits it or I think it might have, It is my animal and I will hunt that animal only through the season. I only hope fellow hunters learn from our bad shots on the net. Ionly loose respect when the proper effort is not spent to fix a bad situation.

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

My beef with reaper wasn't that he did any single one of the violations by themselves but that as a whole, he made several bad decisions and made them on film that he STILL posted on a public forum.

For those that didn't see the video I'll try my best to "recreate" the scene.

The cameraman was behind reaper as they snuck through some brush at the bottom of a clear hillside. The first thing that came to mind was reaper said it was a WY mulie hunt, in WY you are required to wear orange. Reaper had on a FULL camo suit including headnet/facemask and NO orange anywhere in sight. (Strike 1)
The camera then zoomed up the hill too the very peak of it were two muley bucks were standing, right on the crest of the hilltop. The leftmost buck was the one reaper wanted (both looked to be 1.5 yr olds) and as he set up for the shot (he had a Caldwell type collapsable stock on the gun) the buck bedded down facing the camera/shooter with about a 1/8th turn left from head-on. Reaper paused and then shot (Strike 2, under the best of conditions that is a VERY tough shot. Almost impossible with both the shooter and the target on the ground, particularly with the target well above the shooter. BAD angle! And more importantly, what is behind that hill?)
At the 1st shot the buck SPRANG straight up into the air about 5ft and came too a broadside standstill. Again, he was still standing on the crest of the hill, nothing but the clear blue WY sky in the background. Another shot rang out. Because the camera was zoomed well on the animal you could see the bullet strike about 6" below the spine and DEADCENTER into the guts. The animal hunched up and turned too a basic 1/4away position, but still on top of the ridge. Reaper put another shot into him that looked to rake the top 1/4 of the lungs out on the quartering away animal. BUT the animal didn't even flinch. He then began walking and walked on over the hill out of sight. (Strike umpteen by now? The first shot was TERRIBLE and had the animal simply bolted and taken off he would've been more trouble to find without the 2nd hole later put into him. Again the shots were taken while the animal was SEVERELY backlighted as he stood atop a clear hilltop.)
Once the bucks walked over the hill the camera returns too reaper who then turns and looks back into the camera with a HUGE smile and excitement in the eyes. No concern or fear for the bad shooting or poor choices. Only the happiness that he had "Hit the buck" without concern as too where or under what circumstances.

Now that that footage was obviously shot last fall, yet reaper is so un-concerned with his poor shooting and poor decisions that he STILL felt it ok to put this film out for public viewing? [:'(]

THAT is why I flew off the handle over it! Those kind of actions, decisions and outcomes are what make some hunts much worse than others. BUT when you make such a quandry visible too the public then you are just doing the sport a dis-service.

That's just my .01/2c,
RA

ps
Reaper I truly know you have learned ALOT from this and I am glad you have. One other point I want to make sure you learn is that the shots you took (besides being wrong for obvious reasons) were very poorly chosen with reference too your aiming spots. You hit the animals very high each time. The animal was standing WELL above you, those bullets were going in and actually traveling "upward" so that even if you had hit above the lungs they would've continued traveling upward and not even touched any vitals. A lower hold would've been necessary had you been able to properly hit that animal (that is why you missed the first, or bedded shot). That goes back too my recommendation of practicing at long ranges before you try them in the field. Just because you have a superboomer magnum doesn't mean you can just pull the trigger and split hairs at 350 with it! I've said my peace and you've learned your lesson so I'll drop it now... ;)

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

These types of situations have always been hard for me. I haven't seen the video but it seems to me there is a hunting progression, or a hunting maturity process in everyone.

I know I was taught to hunt by someone who wasyoungin the hunting process. My stepfather was the type of guy who was lucky to fill his tag and could care less whether he did or not. A bad shot to him was just a little bad luck and as long as the animal ended up on the ground he was happy. After all the point is to harvest it right? That was his take on it and growing up that was how I felt about it. If you hit a leg or a gut shot it it wasn't a big deal as long as it was on the ground in the end. I never did see him injure one that got away however I did see him miss on several occasions and it was nothing more than a good laugh back at camp.

When I got older I started hunting with others and absorbing myself in hunting. Books, forums, videos, you name it I was exposing myself to all types of hunting media. I was shocked to learn that my stepdad's view was considered unethical in the eye's of serious hunters. I'd never heard of passing up a shot because the situation wasn't right. This was foreign to me.

Now I share thestandards of what I feel is considered ethical hunting and ethical shot situations while hunting. Now it seems like common sense but if I had never been exposed to ethical hunting by others I may never have come as far as I did.

My point is I can see why some may not completely understand why they are being critisized for their actions and I do what I can to critique with that understanding. Whether we realize it or not to be able to pass up a shot because it doesn't seem optimal takes a lot of experience and hunting maturity. It should be the standard we all live by but it does take some time to get there.

Hopefully you'll learn from this experience, take what others have had to say in a learning and progressive manner and maybe next time you'll try to get in closer or wait till the animal stands with an optimal shot at a range you're sure of and have practiced enough that you know right where that bullet would go. Congrats on your deer! It's always a great feeling to be successful.

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

Actually Red I learned some stuff too just watching on the sidelines here. I think a lot of people feel the same way as you and I. Not much of a muley hunter, we shoot them whitetails here in Kansas where the shots are much closer usually, but even I could tell that just wasn't a good situation...

RE: Mule Deer Video
 

Thanks for all the good info guy's. For the record, I was not the shooter, the gun was a 308, the 3rd shot was a good shot (vitals looked like pudding as was the guts too[:'(])and the deer was dead in 10 feet of the last shot. I (behind the camera) was wearing orange, my buddy did not think it was an issue because of the size of ranch we were hunting and we were the only ones around for miles....Not that it matters.
Anyway gentleman, it was a good debate....Thanks for pointing out mine and my Buddy's flaws.

Shoot Strait:eek:,
Bill (A.K.A) TurkeyReaper