Lady Dude
A responsible bowhunter does not take a shot at a baseball size target where a miss of an inch could have a horriblebut non lethal result. A responsible bowhunter would opt for the highest percentage shot which is the center of the heart/lung area. Only a relatively inexperienced or totally irresponsible bowhunter would need that defined. Which are you?

nevermind

I flinched on my second ever shot at a deer, and hit it between the antlers. it was a yearling, I tracked it for about 1/2 mile and jumped it up and never seen it again. lots of blood, but no death....

can we kill this thread please!

Think it will die if we shoot it in the head?

BTBowhunter,
I didn't come here to lie to anyone, and I'm sorry if you don't like what I have to say, but we are talking about ethics. Are we not? You ask about what if I had to pay a fine? I would have gladly paid any fine. I never said I didn't have any money. We were trapped. The nearest store is fifteen miles away, and guess what - none of the stores were open! Gas stations weren't even open. They'd already ran out of fuel anyway, so what is the point of opening? People were catching their homes on fire trying to burn gas from their automobiles in kerosene heaters. All of the neighbors had gotten together and put their food into one garage to figure out how to get by. There were a total of five families staying in our inlaws home, since some had gas fire places that no longer worked. We were lucky enough to have a wood stove insert and the generator to run the blower. We were taking gas from the vehicles in the area to run the generator. Five inches of freezing rain takes down trees all over the place. Roads were shut down all over thestate and there wasn't anyway to travel. You couldn't even make a call on a cell phone. So YES - I poached a deer. Do you want to know a secret? I would do it again! Obviously you've never been unfortunate enough to compromise your own morals, and I hope that you never have to. I never thought of it either, until the future was looking pretty grim. I could have hunted that property any time that I wanted with a shotgun andat the time, I own a few shotguns. I wasn't there to hunt though, so I didn't bring my shotgun! But I ended up hunting anyway.
So, mister I'm so ethical, you mysteriously didn't respond to my other point...
Since you must agree that firearms are more suitable for taking an animal quickly (which is only fair to translate to ethically), why do you continue to walk into the woods with your bow????? Why don't you wait until firearms season? Maybe it is that you really like bow hunting? And that is great! So do I. Maybe you don't want to miss out onthat big buck? That is great too, I don't want to miss him either, but if ethics truly came first...

Don't get me wrong here - I do it too! But I'm not claiming to be "mister ethics"! I am just capableof thinking logically for myself, and am choosing not to put myself up on a higher than thou ethics pedestal. I said on my first postin this thread that shooting a deer in the head with a bow is a very badidea. And I talked about being absolutely sure about your abilities when using a firearm.

If you were going to be shot to death... Would you prefer to be shot in the head with a 30.06, or would youchoose the bow through the lungs?

Killer Primate,

First let me apologize for missing the circumstances under which you killed that deer.I went back and re-read and realize that I missed several lines when I first read it. No excuses, whether something interrupted my reading at the time or if I just skimmed it too fast, I missed an important part of your story and came to a wrong conclusion. I would not call you a poacher. You truly did what you had to do and once again, I apologize for my statements.

As for the rest of this thread, I really think that most here were referring to headshots with a bow which I think we both agree is an irresponsible shot for even the best archer. A headshot with a rifle is much more likely to kill cleanly without maiming but, as you say, conditions, shooter skill and rifle tuning must be at their best.

I do disagree that a bow is less efficient. A bow used within the shooters capabilities is every bit as ethical and effective as any rifle. I've had deer that I hit through the lungs jump, stop , look around and resume feeding only to collapse right there in less than a minute. The deer obviously expired very quickly and felt no pain.

For the record, I too have shot deer in the head with a rifle under the right circumstances with instantaneous death as the result. This thread was about headshots with a bow.

I am also editing my previous post to correct my mistakes.

I learned something neat in a Business Law and Ethicscourse I took a few years ago. To all, especially BT and Killer-P:

to dissert ethics is to ask an individualtodescribe the definition of"normal."

what your thoughts on a spine shot thats 15 yards or closer?

Same as a head shot. Shooting at the spine specifically leaves about a 1 inch margin for error either direction. If the deer is at 15 yards or less, the odds are very good that a lung shot will be presented before the deer leaves.

Yes, ethics is a subjective thing. Whats no objective is the much higher odds that an attempted head shot or spine shot will result in a bad hit more often than a shot at the lungs. We owe it to the deer to release that arrow with the best possible chance for a quick clean kill.