YES , it is.

God bless

Although im a huge gun hunter as well as a completely obsessed bowhunter, i have experienced deer with more internal damage from one single broadhead than two full loads of 00 buckshot. Thats my 2 cents.

My opinion the the matter.
It's all a matter of self discipline really. Don't force a shot that isn't there. Don't take shots outside your realistic range no matter how great you bury em in thier on the range. Putting the arrow thru the vitals is the name of the game. Most deer shot very well with a bow go less than 60 yds. Never take a shot that you HOPE to make. Only take shots you KNOW you can't miss.

I think that it all depends on the person that is hunting. Gun or Bow you can have bad shots and unrecovered animals. It is all about the persons common sense and self discipline.

I started out hunting with a couple buddies from high school and have kind of gone off on my own now because of the way they do things.

A couple examples:
This year me and a buddy both got new bows..both ended up with switchbacks and he has probably shot his about 20 times,,if that. His idea of sighting in is shooting until you hit the bullseye (or close to it) and calling it good. I ask him to practice with me and all that but he simply doesn't seem interested.
The other guy took a head on shot on a doe this year with his bow, thankfully he missed because that is a pretty crappy angle to shoot a deer at.
And our other buddy shot a buck last weekend from 35 yards away. He calls me up, tells me, said he has been searching for hours. So I ask where he hit it, he says behind the stomach. So I told him with any luck it would stiffen up over the night and maybe expire if he didn't scare it out of the area. He looked the next morning and couldn't find blood or anything.
The crappy thing about that shot on the buck is, when I was practicing shooting I told him I where I was going to be and that he should come out and I would help him get his bow all tuned up. So he takes his first shot and the arrow misses the target about three feet to the right and 2 feet high. He takes about 5 shots then leaves. I told him later on that to find your effect range, group your arrows at no less then a 6" circle.
Another thing about shooting that buck is, it was probably a year and half or 2 year old buck and there was a doe standing between my buddy and the buck at about 20 yards....when he was telling me the story he was kind of laughing and said I couldn't believe that I even hit it I was shaking so bad. I told him he should have taken the doe.

Sorry for the long post, but I think the matter of ethical or not totally depends on the person. Bowhunting is ethical as long as the person has the proper equipment and skill involved in harvesting an animal. Same goes for rifle season.

Bad shots are bad shots, regardless of the weapon used.

Well, I guess you folks were right. This 8point was shot today by a 50 cal.muzzle loader in the vitals. The deer ran nearly 1/2 mile.



The boys dad shot one in the throat. Left a serious blood trail. After 2 hours 5 of them gave up . They said it probably went into a near by river.


c7