How many of you shoot until it drops?
09-22-2006, 08:18 PM
#21
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Port Neches, Texas
Posts: 5,514
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
With me, this carries over from my wing-shooting days! Carrying an auto-loader, I would usually not make good with my firt shot!
Now, where most of my deer hunting takes place, there is not time for a second shot! I've known people who almost never did well on their first shot.
Usually if a second shot is in the back of your mind, you are not concentating on making the best possible FIRST shot!
Now, where most of my deer hunting takes place, there is not time for a second shot! I've known people who almost never did well on their first shot.
Usually if a second shot is in the back of your mind, you are not concentating on making the best possible FIRST shot!
09-22-2006, 08:40 PM
#22
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blissfield MI USA
Posts: 5,293
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
All I know is when I go out for gun season I can see all the fields around me, and the hunters in their stands from 300 yards away ( I do not believe for one minute deer can't see hunter orange, it looks like road flares on a clear day). It never fails I will hear someone empty a whole magazine when shooting. Bang, a few seconds later, Bang, Bang Bang and Bang. Yet I never see any one dragging a deer out? And I may hear this 3 times in one day.
Then when I see a deer I aim my single shot, take the shot and watch the deer run off and fall ( I have yet to drop one in it's tracks, but I aim or the lungs not the shoulder or neck). Haven't lost one yet or gone a season with out filling my tag.
I will add though that the places I hunt afford me the time to have a scoped gun (no centerfire rifles where I live, either a slug gun or ML) and take my time on the shot at 50 to 100 or yards or so. I'm not hunting thick cover with a smoothbore at deer running by me, nor do I do drives. Both of these are situations where I might consider taking multiple shots if I thought I could do it. Truth be known I'm not all that great at those types of shots because I don't practice them, so I tend not to hunt that way.
Like I said before, I primarily bow hunt and that is how I started hunting. So using a gun is sort of a slam dunk for me, even if I only have one shot. If I can see it I can probably kill it. I can't imagine what it would be like using a .243 or .270. Then again it all depends on location. If you live in an area where the deer just don't get that close, like out west things are completely different. I can't imagine taking a longer shot then 120 yards at a deer where I live, 150 would be a real stretch around here and is my personal limit for an acceptable shot.
Paul
Then when I see a deer I aim my single shot, take the shot and watch the deer run off and fall ( I have yet to drop one in it's tracks, but I aim or the lungs not the shoulder or neck). Haven't lost one yet or gone a season with out filling my tag.
I will add though that the places I hunt afford me the time to have a scoped gun (no centerfire rifles where I live, either a slug gun or ML) and take my time on the shot at 50 to 100 or yards or so. I'm not hunting thick cover with a smoothbore at deer running by me, nor do I do drives. Both of these are situations where I might consider taking multiple shots if I thought I could do it. Truth be known I'm not all that great at those types of shots because I don't practice them, so I tend not to hunt that way.
Like I said before, I primarily bow hunt and that is how I started hunting. So using a gun is sort of a slam dunk for me, even if I only have one shot. If I can see it I can probably kill it. I can't imagine what it would be like using a .243 or .270. Then again it all depends on location. If you live in an area where the deer just don't get that close, like out west things are completely different. I can't imagine taking a longer shot then 120 yards at a deer where I live, 150 would be a real stretch around here and is my personal limit for an acceptable shot.
Paul
09-22-2006, 09:06 PM
#23
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Rocky Mountains, Colorado
Posts: 1,964
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
Fun reading.... checking out whether people are talking deer or elk and then checking out where in the country they are from.
The folks that I know on this forum that have some real experience with elk pretty much gave the answer I was expecting.... stop shooting when the job is done, i.e. the elk is down. I recommend not screwing around with elk.
On the other hand, deer kill pretty easy, so if you need to put your feet up and smoke a cigarette after the first shot..... well, I guess it's okay; not my style, but if it is yours, then you have lots more leeway.
The folks that I know on this forum that have some real experience with elk pretty much gave the answer I was expecting.... stop shooting when the job is done, i.e. the elk is down. I recommend not screwing around with elk.
On the other hand, deer kill pretty easy, so if you need to put your feet up and smoke a cigarette after the first shot..... well, I guess it's okay; not my style, but if it is yours, then you have lots more leeway.
09-22-2006, 09:09 PM
#24
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Port Neches, Texas
Posts: 5,514
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
Paul, when I hear someone empty their gun, I know there is an excellent chance that they didn't even draw blood! Might have scared the sheet out of 'em, but they'll live to see another day!
09-22-2006, 10:38 PM
#25
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 248
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
I'm a big bow hunter as well. I have to agree with you guyson making the 1st one count. When I rifle hunt I use a bolt action .270 so a second shot isn't always a factor, the 1st one has to count. Out of all the deer I've taken I can count on one hand the deer that have dropped in their tracks. They all run. Not far but they do run. I can also count on one hand the deer thatIhad to takea second shot on. But I can count on 1 finger the deer that I didn't take a second shot on and wished I had. Although the 1st shot was a lethal shoulder shot I had a chance to put that 2nd one in him and didn't b/c I thought he was down. When I finally got to him 5 hours later and putthat2ndshot in himfrom5 feetI promised I'd never do that again. If he is standing I'll always take another shot if possible.
Dime groupings at the range are easy. Shooting free hand from a climbing stand 30 feet upwith no rest at a big 8pt chasing a doe at175yds across a clear cutis real life. Not everyone sits in a shooting house or a ladder with a rifle bar over looking a big open field where the deer are grazing like cows or shooting across a mountain at a elk standingstill andbroadside. Sometimes a 2nd shot is necessary. Sometimes the ole heart gets to pumping at race horse speeds so sniper accuracy isn't an option. Thats why I hunt in the first place....if it ever stops beating like that I'm done.
Dime groupings at the range are easy. Shooting free hand from a climbing stand 30 feet upwith no rest at a big 8pt chasing a doe at175yds across a clear cutis real life. Not everyone sits in a shooting house or a ladder with a rifle bar over looking a big open field where the deer are grazing like cows or shooting across a mountain at a elk standingstill andbroadside. Sometimes a 2nd shot is necessary. Sometimes the ole heart gets to pumping at race horse speeds so sniper accuracy isn't an option. Thats why I hunt in the first place....if it ever stops beating like that I'm done.
09-23-2006, 12:15 AM
#27
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: fort mcmurray alberta canada
Posts: 5,667
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
A family friend once told me that on elk, the best thing you can do is crowd the shoulder on your shot- if you hit just behind, you get the vitals, if you hit the shoulder the elk might not die right away but it won't be able to go anywhere and you can put another round in the boiler room to finish the job.
09-23-2006, 02:00 AM
#28
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Northeast PA
Posts: 633
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
One shot, One kill.
(not counting "mercy shots" while they were kicking and flopping on the ground)
With a Ruger #1, you only get one shot, so make it count or don't shoot.
(As some say: A single shot will make a rifleman out of you.)
Never had one (deer) run more than 50 yards.
Black Bear never went far either.
Dad used one of his on elk..... same thing.
(not counting "mercy shots" while they were kicking and flopping on the ground)
With a Ruger #1, you only get one shot, so make it count or don't shoot.
(As some say: A single shot will make a rifleman out of you.)
Never had one (deer) run more than 50 yards.
Black Bear never went far either.
Dad used one of his on elk..... same thing.
09-23-2006, 03:48 AM
#29
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location:
Posts: 299
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
Why make anything suffer longer than it has to. I remember as a kid, some of the guys we hunted with were ego crazed and would only shoot once no matter what. If they missed, "it was an armadillo", If they gut shota deer or hogand could catch up to it, they still wouldn't shoot again for fear someone would hear it and know they were not Carlos Hathcock. One guy was actuallyseen trying to strangle a wounded deer with his sling.
One morning I was hunting within 300 yards of a "Bubba", heard him shoot, then I heard the deer squall for 15 minutes. He refused to shoot it again.
Those guys were pure Jack Asses. Just like the guy that says, "what will a second shot do that the first didn't do".
One morning I was hunting within 300 yards of a "Bubba", heard him shoot, then I heard the deer squall for 15 minutes. He refused to shoot it again.
Those guys were pure Jack Asses. Just like the guy that says, "what will a second shot do that the first didn't do".
ORIGINAL: Paul L Mohr
What do you think the second bullet is going to do that the first one didn't? Other than mess up more meat. Dead is dead. If your first shot was a lethal shot then the deer will die, putting more bullets in it probably won't speed this up any.
I bow hunt as well, so I am used to making the first shot count then waiting to track the animal so I don't bump it and make it run farther. And when I gun hunt there really isn't time for a second shot. The deer either drops or runs and I don't have time to recover from the shot, aim and shoot before it's gone. I am better off taking the shot and watching the reaction of the animal and where it goes.
Besides both of my hunting guns are single shots anyway, an H&R ultra slug gun and a remington inline muzzle loader. I do have an A-5 smooth bore or a back up though.
Paul
What do you think the second bullet is going to do that the first one didn't? Other than mess up more meat. Dead is dead. If your first shot was a lethal shot then the deer will die, putting more bullets in it probably won't speed this up any.
I bow hunt as well, so I am used to making the first shot count then waiting to track the animal so I don't bump it and make it run farther. And when I gun hunt there really isn't time for a second shot. The deer either drops or runs and I don't have time to recover from the shot, aim and shoot before it's gone. I am better off taking the shot and watching the reaction of the animal and where it goes.
Besides both of my hunting guns are single shots anyway, an H&R ultra slug gun and a remington inline muzzle loader. I do have an A-5 smooth bore or a back up though.
Paul
09-23-2006, 06:31 AM
#30
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: OKC Ok. USA
Posts: 501
RE: How many of you shoot until it drops?
Take your time , make good shot selection when to shoot or not to, use somekind of rest if possible.
I'll pass and rather not fill a tag if I'm not 100% sure of a clean kill.
I'll pass and rather not fill a tag if I'm not 100% sure of a clean kill.