haugenna

I think a lot of us are living in the clouds in this post. I swear when I read some posts I am reading a story about a guy who never misses. I have been bowhunting over the years and practice practice practice. People claiming to have never made a bad shot or missed are crazy. Deer jump arrows and duck arrows causing a bad shot and possibly a wounded animal. No matter how much time I take to prepare myself for that shot, some things are out of my control.

Here is a scenario to kick around. Bowhunters, you shoot an animal and it takes a quick step during release and you hit him further back than you would like. You know it is a fatal shot, it will just take a little more time. Do you go get a gun and finish him off (for those of you saying let it fly to ensure a quick humane death) or do you recover the animal the next morning??????

[email protected]

In the warm temperatures that our bow season starts in ,waiting until tomorrow means just bring a saw cause the horns are all you'll be able to use anyway. The meat will surely be spoiled. And for all you hunters who think someone who shoots a deer more than once is a bad shot or just dangerous, well Ms. Rebecca Peters, of he U.N. gun grabbers inc. just happens to think that all we need is single shots anyway. She may be your hero. Also why should an elk justify a follow up shot when a deer doesn't, cause it's a much bigger target, unless some of you are losing more game than you admitt.

DM

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!


Shato Davis for president!!!!!

handloader1

I killed a 8 point Mule Deer this last Saturday with a muzzleloader.All I had was a high lung/spine shot so I took it. The deer droped but was still alive with his head and neck showing behind the pinion tree. My buddy handed me his muzzleloader, and I hit the deer in the neck. If it was not for the neck shot, the deer would have suffered needlessly. This all happened within 30 seconds. Good luck.

skeeter 7MM

I plan for one shot but am always ready for a follow up if need be, in terms of a CF. However I absolutely will not shoot an animal in the arse, which is often what I have seen after the shot(especially deer). If the opportunity presents itself I have no problem pumping another. That said any game animal with the lungs deflated is dead on its feet and more lead in it will not reduce suffering, that is why I now only take shots where the vitals are in the path. I would rather hang my head of a missed opportunity then hang it by a selfish desicion to take a poor % shot. Maybe it is b/c I spent a lot time hunting with other than CF where quick follow up shots is not a reliable option but it has transpired to my rifle hunting and I haven't experienced any problems.

eldeguello

And you'd be right! I am NOT talking about a person who takes a followup shot or two, even, but the guy who empties his magazine, even after it has become obvious that a target is far beyond the possibility of being hit! Believe me, there are such people!


Now, due to myaging eyes and muscles that can no longer hold a rifle steady in the offhand position without some kind of a rest, it would be dumb of me to claim that I can shoot as well as you can! However, in the years since 1952 when I began huinting, I can recall having to shoot at a game animal more than once on only three occasions, and one of these was a caribou at right around 425 yards. It took two shots from my .308 Norma to put him down. And he still adorns my wall today.

BareBack Jack

I shoot till they are down.
BBJ

Sniper151

I make sure my first shot is the only shot I need. If the shot is questionable, I will not take it, nor will I shootat running game with a rifle.

BrushChimp

I generally shoot till they drop no matter what game I am shooting at. Most of the shots around where I hunt can be quite lengthy but some how I seem to get close to game. Last elk season, it was nearly dark and very difficult to see through my scope. At 60 yards, a bull appeared and I shot once. He began to run. As I was always told and have been taught, I "shot until they're on the ground." I shot two more times after the initial shot and the bull dropped on the last shot. As ran up to the bull, and he was stone cold dead. So obviously, what the 2nd and 3rd shots did that the 1st one didn't was kill the bull. I might add the all three shots were behind the front shoulder. Two high in the lungs and one in the heart. The bull didn't travel 100 yards.

On another occasion last year while bear hunting. I spotted a bear near 150-200 yards, immediately pulled up off-hand,and shot 3 consecutive times. The bear was rolling down a small slope after the first shot. All three shots were behind the front shoulder and the beast went a mear 15 yards. Now, I'm sure if I had shot one lone time I would have never found that bear. He was in the middle of a 30 acre blackberry briar patch and one .270 bullet into a bear at 150-200 yards generally doesn't leave good blood for very long.

Now for deer, I can't relate with you whitetail hunters since we onlyhave the smaller blacktail subspecies where I live. If I was shooting a deer and the deer failed to fall from the first shot I would take as many "back-up" shots as needed to the animal fell. My reasoning comes from these stories above. Again, what the 2nd and 3rd shots did that the first "perfect" shot didn't do was kill the animal.

And as far as wasting meat... If you make shots behind the shoulder in the boiler room, bread basket, etc... Then all you are ruining is rib meat.. Petty keilbasa, jerky, or pepperoni meat.. A couple lbs. at most...

Todd1700

Uhmm, yeah, but keeping your shots behind the shoulder in the boiler room on a deer running wide open through cover is a nice little feat of marksmanship especially if you are shooting freehand. And if you are that good a shot then your first shot at him when he was standing still should have been as easy as pie and quite lethal to boot. Furthermore I doubt seriously that two holes through his lungs are going to kill him much faster than one hole. The only way the second or third shot will kill him faster is if you hitan areamore rapidly lethal with one of those shots. (ie; head, neck, spinal cord) The odds of which are slim.