Little balloons make good practice too, provided you have a place with a good backstop
on a windy day tie a balloon from a tree with 30-40 yards of string.
tie another ballon a little higher up
stretch first balloon string around second in a way that it will release ballon1 when you shoot ballon 2
thanks to a simple slipknot it is pretty quick and you can do it by yourself.

i have my rifle gun with a raised scope on it, so if its running i have the iron sights

Ridgerunner submits good advice, but I think it also depends on what type of terrain the deer is running through. If it's a field where there are no or few obstructions then yeah, swing and lead the deer like you would a rabbitt, but if its thick or wooded country where the "openings" arenumbered, then is the time to figure out which opening its going thruand get there and wait one second before he does

Most people have no business whatsoever shooting at running deer. Many can't hit a deer standing still let alone running. If you can't don't!

Yeah,but those guys aren't the ones on this website

There arethree types of leads that shooters use when shooting at moving targets.


The sustained lead; This is where a shooter holds a certain distance in front of the target as he follows it along through his sights.m He holds the same distance of lead until he shoots.


The swing through; This is where a shooter tracks the target, moving his sights, starting from behind the target and swinging sights up through and in front of the target and shooting. This style requires less lead than the sustained lead.

The last is snap shooting; The shooter finds an opening in front of the target and waits until just before the target crosses in front of his sights before shooting.



Shooting moving targets requires practice.

In my younger days, several of the local sportsmans clubs use to have Running Deer Shoots.


They had a target of a running deer tacked to a sheet of plywood. The plywood was rigged with pulleys and rode on a cable.

The distance was 100yds. Each shooter had 3 shots. The target had the vital areas marked and also nonvital areas. Each area had points ( Similar to a 3-D target)

Heart, spineand brain was worth 5 pts.

Lungs 4pts.

Liver 3pts

and so on.

Each shooter had his points totaled and the winner was the guy with the highest points. Ties were resolved with a shoot off.

I remember those days. I learned a lot about shooting at moving targets back in the day.


The target was pulled by an electric motor in which speeds could be varied.


Several clubs had this set up and it use to draw quite a crowd. I don't see them much these days.

One club use to fill gallon water jugs and tie them on the plywood. they'd turn the motor speed way up.

Each shooter payed 1 dollar per shot.

The pot would build until the jug was hit. I have to brag, and say, I won it several times. Of coarse that was when I was back in my early twenties and all my friends and I did was shoot.We went through countless bricks of .22 shells.

I remember that sometimes I'd have a sustained lead of about a foot or more,at 100yds, on that deer target to get it in the lungs.

If you kepp the scope power turned down, you will find it much eaiser to find moving targets. Just turn the scope up on distant, still targets.

One reason its hard to get one with a scope is because normally when a deer runs from you its because you spooked it up from close range and a scope is ment for long range so its hard to find something running in something that is makeing things look 10 times bigger. it depends on the distance for leading it or not and it depends on the gun also.

I wouldn't ever try it. Why risk wounding an animal? No deer is worth the risk. Even the best shooter will make mistakes shooting running deer. That's one place where I draw the line.

Don't lecture me on the subject, that's my opinion.

Shouldn't miss it if you tried then if it's 10 times bigger then?

Aim for the nose