LOL, i suppose i'll be the first here thats ever missed a deer completely...with a rifle!

haha

OH Dude, you may get banned.
better yet....off with your head

maybe i should get banned for starting this thread, guess i shouls have looked in archive first then would have known it was going to blow up.

thanks everyone for the replies and ill be in the woods tomorrow season starts in less than 24 hours im pumped,, and yes if a headshot is all i get thats what im gonna take if perfect broadside 1/4 away shot shows ill take that, either way something is gonna die

nice work bailey! jk

good luck on the hunt tomorrow, i'll be out in one week, can't wait.

I didn't read all of the replies, so I don't know if this thread has taken a turn to a different topic or not, but I'll give my opinion on the question that was asked.

Ethical hunting, when considering ANY shot, means you are confident that your shot will end in a clean kill.

My father was a crack shot, but he was never a big game hunter. I'm not sure I ever saw him fire anything larger than a .22lr (although I had heard fables of his ability with the .44mag levergun he carried in the truck).

This is an unethical story, but because of the legality of the weapon used, not the shot placement. When I was in college, my dad and I were hunting raccoons with Jack Russel Terriers one afternoon under a grainery, the dogs were working hard and chasing several coons back and forth around inside the foundation when a herd of deer ran up. A massive chocolate nontypical buck with bases as thick as my wrist was in the mix, standing about 50yrds away staring right at us. "My God", I whispered under my breath, "I wish I had my rifle". (It WAS in season). "You do." My dad whispered back, eyeballing my .22lr Marlin 60. I replied that I couldn't take a shot with my .22. My dad shrugged slowly as he raised his rifle whispering, "I owe you a tag next year" as he slowly raised his open sighted.22lr Marlin 60, took a deep breath, and before I could even object, cracked off a single shot.

The buck dropped like a sack of concrete. Being shot through the eye will have that effect.

While I don't condone it, my dad had no doubt that he could cleanly kill the deer, and he did. Nothing unethical about that. (yeah, the illegal weapon is a different story

Granted I'm not so bold as my father, but I'm a fan of venison, and I'm a fan of using different guns to bring it home. One evening while calling coyotes a buddy questioned my use of a 9mm carbine (kel-tec), since it was "so underpowered". I boasted the number of coyotes I'd killed with it and bragged that I felt it viable for deer even-under the proper circumstances. So the bet was clinched, and later that year I punched a 9mm hole (9mm rifles are legal for deer in Kansas) right behind the ear of a fat doe from 35yrds (I like upper neck shots, high likelihood of hitting the spine, windpipe, and arteries). She dropped with a single shot. Again, I had no doubt I could make the shot cleanly.

I also have a friend that's a terrible shot. His deer hunting weapon of choice is a 6.5x55swede in a sporterized mauser. He's so terrible that he has me sight in his rifle for him, and only to 50yrds. The rifle is sweet, I can get sub-MOA groups to 100yrds with ease, but he knows his 100yrd groups will never be less than 6", so he just will NOT shoot past 75yrds. Ethically, he knows he can't ensure a clean kill at 100yrds.

The moral of my stories is confidence dictates ethics. An inexperienced shooter taking a 150yrd lung shot with a .30-06 that he knows is marginal for his ability is far less ethical than a well seasoned shooter taking a 100yrd neck or head shot that he knows he can produce a clean kill with.

I wasn't going to touch this subject because I don't really think it even deserves the attention that it's getting. I'll just say this. The words "head shot" and "ethical" don't EVEN belong in the same sentence!!:poke:

Hey early in,



LOL!

iSnipe

do u remember the game show "Family Fued" back in the early 80s when a question was asked & family got the answer wrong, a distinguishing buzzer sounded thats the sound i heard after reading your post, u either hitt em or u miss em no wounded deer ehhhhhh wrong, ive known guys who had the same opinion & chased deer round without jaws because of missed head shots ,so yes it is highly possible to wound deer by taking head shots & that isnt an opinion its a fact

im with u on brotha

i suppose every deer u have shot with a rifle in the lungs has dropped dead in its tracks huh. apparently u havent shot enough cause ive shot plenty of deer behind the shoulder with big & small cal. & half of them ran 30,40 yards,obviously they bled to death before falling dead in there tracks

I remember one you shot with that cannon of yours, that 300 mag, sprayed lung matter 20 yds beyond the deer and he still went 40 yds.

I really hate it when I see a deer with his jaw shot off , Ive seen one . But what is far more common is a gutshot deer or one with a leg shot off and left to die . If the person that shoots for the head or neck is unethical what can you say for the ones that gutshot or cripple deer shooting for the boiler room . Stay home till you learn to shoot ? Or do we have a double standard here .

I agree with this completely.

First,let me say shoot them where you are confident you will kill them.None of my buisness.

But the reason most consider it more ethical is a head moves around a lot and it is a small target.If you shoot the jaw off the deer walks around for days starving to death.

I passed on a frontal head shot once because the deer was about 50 yards and the gun was not mine and I had no idea how the gun was sighted in for close yardage.


On a broadside shot,you have a MUCH bigger kill zone and it doesn't move around as much.

If you shoot a deer in the leg,it has a chance at survival,it will not starve to death(yes,it may get an infection and die).If you gut shoot a deer,it will die within a few hours,not days.


Both the high neck shot and head shot are extremely lethal and I believe I would take the high neck before a head shot.


Later guys,I am going hunting.:barmy:

^^^^^^^^^
Haha hey everybody look!!!!

Good points, bad points & lots of useless chatter. Wow suprised no end in sight to this debate in 14 pages. Just like all the others before and those to come.

The thing I can't stand about this debate is the "thump on the chest and call me man" types. I don't really think its cool to take a head shot on animal at any distance, but that's my opinion. At long range IMHO it borders on unethical, as I don't for minute believe every one hits the target exactly where they intended 100% of time. RR has shared his experience on this website about LR shooting game, he no doubt has invested money/time and has skill to be proficent at ranges most can't phathom. HOWEVER I have seen him admit that he misjudged,etc..human in other words. That human factor is why I choose to give myself a little more margin of error. Each his own I guess but be honest to yourself and lets respect the game we're hunting.

nvm ignore this post