Mr. Longbeard

people are quick to jump on someone for taking a bad shot at a game animal... All the holier than thow people come out of the wood work and ripp people up... And I always think to my self that these guys are full of of it!!! If put in a certain situation they would prob do the same thing...

Was watching easton outdoors with fred ehcler(spelling) the other day and he was out in arizona hunting couse deer... I dont know a hole lot about these deer but from what I do know they dont get very big racks and that they are some what elusive... Well he's is sitting on a water hole on public land and this pretty big couse deer comes in and he say's it's the biggest one he ever saw... To me it had a med size rack but from what I hear this thing was a real trophy... Anyhow if you know this guy he hunts mostly with a recurve and that is what he was hunting with... The deer is quatering towards him and is like 35 yards away... Im thinking no shot... But he says he is confident in his shooting skills and takes the shot... He puts a perfect shot on this deer and it only goes about 50 yards and piles up... The first thing that poped into my mind was..."dude your shooting a recurve" no matter how good you are this is DEFINETLY not the bow to be taking this kind of shot with!!! He new this was a once in a lifetime trophy and there is no way he was letting this deer walk without trying a shot...

I guees what Im getting at is all these people preach ethical shots and say they would never take a bad shot at a deer... But if all you got is public land to hunt and the chance of killing a real trophy is just about non exsitant and a monster walks up on you in your stand and he's 35 yards away and quatering towards you and this is the only shot you got... Do you let him walk or do you take a chance and bare down and hope the gods are smiling down upon you???


Obiously Fred Echler hoped the gods were smiling down on him...

I my self would of took the shot my self...

The reason Im pulling ol fred into this is becuase it proves what I've said all along... People say one thing and do something total different!!! If fred would of made a horific shot on this animal I would of never seen that footage...

What do you guys think???

BarnesX.308

I've taken a couple tricky shots with the bow and they panned out for me. Both were quartering-to but I was confident I could make the shot.

However, if I was filming it for a show, I would edit out the footage that I thought would get me negative attention.

Gunplummer

That about covers it. I won't take a totally stupid shot, but there are so few deer now that I think everyone has lowered their shot placement standards. Oh, by the way, public land won't make a turkey hunter out of you where I go. The turkey are about wiped out too.

kswild

What is ethical? Who decides what is ethical? Hunting is killing, and sometimes killing is not pretty. Animals do suffer. But if your like me, we don't kill for fun, we kill to eat. Been that way since man lived in a cave. Ethics are a set of standards you hold yourself to. You decide what is ethical. I have made a 40 yrd shot on a buck standing straight toward me with a compound.( By the way I do have pictures.) The shot was right in the chest, hit the heart, and the deer went 60 yrds and was done. I'm not telling you this to brag about my shooting. I'm telling you this because I had been told many times to wait for a broadside shot. I decided to try the shot. Was it ethical? For me yes because I knew my ability. For someone else it might not have been. If you are going to try to live up to someone elses ethics you, my friend are going to go hungry. The argument over ethics is silly. Once again don't forget hunting shows these days are for ENTERTAINMENT. Do not base your hunting life by what you see on hunting shows. Don't be fooled these shows are for selling products nothing more.
Live it up! Doug

LKNCHOPPERS

Some of those smaller deer like a Coues deer are easier to kill as well. A quartering to you shot on a smaller animal may be ok. I probably would have to see how badly it was quartering. If you can pentrate fully it is really a quartering away shot in reverse.

StealthHtr22

Like you said, I would have to see how bad it's quartering. Depending on the severity of the angle, the vitals accessibility are different. Deer can be quartering away, more severely than they could be quartering towards. I would call it a quartering away shot in reverse, but I understand your point.

iSnipe

And even that is conjecture on your part. My "conjecture" is that he's made the shots thousands of times in his life time under practice situations and maybe a couple dozen in real life under field conditions... and he knew what he was doing. I do not believe not once that he launched the arrow in hopes of getting lucky. I do believe with a recurve, because I've competitively and hunted using one, that 35 yards is a do-able shot, but not ideal due to the range and increased probability of a less than ideal shot.

Would I have taken the 35 yard shot under the situation you painted? Hard to say, but if I were practicing several hours a day, like I did back in the day when I was a sponsored shooter,(but shooting then a compound with sights) I most likely may pass if I had a recurve in my hands. I am an optimist and often I let a big racked buck pass that was too far in hopes of seeing him closer down the road. Of course that almost never happens. LOL! With a compound, I've killed every single deer I've shot at, at 45 yards and further, so I have a great track record for long shots. Most would think the shots I took were unethical. I'd call it extremely confident.

I also believe that the "Pros" who've taken long shots and messed it up bad... we never see that footage. I mean, who here has seen footage of a hunter shooting a deer and wounding it with a bad shot to the point the hunter loses it through tracking? Most likely not many at all because that type of footage would only be used against the hunting community by the antis.

iSnipe

UncleNorby

A 35 yd shot is a 35 yd shot. The recurve is not a handicap if you're proficient with it. If a deer is alert, a 35 yd shot is iffy with a fast compound. Assess the situation and if it is a shot you can make, let it fly.

timbercruiser

Having watched Fred shoot a lot of animals with his recurve on TV, I dang sure wouldn't want him shooting at me at 35 yards. IMHO it is a lot more "ethical" than those 1,000 yard rifle shooters.

Kybuckhunter

I can't believe all the quartering to shots we see now. These shots used to be taboo and you just didnt take them. I've still never taken one in all the years I've hunted. To me if a good shot doesn't present itself then the deer wins that day.