sight in days before opener!

[buck460XVR]

I am glad you got the opportunity but rabbit is different and it doesn't take much skill to hit something with a shotgun..

I doesn't take much skill to hit something with a shot gun?....
.
. Well bless your heart.

....I was thinking the same thing.

IMHO, it takes considerable more skill to hit a running rabbit or a flying Pheasant with a shotgun, that it does to hit a standing deer with a modern rifle at 100 yards or less. Also IMHO, if one is hunting woods, 100 yards is a long shot. I see a lot of confusion here that may be contributing to the frustration here, one of which is how difficult it is to shoot a rifle accurately and how hard deer are to kill. The skills I see lacking in most deer hunters is tracking and woodsmanship. Those are the skill that take much more time and practice than sighting in one's rifle. As I said before, one a rifle is sighted in for you, unless there is a substantial change in ammo or something drastic has happened to the firearm since the last time it was shot, odds are it will still be on with the first shot from a cold barrel. I watched many a seasoned hunter go to the range the week before season and take one shot......period. Cause that's all they generally take in the field. Don't make them irresponsible. Just doesn't take much time or effort.

Most folks, iffin' a deer don't go down right away, or there is an absence of snow, have a very hard time blood trailing a deer. The OP talks about trailing his doe for 100 yards. While I congratulate him on that, 100 yards ain't much iffin' you got blood. Two weeks ago I helped a young man find his doe, after he and his dad lost the blood trail. They stopped by to see how I had done and said they blood trailed this doe to the side of a bluff and lost the trail when she jumped off. Half a hour later I showed them both where the deer had backtracked and then jumped off the trail(not off the bluff tho). By just the blood I could tell which side the deer was hit on, which direction she was going and exactly when she jumped trail. 50 yard later we found her where she died in the brush, watching her backtrail. To me it was simple trail to follow, for the young man and his well experienced father, I wondered how many other deer they lost over the years, just because they did not know basic trailing/tracking skills.

As a bow hunter for over half a century(killed my first buck with a bow back in '68) I have blood trailed more deer than I can remember. Didn;t find them all, but most of 'em. Some of them went for miles and took two days. One lunged quite a few, never had them go very far, nor did they ever get back up once they laid down. I often wonder how folks that don't retrieve their wounded deer, know exactly where they hit them. Funny thing is, in most of those instances, those deer were, "one lunged".

I think Varminterror comes very close with his "Haterade" statement. Deer hunting can put a lot of pressure on folks to succeed in the eyes of their peers. Being unsuccessful can lead to frustration, anger, and needing an excuse as to why. Real answer is, one may not have a prime hunting spot, one may have missed, or just poor luck. Most of us will not die if we don't bring home a deer and will live to hunt again next year. But some folks would rather die than have to go back to work on Monday and tell co-workers they got nuttin', and then have to listen to the guy who gets one every year tell how easy it was as he passes his phone around with pictures of his success on it. I think the OP needs to chill and not worry so much about others and their skill and concentrate more on his own. Regardless of how much folks practice with their rifles and bows, there will always be wounded deer in the woods. There will also be others in the woods that will frustrate us and those that will be successful when we are not. Doesn't mean anyone is any better at anything than the other. If one relaxes and appreciates the fact that they can still walk to the woods and hunt anytime they want, they should consider it a successful season. I know at my age, just makin' it back outta the woods anymore is a good trip. I too used to get frustrated and angry....now I just ignore those other folks and go on enjoying what I'm doing. Now if they are actively endangering me, that's something else. But how much and how often the practice with their firearms, not so much.[/B]

 

[SoonerMedic]

I doesn't take much skill to hit something with a shot gun?....
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Well bless your heart.

I was thinking the EXACT same thing. And honestly, I’m a much worse shot with a shotgun because its more difficult than shooting on bags or a bipod. Dove fly fast as hell and not always in a straight line so I dunno what’s easy about that? This guy is all over the place...he needs to get into the pie place consistently lol!

 

[SoonerMedic]

And I’ll just say this and leave it at this....

My wife is a better shot than I am as far as accuracy. She’s just a damn good shot. Now I can probably hit anything she can, but she can probably do it better. With that said, she missed a doe from 50 yards with my AR last week. I asked if she just muffed the shot of if she felt like it was a clean shot. She told me she felt like she muffed it. I have her go to my parents’ house and shoot on their range. The range is about 115 yards or so. They have 3 steel gongs set up by the berm. A 10” gong, a 12” gong and between them a 3.5-4” gong. She said she took about 5 shots and hit every single one. She told me she hit the smallest gong on the very first shot.

Does this mean she’s a bad shot? A bad huntress? A bad outdoorsman? No. God no. She just gets excited and nervous! It happens man. People will wound and lose deer every year for the rest of eternity (given we are able to hunt that long. Next year isn’t even a certainty.). It’s just part of the sport and it sucks. But, you also need to realize that these wounded animals are not going to waste. Nothing is ever wasted...they are eaten by animals, bugs, bacteria and ultimately the earth. The earth then turns around and feeds that animal back to the grazers and foragers that are living.

 

[Axis II]

Using and AR 15 to deer hunt is the problem! Just joking-relax! I understand all of that and this will be my very last post on this subject and hopefully someone will lock it!

I do get upset, yes. I do feel strongly about things. My point i was trying to get across was these folks i am referring too do this every year and when you talk to them its "if i can hit a pie plate at 50yards i'm good" I feel we owe it to the animal waste or no waste to take its life as quick as possible. I agree it doesn't go to waste but it will lay there suffering for who knows how long. I hear bullets are expensive, targets are expensive, bla, bla bla. If you muffed the shot, stuff happens and I understand that but there is no reason not to take everything out of the equation. Yeah, its not hard to hit a deer but when the hearts pumping, your cold, etc i don't want to blame it on the gun i want all the blame on me. If you do it right and hunt im fine with it but don't show up hours before a hunt with 5 shells and as long as one hit its mark for some dumb reason we are good.

I hold no grudge against anyone. everyone is free to agree or disagree.

 

[Art Eatman]

'Nuff thread drift for now.