Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Shots at deer

Was a slug gun state, went PCR a few yrs back.
Shotgun, MZ or handgun........several at or over 150 yds.
No big deal really. If stationary, have time.....sure try to take a rest.......but have nailed em offhand. Not hard really.
Blasted movers up closer too.
Like a 1X for that. Makes it no big deal. Never shot bounders, only when they were moving in a smooth line.
Kill as many from the ground as stand, prefer being in the woods compared to field edges (just feels better).
I can shoot pretty well, my gear is decent.........but if I could smoke em all at 50 yards I'd be fine with that.
Just do what I gotta do.
Had a funky thick 8 pt last yr at 250 in picked bean field, little Ruger RSI was rock solid on my elbows (HP rifle first time legal this past season). Didn't like the angle and he turned and left the way he came. He was dead if I want him. Property line deal, figured I'd rather dump him farther from the boundary to appear more polite. Prone w 4X scope.....250 yards.....no worries on puttin it where I wanted.

Know the other landowner, worked with him. But I hadn't secured permission so just let it go.

No big deal. Ended up blasting a differet buck at 50 yards in the timber a week later. Good enough.

Yep...

i've killed game from 20ft to 450yds. i'll use a rest when ever i can. i have killed deer out to around 150yds off hand but i'd rather have a good rest to make sure.

This pretty well covers it for me. If I"m 200% sure of the shot, I take it.

That said, I try to find a rest most of the time, though years of 200 yard offhand with irons in matches allows me to shoot offhand if I can't find a rest ASAP. And with all the ways to get rests, offhand is rare. Knowing how to use a sling sure helps... having a bipod does too.

I've never, that I can recall, shot at a running deer that was not wounded. And I don't intend to. Pass up a multi point muley once due to that, scored around 200 inches IIRC when the next guy shot it a few days later. No big deal. I just refuse to chance a bad hit.

Since some are mentioning distances, anything from spitting distance, well 3 steps twice, out to over 800 barely.

When we have to hunt stands down here, those stands have my feeders at 150 yards. No closer. I shoot to 350 quite often in that location becuase it covers one of the best deer trails on the place and I"m far enough away that the deer don't much care that we are there, IF they even know that.

Finally the 200% rule covers most anything that I can think of. Some days a 50 yard or less shot just isn't in the books, other days 500-600 are gravy.

Some days I"m limited to about 200 yards subsonic 300/221, or even less since I carry a 10mm pistol. Or even less than that with a bow... Other days I have what it takes and confidence way on out there.

Years ago a mentor told me if I was going to pull the trigger, deal with recoil, make the noise and expend the bullet, I may just as well make sure that trigger pull ends up with something on the table. With a rifle I"ve made that work almost 100%. With a shotgun... LOL... I'm not good at all.

I should add, probably the most different rest I have used so far was my wife.

Shot was around 335 yards, but I could not get steady enough sitting on a slope after a fair jog to get into position, so I asked Carolyn to lay down in front of me, tossed the forearm on her hip, and told her when I was close I'd say ready, she was to stop any movement...

Bingo. First 10 point of my life, first buck with a new 7x300 wtby that Mickey built...

Anywhere from 20 yards to 800 yards!

A couple off hand shots in dense cover as a youngster. Doing nothing but spot and stalk out west now, and the first thought when getting into range is securing a rest. The objective is to shoot deer, not shoot at them.

Used to sneak to the edge of big canyons in Ozona Texas. I used a wrist rocket to sling ball bearings in the bottom. Deer pigs come running out. Bang away at them!

My typical shot is 100-200 yards. And I have no problem shooting a running deer- I shoot a lot of them that way.

Well before I ever thought of deer hunting, I was swinging on and shooting birds- mostly pheasants.

My father was a bird hunting nut, so that's what I grew up hunting. On a typical Saturday, during the off-season, we'd commonly spend all day shooting boxes of shells at clay pigeons.

I shoot deer the same way.

Some days, when they're holding tight, I'll try and flush 'em out of creek bottoms just like we did pheasants when I was a kid.

Most of mine have been shot off hand while I'm sitting or standing and they are walking, but a few were still and with a rest.

Only two at approx 200 yds the rest have all been 100 or closer often much closer. Biggest deer killed at maybe10 yds. I hunt from a tree stand so usually have a bar or tree For a rest.. Targets are generall still I have killed one jogging/ running deer I.e.he wasn't running full tilt. At about 75 yds.

If I think it is a good buck, I try to shoot right away. Not like the guys on TV screwing around with a call, or chambering a round or looking for shooting sticks. If in a blind, I use the rest, if walking I will sit with my elbows on my knees, or lean against a tree, whatever is the quickest way to take a good shot.