Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How much time….

I've never timed it but...I carry a single trekking pole while hunting. Besides being a good steadyizer, it also makes a great improvised shooting rest. I can from standing to sitting with the pole braced against my leg in seconds. Another way is to grab a tree twig and the pole in one hand and rest the rifle over my wrist. The pole controls vertical movement and pulling against the twig controls windage. It works great.

I've used very similar technique when standing on my tip-toes in squishy/wobbly tundra, trying to see above alders or willows. By grabbing the tips of branches from a 2-3' circle of branch tips and pulling them together into a cluster, you create a cone type of effect that helps with both lateral and vertical stability by a surprising amount. It also works with long stemmed stiff grasses. It's not very ideal, but you have to work with what you have. It sure beats wobbling off shots with nothing more than wishes to guide them.

Goodmorning Klik,

I have found that I generally have 3 to 5 seconds or a minute or two. Accordingly I practiced until I could get a mopp (moment of pie plate) at 100 yards - free standing in 3 to 5 seconds. I'm sure many can do better but even with my two favorite rifles this has taken a fair amount of practice to do-for me.

^^^^^


This.

Many have been under 5 seconds and that's chambering a round.

I've never understood how a person could be successful if they couldn't get off a decent - not talking a 0.6525" precise- shot within about 3 seconds. It is truly painful to watch a person have to 'get set up', then take 10-15 seconds or better to get everything pointed 'right,' while the quarry saunters out of view.
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You've just perfectly described how I feel when I take my nephews or son-in-law or Daughter #1 antelope hunting.


My nephews in particular interpreted "bet on your bellies and crawl to the water tank" as "bend over at the waist and keep the antelope in sight as you hustle to the water tank". Of course that meant my nephews were in sight of the antelope and the antelope did the predictable.

Can't get my nephew or daughter to practice with the bipod so they have to fiddle with it every time. I've lost count of the lost shot opportunities.

This fall I'll have Daughter #3 antelope hunting as well and Daughter #3 will be elk hunting in addition to antelope hunting. Since I wait until last to fill my tags the prospects are dim...

Longest I've waited is 6 hours. Fastest shot was probably 3 seconds or thereabouts. Most are somewhere in-between. A minute or more is not uncommon at all as I tend to wait for broadsides.

CH, you've raised the other side if the deal too; the 'take as long as you can to make it most probable' side of the equation. And that gets into having some understanding of what to expect. Knowing that you can likely get close as long as you stay out of view, or knowing that you can be visible as long as your movements resemble something else (not human) if you're making the correct sounds, or whatever, can all be important. So can knowing how 'concerned' animals move. It's difficult to see someone watch a certain species move away, knowing that they will often/usually stop momentarily long enough to present a shot opportunity, often brief, periodically (like fox often do). But you can't just stand and watch and expect to make a shot when they do.

Caribou can be funny animals and often easy targets, if you know and are ready. If they are spooked, they'll run without stopping as if their tails are in fire. However, it they are concerned or alarmed, they'll often trot or walk away, but stop and look back. When they do, it is common for them to turn broadside. Depending on what the leader determines, they may move quickly again, so one has to be ready to make the most of the opportunity if it comes. It's kind of a "take your time, but be quick about it" deal.

That's early in the season, Mark - but after they have been run hard by snowmachine a few times, it's balls to the wall for miles!

I really wish the locals would stop that form of "positioning" as AKDF&G so euphemistically puts it.

Dead on, Mark. Being able to "read" the animals (including other than caribou) is vital. I wish I was better at it, like some I know.

Thing is up here, after the first few days when the 'bou first cross the Sound in their southward migration, they go balls to the wall for miles at the mere sound of a snow machine.

That's because some locals run 'em down with their 100 mile per hour machines,so they can head-shoot them at a few feet, pretty much ruining the hunting for everyone else days after the initial crossings.. F&G euphemistically calls this "positioning" in the regs. There are ways to "position" without flat out chasing, but some don't seem to get it... and with real thin enforcement..... well!

That's why I try to knock down 3-5 the first time out on the first wave. Short but effective for the freezer.

As far as the time thing, I prefer quick. Adrenaline sucks! The first time I ever got buck fever was after a 2 year hiatus of hunting anything serious. I had several minutes to wait for the animal to get into shooting position. It was my 23rd caribou....

That busted leg slowed him down, enough....

Yeah, I know exactly what you're saying. (That's why I left an 'out' with the "often" term?) I remember one time riding the necessary 200 miles - via better suspensions than Bravo - and finding a few animals as we topped a hill. They were over a mile away. And, though we killed the engines (and lights) immediately so we could discuss strategy, they still bolted. We ended up with three, but I was aiming at air and hitting ass every time….except when I aimed for air and hit air.

I much prefer true positioning. They are often quite cooperative when you don't chase them…pretend you're just sight-seeing, riding past them. Stop. Watch. Sometimes they'll approach. Sometimes you have to work you way around them. Wait. Knock down one or two. Begin skinning. Often a cousin or several wonder why "Blitzen's" stomach is lying on the ground…."smells like food too. Hey, let's go have a closer look." So you have to knock a couple more down from 50 -100 feet. (Self defense of course. )

I watched a guy out of Barrow in the mid-90's do it right - one of the ways anyway. He picked out a single animal and just idled slowly after it.. It ran of course, but not all out, this way and that way (keep in mind there were several hundred animal all around) but after some time- maybe 20 minutes - the bull determined the hunter wasn't that much of a threat and let him get inside 200 yards.

Bad idea!

I can live with that kind of positioning.

This

By the time I bring the gun up I have already assessed all necessary factors: distance, wind, angle, assurance of a clean dispatch & aim point. From there, I'd say 3 seconds maximum if it's going to be a snap shot.

My last WT whack was one of a pair of does & a yearling. When I fired she dropped and the other doe just moved off a few yards. Her & the baby stood and watched me gut her friend. I felt very bad about it. Can't imagine what she was thinking.

Caribou quite often return after making a short dispersion if they were otherwise not disturbed. I've often wondered if they're thinking, "Hey, that sure looks like Fred, but it (the stomach contents) smells like pureed food." Herd animals do seem like curious creatures.

Antelope will sometimes do the same.

Last year Daughter #1 and I were watching a herd that was intent on wandering up a valley. She missed a shot and they ran off but within 30 minutes they were back. All told I think they ran off and came back 3 times that day, all within the space of a couple hours.

Growing up jump shooting whitetails with Dad and Grandpa in your neighborhood Dwayne, that seems about right. After I turned about 12 years old, and deemed "old enough to shoot with the adults" I wasn't given the any considerations anymore. If I didn't shoot quick, and by quick I mean quicker than Dad, then I didn't get to shoot....

I would think that I've got a fair number of whitetails tipped over WELL inside of 5 seconds from first seeing them to trigger tripping.....

Which is contrary to a stone sheep a couple falls back, where we watched him and his buddy in their beds for hours, trying to assess if the other was legal.

I fall into the "is-he-big-enough-can-I-hit-vitals-kill-him" camp personally. And usually in the time frame it takes to read that.......

Fit and familiarity are critical to making a well placed shot quickly.

One of my most memorable shots was when I was 17. I was hunting woodchucks with my Savage 34M, 22 magnum, a gun I bought with trapping money at 13. I rarely ever walked out the house without that little rifle. It was part of me.

I spotted a woodchuck at 175 yards, way farther than I would push the 22 magnum today, but at 17 I had to push the envelope. He had me flat footed. I couldn't get closer without risking loosing the shot. He was facing me, standing upright and looking hard at me. In one motion I dropped to a knee, mounted the rifle, found the chuck, elevated the crosshairs and broke the trigger. Probably only 2 seconds elapsed. I took the chuck through the end of the nose and the bullet exited the back of his head.

I'm a proponent of taking the shot presented to you, within reason. I had this really brought home to me when I missed an opportunity on a spectacular mule deer buck the year before we moved to Alaska. I was working the rim of a small, steep sided, little canyon and spotted this buck 250 yards out, looking right at me. He was one bound from rocks that would shield him from me. Stupidly I tried to make it to a boulder a few feet in front of me for a rest. You know the rest. Buck bounds, no shot, next time I see him, he's 600+ yards going straight away. Rapidly. I've kicked myself for years for not taking that shot. An offhand shot on a standing buck with the rifle I was carrying was highly doable.

At what, with what, from where?
I can drop to prone and hit a man with iron sights from 500 in less than 15 seconds.
That's doped and KD.