Jacobite,
I respect your feelings on the subject. There is no one way is right here.
I hope I did not give the impression that rear-end shots are my forte or perverse specialty. They are not my first choice and only are used as last resort since they do destroy some fine hip/loin and hindquarter cuts. I rather shoot the back of the neck if I have time. However in a snap I will use the rear-end shot indeed.
yes I am familiar with some of the European modes of hunting and the ethical views asociated as I hunted a bit in Germany. As an example I watched a dutch hunter in Canada pass a 48" Moose @ 20 yards, yes indeed, twenty yards walking straight away from him on a cut line ( he was astonished later to hear that you can kill with a texas heart shot or simply break the pelvis and then finish it off...........or simply shoot it in the back of the neck). His only hunting had been in Germany at night from the hochsitz 50 yards from the feeding trough for pigs and the sugar beets for deer. The land-owner trying to sell his shot game to the restaurant-trade does not like lots of bone fragments mixed with bloodshot hams and backstraps.
Most of those piggies, roe deer are not all that large. Here the credo was shoot cleanly into the lungs or do not get invited again. Understandable. Unfortunately that was all the dutch hunter had been exposed to in his life.
Anyway, regarding the ethics...........................in human terms to shoot up the fanny is not very dignified. However does it make a difference to the animal whether his aorta/lungs gets shredded from the rear or same from the side? Does it make any difference to the animal whether his pelvis/hip gets busted from the rear or his shoulder from the side? I do not think so as long as we give it a mercifull quick coup de grace.
Again ethics can be rather subjective. Some may question the ethics of shooting over bait, while others vigorously will defend it. Lets not visit there.
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Last edited by shrike; 11/09/05.
