Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game To shoot or not to shoot, what say you?

I don't take time to think about percentages, if I can get the cross hairs positioned I'll quickly squeeze the trigger. This is the moment where practicing off hand can help. When shooting game, I try to always shoot from a rest, but practice without a rest really helps getting the shot off when you can get on them.

Otherwise, I try not to shoot and disturb the woods and risk a time wasting search.

I love you.

(in a very heterosexual way, you creating).

I have people all the time ask me if I want to kill everything.

My answer generally is "yes!"

This is where I'm at. Very simple.

I might take an iffy shot on a yote or chuck (don't like to waste ammo, but if it's longer than I thought or moving..........there is something to power level and animal size, does allow for a bit of slop).

Deer? Either have the shot (even if tough) or I don't.

Spend a lot of time with my gear so my shot selection not as conservative as my hunting buddy

Even so, I'll pass on a pretty easy shot if I don't feel it.
Skill level is there, so it's just a matter of mindset.

Gun/scope "fit" is a biggie with me. Have had a lot of people tell me I don't need to be so picky. They miss often.

100% hit or I wont fire, I'll not gamble my lack of talent at the expense of crippling an animal.

Missed a buck back in 2010. Maybe hit a twig. Dunno. Got him later w a thread the needle shot w Python, facing away (bullet split spine and stopped in his nose).
Still PO'd that the first didn't kill him.
Shoulda been dead right there, instead of dead over there.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Dang, another reason for me to develop complete proficiency with my longbow Hook.

i am very pickey about shots mite not be the word for it. if i donot have that 100% gut feeling about it i cant pull the trigger my uncle who steped in when my dad died when i was 10 was a ww2 marine was very good at teaching marksmanship to shoot or not shoot . in 43 years i lost 1 deer shot with a muzzeloader cuzz of bad scope did not no at the time broke front leg down low . next was a 125 130 ? lb hog in shoulder with my nephewes 3o,06 with a 150 gr blistict tit that blew up on contact . lhis year i missed my first deer .shot at him ta 95 yards with my 444m he run off no blood next day shot rifel was 8in off at 50 yards trust your gut

G500,

Even a perfect shot can hit off the mark due to critter movement during arrow flight.
Some folks try to reduce the risk by keeping distances pretty short.

Longbows are pretty quiet, but slower.

True, I'm very pleased my longbow is so quite, that's gotta help, getting to full draw without alerting an animal will tell the rest of the tale.

There is a mindset behind consistent accurate shooting, and it is a subtle but quantum difference from “trying” to hit something. I crossed that line when I was 15 years old. Before that I strained and tried my best to hit game, and did hit it usually. I don't know how to describe it but before the beginning of deer season my 15th year I changed from “shooting at animals and trying to hit them” to a calm but quick “put the sights on it and shoot it”. As Yoda says, there is no “try”. Nothing changed in my understanding of sight picture, just a difference in execution from try to do. Words are inadequate.

People arrive at this transition from “try to hit” to “shoot it” at different ages. One of my grandsons was there by age 13. I suspect that some middle aged folks never have gotten there.

This mindset is backdrop to the replies to this thread, and contributes to the gut feeling of when to pull the trigger several have mentioned. Those who know what I'm talking about know when they are going to hit an animal and otherwise they don't shoot.

Yup, if it don't click in my head, neither does my safety.

I had an old life insurance mentor. He had a saying,

"when you know you know, and you know you know, confidence replaces fear"

In any sports eneavor, skiing or surfing in which I was involved, the guys that got hurt or didn't make it were the ones that were cautious or held back. I find that if I have good equipment and put in sufficient time behind the trigger, and pretty much know within an inch or so where my POI will be, killing stuff is not much of a problem. On any given year I shoot several deer, fox, coyote, turkey and 50 to 60 hogs. Ninety-nine perecent of my shots are 200 yds. and under.

Due to the nature of the terrain and density of the brush where the chances of recovering an animal (unless he is DRT) goes up exponentially as the range increases past 200 yds.



175 yds.




here is a 3 picture sequence, lasered @ +/-270 yds. 338 RUM, 200 gr. Ballistic silvertips @3,150 MV, 200 yd. zero. Luepold 4.5-14 VX-III, B & C reticle. Hold half way down between cross-hairs and first subtension.









If you have a decent rest, a good hold, a good squeeze and a decent trigger, and you know you know, and you know you know, confidence replaces fear!




300 yds.+, Sako 7mag.

I do my part and it works everytime its tried.

Except when it don't!!!!!

ya!


GWB

Yep GW

It does work,.......... EXCEPT when it don't!

Jerry

I'm certainly not a fan of taking "hope" shots of any sort. Whether I shoot or not I depends a lot on the situation for me. I almost never shoot at an animal more than 300 yards away, half that distance if it is moving. A big / tough animal like an elk or bear at the edge of cover with no chance for a follow up shot, or if using a single shot rile, I'd need to be pretty close to 100% sure before I will squeeze off the shot. A more fragile animal that is running in the open with plenty of time to shoot again, and if carrying a repeater, I'd shoot if around 70% sure of the first shot. Because if I miss or wound with that shot, I'm almost sure to make good with the second or (very rarely) third shot. An animal running in the open at under 150 yards or so is pretty much a sure thing for me, just not always with the first shot. I grew up hunting deer by "pushing bush" with family and friends and if you didn't take running shots you didn't shoot anything. We also live in open country and often have tracking snow. All factors in the decision, which boils down to whether it "feels right" at the time.

bangeye,

A couple years ago it took me eleven minutes to get comfortable with my shooting position before I took the shot. I guess than puts me in the 100% category without thinking about it on purpose.

When the hairs look right. 1/1

But chit happens sometimes - and has.

I have an instance that I refer to as "the best shot I never made". I think I might be prouder of that one than the best one that iIhave.

I'm frankly shocked at the amount of people that either say or suggest they wont shoot unless they are 100% sure of hitting where they're aiming. I'm a hunter. As such I hunt FOR game. That involves an across the board approach. Not just sit in a box blind and wait for something to walk out while I check the yardage and settle in on a good rest. I'd have to say I've killed almost as many running deer in woods or fields, as I have deer that were standing or walking. On a running deer especially in the woods, it's a 50/50 chance at best. You process information, field of view, shot opportunity now, or wait, as quickly as possible and let the front end of a running deer come into the cross hairs of an opening you've quickly picked out up ahead, and if it's all coming together you shoot as quickly as your brain can tell your finger to pull. You usually know at the shot whether that should be a dead deer or not, but you never know for sure until you walk up and look for blood.

I've missed running deer I'd like to have the shot back because I felt if I had 2 more chances I could kill that deer both times, I screwed up by rushing the shot, etc. And I've killed deer that I felt if I had 5 more chances I might not ever be able to connect again on any of them it was that difficult or quick, especially in the woods. My biggest buck to date and my 3rd biggest buck were both killed running full bore. 1 in a field, 1 in the woods. I'm not bragging or suggesting I'm a crack shot, I'm not. There are people way better than me. I'm a hunter that takes every realistic opportunity he can get to put meat in the freezer, and as such sometimes I fail miserably. But overall I've done a pretty good job at it over the yrs.I will not ever take an intentional gut or hindquarter shot, but I will try my best to get one into the boiler room on a very difficult shot that is no where near 100% likely hood of connecting.

Climate, geography and local custom contribute to the practicality of stand hunting in my locale.



The side of a cliff overlooking a dry streambed works






I use tripods/quadpods much more than box blinds.


I do occasionally do a spot and stalk.




Nailed these two with my Browning Micro Medallion in 7mm-08. On this occasion, I thought I'd check my game cameras and maybe pop a couple of hogs in the evening. First stop I scared off a big boar and didn't get a shot. Second stop heard the pigs but didn't see anything. Third feeder is on a highline right of way. I can see the feeder from the road about a half mile away. Looked through my binocs and spied a hog so big that I thought it was a cow at first. Drove to within 500 yds or so and decided to put a stalk on. Got to within 75 yards of the big one when one of these little porkers started walking straight towards me. I knew if I didn't put him down first I'd be busted. Dropped the first one and the others scattered. Didn't get the big one but dropped the first piggies' twin on the run with second shot. First, kneeling about 50 yds. Second around 30 yds. or less.

ya!


GWB

Not a thing in the world wrong with that at all. Do plenty of stand hunting myself. My point is just that I've taken a lot of shots and killed a lot of deer stand hunting or not, where I just done the best I could with the opportunity I had, and hoped for the best but knew in advance it was gonna take some doing for the bullet to reach it's mark. These hunting shows today drive me nuts. Not only does it create a false narrative about the opportunity at game for the average person, it is also unrealistic in its very nature if the average person wants to put game in the freezer. EVERYTHING has to be just perfect. Well that's not the way life or hunting in general works. I would've had a lot of dry yrs some yrs waiting on shots anywhere close to what those TV personalities wait on.