Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Ethical question: why not shoot ducks on the water?

Correct, but George's point about the animal not possibly moving forwards or backwards, nor side to side (only up and down and that's generally a slower movement) and how that could been seen as a more ethical shot---stands to reason. I'd also argue that there could always be unseen brush in front of animals, whether they're bedded or not.

I have shot one bedded 4x4 mule deer buck at 350 yards and a mature cow elk at about the same distance. Both clear of branches and grass, and both times my bullet hit front ankles, travelled through and into more important parts of the critter. The up/down angle could have been a factor in hitting the ankles. I am not too sure, but either way I wasn't too impressed as both bullets veered off path and were tumbling after hitting the ankle (or wrist, if you will) bones. I'd do it again though, in the right situation, as it worked.

I have to admit it would be hard to pass up a shot on a Bull positioned like one in that pic.

Great pic also. 👍

Home....so here are two at around 150 yards, even with the branch out of the way, I'm sure it would be better for them to be standing....situation makes the decision....

Surely does. I might also see the point you and others make being from out in the forested East. However, out west on the plains or in the rimrock, you might see a bedded mule deer bedded in the shade of a ledge or cedar but absolutely in the wide open.

Have seen bull elk bedded similarly, so depends totally on the situation — the species, cover, and other factors.

Here’s another couple examples of “no-shots” with a bow on a standing or slowly moving animal though at very close range.

So standing or lying by themselves are not by far the exclusive qualifiers of an ethical shot.

The first bull turned 90* to his right and gave me his backside going away while the second one took a rapid step forward covered by twigs again. From the beginning I had no intentions of taking either bull which eventually meant no meat going home. But shooting with a cell phone is almost as much fun and a lot less work.

I did not see this as a hijack of the OT; excuse me if in error, but the question about ducks on the water applies more broadly I think to other types of game in their environments, in different scenarios.

We hunt in the atlantic flyway, we take what we can get. As a decoy carver, nothing is better than a bird landing in your handmake dekes. I've killed a many on the water. I can't tell you how many gadwall we've killed that landed way short and swam into the dekes. When those jokes dive, we get the gun up and ready and as soon as they pop back up...bam.

Do you have mostly the divers then?

I've got some of those old solid wood decoys that have been in the family for generations. I've got a couple that have a few shot holes with the old lead shot still embedded in the wood. I kinda like that they have the scars from long ago that prove they had been there and done that.
One or two of my plastic ones have an embedded pellet or a slight rattle inside.

about 50/50

puddlers are mostly woodducks and gadwall with some surprises every now and then.

Our main divers are ringnecks, but redheads have been more and more lately. A can every now and then which is always nice.